In the 154 years since the end of the Civil War, the losing side and generations to follow promoted the obscene myth of the "lost cause," an attempt to portray a noble Confederacy as fighting for "states' rights" and the Southern way of life, thus gaslighting the causes and goals of the Civil War over time. To be clear, the war was waged by the Confederacy for the preservation of the evil of slavery, period. When Robert E. Lee led an armed rebellion against the United States of America, he committed treason. So did every other person who joined Confederate armies, from privates to the likes of Generals Braxton Bragg, John Hood and A.P. Hill (for whom, disgracefully, U.S. Army bases are actually named). Statues to treasonous Confederates proliferated early in the 20th century as a way to defy the reality of the rebellion and what it was defending. The Lee statue in Charlottesville, VA is one of them, and statues of that kind are a rallying symbol for the KKK and neo-Nazis wanting to impose their racist views, a symbol that led to the deadly "Unite the Right" riot there in 2017.
It's with that context that neo-fascist demagogue and pathological liar Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump yesterday defended his despicable "very fine people on both sides" defense of the Charlottesville tiki torch racist rioters. He did so by referring to the very statue of Robert E. Lee that was the rallying point for the racists and referring to how great a general he was, an assertion that some historians are questioning.
Trump, in refusing to deal with his own racist comment from 2017 by deflecting to the statue argument embraced by "lost cause" racists, showed once again who he is.
(photo: Trump's "very fine people" chanting "Jews will not replace us." Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
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