Have the Confederacy win.
I would actually have the more lenient reconstruction plans proposed by the northern moderates go into effect, which could breed less resentment of the southerners towards the union.
300,000 Southern war dead, and all for nothing. They were far far worse off WITH the war than if they had just chosen to give Lincoln a chance. But that would have meant admitting that the war was all the fault of their own hotheadedness. That's all the cause for resentment you need.
Wow, why do I keep seeing threads with this exact same subject pop up in such a short amount of time? Especially in such a politicising way, as if you are the one who knows what the CSA "really" was?
Anyway, it's more or less impossible like you mean it. The best way to prevent any sort of nostalgia for it might be to have an earlier defeat and a much lighter reconstruction which might move the feelings of the south towards ambivalence, so that almost everybody in the "modern" south walking around going "meh" at the whole thing, instead of some romanticising it or whatever.
An early Union victory could mean no emancipation. Especially in a "Six Week War" that everyone was expecting. Status quo Ante-Bellum?
So what's the PoD that caused Forrest to become insane?
Nobody said he was crazy. But as to many of his followers, "crazy with hate"?
Having the lost causers and Southern romantics meet an early end might help - get rid of the likes of Jubel Early, Margaret Mitchell, and Sons of Confederate Veterans and the like, and you maintain the South that hated the slaveowers as much as they hated the slaves. Hardly a utopia, we wouldn't have people weeping over the downfall of the CSA or wearing the stars and bars on their sleeves or shirts.
Martyrs
Considering how light of a touch Johnson was with Reconstruction, I really don't see how it could have been any more "moderate" short of refusing to punish Confederates at all.
Indeed, most of the high-ranking Confederates were laughing at Johnson (quietly) as they made their pilgrimages to the White House to get their pardons from the man.
Have the south win and begin to collapse in on itself. That should kill the southern myth.
If they win, that gives them major mojo, more than enough to maintain the myth.
But under Grant the reconstruction was much less moderate.
Which is why after being stiffed for 145 years, Grant is finally getting the recognition he deserves as President. Since every major Reconstruction history in the US was a Southerner (until the 1960s), the Southern Myth (Dunning Thesis) regarding Grant being The Worst President Ever is finally getting seriously punctured. Until the most recent decennial, Grant was typically down in the bottom four or five Presidents. But recently, he shot up to the middle of the pack!
Ironic that a man so cruel to the Native American is now regarded as the biggest Civil Rights champion pre-Lyndon Johnson.
If by that you mean Grant for once enforced the law against terrorists seeking to overthrow elected state governments by a campaign of violence and intimidation, I'm tempted to quote Goldwater. And that normally makes me feel ill.
"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"
Senator Barry Goldwater
Presidential nomination acceptance speech
1964 Republican Convention
This, from a man who by the time he retired from the US Senate was Pro-Choice and Pro-ERA. Today, he would be declared a RINO. There is good reason why the Tea Party and Republicans (but I repeat myself) and Fox News (but I repeat myself again
) don't like to bring up his name anymore.
StevenAttewell, you have no reason to feel ill today when thinking of Barry Goldwater. He was a different man in his old age than he was in much of his political career.
Feel free to indulge your temptations.