Justin's Lengthy and Unsolicited Opinion, Episode 3

Race and the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia

This is may be my most complex rant to date, so please, if you start this, finish it. If you’re going to be pissed at me, I want you pissed at me for what I actually believe, not a sentence fragment.

I was going to leave this subject alone, I swear, but Andrew Walton, my battery First Sergeant and a man whom I respect a great deal, posted this video on the subject. It is too reductionist in that it implies the only reason to fly a Confederate battle flag (or, more properly, the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia) is to support racist ideals, but there are still some valid points here.

I personally do not fly the battle flag, nor would I fly any confederate flag. Whatever else it represents, and I do think it's more complex than slavery/segregation/racism, it was the battle flag of an enemy army. I am a citizen and was a soldier of the United States of America. That we reconciled with and reintegrated the Confederacy, that some of my own ancestors fought for the South, does not change the fact that my primary loyalty is always to my country, not just to any one region. Ergo, while I respect and even admire the martial virtue of the Confederate Army, I will not fly their flag on my vehicle or outside my home.

Furthermore, I really don't like the argument of omission that slavery was a minor factor in the Civil War and it was all about "state's rights." Yes, it was about state's rights, the right to own slaves.

Admittedly, it was not about slavery from the Union's perspective. There's no freaking way Lincoln was going to start the Civil War for the purpose of abolishing slavery. From politician to private, the Union's war aim was primarily to preserve the Union, freeing slaves was an incidental, and only applied to confederate states during the war, not slave holding states that remained in the Union.

But from the Confederacy's perspective, the continuing addition of more and more free states to the Union caused them to worry they would eventually be forced to abandon their "peculiar institution" by the majority. It was an essential factor in their decision to secede. In summary; the Union was not the shining force of abolitionist paladins we read about in third grade, but the Confederacy wasn't the not-really-racist, liberty-loving rebels some people want to pretend they were, either.

Let’s see, some other arguments I want to debunk before we go on…

From the Confederacy’s sympathizers:
“Well, if the South had just won, they probably would have abolished slavery eventually on their own AND it would’ve been a great victory for states’ rights,” Maybe. I don’t know. And neither do you. Counterfactuals make for fun novels and useful mental exercise, but the fact remains that we don’t KNOW that slavery was going to end due to anything short of war.

"But the vast majority of Confederate soldiers didn't own slaves, it was mostly the rich in the south who owned slaves." True statement, but those average, middle class and poor soldiers were taking orders from senior officers and politicians largely drawn from the slave-owning class. Thus, while their personal motivation may have been to repel what they saw as an invading army (and who can argue with a man’s right to defend his home?), they were, in effect, defending the institution of slavery. I'm not trying to demonize them, they were probably largely regular guys doing the best they thought they could, but they fought for an evil cause. Historically speaking, they’re hardly alone in that.

From the Left-wing contingent of our audience:
“So, Justin, we SHOULD order it taken down then, right? See- you’re actually a liberal!”

No. We shouldn’t, and no, I’m not. While I wouldn’t fly one personally, there are places where the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia is utterly appropriate. A memorial for the Confederate Army is one such example, and, yes, the Confederate Army deserves to have its memorials. Jesus, even the WWII Wermacht has its memorials.

“But you’re denouncing any private citizen flying the ANV battle flag as a racist, right? Come on, give in to the power of intellectual snobbery and be a ‘'smart' conservative by bashing the rednecks with us...”

No, I’m not doing that either. I disagree with individuals flying the battle flag of the ANV in a place where they might display the stars and stripes instead for reasons stated above. But I do not presume that anybody who disagrees with my reasoning hates black people or wants to return to the antebellum wholesale- because that’s a stupid assumption. I know guys who have displayed the battle flag who are as demonstrably not racist as you can possibly be. As an aside, it’s incredibly difficult to prove a negative, which is what makes a charge of racism such a handy tool for anyone losing an argument. Let us just say I saw the content of their character in garrison and combat and could not detect the slightest hint of racial favoritism or antipathy.

