April, 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States. Are groups like the "Sons of Confederate Veterans" and politicos in South Carolina, virginia, and Texas trying to "relitigate" that conflict?

... Such groups have been putting out school textbooks and pamphlets alleging, among other things, that slavery wasn't a major "cause" of the Civil War; that the Southern cause has been "maligned" and "misinterpreted" by several generations of "liberal" historians (Bruce Catton?); or that "secession" is still an "option" for states and localities that happen to disagree with the policies of the current Obama administration ... These and other reasons are why I sometimes refer to the current crop of Beckites and right-wing reactionaries as "NeoConfederates" ... I thought that such issues as "States' Rights" were settled once and for all by a conflict that cost so many lives on both sides between 1861 and 1865 ... Am I wrong?

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