Catherine Templeton is running for governor of South Carolina. The ex-state Department of Health and Environmental Control chief is probably best known for working to crush unions and working her way through the corrupt Republican South Carolina political scene. Well, she’s done it! She’s ready to attack those politically correct revisionists who want to tear down Confederate heroes. You know like that guy that was a racist and a traitor—and that other guy who was also a racist and traitor. The Post and Courier explains:
Catherine Templeton made waves in her first public forum as gubernatorial candidate by saying she is “proud of the Confederacy" and pledged “we’re not going to rewrite history” by removing Confederate monuments.
Let’s put this into context. Maybe she was “joking” like the rest of the Republican Party always is when asked to explain themselves. She was asked about the removal of the Confederate flag after the murder of nine black churchgoers by a white supremacist—and Confederate enthusiast.
“I’ve already said and mean it from the bottom of my heart that I’m proud to be from South Carolina, I’m proud of the Confederacy. But I’m not going to second guess what the people in the Statehouse did when I wasn’t there," she continued. "I live in Charleston, and I drive by Mother Emanuel on a daily basis. And a bad person took something that’s dear to us, took our heritage and turned it into hate. And I think we acted as a result.”
Maybe her earlier statement will illuminate what she means better.
A man who identified himself as a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans asked Templeton about her views on “Southern heritage and Southern defense” after other states have removed monuments and memorials. The issue remains sensitive in South Carolina since lawmakers voted in 2015 to remove the battle flag from the Statehouse grounds after avowed racist Dylann Roof killed nine black worshippers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
[...]
“Not on my watch. I don’t think there’s anything else to say about it,” Templeton said. “You cannot rewrite history. I don’t care whose feelings it hurts. You cannot rewrite history.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of giants in South Carolina,” she added. “And it’s why we are, who we are, where we are. And I very much respect the men who gave their homes, their fortunes and their lives to put us in this position. Fortunately, we have a law, too, that protects us, and I’m sure it will be enforced.”
“Standing on the shoulder of giants,” eh? You respect who gave their “fortunes?” Well, we took those things when we won the war and a big part of their “homes” and “fortunes” turned out to be human beings that were being held against their will and treated like cattle. So … fuck you. You shouldn’t be proud of the Confederacy. It’s a stain on human history.