It's an important reminder that even now the battle lines are drawn, and intentionally obscured. While people are told by Fox 'News', or ignorant wealthy narcissists that the battle lines are around the woke versus 'true patriots', the battle is really organized wealth versus people.
It's an important reminder that even now the battle lines are drawn, and intentionally obscured. While people are told by Fox 'News', or ignorant wealthy narcissists that the battle lines are around the woke versus 'true patriots', the battle is really organized wealth versus people.
While pawns are indoctrinated as 'patriots' they parrot what they are told without any thought. They are told nonsense like the election was stolen, caravans of drug dealers and rapists are passing through the southern border in order to vote in our elections and take well-paying jobs as executives and senior managers, "Big Solar" is lying about climate change, healthcare for all will result in 2-3 year waiting periods to be seen by a doctor, and that regulation and enforcement of things like food and water safety, and air pollution are just examples of a big, bloated, "Big Nanny" government intruding in our lives -and controlling women's bodies is, I can't even explain using MAGA logic.
This is all about misdirection and greed. Misdirection divides us while democracy, justice, and the quality of life for this and future generations are siphoned off and given to the already wealthy in the form of tax cuts and privatization.
The South was all about the concentration and preservation of wealth (and slavery was the egregious method used to enrich already wealthy white landowners).
The same battle lines are drawn today -the cultists and/or the willfully ignorant are just intentionally directed at the wrong arena.
"The South was all about the concentration and preservation of wealth (and slavery was the egregious method used to enrich already wealthy white landowners).
The same battle lines are drawn today -the cultists and/or the willfully ignorant are just intentionally directed at the wrong arena."
Economic motivations were only weakly tracked in the history I learned in school. Figuring in and following "the love of money" makes it all so much more comprehensible.
In 1966-1968 I was in the Army, and before and after I went to Vietnam I was stationed in Columbia as part of the army of the occupation of the south. In Vietnam several soldiers were caught stealing selector switches to turn M-14s and M-16s into automatic weapons to use in the pending race war that we were told was coming.
On return, off post, there was still segregation. Everyone was on edge. It was still Dixie exhibiting "massive resistance" to us Yankees. E.G. Walter Cronkite was deemed too radical to be shown on local TV, so we never got the news the way it actually was. We were "on call" and were told something was "up."
After discharge, riots erupted nationally, and as our cities burned I was recalled.
"Same battle lines." I agree. These days, the best I can do is volunteer - to Field Team 6.
Your story is one I’ve never heard, Daniel. It stopped me in my tracks. Suggests, as I’ve always suspected, that the MAGA elements have been there, perhaps more hidden, throughout our US history. And now they’ve been given permission by Trump to come out again with vitriol and violence.
So true, always there (white racist Protestant Christian Nationalism, i.e., KKK) and now financial backing by the oligarchs. "What's the Matter with Kansas?" by Thomas Frank, 2004. American history has some very ugly aspects (enslaving captured Africans, the genocide of Native Americans, the stealing of their homeland, Jim Crow and now Donald Trump.) We are the hope for redemption.
Does anyone know what has happened to Thomas Frank? I've looked and looked but can't find any opinion pieces by him for at least the last year or so. I really miss his dry wit writing about these frightening times!
Churchill knew all about that, he was quoted as saying that if Hitler attacked the devil, he would have a kind word to say about him, or something like that. Enemies don’t forever remain so, nor do friends. We are proof.
If you’re interested and haven’t read it, Richard Hoftstader’s “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” (or something close to that) it is an excellent explanation of how belief in conspiracy theories about plots to undermine American “freedom” are long and deep in our history.
I’d also suggest Patrick Moynihan’s “Pandaemonium: ethnicity in international politics” …. He presciently pointed out in 1992 what we are now hearing and seeing in the complaints from MAGA nation: “the civil rights act of 1964 was the very embodiment of the liberal expectancy. ‘Race, color, religion, sex, national origin’: all such scripture categories were outlawed. No one was to be classified in such primitive terms. The government was to become colorblind. However within hours of the enactment of the statute, in order to enforce it, the federal government, for the first time, began to require ever more detailed accountings of subgroups of every description —job trainees, kindergarten, children, teachers, university faculties, debt office secretaries — terms of race, color, and national origin…[A]n application form to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University now states “It is to your advantage to state if you are a member of an ethic minority.” Quoting from Caste and Class in a Southern Town” by John Dollard, 1949.
If we want to pull all people together, we have to stop treating them differently.
Absolutely - great point! I live among people who are “trumpers” (1/6 angers them - you don’t beat up cops). But all this categorization of people is like a thorn in their sides. “Which race!” Then all these categories that are so specific- then “white”. Even I got 😡. If everyone else got “special categories” why was I just a color? And I’m not “white”. I’m Caucasian. I can just “hear” those “angry white men” who are around me grumbling about those categories. It’s the same with gender. Why does “everything” need to know a person’s gender? You doctor needs to know but not everything else. We are “supposed to be equal” - so stop putting us in categories.
They have always been there, partly because wealthy white southerners make sure that their only status was being superior to black people and would not make common cause. Native Americans were considered part of the fauna and were just in the way to Manifest Destiny. All it takes in an atmosphere as in the 1920s to bring these people to the fore. Now we have culture wars and some progress for minorities and women, so let' turn back the clock to at least 1864 and put all these people back where they belong. The 1864 law, btw, had a lot more in it than just abortion.
Worse yet, "normalized" like a 'coming out party' of sorts (sincere apologies for any unintentional derivations contrivable; Honestly..., but it's what comes immediately to my mind).
When I moved from New England to Southern VA (near Yorktown/ Williamsburg area) 30 years ago, I was shocked to learn the Civil War still raged. In my quiet little county in the last couple of years the confederate flag has been raised high on flag poles on the three major routes into the county. It's sickening. While there are Trumpians and "confederates" still even in the North, I am moving back to the North. To New Hampshire, where the snow still falls (to remind me that it's important to vote blue even for the issue of climate change) and, if there is to be another physical civil war, I hope to be among like minded people.
