Trump Has Just Solved a Conundrum Historians have Struggled with for a Century

[sheshe2]

As a historian, it is difficult if not impossible to teach American history, without at least one student each semester asking in wide-eyed incredulity, the same damning question. "How could slavery have existed and flourished in the Antebellum South, given that it was so inimical to the democratic values upon which American society was built?"

snip//

But please don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that Trump's bungling, his treasonous ties to Russia or brutal immigration policy might in any way add up to the unspeakable evils of slavery. But what I am suggesting is this. The people who make the biggest moral claims are invariably the ones who accept the most jaw-dropping moral compromises. It was the well-mannered, genteel Southern aristocracy, who examined naked slaves on the auction block like beef heifers, sold slave children from their mothers when money was tight, or worked the field hands until they dropped dead in the cotton fields. Their Confederate Christianity accepted the status quo, as did their confederate moral sense of right and wrong. Their confederate schools taught them to disparage reason in favor of pseudo-scientific theories about racial hierarchies, where the universe placed them at the top and their slaves at the bottom. These people lived in a confederate world so jerry-built on fakery and filled with lies that they truly believed the slaves loved their station in life, and would take the Confederate's side when the Civil War erupted.

Trump's presidency is an abomination of a different sort. But like the confederacy of old, it too is built on fakery and flim-flam. The man is a corrupt businessman, who has bankrupted every business he started. It appears that he became entangled in money laundering for the Russian mob when American banks would no longer lend to him. International intelligence reports claim that he has been compromised by Russian President Vladimir Putin. And yet the Republicans in Congress as well as his supporters have refused ever since Trump entered the presidential campaign to demand that he release his income tax returns. The daughter and son-in-law are selling their wares from the White House porch. This is the behavior of a crime family. The "First Lady" refuses to move in, knowing that her husband, who is on tape as a "pussy grabber" will probably be serving penitentiary time before she even has a chance to hang the gold-threaded curtains in the bathroom. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Speaker Mitch McConnell know that Trump is a pathological liar as do the other members of the GOP. They realize that he is precipitating a constitutional crisis by attempting to obstruct the FBI's investigation of Trump's collusion with the Kremlin. But they tiptoe around everything, the dishonesty, disrespecting the rule of law, compromising the government of the United States for the sake of the Russians.

My point here, is that Trump's supporters, the Republican controlled Senate and House of Representatives didn't just pop out of nowhere. They've merely been in the background, waiting for an opportunity to be heard. This is neo-confederate America. Anti-immigrant nativism, plays a role and police state racism. But the larger picture is one of authoritarianism, a yearning for fascism, a strong man dictatorship. That is the true legacy. It is a fake worldview, whose means of validating what is true are whatever lies are most comforting. Politically it could hardly be compared with slavery. But in all the ways that human beings are able to distinguish what is decent and good from what is dishonest and corrupt it is the same epistemological system, that is “way of knowing” that the Confederacy used to justify slavery. America’s mistake in fighting so valiantly to end slavery was in refusing to take the next step after winning the Civil War. That would have been dismantling the Confederacy’s deeply-ingrained but fake truth system.

Read More:http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/14/1662171/-Trump-Has-Just-Solved-a-Conundrum-Historians-have-Struggled-with-for-a-Century

[malaise]

1. Excellent read

Rec

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. It's a very good essay. Lies not stomped will fester. . . nt

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. It's a fundamental mistake to assume that American society was built on "democratic values"

it wasn't; at the time the Constitution was adopted, suffrage was restricted to white male property owners in a number of states. (The only state that allowed all white men to vote without property qualifications in 1791 was Vermont.)

[YoungDemCA]

4. The Founding Fathers feared democracy because they feared that "the mob" would take their PROPERTY.

And for many of them, some or most of that property included African/African-descended (black) slaves.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. That was one of the motivations for the Revolution, in fact

fear of the implications of court rulings about slavery in Britain (Somersett vs Stuart, 1772, which ruled that slavery was illegal in Britain proper). And the British army welcomed escaped slaves to its ranks.

http://www.americanrevolution.org/blk.php

[karynnj]

24. I remember the reaction of the kids at Colonial Williamsburg, as more and more people

were eliminated from who could vote including all of the mothers and most of the fathers standing there. In the colonial period it was worse in some places as you had be Protestant. This Williamsburg page is interesting in that it is clear many of the forefathers absolutely were not in favor of extending the vote to everyone -- or allowing people to directly elect every official.

http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/spring07/elections.cfm

[marybourg]

5. . . . and what about:

"how could a civilized, cultured country like Germany elect a Hitler?"

