{"id":2592027,"date":"2026-04-17T12:53:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spanberger-rips-up-confederate-heritage-to-separate-virginians-from-their-history\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:57:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:57:51","slug":"spanberger-rips-up-confederate-heritage-to-separate-virginians-from-their-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spanberger-rips-up-confederate-heritage-to-separate-virginians-from-their-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanberger Separates Virginians From Their History"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fspanberger-rips-up-confederate-heritage-to-separate-virginians-from-their-history%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2592027&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>&#8211; The piece is a conservative opinion article by Hayden Daniel in the Federalist that argues Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, is waging war on Confederate heritage in the state.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; It states spanberger signed bills that revoke tax exemptions for Confederate heritage organizations, including the sons of Confederate veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), and ended the production of specialty license plates featuring Robert E. Lee.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The author portrays these moves as part of a long-running Democratic effort to erase Virginia\u2019s and America\u2019s Confederate history,tracing the push back to Barack Obama\u2019s 2009 inauguration and to the 2020 George Floyd-related protests.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The article cites incidents such as the 2020 attack on the UDC headquarters in Richmond and the removal of Confederate monuments, framing them as evidence of a broader campaign against symbols associated wiht the Confederacy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; It describes the UDC as an association founded in 1894 to honor Confederate ancestors and claims the new law would cripple the group\u2019s largely nonpolitical charitable activities, such as helping homeless shelters and food banks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The author argues that the law signals an open crackdown on people who seek to honor history and heritage, claiming the left wants to suppress American identity and that Virginia\u2019s history is integral to its identity and must not be erased.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The piece concludes with a defense of heritage as part of a national identity and implies that a history-averse populace is vulnerable to manipulation; it ends with a short bio of hayden Daniel, the author.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Seemingly not content to just destroy her state&rsquo;s rule of law and election system, Democrat Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has declared war on Virginia&rsquo;s heritage and, more specifically, those who dedicate themselves to preserving it.<\/p>\n<p>The newly minted governor signed a bill on Monday that revoked tax exemptions from several Confederate heritage organizations, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/15\/virginia-strips-tax-exemption-confederacy-organizations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">including<\/a> the state&rsquo;s divisions of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). Spanberger also recently signed a bill that ceases the production of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >specialty license plates bearing<\/a> the likeness of Robert E. Lee.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Governor Spanberger&rsquo;s signing of this bill is a proud moment and an important step forward for Virginia,&rdquo; state Delegate Alex Askew, who sponsored the bill and has campaigned for it for several years, stated. But the question is: A step forward toward what? A Virginia that hates its own history, that curses those men of the past who built the state and made it what it is today?<\/p>\n<p>Spanberger&rsquo;s signature represents, as The New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/14\/us\/virginia-tax-breaks-confederate.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">put it<\/a>, part of &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/27\/us\/virginia-tax-exempt-confederate-groups.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a yearslong Democrat-led push<\/a>&nbsp;to shake off the state&rsquo;s legacy as the capital of the 11 Southern, slaveholding states that seceded from the country in the 1860s.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>And indeed it has been a years-long campaign by the left to erase Virginia&rsquo;s, and America&rsquo;s, history. The era that began with the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009 and reached its fever pitch during the fiery George Floyd riots of summer 2020 saw the slow but sure disappearance of Confederate history from the public sphere. Even some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2020\/jun\/30\/mississippi-flag-confederate-symbol-remove\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Republican politicians<\/a> found a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/storyline\/confederate-flag-furor\/gov-haley-sign-bill-removing-confederate-flag-n389231\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">convenient scapegoat<\/a> in long-revered Southern symbols.<\/p>\n<p>During a BLM riot in Richmond, Virginia, in May 2020, extremist agitators <a href=\"https:\/\/virginiamercury.com\/2020\/05\/31\/a-second-night-of-outrage-erupts-in-virginia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">attacked<\/a> the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy with &ldquo;incendiary devices.&rdquo; The building, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/14\/us\/virginia-tax-breaks-confederate.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deeded<\/a> to the organization by the state in 1950, was filled with countless Civil War-era documents and artifacts. The resulting fire and destruction <a href=\"https:\/\/www.richmonder.org\/daughters-of-confederacy-suing-unknown-persons-for-2020-headquarters-damages\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">caused<\/a> $4.1 million in damage to the building and its contents, according to a lawsuit filed by the UDC. The wanton vandalism that night also extended to the multiple Confederate monuments on Monument Avenue, including the famous equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee that was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/09\/08\/1035004639\/virginia-ready-to-remove-massive-robert-e-lee-statue-following-a-year-of-lawsuit#:~:text=Updated%20September%208%2C%2020219,Crixell%20Matthews\/VPM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">removed<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The UDC was <a href=\"https:\/\/hqudc.org\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">founded<\/a> by Southern women in 1894 to &ldquo;honor their family members and ancestors who served in the Confederate military or contributed to the Southern war effort.