I think Civil War History is important, and tourists continue to flock to places like Gettysburg to experience this chapter of American History. But that's the thing: most Americans want to learn about American history. On the other hand, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell -- reviving a tradition beloved by other Virginia Republican Governors -- thinks that the state's economy could benefit from catering to the thin sliver of the American populace who would prefer to simply learn about and publicly appreciate the rebels of the Confederacy that threatened to split the Republic asunder.
Naturally, the whole slavery thing is a total bummer, and McDonnell initially made no mention of it in his proclamation that revived "Confederate History Month." After a public outcry, he begrudgingly apologized, but the damage was done in the form of the media's coverage of the matter, which they managed with their typical aplomb. Hey! Let's find people to defend the practice of celebrating traitors, and maybe have some pointless left-versus-right debates over it!
And so, we have a Treasured Collection of Clips that McDonnell can use to commemorate this wonderful moment in our lives, in which you can see the defense of not mentioning slavery alongside the Confederacy evolve. First, you'll hear that Virginia's participation in the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery (Virginia's ordinance of secession says otherwise). Then you'll hear it's mean to pick on the Confederate states when other states had slaveowners, too (but the non-Confederate states didn't secede).
And finally, the piece de resistance, you have Pat Buchanan, generously offering, "I think both sides were right." Slaves were right to want to be free, and the Confederacy was right to fight to defend their right to maintain a workforce of abused, indentured servants who were selected for the task solely because the ruling class deemed them to be part-human. You'll want to cherish that logic most of all, during Confederate History Month.
Meanwhile, why not have a Union Appreciation Day, where people wear T-Shirts with Abraham Lincoln's visage that read, "Tell us how our taint tastes, treasonholes?" Next year, at Appomattox!
WATCH -- Video produced by HuffPost's Ben Craw
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