It is possible to take pride in your ancestor’s virtues while acknowledging their sins. No, it’s not just possible, it’s essential. You know why? Because if you examine your family tree with any degree of honesty, there’s going to be a lot of shame there- I don’t give a damn what ethnicity you are. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still be proud of your heritage, because there’s also likely something there to be proud of.

White southerners should not lie to themselves about the Confederacy, but they should be allowed to retain some pride for those ways in which their antecedents were admirable. And the fact is the CSA fought a better supplied and numerically superior enemy to a standstill for years- from a military perspective, they were impressive and, as aforementioned, the common Confederate soldier probably did believe he was just protecting his homeland from invasion. He was wrong, he was also keeping black people in chains by default, but his motives weren’t quite as purely evil as some are trying to paint.

I truly believe that most folks who embrace the rebel flag aren’t trying to show support for the KKK, or segregation or any number of other racist ideas or causes. They’re not thinking of George Wallace, or Woodrow Wilson or LBJ, they’re thinking of Robert E. Lee as portrayed by Martin Sheen, or Tom Berenger as Longstreet, or Richard Jordan as Armistead. And while Ted Turner did give us a squeaky clean vision of the Civil War in the movie, Gettysburg, the fact is there were admirable qualities about those real men, even as there were things we rightly revile about the Confederacy.

So, no, I don’t assume someone flying the battle flag is racist. I’m not sneering at you if you’ve got one outside your house or on your bumper. I get it. Separately, but related, I also would violently oppose, and that’s not hyperbole, any attempt by the government to force citizens not to display the battle flag or any other symbol, however controversial. This is America and if we give up on something as basic as freedom of speech we will have lost too much, no matter how offensive the voices we silence.

But when Top tells me that he sees the battle flag as hateful and that it offends him, it damn well gives me pause. Andrew Walton is not part of the screeching horde of the perpetually offended. The great American people have basically destroyed the meaning of the word hero by hanging it on every swinging Richard in a uniform, not to mention anyone who has ever been trolled on the internet for an unpopular life style choice, but Top is actually a certified freaking hero. He was decorated for valor for saving another man’s life in Iraq (while being wounded himself in the process) and, furthermore, is one of the most capable, self-motivated people I know- this is not one of the world’s professional victims.

That doesn’t mean I defer to his opinion because badass. I didn’t even do that when I was his commander, although I damned well listened carefully to everything he ever had to say to me… except maybe a few entreaties to be more politic when dealing with my superiors... oops.

But if he thinks the flag is offensive, then that’s at least one honest man who thinks so; not a race baiter, not a bigot- a damned good man. The least I, and you, should do is not dismiss that opinion out of hand.

I’ve rambled a bit more than usual, but I’ll try to tie it up neatly as possible.

1. No, the South should not remove all confederate symbols from everything ever and wear hair shirts for being descended from a slave-holding society.

2. It would probably be a nice and considerate thing to question when, where and in what manner it is appropriate to display those symbols not as a matter of law but as one of courtesy. No, that won’t be enough to appease the shrill cries of the professional race baiters, but to hell with them anyway, I’m worried about what’s actually right, not what demagogues think.

3. When you see some dude with a battle flag on his truck, there’s a good chance it’s got nothing to do with racism in his mind. Likewise, when someone objects to the battle flag, you should consider the possibility that it’s not about white guilt, but upon his honest evaluation of the flag’s symbolism in history. We have to go back to assuming good faith until conclusively proven otherwise in this country. It's difficult, I know, but that leads me to-

4. Ad hominem may be a fallacy, but considering the source is still a valid practice. If a whiny college kid is bitching about your privilege and the evils of white patriarchy, I'm probably going to ignore it. We're all entitled to our opinions, but some have backed those opinions with more than hot air.