Tenn. gov. apologizes for wearing Confederate clothes

[Suburbia]

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee apologized for wearing a Confederate uniform while attending Auburn University in 1980.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/21/bill-lee-tennessee-governor-auburn-yearbook-confederate-yearbook/2939636002/

Should Lee resign?

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally would be governor if Lee resigns or is forced to resign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_Governor_of_Tennessee

[CatoMinor]

Can we just assume any white southern male born before the 1990's has worn confederate clothes and/or sported a rebel flag at some point in the past and move on?

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Yeah, the context of this in 1980 is very different from a KKK uniform or blackface. It was aggressively normalized, still is. If Northam isn't going anywhere, neither will Lee.

[Kingpoleon]

Yes, only because Randy McNally is a massive FF.

[junior chįmp]

nobody cares

[RINO Tom]

Bronz thread and all, but this is way different.

[Technocracy Timmy]

Apologizing would hurt him among his base if anything.

[Hammy]

Can we just assume any white southern male born before the 1990's has worn confederate clothes and/or sported a rebel flag at some point in the past and move on?

I never have and was born and raised in an area that still had routine racial violence as late as 2000. That said I don't see this as an issue given that it at least appears to be essentially a historically themed costume party.

[Adam Griffin]

I think it's lame that people still do this - it was arguably less lame in 1980, from a perspective of what was acceptable in the South - but it's not going to lead to a resignation or any major loss in approval/support. As long as there's not any more to it than this, he'll be fine. People still play dress up with this kind of crap and even do it in public via reenactments and other less historical occasions, so it's only going to be "controversial" to those raised in major urban centers outside the South and/or those who've never seen or heard of Civil War re-enactments.

Honestly the more worrisome aspect of this is that he was in KA, which was/(is) basically the KKK of college Southern fraternities.

[Crumpets]

He can stay on as long as he changes his name to Bill Meade.

[Badger]

He can stay on as long as he changes his name to Bill Meade.

Can't like this post enough

[7,052,770]

There were a few people at my high school who would wear a grey Confederate-style jacket as their normal jacket in the winter. I didn't think anything of it at the time as far as I remember, other than just thinking like "wow, what a dork," which was really saying something coming from me.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Should he resign?  Not over this, no.  That's just plain silly.  Public figures should be evaluated primarily on their public records.  This was not an illegal act, and isn't today. 

It would be nice if this man had a better record on voting rights, perhaps, but would anyone clamor for his resignation over that issue (which is far more important)?  Of course not; that's a political decision.  If he illegally worked to purge voting roles of potential opposition voters, that would be another issue, but that's illegal, and no one is saying THAT happened.

All the work done about Confederate monuments, wearing blackface decades ago, Civil War costumes, etc, is energy wasted that could have been used in doing the hard work of convincing people that they are right on issues of the Voting Rights Act, ballot access for candidates, reducing the burden of the poor on what they have to do to cast a vote, etc.  That, of course, would take hard work and reasonable arguments.  The other, cheap shot way, cost Herring and Northam their good reputations, and at a time where their Lt. Governor has far worse problems with his reputation.  The dwelling on irrelevant issues caused Democrats to shoot themselves in the foot in VA, injuring elected officials who were actually implementing policies Democrats approved of. 

[Progressive Pessimist]

I'm actually surprised that he apologized. I doubt he had much to gain by doing that. Nobody would have cared otherwise. This is Tennessee we're talking about here, not Virginia.

[Fuzzy Bear]

I'm actually surprised that he apologized. I doubt he had much to gain by doing that. Nobody would have cared otherwise. This is Tennessee we're talking about here, not Virginia.

Although it's a minority, the most Republican part of TN (East Tennessee) was mostly loyal to the Union during the Civil War.

[Badger]

I'm actually surprised that he apologized. I doubt he had much to gain by doing that. Nobody would have cared otherwise. This is Tennessee we're talking about here, not Virginia.

Although it's a minority, the most Republican part of TN (East Tennessee) was mostly loyal to the Union during the Civil War.

Yeah, sure, but let's face facts that the modern-day culture of that neck of the woods completely Embraces Confederacy romanticism. It's no more different than finding plenty of openly display Confederate flags in Ohio, Indiana, Etc as kind of a general f you too big government Hillary Clinton, liberalism, and so-called PC culture that requires whites to compete on an even footing with people of color.

