N.C. GOP evenly divided over wishing South had won Civil War

About a month ago, an acquaintance, we’ll call him Bob, took offense when a mutual friend — umm, Jimmy — described the Republican Party as a coalition of “big business and bigots.” I ventured that perhaps the phrase could be re-worded to be less offensive, something like “a bunch of moneybags and goobers.” That really set Bob off, who, although he didn’t seem to mind the “moneybags” part, insisted that the GOP did not cater to racial bigots. I thought that sounded about as reasonable as claiming Democrats don’t cater to union members, but Bob was insistent. Republicans, he said, were primarily interested in the Constitution and small government, and neither racial attitudes nor the backward modes of thinking we had discussed earlier were in any way indicative of the GOP. Jimmy and I soon parted ways with Bob, none of us wanting to spoil someone else’s party with a full-blown argument. If only I had seen a poll of North Carolinians taken on the 150^th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

That poll, conducted last month by Public Policy Polling, shows that North Carolina Republicans are almost evenly divided on the question — get this — of whether they wish the South had won the Civil War. Among N.C. Republicans, 35 percent said they’re glad the North won, 33 percent wish the South had won, and 29 percent aren’t sure. Overall, 48 percent of North Carolinians are glad the North won, 21 percent wish the South had won, and 31 percent couldn’t care less one way or the other. Among Democrats, the numbers were 55 percent North, 15 percent South, 30 percent don’t know; for independents, support for the Union cause is slightly stronger — 57 percent North, 14 percent South, 29 percent don’t know.

To this writer, these results are amazing: 33 percent of the GOP in North Carolina actually wishes the South had won the Civil War. I think it’s fair to say that in nearly any other country, if a full third of a major party’s members said they sided with the losing, rebel faction in that country’s previous civil war — not to mention implying that they are in favor of slavery — that party would be, to put it very, very mildly, discredited. But here? We’re so used to goobers having a say in how things are run — N.C. House Majority Leader Skip Stam, anyone? — it’s a one-day blog item that quickly sinks from public view.