Richard Luthmann and I were back for another edition of The Unknown.
We talked Elon Musk, and we updated on Paul Boyne’s case. Paul is on the cusp of being released while his criminal case continues to unfold.
During the broadcast, we also debated a recent story about Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth who wants to put Confederate soldier’s names back on bases.
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, has voiced strong opposition to removing the names of Confederate generals from US military bases, repeatedly saying the names should be changed back.
Hegseth, a National Guard veteran and longtime Fox News host, has described the renaming efforts as “a sham,” “garbage,” and “crap” in various media appearances between 2021 and 2024 reviewed by CNN. Hegseth said the moves eroded military tradition and were part of what he characterized as a politically motivated progressive agenda infiltrating American institutions.
Between 2022 and 2023, the names of nine US military bases previously dedicated to Confederate leaders were changed, the result of the National Defense Authorization Act passed at the end of the first Trump administration. Trump initially vetoed the bill, partly in protest over the renaming provision, but Congress overwhelmingly overrode the veto to pass the bill in January 2021 .
During the debate, Richard reminded me that he lives in Lee County, Florida, named after Robert E. Lee. Rick said that following the Civil War there was forgiveness and reconciliation. In that spirit, Confederates should take their place on bases, monuments and other structures.
In fact, historically this is accurate. The northern states allowed Florida to name a county after Robert E. Lee in the spirit of reconciliation.
Stone Mountain, Georgia has carvings to three Confederate leaders.
Monuments have been built, like the one which received attention in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Confederates have been named to some of the most prominent military bases, like Fort Bragg. CNN correctly noted that Braxton Bragg was a below average general.
Fort Bragg, one of the largest Army bases in the US, was named for Braxton Bragg, a general in the Confederacy and slave owner who lost nearly every battle he was involved in during the Civil War. A naming commission set-up by Congress to study renaming bases noted Bragg is “considered one of the worst generals of the Civil War,” and was “widely disliked in the pre-Civil War U.S. Army and within the Confederate Army by peers and subordinates alike.”
The base, originally Camp Bragg, opened during World War I and was named by locals for Bragg, the only Civil War general from North Carolina.
All of this was accepted by northern states to help keep the union together post-bellum. It’s part of an ugly history which includes the black codes.
Black codes in the United States, any of numerous laws enacted in the states of the former Confederacy after the American Civil War, in 1865 and 1866, designed to replace the social controls of slavery that had been removed by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution and to assure continuance of white supremacy.
The black codes had their roots in the slave codes that had formerly been in effect. The general philosophy supporting the institution of chattel slavery in America was based on the concept that the enslaved were property, not persons, and that the law must protect not only the property but also the property owner from the danger of violence. Slave rebellions were not unknown, and the possibility of uprisings was a constant source of anxiety in colonies and then states with large enslavement populations. (In Virginia during 1780-1864, 1,418 enslaved people were convicted of crimes; 91 of these convictions were for insurrection and 346 for murder.) The enslaved also ran away. In the British possessions in the New World, the settlers were free to promulgate any regulations they saw fit to govern their labour supply. As early as the 17th century, a set of rules was in effect in Virginia and elsewhere; but the codes were constantly being altered to adapt to new needs, and they varied from one colony, and later one state, to another.
This all allowed the south to keep the remnants of slavery and racism going until the civil rights movement and beyond. This included honoring the people who fought the hardest to maintain slavery: Confederate generals.
The reality is that all Confederates were traitors to the US, and they were losers. Lee was against the monuments which some are determined to keep.
The complex relationship between Robert E. Lee and memorials began in Lee’s lifetime. He argued against creating Confederate war monuments on battlefields, which would “keep open the sores of war.” [1] Instead, Lee supported efforts by Ladies Memorial Associations to mark the graves of Confederate casualties.
“As regards the erection of such a monument as is contemplated: my conviction is, that however grateful it would be to the feelings of the South, the attempt in the present condition of the Country would have the effect of retarding, instead of accelerating its accomplishment; & of continuing , if not adding to, the difficulties under which the Southern people labour. All I think that can now be done, is to aid our noble & generous women in their efforts to protect the graves & mark the last resting places of those who have fallen, & wait for better times.”
Yet, bases and monuments to traitors and losers remain. We continue to fight the battles of the Civil War to this day. Racism still exists. The Lost Cause of the Confederacy tries desperately to define why the war was fought; the Lost Cause claims frivolously that there were reasons besides slavery. There were not.
We are long past the time where Southerners should accept defeat and move on. Continuing to put the names of those who fought against this country on military bases is ludicrous.
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