Yes. Ben Shapiro at Townhall blames “us” on the “Left” for the stoking the flames of a racial divide over the confederate battle flag.
Of course, its Obama’s fault, too, but he had help. You see, the whole confederate flag controversy was ginned up by the “Left” an amorphous clique of anti-Americans who live to torment little Ben apparently when they aren’t trying to destroy the country. It was the Left, according to Ben, who used the flag to create racial divisiveness among good ordinary folks, white and black, who were united in their grieving over the horrible mass murder of nine black church members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopalian Church in Charleston. I assume he includes all of us here among the evil “Left” who have done so much to “misdirect” the conversation about Charleston.
You see, according to Ben, racism in America is at best an insignificant problem, if it exists at all. If only us “leftists” weren’t so damn eager to politicize and demonize those who were, until recently, very reluctant to do anything about this grand symbol of “southern heritage.” Leftists like these hateful, race-baiting agitators who protested the flag flaying at South Carolina’s capitol:
Ben thinks this brouhaha is all a big con by the left to destroy our nation’s peaceful, harmonious race relations, despite what Strom Thurmond’s son said on the floor of the South Carolina Senate, not to mention what millions of African Americans and other people of good will believe about our so-called post-racial society. But I should let Ben speak for himself:
President Obama attempted to blame the shootings on the National Rifle Association and lack of gun control; Hillary Clinton blamed the shootings on white supremacy and Donald Trump-like overheated rhetoric; Bill Maher blamed Fox News …
Despite these divisive tactics, Americans united. There were no racial lines to grief: Thousands of blacks and whites marched in Charleston, packed the devastated church, mourned together.
But the American left could not stand such racial unity — it threatens their cherished belief that America continues to represent racial oppression and white supremacy. And so the media and politicians on the left manufactured a racial controversy over the Confederate flag.
Yep, we manufactured a controversy. Hell, it’s not like that flag was ever used to inflame the passions of racism in our country – even quite recently. It’s not like thousands of people who flocked to Sarah Palin’s dogwhistle rallies for “real Americans” during the 2008 presidential campaign didn’t wave that flag around. Or that it magically reappeared at Ted Cruz events like it was his unofficial logo.
Yeah, the left is responsible, all right. Before we made a stink about this symbol of heritage, no one on the right ever flaunted it at political events, or used it to intimidate African Americans or promote white supremacy. Nope, all our fault.
Right, Ben. Well thanks for your opinion. You know where you can shove it.
Ps. If you want the link to Ben’s Townhall post about the confederate flag controversy being a Leftist plot, well look it up for yourself. I refuse to provide it.
Ben should take that flag and shove it up his @$$ – and use the pole to make sure it goes all the way up!
Well, well, well. I guess that Ernest Fritz Hollings is now a lefty for having raised the Confederate flag to the Statehouse dome in 1962 as a signal of white resistance to the Civil Rights Movement. Up is down day indeed.
C. S. Kendrick has his answer:
The Shame of Silence: Why That Damn Flag Is Only Coming Down Now
Well, the confederate battle flag is indeed a symbol of southern heritage, specifically he heritage of slavery, treason and terrorism. Seems like an odd sort of heritage to be proud of, and a strange way to want to honor your ancestors.
I knew it was going to happen, and just about right on schedule: The whole discounting that anything significant has happened. “Will taking down that display on the capitol grounds stop the next shooting?” No, and nobody seriously said it would.
We also didn’t say the display should come down for any other magical reasons. It should come down because it is a constant reminder and governmental endorsement of racist bigotry, and isn’t for the benefit of all the citizens of South Carolina.
Oh, and if that heinous display is now supposed to be a Democrat scheme, then why haven’t the Republicans done anything about it now? And if it’s not such a big deal in the grand scheme of things, why were Republicans so resistant up until 72 hours ago?
You lost, bigots. Again. Deal.
Well the Kristol meltdown is way more fun. Plus video.
So being an avid history guy I’ve come around to the idea that civil war was primarily about economics. But since the heart of the southern economy was slavery well, there you go. In fact any non slavery justification I’ve ever seen is easily traceable to slavery. For the South it was always and forever about slavery. It’s the North that has some claim to it not being about slavery.
