I just listened to a podcast from Tom Woods from a few days ago on James Madison and the protest against his name on a high school as a part of overall iconoclasm that was associated with figures from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Near the end of the podcast they mentioned about white Southerners one or two generations ago having pictures of Robert E. Lee hanging on their walls next to Jesus.
My grandparents who lived in Nashville were Methodist educators and did not make overt mention of the war of Northern Aggression or say 'the South will rise again" or hang Confederate flags or pictures of Confederate figures or those times in their house. They lived in the same neighborhood as Lamar Alexander - literally two houses down the street from him. So my experience there and with my cousins was not one like that but then that was the 80's and in a fair-sized city. And in college also in Nashville at Vandy I did not see that. The first time I really saw the old stereotype full on was when I lived in Morristown in eastern TN - not as much in Morristown itself but in the surrounding rural counties. I suspect there could be a few old guys there who still felt that way.
What about in Arkansas from your experience?
The Confederate flag and its like are unanimously seen as deplorable in my circles, but among those who are hurting, among those in poverty, there is an unfortunate amount of Confederate flags. These are the people Howard Dean famously said he wanted the vote of and was so viciously attacked for saying. These are the people who are hurting and who are ignored and have been for so long. I don't defend their views, but I will defend them as people who are radical for good reason.
