Posts
My father's parents, into whose Mississippi home I was born, owned but three books: a King James Bible, a homesteading encyclopedia, and a book entitled Gen. Robert Edward Lee: Soldier, Citizen, and Christian Patriot.
During the Civil Rights era, the Confederate Battle Flag became common on Mississippi's car antennas (I had one). Even before the ubiquity of rebel flags, Confederate statues and howitzers graced courthouse lawns; and parks, buildings and military bases had been named after Confederate generals. Those who betrayed their nation (among them my ancestors) were honored in lavish ceremonies. Many towns held grandiose celebrations called pilgrimages, which featured belles in hoop skirts and tours of antebellum mansions.
The South called the Civil War: "The War of Northern Aggression," and I was taught that although the North triumphed on the battlefield--due to having far more men and guns--the South had achieved a victory of ethics, patriotism, Christian values, and military brilliance. "And, no..." my teachers insisted, "the war wasn't about slavery. The war was about state's rights (i.e. the right to enslave), fidelity to the Constitution, and obedience to God. According to this view, America's liberals had become so hostile to our nation's values that its conservatives were forced to take up arms.
It all sounds so modern. Here are the justifications that the insurrectionists gave for trashing their nation's capitol:
(1) This is the people's house, and we're the people, so we can do with it as we please.
(2) This is our country, and we're taking it back.
Who is "we"? They're those who voted for Trump and who support Boogaloo, Patriot Prayer, KKK, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Young
Republicans. They are white, evangelical, rural, and primarily reside in the South and Midwest. They hate Jews, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, liberals, atheists, Roman Catholics, welfare recipients, and RINOs (Republican In Name Only used to mean Republicans who, on some issues, held Democratic values, but it now refers to any Republican who isn't totally in line with Trump). Here is what I interpret as their message to America:
Despite vowing to oppose the inauguration, we avoided going, but don't count us out because we've set our sights on such softer targets as celebrities, Congressmen, city council members, bridges, power stations, and commuter trains. Harassing people on the Internet is a great way to fill idle hours, but remember that an explosive-filled rental truck worked extremely well in Oklahoma City; shooting Mexicans at Walmart won us favorable publicity in El Paso; and the patriots who blew away Jews in Pittsburgh and niggers in Charleston also did us proud. We're only keeping a low profile at the moment because we're a little discouraged over being unable to stop Sleepy Joe's inauguration. Then came the worse blow of all when, instead of pardoning capitol-raiding patriots, Trump's final pardons were of mangy niggers. While it's true that those niggers supported him, for us to get nothing for attempting to overthrow the government on his behalf hurt. Three hours into the attack, he told us, "We love you. You're very special," but since then, he has done nothing but criticize us. It's like he's trying to win votes in 2024 by treating us like garbage. Finis.
The conservatives serve God, and liberals serve Satan argument that is in vogue now and during the Civil War, was also popular during the Civil Rights Movement of the '50s and '60s. I heard it preached from pulpits. I encountered it on page 1A editorials in the "Jackson Daily News." I read it in pamphlets that the KKK left in my family's driveway, and I saw it on Klan billboards. So it is that now--as during every year of the 160 years since Confederate cannon fired upon Fort Sumter, those who fight to destroy America regard themselves as its defenders, and they refer to those who fight for it as traitors.
The one obvious difference between the "patriots" of 1861 and the ones of 2021 is
that today's "patriots" are not across-the-board racists, some groups even going so far as to completely disavow racism. My own belief about this is that they'll say or do any damn thing to win public sympathy, but that if they ever succeed, blacks will be thrown under the train because, in their view, no real patriot would want his daughter to marry a nigger.
I stopped counting when I reached ten uncles and grandfathers who fought for the Confederacy. The only good thing I can say about my ancestors of the era was that a single Alabama aunt openly professed her loyalty to the Union and unsuccessfully did her utmost to discourage her brothers from joining the Confederate army (one was killed but the other--a fundamentalist preacher who became my great grandfather--made it out alive). A neighbor later testified that only her gender saved Aunt Sarah Jane from physical harm. Clearly, the traitors who raided the capitol with the goal of murdering Nancy Pelosi, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, felt no such restraint.
Prior to Trump, Peggy had no interest in politics, and because we rarely watch commercial television (aside from the news and Jeopardy), neither of us knew much about Trump. When he started appearing on the news, it was a case of disgust at first sight that has inspired her to learn more about politics than I know. Yesterday, she got up early to watch the inauguration, and shed happy tears throughout, both in honor of Biden and in celebration of the fact that the Trumpian nightmare is finally over.
"We're taking back our country," the capitol raiding Trumpians proclaimed, and as I watched the inauguration two weeks to the day later, I smilingly thought, "Not today, assholes."
