New Poll Shows Growing Opposition to Symbols of the Confederacy

PatYoung

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According to a new Quinnipiac poll, not only do most voters nationwide want to see Confederate statues removed from public places, a majority of Southerners say that the "Confederate flag" is a symbol of racism and only 36% say it represents "Southern pride."
 

byron ed

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I'm not trusting the context of this university poll, it being framed as reactions "to the display of Lost Cause relics." If the wording of the poll questions reflects such obvious bias, the results are suspect. In other words the act of identifying these symbols as "Lost Cause" from the get-go neutralizes the efficacy of the poll.

Imho, running what appears to be a somewhat slanted poll retards any progress towards the ultimate realization of the true history of our Country.

Far be it for me, typically quite a rabid challenger of Lost Cause/Confederate apologism to be pointing this out, but from what I've gathered over time is that the most solid base of legacy Confederate "defenders" see the statues of Confederate soldiers and leaders, and indeed even the Confederate battle flag itself, as historical remembrances and not as symbols of the tenants of the Confederacy.* In other words most legacy Confederate "defenders" don't consider themselves racist, if I may put that forward here without getting my head chopped off.

Of course that most solid base of legacy Confederate "defenders" has been blissfully and sometimes intentionally oblivious to wider society, and in particular dismissive of the way their African-American neighbors are certain to see these statues and that flag. That is on them, and there is no excuse for being so obtuse about it, but it is not specifically "racist."

Lastly, I'm pretty sure that the other well-known characteristic of the most solid base of legacy Confederate "defenders" is that they are not likely to have a change of heart in the current kerfuffle about Confederate symbols. It's time and breath wasted in attempting to "change" them. They simply will be overwhelmed -- are being overwhelmed -- by the correction of history. Many of us who have studied this history know that this current kerfuffle about Confederate symbols is in fact about correcting the historical record and not hiding or changing the historical record.



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* though certainly the generations that did put up these symbols 1880s-1930s did see them as a defense of the tenants of the Confederacy
 
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5fish

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Lastly, I'm pretty sure that the other well-known characteristic of the most solid base of legacy Confederate "defenders" is that they are not likely to have a change of heart in the current kerfuffle about Confederate symbols. It's time and breath wasted in attempting to "change" them. They simply will be overwhelmed -- are being overwhelmed -- by the correction of history. Many of us who have studied this history know that this current kerfuffle about Confederate symbols is in fact about correcting the historical record and not hiding or changing the historical record.
Yes, it is a correcting of history 150 plus years over due....
 
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