The party of Lincoln narrowly supports Abe over treasonous slave owner

It’s half past 1971 Mississippi-time, but don’t tell that to the state’s Republican voters who, recent poll results show, are still fairly divided on whether Tom and Helen Willis should be allowed to marry.

[In] a hypothetical match up between Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, Lincoln would win out 55-28.  That’s largely because of Lincoln’s overwhelming support from Democrats, 76-10. He only narrowly edges Davis with Republicans, 45-36, and the match up is actually a tie with independents at 44%. …

Earlier this year we found that only 40% of Republican voters in Mississippi thought inter racial marriage should be legal but we asked it again on this poll and found 52% support for it with GOP voters- still a surprisingly low number but progress.  Overall 60% of voters in the state support inter racial marriage to 23% who think it should be illegal.

Not surprisingly, an overwhelming majority of white Mississippians support a constitutional amendment that would designate Colonel Reb as Ole Miss’ official mascot.

Among other findings, Mississippians named Pat Boone their favorite entertainer, “Donny and Marie” their favorite TV show and “Birth of a Nation” their favorite flick.

Only 34 percent of Mississippians glad Union prevailed

Fergit, hell.

Except in Mississippi, most voters in these states are glad the Union won the “War Between the States” instead of the South. 53% say that in Georgia, 48% in North Carolina, and 34% in Mississippi. But still fewer in Mississippi (27%) would prefer that General Lee’s troops had prevailed; a 39% plurality are not sure. Similarly, only 21% in North Carolina and 23% in Georgia wish the South had won.

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The myth of black Confederate soldiers

Hard to believe, I know, but African-Americans did not fight to protect their enslavement (via The Atlantic):

When New York Gov. George Pataki recently backed calls to boot Georgia’s flag from Albany’s display of state flags because of its “racist” component, he quickly roused ire. “As many as 50,000 brave young black men were wounded and killed fighting for the South,” wrote Charlie Condon, South Carolina’s attorney general in a letter. “Your slander of our region and its historic flag is outrageous and offensive.”

But what many historians find outrageous and offensive are the claims being made by men such as Condon. Though he later revised his estimate to 50,000 blacks who “served in the Confederate Army,” Smith at American University puts the number of black rebels “actually shooting people” at 30,000.

Most historians regard this figure as inflated – by almost 30,000.

“It’s pure fantasy,” contends James McPherson, a Princeton historian and one of the nation’s leading Civil War scholars. Adds Edwin Bearss, historian emeritus at the National Park Service: “It’s b.s., wishful thinking.” Robert Krick, author of 10 books on the Confederacy, has studied the records of 150,000 Southern soldiers and found fewer than a dozen were black. “Of course, if I documented 12, someone would start adding zeros,” he says.

Remember, don’t romanticize

Though my Southern roots go way back, I’m glad “we” lost the war that started 150 years ago today. Anyone with a conscience should feel the same way. Are Germans wistful about WWII?

Not that I’m comparing the Confederates to Nazis. But enslavement or extermination isn’t much of a choice, and celebrating any government or cause that would sanction either seems particularly cruel. That heritage is nothing to be proud of.

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