[Indy Texas]

Spoiler Alert:

The Kappa Alpha fraternity regularly hosts (at least as recently as when I was in college in the late 2000s) antebellum plantation themed formals where the members wear gray Confederate officer uniforms and their dates wear hoop-skirted ball gowns.

So basically, if you want to know which elected officials are guilty of this sort of behavior, just look up which ones were members of Kappa Alpha in college. There are many in the Southern states.

From Wikipedia, members in elected office include:

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL)
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR)

[Badger]

Spoiler Alert:

The Kappa Alpha fraternity regularly hosts (at least as recently as when I was in college in the late 2000s) antebellum plantation themed formals where the members wear gray Confederate officer uniforms and their dates wear hoop-skirted ball gowns.

So basically, if you want to know which elected officials are guilty of this sort of behavior, just look up which ones were members of Kappa Alpha in college. There are many in the Southern states.

From Wikipedia, members in elected office include:

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL)
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR)

Leave aside the obnoxiousness of such a soiree, as if having a World War II German military formal ball wouldn't be anti-semitic because it has nothing to do with Nazism, not to mention the implicit understanding that there will never be any African Americans in the fraternity to attend such a romanticized POS party. What type of college students are able to get dashing Confederate military outfits and billowing hoop skirt and petticoat gowns for a party they'll attend once a year? Where the hell does one even get these? Presumably they needed to be of a quality greater than some silly ass Halloween costume.

I suspect there's a Brisk trade in 2nd hand uniforms from University graduates to underclassmen which are then tailored as need be. But I also suspect the end result answer is simple. Filthy rich kids. Yet another reason to consider these individuals as rebuttablly presumed to be assholes.

[Bidenworth2020]

Why even apologize? Tennessee doesn't care and will still vote to re-elect him.

[Koharu]

I think it was good of him to apologize. Most of us have done things that we regret; good on him for owning up to it.

[JA]

He’s not sorry for wearing it. He’s only sorry that he was caught wearing it and that our current sociopolitical environment severely frowns upon it.

[Indy Texas]

Spoiler Alert:

The Kappa Alpha fraternity regularly hosts (at least as recently as when I was in college in the late 2000s) antebellum plantation themed formals where the members wear gray Confederate officer uniforms and their dates wear hoop-skirted ball gowns.

So basically, if you want to know which elected officials are guilty of this sort of behavior, just look up which ones were members of Kappa Alpha in college. There are many in the Southern states.

From Wikipedia, members in elected office include:

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL)
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR)

Leave aside the obnoxiousness of such a soiree, as if having a World War II German military formal ball wouldn't be anti-semitic because it has nothing to do with Nazism, not to mention the implicit understanding that there will never be any African Americans in the fraternity to attend such a romanticized POS party. What type of college students are able to get dashing Confederate military outfits and billowing hoop skirt and petticoat gowns for a party they'll attend once a year? Where the hell does one even get these? Presumably they needed to be of a quality greater than some silly ass Halloween costume.

I suspect there's a Brisk trade in 2nd hand uniforms from University graduates to underclassmen which are then tailored as need be. But I also suspect the end result answer is simple. Filthy rich kids. Yet another reason to consider these individuals as rebuttablly presumed to be assholes.

Good point. I can just say that in years past I periodically saw acquaintances/classmates dressed as such for KA formals in pictures that someone posted on Facebook and that can effectively never be removed from the public record now. I don't know where said outfits were obtained or what was done with them after the party.

It would be really awkward if they had to purchase them outright and now you have all these grown up white guys frantically trying to discreetly dispose of reproduction Confederate army uniforms without anyone finding out.

"Hello, I'd like to donate these."

"Okay sir, let me just- hold up, what is this?" (holds up Robert E. Lee-style frock coat)

"Uh, I don't know, I guess it's a suit?"

"Is this yours?"

"....no." (flees the Goodwill donation counter in panic)

[Progressive Pessimist]

He’s not sorry for wearing it. He’s only sorry that he was caught wearing it and that our current sociopolitical environment severely frowns upon it.

That's a pretty good distillation of it.

[Ye We Can]

He can stay on as long as he changes his name to Bill Meade.

Can't like this post enough

Meade? Pffft. Grant

[DINGO Joe]

It was just a standard school uniform right?