The simpleminded attacks against Nikki Haley about the cause of the Civil War. She got it right.

When asked at a New Hampshire campaign event what Nikki Haley thought was “the” cause of the Civil War was, she didn’t mention slavery.

The political roof fell in on her, as the questioner, Democrats, media and more condemned her for the omission. The questioner kicked off the inquisition by pronouncing that he was astonished that in this day and age that she failed to mention the word “slavery.”

But her response was thoughtful and correct. Furthermore, historians and scholars have long debated the causes of the Civil War and some don’t put slavery at the top of the list. Even Americas don’t agree on the war’s causation.

A Pew survey found:

There is no consensus among the public about the primary cause of the Civil War, but more (48%) say that the war was mainly about states’ rights than say it was mainly about slavery (38%). Another 9% volunteer that it was about both equally.

Young people are more likely than older Americans to say that the war’s main cause was states’ rights – 60% of those younger than 30 express this view, the highest percentage of any age group. Those 65 and older are the only age group in which more say that slavery, rather than states’ rights, was the main cause of the Civil War (by 50% to 34%). While 48% of whites view states’ rights was the war’s main cause, so too do 39% of African Americans.

Some scholars have their doubts also. Check out Busted: 6 Civil War Myths. And another: How Taxes Caused the Civil War, Not Slavery. And one more: The Lincoln Myth: Ideological Cornerstone of the America Empire. Fire up Google and you’ll find more. Most of those I read argued that there was a complex of causes, slavery is one of a bunch. Preservation of the Union. Sovereignty of the states. Cultural issues. Issues of control over Western territories and a ton of regional economic matters. Sectional political issues.

And here’s the hypocrisy: Some left-wing thinkers also downplay slavery as a cause. To recognize that white people would be moral enough to give their lives to rid the country of slavery is offensive to those who blame “whiteness” for the nation’s evils. Like the authors of the discredited New York Times 1619 Project that asserts that white supremacy explains nearly everything.

So, Haley’s answer was smart and correct. The fundamental cause, she said:

…was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are. And I will always stand by the fact that, I think, government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people.

Exactly. Securing that “rights and freedoms of the people” is precisely what the war was about. Questions about freedoms are directly applicable to issues of slavery. Rights and freedoms, particularly of slaves, was at the heart of the debate.

Maybe the explanation is too abstruse for simple minds to grasp. She’s right when she followed up, asking, doesn’t everyone think that the Civil War was about slavery? Notice that she didn’t say or imply that slavery wasn’t a cause.

Instead, the media couldn’t resist its usual compulsion to go with the easy and snap answer. On cable news, self-satisfied news readers and commentators pounded away on the point until it felt like a nail in the head.

Never mind that Haley is a woman of color, that as South Carolina governor she ordered the removal of the Confederate flag from the capitol and that she condemned Donald Trump after his remarks at the racist and antisemitic shouts in Charlottesville, Va. To imply she’s a racist is lunacy or a lie.

Haley’s mistake is that she gave meatheads too much credit for understanding and knowing history. You always can count on the ideologically rigid to shut down rational and informed thought.

Dennis Byrne is a retired Chicago journalist, author and freelance writer. Email: dennis@dennisbyrne.net