[cstanleytech]

28. Easy. When the wealthy siphon off more and more to fulfill their lust to own as much

as possible by doing things like paying poverty level wages it helps create the climate for someone like Hitler.
Why? Because the anger and resentment that people feel builds up and they then some asshole like Hitler (or Trump) comes along and starts blaming x for everything that is wrong (even though it might not even be x's fault at all) the people fall for it because they feel abandoned by their current government.
In Hitlers case he largely blamed the Jews and in Trumps case he is largely blaming the Mexicans even though the Jews nor the Mexicans had anything to do with causing the problems then or now but the truth is that the wealthy are the ones that created the problems that allowed Hitler to to rise to power then and they are the ones that doing it now as well.

[gordianot]

7. Trump is cautionary tale of all great falls into the dark.

Most knew when he came down the escalator and opened his mouth, some knew it decades ago in doing business with this criminal, some are still determined to learn the hard way. Disaster awaits us.

[GBizzle]

8. Their revisionist history is still strong in the South regarding slavery and the Civil War.

Many places still call it the "War of Northern Aggression" down there, and see the war as being about states' rights versus the Feds, not white supremacists who wanted to treat black people like singing farm equipment.

The Republican Party officially stopped giving a shit about black people during the Compromise of 1877, where Rutherford Hayes was awarded the presidency (that he likely didn't win) in exchange for pulling federal troops out of the South and ending Reconstruction.

Until we can win elections in more Southern states and correct the record regarding the Civil War and white supremacy (and what their children are taught about it), this nonsense will continue.

[rzemanfl]

9. Welcome to DU. n/t

[brush]

11. Plain and simple...they were traitors, and what we're dealing with now are traitors.

[Aristus]

14. Welcome to DU.

I like the Bill Maher quote!

[blueseas]

20. Welcome and thanks

For your insight,

[Mercurian]

22. Maybe I had a sheltered unbringing..

..but I was never taught any of those things. I wholeheartedly agree with you, but sweeping generalizations are not helpful! I'm sure there are many down here who are taught exactly that; at home, learned by example of their elders.
It's a whole knotty mess. I've tried explaining it to myself, to clarify it in my mind so I could explain it to others. But it's still an emotional tangle. We resent it when others demonize our ancestors, most of whom were poor whites caught up in a caste system that didn't benefit them. We want to remember and honor them for their courage, (I'm speaking of the common soldiers) but we're reminded, sometimes daily, that the rest of the country despises them. The educated among us understand and accept that as just. The ignorant resent it.
It's a bitter, complicated thing to face. Many don't make the effort.
Sorry I went a bit OT. And sorry for rambling. This is something I've spent a lot of time mentally wrestling with, but it never seems to come out right when I write it down.
"It's complicated."

[Juliusseizure]

27. Cognitive Dissonance

That mental discomfort is cognitive dissonance. People holding inconsistent views will turn truth on its head to maintain a stable psychological state of well-being that keeps them internally functional while ignoring the damage they do.

The only other option is to experience the psychological pain of acknowledging responsibility for that damage, reversal of deeply held beliefs, and rebirth of a new paradigm to view the world. The Germans did that after WWII.

Sociopaths with no conscience like Trump don't experience it because they don't care what the truth is.

[link:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance|

[Duppers]

30. Many of these poor white ancestors fought

on the WRONG side and still defend it.

But not all did. There's Union County, Tennessee, so named because they supported our *United* States.
I grew up near there.

Poor whites continue to be duped by the rich whom they zealously defend. Feed them right-wing social propaganda and they'll follow you anywhere. LBJ said it best - we all know that quote.

[dawg]

10. Human nature doesn't seem to change.

Presumably, we learn history so as not to keep making the same old mistakes of the past. But apparently, some of us fail to learn the lesson.

[thucythucy]

12. Samuel Johnson asked much the same question

back in the 1770s--

"How is it we hear the loudest yelps about liberty from the drivers of Negroes?"