I'm in a discussion group with Virginians and a few interlopers like me who used to live in the old dominion. They are among those who have come a long way. Until recently, the Tidewater was dominated by Pat Robertson and his minions. They may not have a Democratic governor, but Abigail Spanberger, who may be your representative will make a hell of a governor, and both senators are blue.
I am hoping that after the June 18 primary all of the candidates will partner with FT 6. Since Tim Kaine and Spanberger run state wide, increasing their base will increase all Democratic candidates in the down ballots.
I’ll be doing what I can to get Rob Wittman out of Congress in Virginia’s 1st District, and Spanberger into the governor’s office. Thanks for the links.
NH is a "purple" state when it comes to voting. But be aware, in my experience, it is a lot more conservative. So, it may be a search for "like minded" people. Compared to other NE states, NH has very lax gun laws (permit less carry-open or concealed) which may be a double-edged sword if there were to be another physical civil war.
NH is complicated. We live nearby in MA. On occasion we need to visit NH for an appointment. While there are "enclaves" that are sane, there are a LOT of whackadoodle Trumpers with guns and big flags on their pickups.
That being said, I feel safer there than when we visit family in Florida.
I was on a destroyer on the Golf of Tonkin at the end of the war and we experienced the same thing. In the sleeping births where we slept with 50 to 60 fellow sailors, there were white, black, brown and from all over the country. The tension was so high that one white and one black would keep watch throughout the night to make sure no one attacked the other. And to this day, I can’t figure out why there was any tension because we all had the same goal. To have a job, work for our country and make our lives better. Sure, we served our country but during the recession we all just needed a job and the Navy seemed like a good option.
Walter Cronkite too radical?? Wow. He was just what every journalist should be. 1968 was an upside down world, but it allowed me to see so much in a different way. I saw it as a plus. Others saw it as opportunity to deceive. When I became a Dem for life.
In 1968, Blacks in Dixie were relegated to second class citizenship. The Dixiecrat/Republican boss in South Carolina was Strom Thurmond, demagogue par excellence, abject hypocrite, who all the while had a Black love child.
I was a White girl in kindergarten in Georgia in 1968. We sang “Dixie” in class and I’m told that there was a dust up because I liked a Black boy. The older kids played Civil War at recess and my 3 cousins who were from Washington state were the Union soldiers (except my cousin Mary, who was relegated to being their nurse). Times have changed, but not enough.
She did well. Thurmond never visited with her when she was a child but he took care of her monetarily. Her name was Essie Mae Williams. She received her masters in education. She didn’t even know that he was her father until she was 78 yrs old.
When I moved to Alabama in the late 70's as a northerner I was shocked to realize that the Civil War was not over in the minds of many. I discovered that there was such a thing as Southern hospitality. Also they do not think of themselves as racists because they socialize with friends who are black. But they did gloat about paying out of their own pocket to ship busloads of blacks to NYC for welfare that they thought would contribute to the then financial problems of NYCity.
A reaction to "freedom riders" in the south was shipping Black populations north. A friend documented how his family and all his old neighbors were forcibly shipped from Cheraw, South Carolina to Farrell, PA and Fitchburg, MA.
The Nixon administration used busing to divide the old FDR Democratic Party alliances. Although our schools were always desegregated, we were targeted and forced to close the only elementary school in a predominately Black neighborhood and bus most kids, of all races. We represented all third class (i.e. not Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) in litigation.
I grew up in a small town in West Texas (Monahans, pop. 10,000.) We integrated our high school in 1956 - five Black students, without incident. We didn't even know that they lived in town. They were bussed to school in Odessa, 36 miles away. I learned that integration in the schools here in Polk County, Florida didn't come about until 1969, the result of litigation. Racism is a factor here. I'd move back to California but I can't afford to do that now, and I'm not poor. An average 3-BR home with 2 baths in San Jose goes for $2.5 million now.
At about 2 am this morning I heard a lot of rapid pop, pop, more than once. It didn't sound like the jerk going down the street and deliberately backfiring and it didn't sound like fireworks. I also heard no sirens, so who knows. I have heard gunshots in the neighborhood which I am sure is bristling with guns.
Did hear a couple recently that were definitely gunshots and close by with shouting. We have some jerks quite close by who are Oregunians. Also shoot off tons of fireworks including late at night during holidays. We also have a dope who has his car fixed to backfire rapidly. Woke me up one night and I thought at first it was gunshots.
I was raised in Texas where my seventh grade English teacher (1958) talked about reconstruction, carpet baggers, scaliwags, and damn yankees. The Klu Klux Clan is what saved Texas. This she was taught by her grandmother. For many my age the war never ended.
Money could be one of the "roots of all evil." It has company: racism, greed, indifference, ignorance, greater-nation chauvinism, religious fundamentalism, etc.
I see money as being the root to all the things you mention. Isn't each entity you mentioned related to money? Why is there racism? To make enslavers rich. Why is there greed? For more money. Why is there indifference? I got mine. Ignorance is often rooted in poverty. etc, etc.
I forgot one. Please, ladies, forgive me: In addition to racism, greed, indifference, ignorance, greater-nation chauvinism, religious fundamentalism, etc. there is misogyny. How could I have overlooked perhaps the oldest and most ingrained aspects of "evil?"
Richard, this female thanks you. What more do we have to prove to males, who still think their power is in being “stronger” than we? Time we got together solving problems instead of fighting each other. It’s a tough call, but go read Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” and get wise, guys.
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” -Thoreau
The Bible called "the love of money" the root of all evil, and while I agree it's more complicated than that, it was very much on the right track. It appears to me that we use the word "love" in a sense of intense self-gratification like "I love chocolate" as well as "love" in the sense of what we care about, nurture, and protect, as in "I love my child". There can be overlap and the two can be confused, which I think leads to a lot of clueless conflict. Money in and of itself is clearly in the former category
Lord Acton was not the first to observe that "power tends to corrupt", and money is a form of power, as is political position, and violence, and the more corrupt the society, the more easily these forms of potentially extortionate power are exchanged for one another. I'm not trying to claim that it's as just simple as that, but you can see the toxic blend in historical fascism. Yet also in real-world communism. It is all about assumed supremacy, and all about the narcissistic desire to dominate.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy." - Lincoln
Money, interestingly, is the one thing that one never has enough of. Look at Musk and Bezzos - billionaires, yet they fight against their employees unionizing to get livable wages.
