A noticeable issue with people embracing the Confederacy as a proud aspect of heritage is that these people don't fully know or understand the power structure of the Confederate States, beyond the aspect of institutional slavery. The confederate foreign policy, for example, is enough to betray all notion of pride in that cultural heritage. The elites that operated the Confederate State initially wanted to expand their slave empire to the rest of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America, eventually expanding to all of the South American continent. The Knights of the Golden Circle was the initial confederate society that designed this imperial project.

When this ambition failed roughly 2 years into the Civil War, the confederates shifted their foreign-policy towards bringing European powers into the war on the side of the Confederacy. This entailed foregoing all republican and democratic founding principles of the United States; in order to beg for the assistance of Monarchical empires, once discarded by the United States in its revolution. The Confederacy was willing to organize into a monarchy and marry European aristocracy and royalty into the confederate power system. When they became truly desperate, they attempted to auction off individual states as monarchies to the subsequent European prince of the empire that might partake in the exchange.

Confederate elites never intended on preserving the spirit of the American Revolution, in fact they actively worked to undermine and reverse much of its legacy. This was the main force behind their desire to preserve the institution of slavery. Since the era of the revolution, slavery as a philosophical argument has been over determining the concept of personhood and the value of the human individual as a self representing being. The Southern Colonies were close to becoming pro-British during the Revolution because Slave Powers fought alongside the British. The movement westward was complicated and hindered by the extension of the slave system to new regions. Finally, this antithetical system of independent power, consolidated under the slave economy, drove the secession of the southern states; and formed the Confederate States of America in open rebellion against the United States.

The Confederacy was never about the rights of states, which are apparatuses dishonestly portrayed today as democratic representation of the will of the people of those States. The elites of the region controlled the government and forced the conscription and conning of the poor whites of the country to fight for the wealthy and powerful elites. Elites who would soon forsaken all the people of their states, if it meant retaining their own elitism. We must recognize and face this reality; and move past the nostalgia of a blatant con game.