16 comments:
I was anxious about what might unfold on inauguration day and was very, very glad to see 'Not today, assholes' in play. Very, very glad.
An interesting post that in many ways is pretty accurate historically, but I am going to have to take a sabbatical from reading your stuff for a spell because you used the n-word not once, not twice, not three times, but four times if I counted correctly. This seems a bit pushy even when putting words in someone else’s mouth. It is definitely not okay in the year 2021 and even in the Deep South has been frowned on for at least 40 years. My heart and my brain cannot deal with such shocks.
I always watch inaugurations. I even watched Trump's inauguration. I enjoy seeing the transfer of power. Most of the time. I knew a Trump presidency would not be good for our country but I could not have fathomed the depths to which he took us.
You mentioned Robert E Lee. I have studied the Civil War extensively. Lee was considered an honorable man by most. Those who knew him respected him. His greatest loyalty was to the state of Virginia which is why he led the Confederate forces rather than the Union forces. He didn't flee like a coward after the war like many of the other leaders of the Confederacy. He acknowledged and accepted whatever punishments were to come. He quietly lived his life with dignity from then on becoming the head of Washington College. Yes he owned slaves. He considered slaves and former slaves to be beneath whites. It was the popular (not right) opinion of the times. It is not considered to be correct today for a person to think Lee was a man of honor but he was.
"I was anxious about what might unfold on inauguration day..."
What! You didn't share the concern of a reader of my last post that the "patriots" have pretty weather for the destruction of their nation and the murder of the policemen and soldiers who tried to protect our capitoal?
"I am going to have to take a sabbatical from reading your stuff for a spell because you used the n-word not once, not twice, not three times, but four times if I counted correctly."
My "stuff"!? Ha. Look, maybe I went into overdrive, which is more likely to happen when I put something up quickly as opposed to laboring over it for days. However, what would you have done? I thought it would be a stretch to present people who so despise black people that they're willing to kill them simply for being black, as using the term "African American."
"It is definitely not okay in the year 2021 and even in the Deep South has been frowned on for at least 40 years."
Not okay with whom? Do you mean to suggest that society has become so respectful that even the hardened racists among us have so cleaned up their language that their dialogue is filled with references to "African Americans"? Surely not, but I don't know how else to interpret you other than to conclude that I used a word that, though you know full well that it is accurate in the way I used it, should be changed to African American to spare you, a white man no less, discomfort. Two thoughts. (1) In my view, it's all a matter of context. Would you prefer, for example, that "Huckleberry Finn" be purged of the word that you so object to that you can't bear to hear it? How about Faulkner's "Go Down Moses"? Clean that up too? Pretend that the word n___ never existed, or at least avoid spelling it out? (2) In my view, to use a politically correct term in place of the actual language used by racists, would represent the ultimate obscenity in that it would emphemize cruelty and suffering. It is also my view that the oppression we endured under Trump was largely coalesced by the fact that our previous president was a black man who promoted respect for formerly despised groups, and this so frightened many benefactors of white privilege that they were willing to overthrow the government in order to protect their illusion of being God's preferred race. Can it be that such statements as, "This is our country, and we're here to take it back" don't terrify you? Do you not realize that such people hate you too? What else would account for the fact that the only things that you took away from this post was that my history was mostly correct and that I used an offensive word? Whatever my failings, I have tried to portray the horrors of our current situation accurately. Tell me I've failed, but don't tell me that I should present the other side n a way that I consider dishonest.
"I knew a Trump presidency would not be good for our country but I could not have fathomed the depths to which he took us."
I didn't know WHAT he would do, but I have spent the last four years hoping against hope that our nation would at least survive his term in office (and in the third year came Covid and thousands upon thousands of additional deaths caused by his mismanagement). I was therefore grieved to note that 70-million people actually went out and voted for him a second time. Whereas I was fairly cynical regarding my fellow humans prior to Trump, the worst residual effect of his presidency for me is that it has laid waste my faith in the intelligence, perceptiveness, rationality, and goodwill of others. In a very real sense, Trumpians have died to me, and I feel the same regarding their liberal counterparts. Wherever truth resides, I no longer expect to find it at the extremes.
"Lee was considered an honorable man by most. Those who knew him respected him."
