Ahh, John Cole’s just bitter over the amazing irony of how we in the aristocracy of the Confederacy look down on our neighbors to the west (who split with us to join the Union) as the inbred yokels. In a two-mile stretch between my house and town, I must pass five or six houses proudly flying the battle flag.
I don’t doubt that some modern-day Johnny Rebs simply see the flag as a symbol of NASCAR, hunting and fishing, rural living, and some inchoate, overly generous notion of their own free-thinking independence, in much the same way as disaffected suburban teenagers like to sport circle-A anarchy symbols, but it also isn’t much of a mystery as to why Confederate romanticism has such a lasting appeal throughout the South. Just talk to any of these people for five minutes and see.