Well, it appears my redneck pal and HDT have similar ideas! Thanks for your interesting and enlightening expansion of my comment. There’s a lot of food for thought there. I do so love that Lincoln quote!
The LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Money is a tool. When lusting after it, accumulating it, becomes the main goal instead of using it in positive ways it becomes destructive and evil.
"Mr. James Ford Rhoades recounts the long preliminaries of the War and shows us, all lucidly and humanely, the Southern mind of the mid-century in the very convulsions of its perversity--the conception that, almost comic in itself, was yet so tragically to fail to work, that of a world rearranged, a State solidly and comfortably seated and tucked-in, in the interest of slave-produced Cotton.
The solidity and the comfort were to involve not only the wide extension, but the complete intellectual, moral and economic reconsecration of slavery, an enlarged and glorified, quite beatified, application of its principle. The light of experience, round about, and every finger-post of history, of political and spiritual science with which the scene of civilization seemed to bristle, had, when questioned, but one warning to give, and appeared to give it with an effect of huge derision: whereby was laid on the Southern genius the necessity of getting rid of these discords and substituting for (374) the ironic face of the world an entirely new harmony, or in other words a different scheme of criticism. Since nothing in the Slave-scheme could be said to conform--conform, that is, to the reality of things--it was the plan of Christendom and the wisdom of the ages that would have to be altered. History, the history of everything, would be rewritten ad usum Delphini--the Dauphin being in this case the budding Southern mind. This meant a general and a permanent quarantine; meant the eternal bowdlerization of books and journals; meant in fine all literature and all art on an expurgatory index. It meant, still further, an active and ardent propaganda; the reorganization of the school, the college, the university, in the interest of the new criticism. The testimony to that thesis offered by the documents of the time, by State legislation, local eloquence, political speeches, the "tone of the press," strikes us to-day as beyond measure queer and quaint and benighted--innocent above all; stamped with the inalienable Southern sign, the inimitable rococo note. We talk of the provincial, but the provinciality projected by the Confederate dream, and in which it proposed to steep the whole helpless social mass, looks to our present eyes as artlessly perverse, as untouched by any intellectual tradition of beauty or wit ..."
Today's GOP - molded by the Southern Strategy and Newt Gingrich's fallacious but disciplined rhetoric - is established by the blood heirs and spiritual heirs of the Confederacy. The operative syllable being the first - con.
“Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish,” he said.
Pretty much the last 11,000 years of human history can be explained by two main principles: the “haves” have to remain the haves; and the haves have to lord over and be protected from the rabble.
"But by the end of the conflagration, the institution of human enslavement as the central labor system for the American South was destroyed. " Replace "human enslavement" to "Immigrants" you see the current system.
Wow, George! I’ve rarely heard the situation portrayed so concisely and fully! Thank you!
The big difference today is that it’s not large tracts of land that are prized so much as large stock portfolios. The companies who raised costs due to supply chain problems four years ago have kept them high to reward their “Mastahs” with stock buybacks resulting in higher costs for the rest of us. Then blame the President for not stopping greedflation. I hope that they revive the excess profits tax.
Thank you Mary. When people talk about a rigged game they are really talking about a runaway economic system that has corrupted the political system. The extreme concentration of wealth makes any form of meaningful democracy impossible.
To do that, we have to double the number of justices to the Supreme Court, institute 15 year term limits, and stagger the limits to appoint 2 new judges every year — no exceptions to keep seats open when a justice dies or retires unexpectedly.
The greater irony is that we were making progress in that direction and the preponderance of the public was persuaded to abandon the effort.
Money is the way we get things done, and we can't operate a campaign or government on any scale without money being involved. That said, we can't get far in physical space without movement of inherently dangerous vehicles, even bikes, so we regulate speed and circumstances and methods of operation. It is just as crazy to fail to regulate money in politics as to fail to regulate vehicular traffic in school zones.
Money is indeed a system and the value of its tokens is contextual, as we see in the latest waves of Greedflation. Confederate money has value only as a collector's item. There are healthy patterns of flow around the whole of a society and unhealthy flows in any society, including the problems of government corruption and organized crime. "Robber barons", whether in feudal times, era of slavery, or the "Gilded Age" are the problem, not the solution.
The system of “Robber barons” and the “Gilded Age” is exactly what I thought when I reviewed the Republican Project 2025. They want to turn the United States into a “Feudal System”. That’s when I realized that there could be no compromise. I have been telling the “angry white men” I am around about the MAGA Project 2025 plan. They laugh 😂 when I asked them if they thought of various things in Project 2025. Their answer was “Are those people out of their “f**king minds??? I repeat - these are the kind of angry white men being targeted.
Americans need to know what MAGA (aka) Republicans have planned for the United States with Project 2025 and Agenda 47.
Just got into The Anatomy of Fascism. You have hit a l9t of what I have read. The wealthy and powerful are purposefully using the system to destroy the system so they can then remake it to their desire....protecting their wealth and ability to get even more.
That is the purpose of the Convention of the States.
Thanks Rickey. I try to make the concepts more accessible to people so (some) can gain more understanding about what is happening -which ultimately impacts all of us.
Reagan is famed for disparaging government, but the government he wanted to dismantle was government of the people, by the people, for the people and replace it with rule by the rich. "Supply side economics" reviving the old feudal argument the it is those who control concentrated wealth who are the natural leaders and benefactors of society, evidence be damned.
