Regarding the statues in the South, I have a feeling that there has been a certain romanticism attached to the Confederacy and/or the prominent characters involved. Similar to how pirates or cowboys are romanticized. Much of the reality has been lost and replaced with fictional motivations or made romantic with notions of “southern pride” or rebelling against The Man.

I don’t think the present-day South understands what the Battle Flag of Northern Virginia (aka the Confederate Flag) actually stood for back in the day, but rather attaches a romantic quality to it in ignorance of the reality it came from.

Case in point, if you watch the pilot episode of The Dukes of Hazzard, when they painted that car they painted what they called the “Rebel Flag” on top of it; and that whole show was basically about rebelling against the bumbling, incompetent county police and corrupt commissioner in a romantic sort of way.