Economics, yes. The possibility of extending that $3.2 billion in property into the West, Mexico, and Latin America would end if the Congress ever voted to end slavery. And the additional population that an urban instead of a plantation society would bring made it inevitable enough if the seceding states stayed in the Union that they got enough of the elite to sign Secession declarations and the governors and state militia made it stick.
For the North, it was about keeping the Union and that part of the cotton trade that benefited Northern textile mills. But that was before Edmund Ruffin lit the fuse on the cannon in the Battery and sent cannon balls against Fort Sumter. The treasonous attack turned “preserving the Union” to “crushing the rebellion”. It was exactly like the response of the US to Pearl Harbor although Union forces were beginning to mobilize after Secession as a precaution.
As Southern Unionist Democrats argued on news of Secession, the Secessionists wanted their war, the would get it, and they would lose because of the military advantage in production and logistics of the Union. That was indeed how it played out. Lee never really broke through further than 50 miles north of Virginian and fought most of the war in Virginia itself. The western flank came down the Mississippi and used the already deployed railroads to advantage. Sherman’s march disrupted the logistics infrastructure and severed the Confederate territory into two disconnected parts. Then Sherman intercepted the troops who were retreating from Appomattox to obtain the final surrender of the war. One of the first railroad wars. The South could not match that mobility or supply chain.
Besides the mobility and the supply chain, the North had a ready supply of immigrant manpower .
It took Grant (and Sherman) to understand that and put into practice though. And still the North limited itself during the war.
What a tool!
Here is a middle-class response from South Carolina about the pressure on recognizing slavery and the flag. Take it for a reflex response for it is. The person who wrote this had a sucessful career in the banking industry and is now retired:
I think this is an authentic howl and not trolling. There is some sense of loss that is deeply felt.
Maybe we should honor the Klan also as an old Southern tradition? And “Slavery was bad, but blacks did it too”?
Is it so hard to realize that your ancestors were traitors to their country? It’s a bitter pill, that’s true. They did a very bad thing and were pardoned and restored as American citizens. Case closed. If you revel in their rebellion and call it a glorious cause, part of your heritage, then you are a traitor as well.
Harsh word, traitor? A Quote from the Constitution, which those who had been in the Army prior to Fort Sumter (like Robert E. Lee et al) had sworn to defend “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” The Constitution goes on “The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.” So I don’t look down on anyone today whose ancestors were Confederates. It’s done. It’s over. No attainder of the blood. Unless you revel in the rebellion and wave the flag of rebellion and hold it part of your glorious heritage. Then you approve and support the rebellion and are a traitor in your heart.
The use of “you” above is the generic “you” meaning “someone”, not you specifically TarHeelDem. English is slippery.
I hope his daughters marry Lebron James looking black guys or at least get knocked up by black guys. That’s my prayer for his family.
My first response was to wonder where the South Carolina Tory Monument was; that is heritage; a lot of Tory descendants are still in South Carolina. Where are the Daughters to the Loyalists to the United Kingdom? Where is the Union Jack on the Statehouse grounds? With 57% black population in 1861, it is not the case that the majority was defeated in 1865.
But the historical baffle-em-with-bullshit-dazzle-em-with dancing moves obscure the real anguish — that they will have to change their minds to something else that will require them to figure it our rather than going through life in routine and on overdrive. Coasting. With a field of view no larger than their immediate family.
You can tell that within his circle hate speech against liberals is expected to show his bona fides as a conservative. It becomes a circular game of expectations that becomes constricting because each is talking within the frame of what they imagine the others expect. The interchange with them has the property that you have to watch how you say things because it they are reacting with “What will my conservative buddies think of me if they saw this in my Facebook timeline?” Cross that line and you get excommunicated. I don’t really know yet how to dissect a self-organized (as opposed to externally organized) mutually oppressive social order. But that seems to be what is going on in a lot of places and not just in the South. Is it just another form of small-town self-tyranny? I’ve not gotten my mind around what’s going on but it is much different from the way these people were in the 1970s. And it’s not just age.
The idea that a turn against the Confederate battle flag is un-American is just mind blowingly dumb. The irony of the arguement that it is more American to support a banner raised with the intent of breaking up America apparently is lost to Ben. But then when living in a homogenous bubble there is no way to recognize reality.
Ben Shapiro is an evil-to-the-core racist and the only reason he has an income is that a set of extremely wealthy reactionaries pay him and others like him to keep the American conservatives angry and voting for the GOP.