It's the slavery, stupid!

I'm old enough that this wasn't even in doubt when I went to school. No, I didn't experience the Civil War firsthand - I'm not quite that old - but I went to school before the right-wing really got busy rewriting history.

Of course, that was in Nebraska. Maybe the South had it's own version of history even then, I don't know. But I've been shocked to find that a majority of Americans today don't know that slavery was the cause of the Civil War - as proclaimed by the Confederate states, themselves.

It wasn't any of these bullshit claims about "states' rights," and certainly not about "small government." It was about slavery. Period.

Slavery isn't accepted these days, so right-wingers are trying to rewrite history, that's all. But what's shocking is how successful they've been. Apparently, young people are the least likely to understand the central role of slavery in the rebellion. And that's an embarrassment to our whole country.