Essay Category Entry Thread (original) (raw)

Jul. 2nd, 2010 10:14 pm (UTC)

Title: What if the Confederates won the Civil War ?
Author: Dreamsofpaprika
Rating: PG
Category: Essay

(I hope I did this right; correct me if I'm wrong)

1. How do you feel about the month of April possibly becoming "Confederate History Month" ?

Naming it Confederate History Month is only dwelling on a romantic idea of the South that simply doesn't exist anymore. The benefits of thinking counterfactually about history are limited.

2. If the Confederate Army defeated the Union Army and won the Civil War in 1865, How do you think the time line would be different today?

If the Confederacy had won, the USA as we know it would exist as two nations. And really, from what I read about America, it seems that economically and politically the North and South are pretty differing anyway.

Our country would have been different and better place to live than it is now. The war between the states was a war of states' rights vs. a strong federal government. Our country would have been more in line with what the founders had in mind had the South won. Our founding fathers never intended the intrusive and confiscatory system of big government that we have now. Laws, as they should, would be made at the local and state level and a weak federal system could not inflict itself on the people.

We would have no personal income tax, which in itself is unconstitutional. Most of the socialists that redistribute wealth would not have the money base to squander that they do now or experiment with social programs bought at the expense of someone else's labor. The federal government would be out of education, welfare, roads, construction and healthcare and all the other nonsense they claim as their domain. All of these would be done at the local level with the watchful eye of the local public.

The founders were smarter than we realize. They knew that strong centralized government was not good for the people. The very reason the right to keep and bear arms is in the constitution is not to protect you from grizzly bears but to protect you from the government. They even advocate the overthrow of the government if it becomes oppressive. Of course our government schools would never teach that truth. As far as the army is concerned, the federal government could do that with money collected from tariffs, not personal income taxes. But alas, we did not win. The Lost Cause (State's Rights) was lost and now we have a form of democracy (mob rule) that little resembles the Republic that those Founders birthed so many years ago.

3. What are the major difference that you can think of if the Confederates won the Civil War ?

My own opinion is that had the Confederacy gained its independence it would not have lasted long. Based as it was on the principle of secession I don't think it would have been long before the states fell to squabbling about something, quite possibly slavery, and various of them would have seceded to protect what they saw as their interests.