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits." - Lincoln
The oligarchs still want slaves: people who must work hard to barely afford a roof over their heads. The recent increases in slave wages and workers’ ability to procure health insurance without depending on the slaveholders constitute an uprising. Steps must be taken. Rollbacks in pay and worker benefits. Get rid of water breaks for “field hands” working in the southern sun. Get rid of child labor laws; young slaves are likely to be less uppity. And women? Well, they need to know their place as Handmaidens to the real masters.
Jesus, will this never end? How many generations will it take?
It will take courage, short and long term effort, and vigilance. This battle preceded us and will continue to rage until democracy rests upon the pillars of an educated, informed, and engaged society.
that's the key! Keeping the people educated ( Pay teachers better wages , invest in public ed, Bic ed courses, types of govts, peoplescrights, rise and fall of democracy. )
When the public has to work endless hours and raise families they have little time to cate about govt until voting day, if that. That's the conundrum..getting people engaged. Democracy is not a spectator sport
Engaged in extending and protecting the rights of one another. That is the condition of liberty, universal rights and responsibilities to uphold them for all. Bit that gets fudged without commitment.
It is important to remember it is a marathon relay and not a sprint. Take care of yourself and health first. Zen breathing. Nature. Friends and family.
It appears to me that we as a society pay too little attention to the concept of wisdom. It seems to me like a hard thing to actually define, but I believe that it is at least in part a keen attention to the "big picture" as well as nuances, and a pragmatic awareness of which parts of an overwhelmingly connected and nuanced universe are most fruitful to attend to. Not only learning, but sensing what "most matters". what we notice and what we think about is at least as important as the capacities and exercise of our neural systems. What we feel is at least as essential to our sense of being as what we think, and how we are able to integrate the two.
My daughter was joyous when she had her first loose baby tooth, but she knew that meant was growing up, not just losing a precious tooth. I was part of a conversation in which one woman spoke of her first menstruation, having been given no preparation to expect it. She was terrified. Exchange of conversation and attempts to understand one another's experiences extends and refines our internal realm of sentience, and enriches our real world encounters.
An excellent thought-provoking comment just before retiring this app for my evening. I am reminded of Noam Chomsky’s book ‘Miseducation in America’ (or similar title). We don’t place much significance in empathetic philosophers and thinkers. We just want obedient hyperconsumers.
The desire for wealth,power & control never dies! And it’s camouflaged with inaccuracy! One would think the MAGA facade would be penetrated and exposed, but the “both sides” philosophy is a roadblock!
Excellent post, George, to explain how the wealthy power hungry few manipulate swaths of the population who are angry because the same plutocrats sent their jobs overseas, ruined companies by taking all the assets and then closing them, by stirring the culture pot and ranting about immigration. Most of us would not eat without migrants. All manner of scut work is done by them: landscaping, roofing, finishing cement work, fixing potholes (losing their lives in Baltimore), tree service, all the jobs white Americans do not want to do. Like the sewer street improvement project on front of our house, the white boys with their death star stickers and often tattered flags would not have this work without the federal government. And one of the things I learned many years while there was a large project at the school: i spoke to one the workers about something wrong with the flooring that he was not a floor dog, so the pecking order is everywhere.
Thank you Michele. To your important point, that pecking order is continually used to divide us through what john a. powell at Berkeley/Haas would call ‘othering’.
And it is not a coincidence that this flip-flop of politics followed Richard Nixon's implementation of "the Southern Strategy" to bring the unreconstructed Confederate traitors into the Republican Party 56 years ago. Now the "Party of Lincoln" is the Party of Southern Treason.
Though Republicans were at least embarrassed by some of Nixon's outed conduct. It's my opinion that Nixon did not have to go to jail to underline that that there are lines even presidents dare not cross, but I think that was largely sabotaged by Nixon's pardon. So much for equal justice under law. Now Republicans argue that the (Republican) king can do no wrong.
O_M_G_ George... Salute ! In five well crafted and succinct paragraphs in your comments last night, some 14 hours ago EST, you revealed to me that you not only have the very same conclusions I have held for decades now, but an awesome gift to boil them down to their essence and communicate to share them simply, far better than I. Profound gratitude, admiration, and yes..... Salute friend !
Thank you Professor Richardson.
It's an important reminder that even now the battle lines are drawn, and intentionally obscured. While people are told by Fox 'News', or ignorant wealthy narcissists that the battle lines are around the woke versus 'true patriots', the battle is really organized wealth versus people.
While pawns are indoctrinated as 'patriots' they parrot what they are told without any thought. They are told nonsense like the election was stolen, caravans of drug dealers and rapists are passing through the southern border in order to vote in our elections and take well-paying jobs as executives and senior managers, "Big Solar" is lying about climate change, healthcare for all will result in 2-3 year waiting periods to be seen by a doctor, and that regulation and enforcement of things like food and water safety, and air pollution are just examples of a big, bloated, "Big Nanny" government intruding in our lives -and controlling women's bodies is, I can't even explain using MAGA logic.
This is all about misdirection and greed. Misdirection divides us while democracy, justice, and the quality of life for this and future generations are siphoned off and given to the already wealthy in the form of tax cuts and privatization.
The South was all about the concentration and preservation of wealth (and slavery was the egregious method used to enrich already wealthy white landowners).
The same battle lines are drawn today -the cultists and/or the willfully ignorant are just intentionally directed at the wrong arena.
"The South was all about the concentration and preservation of wealth (and slavery was the egregious method used to enrich already wealthy white landowners).
The same battle lines are drawn today -the cultists and/or the willfully ignorant are just intentionally directed at the wrong arena."
Economic motivations were only weakly tracked in the history I learned in school. Figuring in and following "the love of money" makes it all so much more comprehensible.
"Battle lines." Buffalo Springfield?
In 1966-1968 I was in the Army, and before and after I went to Vietnam I was stationed in Columbia as part of the army of the occupation of the south. In Vietnam several soldiers were caught stealing selector switches to turn M-14s and M-16s into automatic weapons to use in the pending race war that we were told was coming.
On return, off post, there was still segregation. Everyone was on edge. It was still Dixie exhibiting "massive resistance" to us Yankees. E.G. Walter Cronkite was deemed too radical to be shown on local TV, so we never got the news the way it actually was. We were "on call" and were told something was "up."