I haven't studied Lee (the Battle of Vicksburg being my main Civil War interest, and, of course, Lee wasn't a participant), but I had long believed from what little I did know that Lee was as you describe him. So, who is more damnable, an unscrupulous fanatic who betrays his nation, or someone who is widely respected--or does it matter? In my view, to call Lee a "patriot" (as did the author of the book) is like calling the capitol invaders patriots, because whereas the allegiance of the capitol invaders was to Trump rather than to the nation, Lee's allegiance was to Virginia rather than to the nation, although that was hardly how he presented himself prior to 1861, a fact that would appear to make his service to the Union an exercise in bad faith. I think that all of those rebels should have been taken out and shot as the traitors that they were, the problem being that it wasn't politically feasible. How asine that 600,000 Americans died in a war that was fought over slavery, a system that hurt the very people who were the backbone of the Confederate army. Most of my own Confederate ancestors couldn't afford slaves, yet they were willing to fight so that rich people could own them (their hope, I assume, being that they could do the same someday), and I see the same stupidity on the part of white conservatives today. They are so easily manipulated by the Trumpians of the world that just saying the word "socialist" to them is like waving a cape in front of a bull, although I seriously doubt that many of them could define the word.
Grant, as I understand him, was also an honorable man, but, in the eyes of most, he wasn't so appealingly packaged. I love him, though, for his modesty, courage, triumph over alcoholism, military genius, and even his frumpiness. As I understand him, Grant's worst fault was that, as president, he put his trust in the wrong people, and because he was the last person to realize when he was being had, greedy opportunists people brought down his presidency. On the upside, Grant was present in his own life and in the lives of others whereas Lee was cordial but distant. Against Lee's flaws, the fact that he was generally regarded as kindly and honorable in his dealings with white people was meaningless. Also, without his military genius, the South would have fallen sooner, which would have been a blessing to both sides.
Yep, that kettle's been cooking for decades, all along having been stirred with various crooked, and quite filthy, spoons (feminism, various weirdo liberation, un/deremployment, invalidation of [white] hetero men...) Recently has boiled over, but has now been put back to simmer for awhile longer. How much longer?
One man's (or woman's) terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Don't know who said this, but, oh, how true :)
"that kettle's been cooking for decades, all along having been stirred with various crooked, and quite filthy, spoons (feminism, various weirdo liberation, un/deremployment, invalidation of [white] hetero men..."
Sue, people who hold your values tend to be older than average, which means that their numbers are decreasing. Also, they tend to be Christian, and religion is losing its influence. Prior to Trump, religion in America was already becoming significantly less influential from one year to the next, but, under Trump, people like yourself accelerated the process by making those who had previously held a live-and-let-live attitude toward religion realize that this was impossible when dealing with people like yourself who are dedicated to theocratic rule. Religion's support of Trump also suggested that religious people don't really didn't mean it when they say that,"Character matters," a claim that gained prominence during the Clinton impeachment when people like yourself insisted that God wouldn't bless a nation that allowed a grossly immoral and unrepentant president to lead it. The widespread support of Trump by religious people also demonstrated another contradiction between what religious people say and what they do in that, prior to Trump, religious people held that a major flaw of Communism was its claim that "the end justifies the means," and that Godly people should take the opposite view by: (1) make every effort to achieve their goals through ethical means, and then (2) "let go and let God" bring those means to fruition. Surely, the willingness on the part of religious people like yourself to resort to any means necessary to achieve their goals suggests that they have no real faith in the God whom they claim to serve; nor does their religion possess even a semblance of moral authority; nor does their claim to "love their neighbors as themselves" have meaning. Finally, Sue, has it never occured to you that it might be disastrous for the influence of your religion to so align it with a given politician and a given political party that: the church only welcomes members of that one party; that members of the other party are regarded as servants of Satan; and that the success or failure of your party and your religion are inextricable? Whatever Jesus was, I can find no evidence that he concerned himself with politics, whereas politics and personal salvation have become the ONLY things that your religion cares about, the invoking of God simply being a way to manage your fear of death and to give the stamp of divine approval to your many hatreds.
Glad you have a president who seems to be an honourable man. That description could never be levelled at Trump. It is hard to believe that so many Americans voted for him the first time never mind a second time. Let's hope that President Biden can help unify the country.
It’s hard for me to believe that someone as intelligent as you drank the kool-aid.
Joe Biden is a career politician who’s never had a real job. He’s handsy with young girls and he’s senile! Your cat would make a better president... ANY ONE OF THEM!
Don't know how I missed this great post and your wonderful comments too. You did use the n word correctly and in context. As you used it, it shows great disgust with the people who still view African Americans as worthy only of slavery. America is a long way from out of the woods yet as the fascists are so far suffering no real consequences and January 6 will simply be a warm up for 2024-25
According to your profile, Blog Fodder, you are a Canadian male living in the Ukraine. You have to know that “the n word” is not okay and never correct even if used “in context,” whatever that means. As regarding Snowbrush, you can take the boy out of Mississippi but apparently you can’t take Mississippi out of the boy.
"You did use the n word correctly and in context. As you used it, it shows great disgust with the people who still view African Americans as worthy only of slavery."
