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Much of what President Donald Trump is doing is not new in United States’ terms. Indeed, you can categorise it as another chapter in the South vs North civil war. Remember what flags flew in the hands of the January 6 violent protesters as they broke into the Capitol. The stars and bars were proudly displayed numerous times on that day. Under Trump the South rides again. Armed militia claiming to be patriots smashed up property and bashed in the heads of police protecting Congress. The Trump revisionism of that day cannot truly hide the scars and deaths incurred on that rebellious occasion. Presidential pardons cannot rewrite history, no matter the lies and bluster.
The Trump Regime Resurrects Southern Authoritarianism
What does the South represent? Slavery and all the consequences of that benighted institution. An oligarchy of wealthy plantation owners taking America apart and to war. Unfreedom for sections of the American population. White supremacy in all its evil. Christian Nationalism in its warped pseudo-religiosity. Trad wife and toxic masculinity in a marriage made not in heaven but on the back of spousal exploitation. Corrupt power hungry rich men wanting to see the demise of regulation and oversight. Violent authoritarianism ICE style, where masked thugs shoot first and ask questions later. The targeting of brown skinned Americans and the lawless rounding up of them. Under President Donald Trump the South rides again.
Remnants Of The Civil War South
There is a core of white supremacist Americans who believe that they should inherit the earth and that other lesser races should clean up after them. This evil shit has never really gone away. It has had many names over the journey. Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation, White Brotherhood, Proud Boys, Patriot Front, America First, MAGA and many others. Hate has many names when it comes to race. This evil crap attracts people who want simple answers to complex issues. Young men who don’t think much but prefer to bash heads in. Under Trump the South rides again. Immigrants are who we all are in the infinite scheme of things. We all came from somewhere else originally. Even, Indigenous folk, who have been in places much longer than the rest of us, ultimately migrated from elsewhere originally. This is what makes the racist bullshit and anti-immigration noise so stupid. We are all in this together and the sooner we realise that the better. Division and hate only makes us weaker.
“Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln’s victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets within its borders. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. “
Trump’s Historical Revisionism When It Comes Race
The history of the KKK comes directly from the remnants of the defeated South. Former officers of the South draped sheets over their heads and rode around at night as ghosts of the Southern dead to spread fear into any opposition to white supremacist policies and intrigues. Reconstruction was hindered and Union forces moved on due to resistance and a lack of intention by President Andrew Johnson.
“White Southerners resented what they saw as overly punitive policies and argued that Black people were racially inferior and unfit to govern. This white backlash spawned paramilitaries and hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which terrorized Black lawmakers and would-be voters. White Southerners carried out mass lynchings, attempted to overthrow Reconstruction governments, and fought their policies in court. (Here’s how the Confederate battle flag became an enduring symbol of racism.) “
President Donald Trump and his regime are going around removing information related to this in American museums and on websites. There is another concerted effort to down play and revise history according to more white supremacist friendly guidelines. Under Trump the South rides again.
The South Was Never Held Accountable
Immediately after the South surrendered in 1865 there was a feeling of relief. More than 600, 000 Americans had died as a result of the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by the cowardly Booth, who shot an unarmed man in the back of the head whilst he was watching a play at the theatre. Echoes of ICE murdering unarmed American citizens on the streets of Minneapolis. A Southerner Vice President Andrew Johnson was elevated to the presidency as a matter of course. Conciliation, rather than holding those accountable who started the war in the first place, was instigated. This establishes a trend in the United States, where extremist right wing leaders are never properly called to account for their actions. It leaves them and their minions to start up feathering their own nests and plotting insurrection for another day.
“There is a story about the Lincoln assassination, which, in my view, epitomises American culture. The assassin of President Abraham Lincoln was one John Wilkes Booth. Booth was an actor and, whilst not top shelf, he was well known. After shooting the President in the back of the head, while Lincoln was watching a play at the theatre, Booth made his escape. He reached a bridge on horseback, which was necessary for him to cross on his way to Maryland. The bridge was being guarded by a Union soldier, due to there being a nighttime curfew in place. The story goes that initial denials of passage were overcome in order to please the celebrity status of the stage actor. This encapsulates the hole at the centre of American justice, when it comes to celebrity, wealth and power.”
Black Codes & Jim Crow
In the South, this meant the Black Codes where chattel slavery was replaced by peonage slavery for the many hundreds of thousands of African Americans this impacted. Laws like vagrancy were brought in to scoop up black men and then they were forced to work off their large court imposed fines back on plantations, in factories and down mines. The only real change was that their resale value had plummeted and so they were often worked to death instead. Jim Crow and apartheid would follow hot on the heels in the South of America. It would not be until the civil rights movement really got going another century later that things would improve for African Americans in the South. This is the real America for many Southerners and it bubbles in the blood of Trump’s MAGA supporters down that way.
Masked Thugs Dressed Up As Law Enforcement Agents
In modern day reality, upholding the values of the South is no longer a geographic thing. There are plenty of white supremacists who hail from other areas around the United States. Being enamoured of authoritarianism, where men with guns enforce strict behaviours upon the populace, is not confined to supporters of the Confederacy. Those that are intolerant of human beings who don’t fit into the narrow confines of white America abound it seems. The unimaginative among us want power to rest in the hands of white men. The whip hand should always be held by the overseers of America, according to them. Masked militia thugs in paramilitary gear carrying guns. Murderers dressed up as law enforcement agents.