After discharge, riots erupted nationally, and as our cities burned I was recalled.
"Same battle lines." I agree. These days, the best I can do is volunteer - to Field Team 6.
Uncle Sam needs you! Register Democrats -- save Democracy. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Your story is one I’ve never heard, Daniel. It stopped me in my tracks. Suggests, as I’ve always suspected, that the MAGA elements have been there, perhaps more hidden, throughout our US history. And now they’ve been given permission by Trump to come out again with vitriol and violence.
So true, they were hidden for so long. Now they are loud and proud. With financial backing like never before.
So true, always there (white racist Protestant Christian Nationalism, i.e., KKK) and now financial backing by the oligarchs. "What's the Matter with Kansas?" by Thomas Frank, 2004. American history has some very ugly aspects (enslaving captured Africans, the genocide of Native Americans, the stealing of their homeland, Jim Crow and now Donald Trump.) We are the hope for redemption.
May this be the final battle, but human nature says it's not likely. Maybe when aliens present a threat, we will unite???
Does anyone know what has happened to Thomas Frank? I've looked and looked but can't find any opinion pieces by him for at least the last year or so. I really miss his dry wit writing about these frightening times!
Well stated.
"The enemy of my enemy, is my friend" (for now)
Churchill knew all about that, he was quoted as saying that if Hitler attacked the devil, he would have a kind word to say about him, or something like that. Enemies don’t forever remain so, nor do friends. We are proof.
If you’re interested and haven’t read it, Richard Hoftstader’s “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” (or something close to that) it is an excellent explanation of how belief in conspiracy theories about plots to undermine American “freedom” are long and deep in our history.
I would also suggest Charles Pierce's aptly named book, "Idiot America--How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free".
I’d also suggest Patrick Moynihan’s “Pandaemonium: ethnicity in international politics” …. He presciently pointed out in 1992 what we are now hearing and seeing in the complaints from MAGA nation: “the civil rights act of 1964 was the very embodiment of the liberal expectancy. ‘Race, color, religion, sex, national origin’: all such scripture categories were outlawed. No one was to be classified in such primitive terms. The government was to become colorblind. However within hours of the enactment of the statute, in order to enforce it, the federal government, for the first time, began to require ever more detailed accountings of subgroups of every description —job trainees, kindergarten, children, teachers, university faculties, debt office secretaries — terms of race, color, and national origin…[A]n application form to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University now states “It is to your advantage to state if you are a member of an ethic minority.” Quoting from Caste and Class in a Southern Town” by John Dollard, 1949.
If we want to pull all people together, we have to stop treating them differently.
Absolutely - great point! I live among people who are “trumpers” (1/6 angers them - you don’t beat up cops). But all this categorization of people is like a thorn in their sides. “Which race!” Then all these categories that are so specific- then “white”. Even I got 😡. If everyone else got “special categories” why was I just a color? And I’m not “white”. I’m Caucasian. I can just “hear” those “angry white men” who are around me grumbling about those categories. It’s the same with gender. Why does “everything” need to know a person’s gender? You doctor needs to know but not everything else. We are “supposed to be equal” - so stop putting us in categories.
We read that in my American History class in college in the 60’s!
They have always been there, partly because wealthy white southerners make sure that their only status was being superior to black people and would not make common cause. Native Americans were considered part of the fauna and were just in the way to Manifest Destiny. All it takes in an atmosphere as in the 1920s to bring these people to the fore. Now we have culture wars and some progress for minorities and women, so let' turn back the clock to at least 1864 and put all these people back where they belong. The 1864 law, btw, had a lot more in it than just abortion.
Worse yet, "normalized" like a 'coming out party' of sorts (sincere apologies for any unintentional derivations contrivable; Honestly..., but it's what comes immediately to my mind).
When I moved from New England to Southern VA (near Yorktown/ Williamsburg area) 30 years ago, I was shocked to learn the Civil War still raged. In my quiet little county in the last couple of years the confederate flag has been raised high on flag poles on the three major routes into the county. It's sickening. While there are Trumpians and "confederates" still even in the North, I am moving back to the North. To New Hampshire, where the snow still falls (to remind me that it's important to vote blue even for the issue of climate change) and, if there is to be another physical civil war, I hope to be among like minded people.
@ Cindy and Janet -- Uncle Sam needs you!
I'm in a discussion group with Virginians and a few interlopers like me who used to live in the old dominion. They are among those who have come a long way. Until recently, the Tidewater was dominated by Pat Robertson and his minions. They may not have a Democratic governor, but Abigail Spanberger, who may be your representative will make a hell of a governor, and both senators are blue.
One of the members of the VA group is Fred Wellman who is involved in the Eugene Vindman campaign. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/evfc-ads-gs23?refcode=ads-231115-gs-launch-dtd-natl-20779599308-156236029592-680964367327-vindman&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2uiwBhCXARIsACMvIU2Q1MehzdpTDjhVzQLD5MDgLQyhQCoQzUn7bhknN0ESnKxmX-nB66UaAmr9EALw_wcB
I am hoping that after the June 18 primary all of the candidates will partner with FT 6. Since Tim Kaine and Spanberger run state wide, increasing their base will increase all Democratic candidates in the down ballots.
Fred is also the head of other groups. like Forgotten Democrats and has a TV program every Friday on Midastouch. https://twitter.com/FPWellman?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Whether you're in VA or NH, join https://www.fieldteam6.org/volunteer-ops.
I’ll be doing what I can to get Rob Wittman out of Congress in Virginia’s 1st District, and Spanberger into the governor’s office. Thanks for the links.
Yes, I sure hope she wins! She’s definitely more than capable.
NH is a "purple" state when it comes to voting. But be aware, in my experience, it is a lot more conservative. So, it may be a search for "like minded" people. Compared to other NE states, NH has very lax gun laws (permit less carry-open or concealed) which may be a double-edged sword if there were to be another physical civil war.
