The Week in Confederate Heritage

Retired Army colonel Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator from Pennsylvania who is running for governor, poses at left in a Confederate uniform in a 2013-14 faculty photo at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 9, 2014. The photo was released by the Army War College to Reuters on August 26, 2022 under the Freedom of Information Act.

This article is about the Fascist candidate for governor in Pennsylvania, a supporter of the treasonous former president, who is a fan of the treasonous slaveholder side in the War of the Slaveholders’ Rebellion, also known as the American Civil War. “Three years before retiring from the U.S. Army in 2017, Donald Trump-backed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano posed in Confederate uniform for a faculty photo at the Army War College, according to a copy of the photo obtained by Reuters. The previously unreported photo, released by the War College to Reuters after a request under the Freedom of Information Act, showed Mastriano in a 2013-14 portrait for the Department of Military Strategy, Plans, and Operations, where he worked. Faculty at the time had been given the option of dressing as a historical figure, people familiar with the photo said. At least 15 of the 21 faculty in the photo opted to appear in regular attire. Although one man wears a trench coat and sunglasses and another carries an aviator’s helmet, Mastriano is the only one wearing a Confederate uniform. Mastriano did not immediately respond to requests for comment made by email and phone. A Reuters reporter attended a Mastriano event on Wednesday to seek comment, but the candidate did not make himself available for questions.” The clownish Mastriano has been afraid to take questions from real media throughout his campaign because he is afraid the truth about his fascist views will become widespread.

The article also tells us, “Confederate symbols and dress have been embraced by white supremacists in the United States, and monuments and flags honoring the Confederacy have been removed from many public areas in recent years. Pennsylvania plays an outsized role in U.S. politics as a so-called swing state in presidential elections, and Republican Mastriano, who has embraced Trump’s stolen election lies, is trailing his Democratic opponent in the governor’s race ahead of the November ballot. It is unclear how the photo might be viewed in Pennsylvania, which played a critical role in the Civil War. More than 33,000 soldiers from Pennsylvania died fighting for the Union, and the state was the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, the conflict’s bloodiest battle, which ended with a Union victory and inspired President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Mastriano’s district, Pennsylvania’s 33rd, includes Gettysburg.”

It’s worthwhile for Pennsylvanians to consider what the confederates did in Pennsylvania. They invaded the state, killed US soldiers, and kidnapped African Americans to take south into slavery. That’s who this creep celebrates.