j.r. leonard

That a country should honor and glorify its enemies - or that anyone actually even really wants us to start doing that that - is a dopey argument, no matter how many clever debating gambits you put around it.

I’m not trying to be clever. New nations form all the time, almost always through violence. The problem with the Confederacy wasn’t secession, it was slavery. John Brown was a traitor, as well. I’d happily see statues of him

You can’t expect to be a traitor to any country and have statues erected to you by that same country after you lose, slave state or otherwise. The British would absolutely NOT have put a statue to Washington in Trafalgar Square if they had lost. That’s silly.

Not trying to play gotcha games. Legitimately interested: how do you feel about about a John Brown statue?

Honestly would feel fine about it. But I wouldn’t demand it be placed in Pottawatomie Creek town square and would sure as s**t understand why people there wouldn’t want one erected.

OK. I guess the difference is that the traitor label just doesn’t mean that much to me. Being right or wrong about slavery means way more to me than loyalty to the Union

I don't disagree. This is now a different argument than where we started.

My thoughts: in the context of defending Lee or any Confederate, the argument is nonsense. As a discrete point, it’s right. Treason is a very subjective thing that exists orthogonal to objective issues of right and wrong. There are plenty of righteous traitors and evil patriots