Yes, I'm aware of NH voting record. I have found an enclave of like minded people. It'll be ok.
Glad to hear that. Hope you settle in well.
NH is complicated. We live nearby in MA. On occasion we need to visit NH for an appointment. While there are "enclaves" that are sane, there are a LOT of whackadoodle Trumpers with guns and big flags on their pickups.
That being said, I feel safer there than when we visit family in Florida.
I have "like-minded" friends living in Rochester. They have been very happy there.
Vermont would welcome you!
I was on a destroyer on the Golf of Tonkin at the end of the war and we experienced the same thing. In the sleeping births where we slept with 50 to 60 fellow sailors, there were white, black, brown and from all over the country. The tension was so high that one white and one black would keep watch throughout the night to make sure no one attacked the other. And to this day, I can’t figure out why there was any tension because we all had the same goal. To have a job, work for our country and make our lives better. Sure, we served our country but during the recession we all just needed a job and the Navy seemed like a good option.
I'd never heard this, Tom. That had to be hard...
Walter Cronkite too radical?? Wow. He was just what every journalist should be. 1968 was an upside down world, but it allowed me to see so much in a different way. I saw it as a plus. Others saw it as opportunity to deceive. When I became a Dem for life.
In 1968, Blacks in Dixie were relegated to second class citizenship. The Dixiecrat/Republican boss in South Carolina was Strom Thurmond, demagogue par excellence, abject hypocrite, who all the while had a Black love child.
I was a White girl in kindergarten in Georgia in 1968. We sang “Dixie” in class and I’m told that there was a dust up because I liked a Black boy. The older kids played Civil War at recess and my 3 cousins who were from Washington state were the Union soldiers (except my cousin Mary, who was relegated to being their nurse). Times have changed, but not enough.
Hell no, not enough
I wouldn't exactly call it a "love" child.
That guy, like Kissinger, lived way too long!
Was Thurmond ever capable of love??
Is there a word for child of rape?
Not a love child. Rape.
I wonder how Thurmond's child fared in life. I do hope that he/she made it to California.
She did well. Thurmond never visited with her when she was a child but he took care of her monetarily. Her name was Essie Mae Williams. She received her masters in education. She didn’t even know that he was her father until she was 78 yrs old.
yeah, that statement shocked me too!
When I moved to Alabama in the late 70's as a northerner I was shocked to realize that the Civil War was not over in the minds of many. I discovered that there was such a thing as Southern hospitality. Also they do not think of themselves as racists because they socialize with friends who are black. But they did gloat about paying out of their own pocket to ship busloads of blacks to NYC for welfare that they thought would contribute to the then financial problems of NYCity.
"Ship busloads of Blacks."
A reaction to "freedom riders" in the south was shipping Black populations north. A friend documented how his family and all his old neighbors were forcibly shipped from Cheraw, South Carolina to Farrell, PA and Fitchburg, MA.
Most of the time, they were used (and abused) as strikebreakers. Farrell produced many pro football and basketball players with roots in Cheraw. E.G. https://msuspartans.com/news/2008/4/9/msu_basketball_all_american_julius_mccoy_passes_away_at_age_76.aspx
The Nixon administration used busing to divide the old FDR Democratic Party alliances. Although our schools were always desegregated, we were targeted and forced to close the only elementary school in a predominately Black neighborhood and bus most kids, of all races. We represented all third class (i.e. not Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) in litigation.
I grew up in a small town in West Texas (Monahans, pop. 10,000.) We integrated our high school in 1956 - five Black students, without incident. We didn't even know that they lived in town. They were bussed to school in Odessa, 36 miles away. I learned that integration in the schools here in Polk County, Florida didn't come about until 1969, the result of litigation. Racism is a factor here. I'd move back to California but I can't afford to do that now, and I'm not poor. An average 3-BR home with 2 baths in San Jose goes for $2.5 million now.
i know! Isn’t that ridiculous?? All of the houses in the Bay Area are expensive now.
Bless their hearts
At about 2 am this morning I heard a lot of rapid pop, pop, more than once. It didn't sound like the jerk going down the street and deliberately backfiring and it didn't sound like fireworks. I also heard no sirens, so who knows. I have heard gunshots in the neighborhood which I am sure is bristling with guns.
Be safe, Michele. That’s scary!
Did hear a couple recently that were definitely gunshots and close by with shouting. We have some jerks quite close by who are Oregunians. Also shoot off tons of fireworks including late at night during holidays. We also have a dope who has his car fixed to backfire rapidly. Woke me up one night and I thought at first it was gunshots.
Just checked out Field team six. Cool!
I was raised in Texas where my seventh grade English teacher (1958) talked about reconstruction, carpet baggers, scaliwags, and damn yankees. The Klu Klux Clan is what saved Texas. This she was taught by her grandmother. For many my age the war never ended.
Is money not the root of all evil? It is a rare problem where money is not at the core/root.
Money could be one of the "roots of all evil." It has company: racism, greed, indifference, ignorance, greater-nation chauvinism, religious fundamentalism, etc.
I see money as being the root to all the things you mention. Isn't each entity you mentioned related to money? Why is there racism? To make enslavers rich. Why is there greed? For more money. Why is there indifference? I got mine. Ignorance is often rooted in poverty. etc, etc.
I forgot one. Please, ladies, forgive me: In addition to racism, greed, indifference, ignorance, greater-nation chauvinism, religious fundamentalism, etc. there is misogyny. How could I have overlooked perhaps the oldest and most ingrained aspects of "evil?"
Richard, this female thanks you. What more do we have to prove to males, who still think their power is in being “stronger” than we? Time we got together solving problems instead of fighting each other. It’s a tough call, but go read Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” and get wise, guys.
It's LOVE of money.
According to Jung, it's baked into the collective racial subconscious of many people.
I would say the root to all our vices is the love of money/ greed.
As a good friend once said, "Money may not be the root of all evil, but it sure is one of the main branches."
Thanks to Bob, from Shidler, Oklahoma.
