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Richard Sutherland's avatar

HCR's introduction in her book, "How the South Won the Civil War," makes it clear, IMO, that the oligarchs trick the white Protestant racists into thinking that they are part of them, (i.e., the oligarchs who exploit them financially,) because they are white. They (the whites) reap no benefit for themselves by voting Republican. This ruse was used before the Civil War and is being used now. ("What's the Matter with Kansas" by Thomas Frank.) MAGA is 21st century KKK.

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Jen Andrews's avatar

That book nearly broke my heart. My father, very very poor white trash from Florida, still uses the n word and would be appalled if you called him a racist. He's found religion too. He remembers hearing Hitler on the radio, served in the Air Force, built AWACS for Boeing and had a high security clearance.

He voted for Drumpf. Twice.

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Ally House (Oregon)'s avatar

I'm so sorry. He sounds like my recently departed Father-in-Law. USAF veteran who, when tasked with finding qualified Black pilots to join the Air Force One cadre, assumed he couldn't find any because of <pick your racist belief here, he had 'em all> rather than the fact that they had, because of military segregation, not had the same opportunities that he had to learn how to fly. He, too, voted for fpotus twice.

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Sharon Stearley's avatar

He won't vote this time!

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Tracy Sample's avatar

Your father’s conversion sounds eerily like my British mother’s conversion to maga crazy. When she first arrived here she was appalled by how racism was so tolerated and openly accepted, and wrote home about it. My uncle said she was incensed with how Black people were being treated. In the end, she had fully flipped the switch and sounded like the very people she once deplored and voted for trump twice and proudly sneered she would again. Ironically, she watched WWII movies until the day she died, bemoaning the holocaust and fascism without seeing the similarities between trump and hitler. She did regret voting for DeSantis, however.

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Doug G's avatar

Jen, long ago I hoped that the explicit racism his generation (and that of my parents, although my parents weren't at all what I'd call racist -- my dad voted for Obama twice) expressed would die with them. Sadly that is not true, but there is hope that children reject the biases of their parents, as you evidently have.

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JDinTX's avatar

I have a sinking feeling that the repubs have a plan to resurrect some version of the KKK if he wins (or if he doesn’t) so that their generational hatred is kept alive in our friends, neighbors, and family.

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Richard Sutherland's avatar

Jeri, MAGA is already KKK. Remember the marchers at Charlottesville in 2017? "Jews will not replace us." And the push for a white Protestant autocracy - that's KKK. Timothy Egan's book, "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's leaves one with this takeaway: MAGA is 21st century KKK.

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Lucy Johnson's avatar

Richard Sutherland - I read "A Fever in the Heartland" last week. I have about 15 pages with post-its on them, starting with Chapter 9 on page 104. On page 106, Egan discusses Dr. Harry H. Laughlin. Laughlin apparently believed if you allowed strong healthy animals to be crossed only with other strong healthy animals, then "weaker" humans, such as "imbeciles" and degenerates," i.e. homosexuals should be sterilized so as to not weaken the gene pool.

In the book, Egan comments that Indiana passed the world's first eugenic sterilization law in 1907, and that ultimately, about 70,000 people across many states were forcibly sterilized. Other targets for sterilization included Blacks, immigrants, Jews, (the KKK at that time also targeted Catholics, but I don't recall reading if they were advocating sterilizations for Catholics), and those with diseases such as epilepsy. German proto-Nazis were strongly influenced by Laughlin's work.

I could go on, but would rather encourage everyone on this forum to read the book. It's shocking at what so many people were drawn into!

Now we come to Project 2025, and trump's words. I saw a video clip from his appearance in Minnesota last weekend where he said something like, "Racehorses, I like racehorses because they are fast." Sounds innocuous at first, but does it perhaps give a wink and a nod to Laughlin's beliefs, because we all know that racehorses are bred to be fast, cattle and pigs are bred to provide more meat, and turkeys are bred to have larger breasts for more white meat.

If trump wins in November, will we see a resurgent KKK openly advocating for white supremacy? I hope not, and will do whatever I can to convince others of the danger ahead should trump win.

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Richard Sutherland's avatar

Thank you, Lucy, for this review and report. I think that the present case is one of prejudice (white ignorant racist Protestantism) vs. enlightenment (democracy and DEI.) Will "the inmates take over the asylum?" I know that this is disrespectful but we're dealing with a lot of stupidity. Case in point: Nikki Haley announcing that she'll vote for Trump. She just proved that she is not a leader and clearly not one with character.

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Lucy Johnson's avatar

"[T]he inmates taking over the asylum" is what fills me with dread.

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Richard Sutherland's avatar

Look what happened in Germany when they let a nut case use their antisemitism to propel him to power: World War II and the Holocaust. We simply must acknowledge what history has taught us and act on it.

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Lucy Johnson's avatar

I completely agree. My key question is how do we do that? So many of our citizens will not acknowledge history, or worse, want to emulate it.

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JDinTX's avatar

We ain’t seen nothin yet…

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Richard Sutherland's avatar

Jeri, you and the others here already know that the threat to our democratic form of government is real, it is palpable. We are literally locked in a war. I just heard on MSNBC that Trump's supporters believe it. It could get much, much worse, particularly given that Trump has support on the U.S. Supreme Court as well as others such as Judge Cannon.. Nikki Haley just announced that she'll vote for Trump. This is insane.

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JDinTX's avatar

It is way worse than insane. It is deliberate, evil and widespread. I am old and I have never seen such brown nosing in my life. And bowing to evil that is in your face, hate filled, with the venom directed at the citizens who don't bow down. The rich and smart ones supporting chump have plans that are more untenable to the majority in this country.

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Jen Andrews's avatar

Heather teaches us it's been here forever, more or less dormant.

The trick the Rpubs want to pull is to make it acceptable. My daughter is furious if I say the word "fat" about a human so there's hope

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JDinTX's avatar

I’ll repeat. We ain’t seen nothin yet…

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Richard Sutherland's avatar

My dad (1900-1980) lived his entire life in Texas. He could not accept Blacks and Hispanics as “equals.” IMO it was a case of implicit bias. He had never seen a well educated and well dressed African American or Hispanic.

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Gail Adams VA/FL's avatar

I’m so sorry Jen. It must be very difficult.

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Diedra's avatar

Sorry for him and you

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

Does he love dogs?

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Jen Andrews's avatar

After a fashion.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

I he a sucker or a loser?

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