Fodder, the following are a sampling of comments by black capitol policemen following the January 6, attempted insurrection (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/black-capitol-police-racism-mob): "I got called a nigger 15 times today...I sat down with one of my buddies, another Black guy, and tears just started streaming down my face.... I said, "What the fuck, man? Is this America? What the fuck just happened? I'm so sick and tired of this shit... These are racist-ass terrorists.... Trump did this and we got all of these fucking people in our department that voted for him. How the fuck can you support him?”
"America is a long way from out of the woods yet as the fascists are so far suffering no real consequences and January 6 will simply be a warm up for 2024-25."
Except for September 11, 2001, foreign sponsored Islamic-based terrorism has never approached the destructiveness of homegrown Christian-based terrorism yet year-in-and year-out American law enforcement has failed to investigate the latter. I was unable to understand this until Trump came along, and I discovered the extent of military and police involvement in the latter. For example, on January 6, both the police and the military were well-represented among the traitors, and, a few months earlier, no less an organization than the 355,000 member Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Trump's bid for re-election. Now that so many of those who took over the capitol have shown themselves as willing to murder cops as they are to murder Democrats, homosexuals, Hispanics, Jews, black people, Muslims, and anyone else who stands between them and their dream of a racially pure, politically homogeneous, Christ-worshiping America, I wonder how the police--including my nephew--view them.
"As regarding Snowbrush, you can take the boy out of Mississippi but apparently you can’t take Mississippi out of the boy."
I hadn't planned to address your latest instance of appalling asininity, but when the first news item I heard today concerned your own racist state of Georgia intensifying its attempts to nullify the voting rights of black people, I decided I would at least ask a few obvious questions that arise from your belief that I am unable to be other than a racist due to where I was born.
First, if the mere fact of being born in a historically racist state makes a person a racist, does it not follow that some states will forevermore be racist?
Aside from accidents of birth, what other factors make it impossible for people to alter their thoughts, values, and behaviors, and do such things not nullify the concept of personal responsibility?
How can you believe in determinism yet also believe in a Christian "plan of salvation" that rests upon free will?
Why is it that you never criticize the racist evil that surrounds you in the Deep South, or find fault when your own Republican Party does its utmost to disenfranchise black people, or speak-out when members of your own Republican Party violently occupy our national capitol while waving Confederate flags, yet you so glibly criticize anyone who does? Your persistent unwillingness to address evil is unfathomable to me, yet it would be less appalling if you did not attack others for doing so.
If being born in Mississippi automatically makes me a racist, how were you affected by growing up in racist Texas and spending much of your adult life in racist Georgia? Were your children not born in the South, and have they not turned out racist as a result?
If a person is born in Mississippi, but moved to, let's say, Massachusetts on his first birthday, is he still doomed to be a racist? What if he was born in Massachusetts, but then moved to Mississippi on his first birthday, is he then safe from the taint of racism? Or what if, like you, he was born in a slave-holding border state that remained in the Union, but grew up in a racist hotbed like Texas, is he a racist or isn't he?
I'm still somewhat anxious about the polarization of the Country, but I am reminded, as in your Post, that this has gone on with 1/3 of the Country forever really. Those who will not embrace diversity, change and the evolution of America are mired in the Past, live in their Fantasies and Lies, become embittered and Hateful towards a perceived 'Enemy' of their own Countrymen, it's very sad and pathetic really.
Good morning Snow.. Disgust at first sight just about covers it. I'm afraid a lot of Ohio is Trump country. So many Trump signs still in peoples yards and Trump flags on trucks etc. A Cult. Your post hit the nail on the head. Thanks
"Those who will not embrace diversity, change and the evolution of America are mired in the Past, live in their Fantasies and Lies, become embittered and Hateful towards a perceived 'Enemy' of their own Countrymen."
Well put.
"I'm afraid a lot of Ohio is Trump country. So many Trump signs still in peoples yards and Trump flags on trucks etc. A Cult."
Eugene is a liberal city, but I've seen Trump signs in the country. After the capitol occupation, Oregon's Republican legslators designated the invasion a "false flag operation, which they, of course, blamed on Antifa members disguising themselves as Trumpians. Yet, Antifa has no members and of the hundreds arrested, all have had right-wing affiliations. Another act of Oregon's local Republican Comedy Troupe of legislators is that they simply refuse to show up anytime a vote is to be held that they know they will lose. They've been doing this for a few years now, and while the law provides for the governor to send the highway patrol to force them to come to the capitol, they evade the highway patrol by crossing the Columbia to Washington. Yet, Rhymes with Plague's (a previous commenter) Georgia Republicans might take the cake for wickedness by blatantly trying to prevent minorities from voting. Yet, for all his outrage at my use of the word nigger, Rhymes has nothing whatsoever to say about the rampant racism in his own state and his own political party.
Post a Comment