Authoritarian Lawless Trump Regime Attacking The Media
The celebrated journalist and presenter of the news, Don Lemon has just been arrested and indicted. President Donald Trump’s regime is an attention seeking administration. Have you ever witnessed a President more willing to attack Americans, either in the law courts or via violence? The protests and killings in Minneapolis due to its invasion by ICE agents have galvanised the nation. The warnings about Trump’s authoritarian and fascist intentions have unsurprisingly come true. These deaths and brutalities were completely unnecessary, as Minneapolis is 300 miles from any foreign border. These ICE invasions are not about immigration, they are political intimidation by the Trump regime. They only happen in Democrat cities, funny about that.
Murdering Women & Children
Under Trump the South rides again. If you don’t know your American history, the Southern states started the Civil War. They broke away from the Union and attacked Fort Sumter. They unleashed a violent war that lasted for 5 years and cost the lives of some 600, 000 Americans. It was a brutal conflict, which targeted men, women and children that got in the way. Hey, it was somewhat like what the IDF did in Gaza, murdering tens of thousands of non-combatant Palestinians, this has included some 30, 000 children. Blowing up hospitals, killing doctors, aid workers and journalists. Then, Israel has the gall to talk about increasing antisemitism around the world. Give me a break.
Slavery In The South
Slavery is the elephant in the room when you talk about American history. President Donald Trump doesn’t want us to dwell on this centuries long fact. The absolute brutality that was slavery in the South deserves some attention. Black human beings beaten every day and living in abject conditions. No beds to sleep on. Women raped by white men with unceasing regularity. No rights whatsoever. Whipped and chained up. Families broken up at the whim of the white owners. Children and mothers sold off with no respect to familial bonds. Female slaves bred for profit. Treating human beings worse than animals in many instances. Scar tissue on the backs of slaves proof positive of their inhuman treatment by white overseers. The South was a hive of police states, where slave catchers roamed. The cry of ‘runner’ would go up and gangs of men on horses with dogs would hunt down escaped slaves. Try and imagine what this did to the whites that lived amid this brutality. It conditioned them to think of blacks as less than human. This was handed down generationally to their children. Remember that Jim Crow and the Black Codes went on until the 1950s. It is not so long ago. The poison still runs in their veins. We are seeing it with the ugly Trump regime bringing out the white supremacy evil once again. Even their Southern church was justifying chattel slavery. In truth, people have known that slavery was morally wrong for thousands of years. Back in the time of Christ, they knew this practice was wrong and evil. Don’t give me that – they didn’t know better argument.
This Trump Inspired Southern Stand Must Be Put Down
The Confederacy was a vile and inhuman thing, which cost the lives of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. It was an oligarchy, where a small group of wealthy men had all the power. These Southern Democrats convinced many thousands of poor white boys to fight for their interests under the cover of identity politics. The majority of white folk in the South were not slave owners themselves. Rich men controlling the lives of the working poor, has anything changed in this coalition of authoritarianism today? To see those stars and bars flags in the hands of those lowlifes invading the Capitol on January 6 was obscene. Trump pardoned these violent criminals. If you don’t recognise what is really going on here, you are living in a fool’s paradise. 76 million Americans handed power to a convicted felon, sexual abuser, compulsive liar and the ugliest American. Someone like Trump has to be put down for good. You cannot appease such awful demagogues. We have seen the failure of liberal Democrats to deal with Donald Trump. The Democrats failed miserably, during Biden’s presidency, people like Merrick Garland failed to hold Trump to account and look where we are now. We can hope that Donald Trump dies of natural causes real soon. However, these extremist right wing fascists must be prosecuted when the power shifts back the other way, as it always does. Do not be afraid to see what is in front of our faces. The lawlessness and complete disregard for human life exhibited by the Trump regime. The greed and corruption being unleashed by Trump and his minions. You have to put down this shit hard, if you want it to end. There is no place for misplaced mercy and no place for moderation. That has been tried and this virulent being is in the nation’s face once more. America must find the guts to put this rabid dog down for good. The evil that is in the South, the white South, must be eviscerated forever.
What Is A Liberal Anyway?
“Still, we can find some common themes. At a certain level of abstraction, liberalism favours toleration, individual freedom, acceptance of social pluralism, and cautious optimism about the possibilities for intellectual and social progress. With these core ideas go more specific political principles, including free speech, secular government, and the rule of law. To this we can add values such as individuality, creativity and suspicion of hierarchies of birth.
With that in mind, it’s usually clear enough what is being alleged if someone is accused, in a political context, of being “illiberal”. The accusation suggests intolerance, especially of opposed viewpoints or unusual ways of life, and hostility to individual freedom.”
I would suggest that some of the lack of respect for liberals in America is rooted in their failure to hold their opposites to account. If you cannot manage to put evil down, when push comes to shove, nobody will respect you.
Left, Right But Can They Shoot Straight?
“Thus while social factors may have created the conditions, politicians have the match to light the tinder. In recent years, some candidates on the right have been particularly willing to use violent speech and engage with groups that spread hate. Yet Democrats are not immune to these trends. Far-left violence is far lower than on the right, but rising. The firearm industry’s trade association found that, in 2020, 40 percent of all legal gun sales were to first-time buyers, and 58 percent of those five-million new owners were women and African Americans.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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