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” -Thoreau
The Bible called "the love of money" the root of all evil, and while I agree it's more complicated than that, it was very much on the right track. It appears to me that we use the word "love" in a sense of intense self-gratification like "I love chocolate" as well as "love" in the sense of what we care about, nurture, and protect, as in "I love my child". There can be overlap and the two can be confused, which I think leads to a lot of clueless conflict. Money in and of itself is clearly in the former category
Lord Acton was not the first to observe that "power tends to corrupt", and money is a form of power, as is political position, and violence, and the more corrupt the society, the more easily these forms of potentially extortionate power are exchanged for one another. I'm not trying to claim that it's as just simple as that, but you can see the toxic blend in historical fascism. Yet also in real-world communism. It is all about assumed supremacy, and all about the narcissistic desire to dominate.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy." - Lincoln
Money, interestingly, is the one thing that one never has enough of. Look at Musk and Bezzos - billionaires, yet they fight against their employees unionizing to get livable wages.
Well, it appears my redneck pal and HDT have similar ideas! Thanks for your interesting and enlightening expansion of my comment. There’s a lot of food for thought there. I do so love that Lincoln quote!
And lust for power....
More than likely it is power AND money
The love of money is the root of all evil.
My mother said that almost every day. I still remember the shock of reading about the Golden Calf in Hurlbut’s
“Story of the Bible.”
The LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Money is a tool. When lusting after it, accumulating it, becomes the main goal instead of using it in positive ways it becomes destructive and evil.
"Mr. James Ford Rhoades recounts the long preliminaries of the War and shows us, all lucidly and humanely, the Southern mind of the mid-century in the very convulsions of its perversity--the conception that, almost comic in itself, was yet so tragically to fail to work, that of a world rearranged, a State solidly and comfortably seated and tucked-in, in the interest of slave-produced Cotton.
The solidity and the comfort were to involve not only the wide extension, but the complete intellectual, moral and economic reconsecration of slavery, an enlarged and glorified, quite beatified, application of its principle. The light of experience, round about, and every finger-post of history, of political and spiritual science with which the scene of civilization seemed to bristle, had, when questioned, but one warning to give, and appeared to give it with an effect of huge derision: whereby was laid on the Southern genius the necessity of getting rid of these discords and substituting for (374) the ironic face of the world an entirely new harmony, or in other words a different scheme of criticism. Since nothing in the Slave-scheme could be said to conform--conform, that is, to the reality of things--it was the plan of Christendom and the wisdom of the ages that would have to be altered. History, the history of everything, would be rewritten ad usum Delphini--the Dauphin being in this case the budding Southern mind. This meant a general and a permanent quarantine; meant the eternal bowdlerization of books and journals; meant in fine all literature and all art on an expurgatory index. It meant, still further, an active and ardent propaganda; the reorganization of the school, the college, the university, in the interest of the new criticism. The testimony to that thesis offered by the documents of the time, by State legislation, local eloquence, political speeches, the "tone of the press," strikes us to-day as beyond measure queer and quaint and benighted--innocent above all; stamped with the inalienable Southern sign, the inimitable rococo note. We talk of the provincial, but the provinciality projected by the Confederate dream, and in which it proposed to steep the whole helpless social mass, looks to our present eyes as artlessly perverse, as untouched by any intellectual tradition of beauty or wit ..."
Henry James
The American Scene
Richmond
https://www2.newpaltz.edu/~hathawar/americanscene2.html
Today's GOP - molded by the Southern Strategy and Newt Gingrich's fallacious but disciplined rhetoric - is established by the blood heirs and spiritual heirs of the Confederacy. The operative syllable being the first - con.
Thanks for this quote, lin.
"The love of money is the root of all evil." St. Paul It's still true today as it was 2,000 years ago.
I think it's from Timothy. I see the Bible as a great grab bag of disparate material, but there is a lot of wisdom to be found in it.
Prescient words from President Lincoln.
“Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish,” he said.
Exactly what I was thinking when I read those words.
Pretty much the last 11,000 years of human history can be explained by two main principles: the “haves” have to remain the haves; and the haves have to lord over and be protected from the rabble.
"But by the end of the conflagration, the institution of human enslavement as the central labor system for the American South was destroyed. " Replace "human enslavement" to "Immigrants" you see the current system.
Have you seen the new movie, Civil War?
Wow, George! I’ve rarely heard the situation portrayed so concisely and fully! Thank you!
The big difference today is that it’s not large tracts of land that are prized so much as large stock portfolios. The companies who raised costs due to supply chain problems four years ago have kept them high to reward their “Mastahs” with stock buybacks resulting in higher costs for the rest of us. Then blame the President for not stopping greedflation. I hope that they revive the excess profits tax.
Thank you Mary. When people talk about a rigged game they are really talking about a runaway economic system that has corrupted the political system. The extreme concentration of wealth makes any form of meaningful democracy impossible.
And the overwhelming irony is that the fix for this is so straightforward: get the money out of politics.
To do that, we have to double the number of justices to the Supreme Court, institute 15 year term limits, and stagger the limits to appoint 2 new judges every year — no exceptions to keep seats open when a justice dies or retires unexpectedly.
The greater irony is that we were making progress in that direction and the preponderance of the public was persuaded to abandon the effort.
Money is the way we get things done, and we can't operate a campaign or government on any scale without money being involved. That said, we can't get far in physical space without movement of inherently dangerous vehicles, even bikes, so we regulate speed and circumstances and methods of operation. It is just as crazy to fail to regulate money in politics as to fail to regulate vehicular traffic in school zones.
Money is indeed a system and the value of its tokens is contextual, as we see in the latest waves of Greedflation. Confederate money has value only as a collector's item. There are healthy patterns of flow around the whole of a society and unhealthy flows in any society, including the problems of government corruption and organized crime. "Robber barons", whether in feudal times, era of slavery, or the "Gilded Age" are the problem, not the solution.
