(Updated below original post)
Many state employees are enjoying their day off today thanks to Confederate Memorial Day — or as Lieutenant Governor and Civil War reenactor Glenn McConnell likes to call it, Christmas and Easter put together.
Don’t get me wrong, we don’t begrudge South Carolinians for wanting to honor their Confederate ancestors. After all, Sen. Mike Rose apparently confers with his dead Rebel relatives for political advice — and it’s possible even they could do a better job at getting things done than our current crop of lawmakers.
And for those of us who tend to side with the Union, Confederate Memorial Day provides a yearly excuse to say:
- The South lost. 150 years ago. Get over it.
- No matter what historical revisionists like David Barton tell you, the war was definitely about slavery. South Carolina said so in a document called “Causes of Secession.” Still, people who say the war was fought over the code-phrase of “states’ rights” are mostly correct — it was about states’ rights to own slaves.
Anyway, glad that’s done. Happy Confederate Memorial Day, everyone! See you on the golf course.
UPDATE: Apparently not all state lawmakers are taking the day off. Shortly after we posted this article, state Rep. Boyd Brown (D-Fairfield) sent out a statement calling for an end to the observation of Confederate Memorial Day:
“We have important issues that need our attention, but instead, the Legislature is taking a day off to observe an archaic state holiday,” said Brown, the descendant of Confederate veterans himself. “I’m not suggesting that South Carolinians stop celebrating the holiday, but I am asking that from this point forward, they observe it in their hearts and minds. State offices should be open today.”
Brown also said the holiday helped block a legislative solution to the ballot crisis threatening the June primary. “Hundreds of candidates across the state are waiting for a legislative solution to the recent ballot controversy, but because of this unnecessary state holiday, that legislation is now dead,” Brown criticized. “This is absurd.”
I personally think Confederate Memorial Day is a joke. Only in the South do we glorify a war where the destruction set our region back 80 years economically.
But Brown is definitely grandstanding on this. The reason that ballot solution failed was because Democrats wouldn’t vote for it! It wouldn’t matter if they were back in today or not.
Hey Peter last time I checked Sen. Knotts was a Republican not a Democrat, and it is the Republicans not the Democrats who control the House, the Senate, and the Governor’s office. If you want to blame someone for not allowing the candidates who couldn’t follow the directions back on the ballot blame the GOP. But then again you probably know this already and you’re probably just a partisan hack who would blame a Democrat if a tornado hit your house.
Knotts was one vote. The measure was blocked because Republicans couldn’t get a supermajority. That was because all but two or three Democrats voted against it.