Background: First, I am a white male southerner and support the Democratic party. I don’t feel I have to change to the winning party of the civil war because I can’t stand to be on the losing side (as the Teapublicans did after the 2008 election loss). I’m not prejudice and don’t feel I need to become a Republican (party of Lincoln) to prove it. I can admit the south was wrong on slavery. I also believe most of the southern Democrats of the Civil War era were convinced they were fighting for a more noble cause since a very small percentage of soldiers owned slaves. Robert E. Lee's, father, “Lighthorse” Harry Lee fought the Tories in the Revolutionary war. The Republican party evolved from the Tories (and Whigs) and many Southerners believed these were the same Tories that came to take their fathers and grandfathers property in the late 1700’s. As the “Industrial Revolution” was cranking up in this country, the south controlled the clothing and food supply (cotton and rice). This was critical to the Northern Industrialist because they had to pay their workers enough to eat and put clothes on their backs. Had the Southern plantation owners freed their slaves and paid them a “minimum” wage, it would have eaten up the industrialist profits. Southerners would have been buying ocean front property on Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod instead of the “carpetbaggers” doing it down south. But Southerner’s being easily stirred up, reacted when the “instigators” cried out “Johnny Reb, get your guns, they’re freeing the slaves”. There were no statesmen to stand up and say “Don’t fall for this BS Johnny Reb, free the slaves, pay them a minimum wage, and roll that into the cost of cotton and rice” . Had Senator Hollings, the last statesman from S.C., lived back then I wonder if he would he have stood up to the “instigators”..? I like to think he would have. At least the Southern Democrats weren’t hypocrites. If the war had been only about slavery, would the northern Republican generals have owned slaves while they were fighting against slavery..? Even Robert E. Lee freed his slaves per the Emancipation Proclamation. Yes slavery was wrong but the civil war was also about the “Tories” reclaiming the textile producing and agrarian land they failed to get during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. After all the south was outnumbered 13:1. I also believe President Lincoln was taken out because he favored a soft rather than harsh reconstruction. See theory #6 of the following link: http://rogerjnorton.com/...
The fact is Secretary of War Stanton and his carpet bagging buddies greatly profited from the harsh reconstruction. After Lincoln was out of the picture, the south was raped, pillaged and plundered.
Secondly, Glenn McConnell is supposedly a traditionalist and by tradition as a “Southerner” he should not be a Republican. Doesn’t he realize Mr. Stanton, Gen’s Grant, Sherman and their carpetbagging buddies were Republicans…? McConnell is a product of the Republican “Southern Strategy” which really began not with Nixon but when Strom Thurmond tried to split the Democratic Party with the “Dixiecrats” to defeat President Truman in 1948 because Truman signed an executive order integrating the services. Being unwelcomed in the Democratic party after that, Thurmond took his followers to the Republican party, who welcomed a chance to break the solid south.
Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush Jr. further capitalized on Thurmond’s southern racist as they left the Democratic Party for “whiter” pastures. So McConnell is an opportunist riding the wave of the “Reagan coattails” getting elected in 1980. Then Bush Sr., then Bush Jr. He took his marching orders from Bush Jr. to get the Confederate Flag removed from the Capitol bldg so Bush would not have to answer a debate question regarding it. For example: Mr. Bush, do you believe the Confederate Flag should be on the SC State Capitol building...? answer no..Bush loses the South...his base; answer yes...Bush loses the rest of the country....either answer he would lose...
Finally, as an opportunist, McConnell sees the writing on the wall…he is not a “real conservative” because he is not married, he may even be gay (a game changer for the Teaparty wing). He would more than likely have a Teaparty primary challenger. This is why he is not staying on and running for Lt. Governor, but doesn’t want to be relegated to the dust bin of inconsequential history yet, so will put his name in the hat for a college president position. But is an entrenched opportunist with name recognition who you really want as a college president…? Or do you want someone with more integrity…I say get him off the public stage he already has a road named after him…his 15 minutes is up….