WASHINGTON — A former Clinton advisor, scientist, and Washington Post columnist wrote Wednesday that Confederate History Month is “an embarrassing abomination.”
Dr. Jeff Schweitzer lambasted the seven states that continue to memorialize those lost in the Civil War by celebrating its history every April saying, “Southerners today seem incapable of understanding that the South started and then lost a war that nearly destroyed the United States. The South lost decisively. The rebel cause was unjust, immoral and treasonous. The economic justification was unseemly; the actions were treasonous. There is no part of the Confederate cause of which to be proud. There is no moral high ground here.”
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia all celebrate Confederate History Month in April.
While Schweitzer concedes that the Civil War was fought over the tension between the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Supremacy Clause housed in Article VI, not simply slavery, he maintains that any act of remembrance of the war is tantamount to ignorance, saying, “But damn if the South does not hold on to the war as if they never actually lost and as if their cause was just. Southerners seem unable to admit there is nothing to celebrate. So the celebrations stubbornly march on.”
At the conclusion of his column, Scheitzer condemns those who display the Confederate battle flag, calling them “crazy.”
Any version of the confederate flag flying anywhere is an affront to all Americans, at least those who live in the 21st century. Southerners claim a deep allegiance to the good old United States of America but ironically celebrate their ancestors’ efforts to dissolve the very union of states whose flag they now so proudly fly. They honor a campaign to dissolve our country but claim the mantle of patriot, wrapping themselves in the very Stars and Stripes the South sought to leave behind. That makes no sense. The contradiction is always swept under the rug, but that must stop. Now is a good time to close this chapter of hypocrisy and inconsistency. A southern loyalist cannot be a patriot; the two ideals are mutually incompatible. You cannot simultaneously love the United States and love the idea of dissolving the bond between states that constitute the country. To claim both is insane, the equivalent of declaring that you love all Chinese food but hate chow mein. The claims are each exclusive of the other and therefore by definition both cannot be true. You can’t be proud to be among those who wanted to secede from America while claiming to be proud to be American. That is crazy.
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