&rdquo; And because of this, Virginia&rsquo;s Democrats seek to strike back for the sin of honoring their ancestors through charitable work. The new law is intended to cripple an organization that mostly dedicates itself these days to civic engagement of a decidedly nonpolitical sort &mdash; helping homeless shelters and food banks. <\/p>\n<p>And, of course, the radical leftists didn&rsquo;t stop at Confederate monuments. Statues and memorials to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/11\/24\/us\/thomas-jefferson-statue-removed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Founding Fathers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dispatch.com\/story\/news\/courts\/2026\/04\/07\/christopher-columbus-statue-removal-illegal-discriminatory-new-lawsuit-ohio-city-hall-italian\/89498984007\/?gnt-cfr=1&amp;gca-cat=p&amp;gca-uir=false&amp;gca-epti=z11xx69p118050l003250c118050e1114xxv11xx69&amp;gca-ft=57&amp;gca-ds=sophi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Christopher Columbus<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/01\/20\/1074394869\/roosevelt-statue-removed-natural-history-museum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Teddy Roosevelt<\/a> all came under attack during the heyday of race wokeness. Many of the memorials and museums that escaped physical attack were otherwise &ldquo;contextualized&rdquo; into oblivion with asides and nitpicks that drilled into patrons&rsquo; heads that America&rsquo;s ancestors were very bad people.<\/p>\n<p>But this law signed by Spanberger constitutes a new escalation. It is no longer about pieces of paper that need to censored or statues of bronze that need to be ripped down; it is about people who need to silenced and punished for daring to believe that America, and the South in particular, has its own unique identity independent of the left&rsquo;s racialist and globalist dogma.<\/p>\n<p>Spanberger is sending an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-trump-rebuffed-d-c-warmongers-with-one-surgical-strike\/\" title=\"How Trump Rebuffed D.C. Warmongers With One Surgical Strike\">unequivocal message &#038;mdash<\/a>; it&rsquo;s open season on those who would honor American history and the heritage of their ancestors. And the full force of the state will be used to quash them.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia is almost synonymous with the Civil War. Some of its greatest commanders hail from the state, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/john-nantz-christians-are-responsible-for-the-state-of-american-politics\/\" title=\"John Nantz: Christians Are Responsible for the ... of American Politics\">countless battles<\/a> were fought within its borders. Union and Confederate blood has hallowed its ground as the place where the nation nearly tore itself apart &mdash; and came back together at Appomattox. No matter how fervently the leftists who have seized control over the Old Dominion state try, it&rsquo;s simply impossible to divorce the Civil War from Virginia&rsquo;s identity. <\/p>\n<p>Up until the last 15 years or so, Virginia embraced that identity, because prior to the race-grifting phenomenon of the 2010s, the vast majority of Americans recognized the simple fact that Americans are a particular people with a particular identity and a unique history. Moreover, people recognized that we could honor that history without explicitly endorsing every aspect of it. For nearly a century and a half after the end of the Civil War, it was taken for granted by a majority of Americans that Southerners could honor their Confederate ancestors without defending slavery. That attitude only began to change after the left began its systematic campaign to demonize American history as a whole and to undermine Americans&rsquo; sense of identity for their own aims.<\/p>\n<p>There are still those who will not forget Virginia&rsquo;s past and will continue to honor it, even if all the statues and all the museums and all symbols have been shut down or destroyed. And that fact makes those people the ultimate target for the left&rsquo;s hatred of this country and its history. The left cannot settle for merely snuffing out the fire of America&rsquo;s heritage; they will ultimately seek to snuff out the people who continue to tend the flame. And in states like Virginia, they have the full power of the bureaucratic state at their disposal.<\/p>\n<p>A people without a history, or who are ashamed of their history, are easily manipulated by the whims and ambitions of the dystopian, tyrannical left. Without an identity, they can be convinced that their ancestors really were irredeemable monsters, and that their descendants truly deserve to have their country depredated and stolen from them. A people without a history has no future.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Hayden Daniel is a staff editor at The Federalist. He previously worked as an editor at The Daily Wire and as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pride-madness-wont-stop-until-conservatives-use-govt-force\/\" title=\"&#039;Pride&#039; Madness Won&#039;t Stop Until Conservatives Use Govt. Force\">deputy editor\/opinion editor<\/a> at The Daily Caller. He received his B.A. in European History from Washington and Lee University with minors in Philosophy and Classics. Follow him on Twitter at @HaydenWDaniel<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paraphrase:<br \/>\nAn opinion piece argues that Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, is not content with reshaping the state politically and is attacking Virginia\u2019s historical memory. It notes that Spanberger signed bills withdrawing tax exemptions from Confederate heritage groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and halted the sale of license plates featuring Robert E. Lee. A supporter calls this a positive step for Virginia, but the piece questions what the move is aiming to achieve. It portrays Spanberger\u2019s actions as part of a long-running Democrat effort to distance Virginia from its history as the capital of the slaveholding South. The piece recalls the 2020 Richmond protests, including an incendiary attack on the UDC\u2019s headquarters that caused millions in damage, and the removal of Confederate monuments. It describes the UDC as an organization founded in 1894 to honor Confederate ancestors and asserts that the new law would cripple a largely nonpolitical charity that helps the needy. The author argues the broader left has attacked various memorials and that the current shift seeks to silence people who value American history and Southern heritage. The piece claims Virginia\u2019s Civil War legacy is central to the state\u2019s identity and suggests that, before recent social and political changes, many Americans believed one could honor Confederate ancestors without endorsing slavery, a view the author says has been undermined by leftist campaigns. It concludes with a brief bio of Hayden Daniel, a former editor at The Daily Wire and The Daily Caller.<\/p>\n<p>55-character summary:<br \/>\nDemocrat Spanberger targets Confederate heritage in VA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1548,"featured_media":2592028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3840px-RVA_2020_MDPC_50041262732-scaled-e1776437692622.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[4919,39271,37649,32249,71302],"class_list":["post-2592027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-history","tag-politicalcommentary","tag-publicpolicy","tag-spanberger","tag-virginiapolitics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3840px-RVA_2020_MDPC_50041262732-scaled-e1776437692622.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2592027"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2592031,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592027\/revisions\/2592031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2592028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2592027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2592027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2592027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}