Rep. Paul Broun, whose district includes the University of Georgia, went to the floor of the House of Representatives and said:
“If ObamaCare passes, that free insurance card that’s in people’s pockets is gonna be as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the War Between The States — the Great War of Yankee Aggression.”
Does any part of that comment make sense? Over at Think Progress, Lee Fang notes a pattern, with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina comparing the effort to pass health reform to Japan’s kamikaze pilots and Glenn Beck repeatedly referring to the effort as ‘reparations’ for slavery. Frankly, I can’t decipher Rep. Broun’s meaning. It’s just psycho talk. But, in this day and age, to refer to the Civil War as ‘ the Great War of Yankee Aggression’ is simply racist. I’m sorry, but it is. Georgia seceded from the Union because Abraham Lincoln was elected president and didn’t want to extend slavery into new territories. The only Yankee aggression was in the service of keeping the country together and in taking a stand against the immoral practice of human bondage. It is long past time to recognize that the North was on the right side of history. A failure to do so on the floor of the House deserves an official rebuke.