The system of “Robber barons” and the “Gilded Age” is exactly what I thought when I reviewed the Republican Project 2025. They want to turn the United States into a “Feudal System”. That’s when I realized that there could be no compromise. I have been telling the “angry white men” I am around about the MAGA Project 2025 plan. They laugh 😂 when I asked them if they thought of various things in Project 2025. Their answer was “Are those people out of their “f**king minds??? I repeat - these are the kind of angry white men being targeted.
Americans need to know what MAGA (aka) Republicans have planned for the United States with Project 2025 and Agenda 47.
"Greedflation." Perfect.
George, let me say that your comment is brilliant and well-written. Thank you.
Thank you Harvey.
Just got into The Anatomy of Fascism. You have hit a l9t of what I have read. The wealthy and powerful are purposefully using the system to destroy the system so they can then remake it to their desire....protecting their wealth and ability to get even more.
That is the purpose of the Convention of the States.
Thanks Rickey. I try to make the concepts more accessible to people so (some) can gain more understanding about what is happening -which ultimately impacts all of us.
I just try to remind folks politics does not ignore them and then list the many things affected by politics
Reagan is famed for disparaging government, but the government he wanted to dismantle was government of the people, by the people, for the people and replace it with rule by the rich. "Supply side economics" reviving the old feudal argument the it is those who control concentrated wealth who are the natural leaders and benefactors of society, evidence be damned.
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits." - Lincoln
The oligarchs still want slaves: people who must work hard to barely afford a roof over their heads. The recent increases in slave wages and workers’ ability to procure health insurance without depending on the slaveholders constitute an uprising. Steps must be taken. Rollbacks in pay and worker benefits. Get rid of water breaks for “field hands” working in the southern sun. Get rid of child labor laws; young slaves are likely to be less uppity. And women? Well, they need to know their place as Handmaidens to the real masters.
Jesus, will this never end? How many generations will it take?
It will take courage, short and long term effort, and vigilance. This battle preceded us and will continue to rage until democracy rests upon the pillars of an educated, informed, and engaged society.
that's the key! Keeping the people educated ( Pay teachers better wages , invest in public ed, Bic ed courses, types of govts, peoplescrights, rise and fall of democracy. )
When the public has to work endless hours and raise families they have little time to cate about govt until voting day, if that. That's the conundrum..getting people engaged. Democracy is not a spectator sport
Very true Doreen. Democracy must be a verb.
Indeed!
Engaged in extending and protecting the rights of one another. That is the condition of liberty, universal rights and responsibilities to uphold them for all. Bit that gets fudged without commitment.
Very true JL. And all three pillars have been assailed for multiple generations.
I sometimes think that is impossible. Stress overload is overriding the prefrontal cortex and what’s left is amygdala-driven fear and anger. 😢
It is important to remember it is a marathon relay and not a sprint. Take care of yourself and health first. Zen breathing. Nature. Friends and family.
It appears to me that we as a society pay too little attention to the concept of wisdom. It seems to me like a hard thing to actually define, but I believe that it is at least in part a keen attention to the "big picture" as well as nuances, and a pragmatic awareness of which parts of an overwhelmingly connected and nuanced universe are most fruitful to attend to. Not only learning, but sensing what "most matters". what we notice and what we think about is at least as important as the capacities and exercise of our neural systems. What we feel is at least as essential to our sense of being as what we think, and how we are able to integrate the two.
My daughter was joyous when she had her first loose baby tooth, but she knew that meant was growing up, not just losing a precious tooth. I was part of a conversation in which one woman spoke of her first menstruation, having been given no preparation to expect it. She was terrified. Exchange of conversation and attempts to understand one another's experiences extends and refines our internal realm of sentience, and enriches our real world encounters.
An excellent thought-provoking comment just before retiring this app for my evening. I am reminded of Noam Chomsky’s book ‘Miseducation in America’ (or similar title). We don’t place much significance in empathetic philosophers and thinkers. We just want obedient hyperconsumers.
I agree with you George!!!👍We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again!!!💙💙💙!!!!!!
The desire for wealth,power & control never dies! And it’s camouflaged with inaccuracy! One would think the MAGA facade would be penetrated and exposed, but the “both sides” philosophy is a roadblock!
Excellent post, George, to explain how the wealthy power hungry few manipulate swaths of the population who are angry because the same plutocrats sent their jobs overseas, ruined companies by taking all the assets and then closing them, by stirring the culture pot and ranting about immigration. Most of us would not eat without migrants. All manner of scut work is done by them: landscaping, roofing, finishing cement work, fixing potholes (losing their lives in Baltimore), tree service, all the jobs white Americans do not want to do. Like the sewer street improvement project on front of our house, the white boys with their death star stickers and often tattered flags would not have this work without the federal government. And one of the things I learned many years while there was a large project at the school: i spoke to one the workers about something wrong with the flooring that he was not a floor dog, so the pecking order is everywhere.
Thank you Michele. To your important point, that pecking order is continually used to divide us through what john a. powell at Berkeley/Haas would call ‘othering’.
And it is not a coincidence that this flip-flop of politics followed Richard Nixon's implementation of "the Southern Strategy" to bring the unreconstructed Confederate traitors into the Republican Party 56 years ago. Now the "Party of Lincoln" is the Party of Southern Treason.
Though Republicans were at least embarrassed by some of Nixon's outed conduct. It's my opinion that Nixon did not have to go to jail to underline that that there are lines even presidents dare not cross, but I think that was largely sabotaged by Nixon's pardon. So much for equal justice under law. Now Republicans argue that the (Republican) king can do no wrong.
Well said, George. "The same battle lines are drawn today--..." is spot on. As is usage of the phrase "willfully ignorant". Thank you!
Perfectly reasoned.
Well said.
Very well said George. Spot on.
George, I felt exactly the same way as you defined - democracy continues to face the insurrection of the organized wealth.
O_M_G_ George... Salute ! In five well crafted and succinct paragraphs in your comments last night, some 14 hours ago EST, you revealed to me that you not only have the very same conclusions I have held for decades now, but an awesome gift to boil them down to their essence and communicate to share them simply, far better than I. Profound gratitude, admiration, and yes..... Salute friend !