Jon Meacham: Bob McDonnell's Confederate History Proclamation Is Part Of Conservative Tradition Of Refighting The Civil War

Jon Meacham: Bob McDonnell's Confederate History Proclamation Is Part Of Conservative Tradition Of Refighting The Civil War

Advertently or not, Mr. McDonnell is working in a long and dispiriting tradition. Efforts to rehabilitate the Southern rebellion frequently come at moments of racial and social stress, and it is revealing that Virginia's neo-Confederates are refighting the Civil War in 2010. Whitewashing the war is one way for the right -- alienated, anxious and angry about the president, health care reform and all manner of threats, mostly imaginary -- to express its unease with the Age of Obama, disguising hate as heritage.

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