CPAC Blogging: Irony Edition

James Joyner observes that ther'es something a little amusing in Ann Coulter, who throws around the word "traitor" like confetti, making favorable comments about the Confederate flag.

Comments

[joe]

Rep. Chris Cox, at the CPAC:

""We continue to discover biological and chemical weapons and facilities to make them inside Iraq."

Huh wuzza?

[J]

Can't we just say there's something a little amusing in Ann Coulter, and leave it at that?

[Ken Shultz]

Mom always told me that if I couldn't say anything nice about someone, then I shouldn't say anything at all.

...and in that spirit, I would like to say that Ann Coulter is more attractive, physically, than Rush Limbaugh.

[Gilbert Martin]

The Confederates weren't traitors to their country. Their country was the Confederate States of America.

[Bonar Law]

A traitor is a Founding Father who loses his war. The Confederates were traitors in this sense. However, a traitor can be posthumously exonerated, rehabilitated and made into a National Hero. The South did this with the Confederates, and if today the South is demoting the Confederates, it's not because of their treason (i. e., losing a war) but because of their dedication to bondage, chains and whips, which is nowadays considered far too kinky.

The Coulter of today, if she'd waved her Confederate flag in federal territory in 1864, her action would have been considered beyond the bounds of rational discourse, and she might have found herself contemplating the inside of a U. S. prison, without any unpatriotic lawyers to help spring her or make technical objections to her detention (such as she should have a trial, and all the other whiney stuff that traitors always say in their efforts to obstruct the war effort).

[Mo]

Bonar,
But she's from Connecticut, hardly a Confederate stronghold. This means that she's hailing traitors to her country, not celebrating her cultural heritage. Heck, she doesn't even have the, "They were fighting for a good cause," argument to fall back on.

Of course, I doubt she finds anything noble about the Confederates. She knows that her target audience, violent morons and mentally deranged mouth-breathers*, also like the Confederate flag. It's cheap, calculated and vile.

* My apologies to any Confederate flag fans, violent morons and mentally deranged mouth-breathers that are offended by being lumped together with Coulter fans.

[Ken Shultz]

I would point out, before others, that there are those who see the Confederate Flag as a symbol of resistance to the Unions strategy of directing scorched earth attacks at civilians and, generally, murdering and raping civilians in places like the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I don't think it's fair to lump everyone who respects the Confederate Flag together in a big ball anyway.

...Having said that, I hope no one will misconstrue this comment as support for slavery in any way. I also hope that no one will misconstrue this comment in such a way as to suggest that I don't think that Ann Coulter is a tedious, blithering, bore.

[joe]

"A traitor is a Founding Father who loses his war."

Sort of like, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter?

[joe]

"I would point out, before others, that there are those who see the Confederate Flag as a symbol of resistance to the Unions strategy of directing scorched earth attacks at civilians and, generally, murdering and raping civilians in places like the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia."

Sure, Ken, and there are those who see the swastika flag as a symbol of resistance to Bolshvism, and the murder and rape of German civilians. Of course, in both cases, we're talking about people who already feel an affinity for the flag for political or social reasons, and are hunting about for an excuse that doesn't make them look like monsters.

"She knows that her target audience, violent morons and mentally deranged mouth-breathers*, also like the Confederate flag. It's cheap, calculated and vile." Yes, the political equivalent of the band onstage at Cleveland Memorial Arena yelling "Is there anyone here from...Cleveland?" Hey, look at that, the crowd goes wild.

[Bonar Law]

"Sure, Ken, and there are those who see the swastika flag as a symbol of resistance to Bolshvism, and the murder and rape of German civilians."

Does this trigger Godwin's Law?

[Ken Shultz]

"...in both cases, we're talking about people who already feel an affinity for the flag for political or social reasons, and are hunting about for an excuse that doesn't make them look like monsters."

Your point regarding people who are looking for an excuse that doesn't make them look like monsters is well taken.

...That's not to say that Sheridan didn't do some awful things to non-slaveholding farmers in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War just as he did terrible things to Native Americans in 1867 and 1868. If the decedents of the Native Americans Sheridan massacred had a battle flag of their own, I suspect you wouldn't condemn the decedents of those Native Americans if they showed that flag some reverence.

...But then again, such a flag couldn't possibly be used as a symbol for the support of slavery or denying civil rights to people because of their race or support for segregation.

I know someone's whose ancestors were tobacco farmers. His ancestor freed his slaves during the furor of the Second Great Awakening in the 1840's. Sheridan didn't treat such farmers any differently. There were free blacks who owned slaves--I'm sure they were treated like everyone else. It's not entirely clear to me that the lion's share of the Union's troops were fighting specifically against slavery. Slave owners like U.S. Grant seem to have been fighting primarily to preserve the Union. Only a small percentage of the men who volunteered to fight for the Confederacy were slave owners. It seems to me that many of the Confederate soldiers thought they were fighting for the preservation of Constitutional Democracy or "Popular Sovereignty" and against a foreign invasion.

People who try to cover their attempt to somehow make African Americans feel, even partially, disenfranchised by claiming to reverence the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia out of honor for those Confederate soldiers who fought to protect their farms and families from monsters like Sheridan are truly disgusting people.

...The Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia has no business being on any State Flag. Someday we'll keep them all off every State Flag and Seal, etc., but it'll be by referendum.

P.S. Washington Redskins--I suspect the name scratches the same Southern itch. When I was a kid, the lyrics to the Redskins' fight song ended with, "...Fight for Ol' Dixie."

[joe]

"...That's not to say that Sheridan didn't do some awful things to non-slaveholding farmers in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War..."

I consider the mass murder-bombings of Tokyo, Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki to be war crimes comparable to the seige of Lenningrad or the rape of Nanking, but you won't see me flying a rising sun flag or swastika, just because the anti-aircraft crews had them on their uniforms.

[Gilbert Martin]

"A traitor is a Founding Father who loses his war. The Confederates were traitors in this sense."

The Confederates weren't trying to overthrow the union - merely withdraw from it. As they had every right to do. The states voluntarily joined the union on an individual basis and any state that wanted to had every right to withdraw from it the same way.

[Stevo Darkly]

On this day, Presidents Day, I burn an effigy of George Washington -- traitor to the British Empire!

[Brendan Monaghan]

So this is what fifteen minutes feels like. Oddly enough, some of my colleagues at The Ohio State University College Republicans are giving me crap for asking such a tough and serious question.