[TheBlackAdder]

13. I finished a paper on Antebellum Southern Paternalism last year. I won't paste it--identity reasons.

.


I'll try and give a quick memory summation, without writing it in a too revealing manner:


1) 1800s-10s: Christian Revivalist tours shook down Southern Slaveholders for thousands to get their blessings. The majority of Southerns despised the slaveholders. Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians are the ones who mainly will end up promoting slavery in the coming decades and onward.


2) 1820s-30s: Northern abolitionists tried to use the Bible as justification that slavery was immoral. This backfired, as the Bible is rife with verses that Southern clergy perverted to their own gain. Northern clergy were invited to tour southern plantations and were either offered property or marriage to daughters and part of estates if they relocated and formed churches. They were showcased plantation areas that portrayed the slaveholder in a good light. Many of these church pastors had slaves of their own. Slave riots occurred, which panicked the whole community. The idea of Southern Paternalism is hatched, saying that slaveholders are rescuing those held by slave merchants and offer the slaves an opportunity to be exposed to Christianity, and eternal salvation.

A partnership between slaveholders and clergy forms. Slaveholders want to control the slaves, the clergy wants to expand their church, their tithings, and spread the gospel. The clergy become wealthy members of the community. However, there are two variations of this:

White church services: Promote the Christian tenets of slavery, how the slaveholders are effectively doing God's work by saving the captives of the slave traders. The slaveholders gain legitimacy.

Slave church services: They are told to be good Christians, they must be good servants to their masters. That, no matter what happens to them in life, they will reap rewards in the afterlife.


3) 1840s-50s: Southern Paternalism, with the help of the churches expands rank of congregants, this generation is the one who now embraces slavery as an institutional norm, feeding into the Civil War.



It only took one generation to convert the Southerners over to accepting slavery. While the elders had to be swayed or convinced, the young adults just sold on the idea, the youngsters would grow up in this new institution and view it as a societal normalcy.


I'm a bit older, and I witnessed the conversion of many Reagan Republicans and even the Sarah Palin types of just a couple of years ago. They were against Putin, they were against Russia and any foreign interference of our government. They were saying how Putin would make Obama his bitch. Now, in less than a decade, we are seeing the complete reversal of those positions and acceptance of them, just to get some political and short-term hopes of financial gains. The protection of country is no longer paramount--it is just a talking point to them. I worry, that if this is not addressed quick, fast, and in a hurry--this might become an institutional norm and it will be difficult to ensure national security, on a wide range of topics, in the future.

.

[sheshe2]

15. Thank you for sharing...a good read.

Our 'new normal'? We can only hope not.

[uponit7771]

29. Would LOVE to read more of this, I had a sKrong notion that the church had a hand in beliefs that

... would make a poor man want to die for a rich mans belongings.

[luvMIdog]

16. a very good read . Thank you

[SunSeeker]

17. Yup, the traitorous Confederates are still with us.

[sheshe2]

18. They never stop, do they?

These are the people that some say we should bring into our party. I don't think so.

[SunSeeker]

19. I don't think so either.

Nor do they want in. So why waste our time pandering to them--and risk turning off independent voters we could swing to our side?

[sheshe2]

21. You are right, they don't want in.

They want to cling to that Confederate Flag and all the racist hate it stands for. They will, cling to it with their last dying breath.

[IronLionZion]

23. Atrocities are easier to commit if you demonize people first

make them to appear less human, even as animals or monsters. If people are viewed as the dangerous enemies threatening your family and "stealing" your job, then it's easier to hate them.

Unfortunately we see it here on DU sometimes in threads about H1B visas or immigration or who is a real American. Some folks have economic anxiety and talk about a fair playing field for jobs. Others slip down the slope of sharing juicy details about Indian people they got from white supremacist websites while insisting they are not personally racist.

No matter how educated people are, they still can't seem to understand how slavery could have happened, or the holocaust, or the massacres in the Balkans or Rwanda, or the mass shootings here in America even now.

[Orsino]

25. Fakery and flim-flam at every level.

Even calling Trump a businessman assumes savvy he has never demonstrated. He has seemed only to license his name to people who can't seem to succeed with it. successful businessmen don't have to go on cheesy reality shows.

If he has been running "his" various businesses, he's done so poorly. I think he's just a figurehead who dreams in front of his TV and shits tweets.

[louis-t]

26. Great article.