Poor whites who vote GOP ARE NOT voting against their own interests
- Thread starter Spectrum
- Start date
Dope thread!!! I just came across it!! Thank you OP!!
The code of white supremacy is why slavery was accepted, lasted so long and is still effective even though we are not in physical chains!!
We chain ourselves from the start with the broken homes we raise our children in. Nothing else matters than the family unit being whole!!
That was always their main objective and still is and we willingly are the tools of our own destruction!!!!!!
The code of white supremacy is why slavery was accepted, lasted so long and is still effective even though we are not in physical chains!!
We chain ourselves from the start with the broken homes we raise our children in. Nothing else matters than the family unit being whole!!
That was always their main objective and still is and we willingly are the tools of our own destruction!!!!!!
Why are there so few Republican lawmakers standing up against Trump?
https://www.quora.com/#
Originally Answered: Why are there so few republican lawmakers standing up against Trump?
The question makes the common assumption that the Republican Party is a conservative political party. Understandable, since Republicans always say they’re conservative, and many say they’re Conservatives, if you know what I mean.
But it ain’t so, and their vote for Trump and subsequent strong ~90% approval of his “presidency” proves it. And also explains why Republican lawmakers have turned Congress into pretty much a rubber stamp for the executive branch under Trump.
What happened?
The GOP was utterly corrupted by two forces: the Dixiecrats and the plutocrats.
During and after the Civil War the Republican Party was the Party of Lincoln, of civil rights, while the Democratic Party represented the men (remember, women couldn’t vote) who thought the single most important thing about them was that they were white men. This campaign poster from that era sums it up:
This held true for about a century. But then in the 1960s the Democratic Party decided to live up to its name and its southern faction—the Dixiecrats—bolted en masse to the GOP, turning the Solid South from Solid Blue to Solid Red over the course of a few years.
Why did they bolt, when most of them were white working stiffs and the GOP was the Party of Money? Because they were single issue voters, and for them the single issue was subjugating blacks—keeping them “in their place.”
Summarized by the South’s signature poem: “If you’re White, you’re all right. If you’re Brown, stick around. If you’re Black, step back.”
They fought the Civil War about enslaving blacks (and then lied about it ever since). They left the Democratic Party over subjugating blacks (and lied about it ever since). And some might say they finally won the Civil War on November 6, 2016, with a little help from their rich friends in America and Russia.
About the same time as Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” absorbed the White South, the Angry Billionaire’s Club (my name for it) coalesced— a loose coalition of affluent right wingers who conceived a long term project to capture the federal and state governments. ALEC, which controls the economic side of most Red state governments, is one aspect.
The goal was to cripple government oversight of big business, slash taxes on the rich/big business, guide foreign policy to favor big business, cripple the IRS’s ability to catch tax cheating by the rich/big business, and inculcate the worship of the rich among the right wing lumpen proletariat.
Hence the saying that socialism will never succeed in America because here the poor don’t believe they’re poor—just “temporarily embarrassed” millionaires.
The third prong of this right wing trident is the religious Right—mostly “Christianists” (that is, people who boast of their Christianity while opposing most of Christ’s teachings). Their alliance with the plutocrats works beautifully because what the “Christianists” want—imposing their version of Shariah Law— won’t cost the plutocrats anything, pretty much.
Even the immigration issue. Big business loves illegals because they use them to drive down wages for unskilled labor and bust unions. And you can mistreat them and even cheat them of wages and they don’t dare complain. On the other hand right wingers are easy to fool by great public shows.
So as long as the anti-immigration effort focuses on traumatizing mothers and children and doesn’t jail/fine employers, make e-Verify universal, or, worst of all, implement India’s Aadhaar biometric ID database—the only way we can uncover the 11 million already here—well, then, it’s all good.
Racism, revanchism, xenophobia, homophobia, isolationism, unilateralism, disdain for science and government regulation have no place in the conservatism of Adam Smith. So while the GOP serves the short-term profit-seeking interest of big business and the investor class, calling the party “conservative” has become less and less appropriate. “Reactionary” would be a far better fit. That would better explain the GOP’s relentless effort to destroy the ACA with no replacement, for example.
So while conservative lawmakers might stand up to Trump, authoritarian white supremacist reactionary lawmakers are unlikely to. At this point the GOP can’t win the presidency without cheating, and without the presidency it can block Democratic appointments and legislation but can’t stuff the court with marginally qualified right wing judges-for-life and systematically destroy the federal government’s regulatory, scientific, administrative and statecraft expertise.
So any remaining conservative lawmakers know that it’s now either the Trumpublican or Democratic Party, or getting out of the game. If they oppose Trump their career as a “Republican” is over, and the Democratic Party is fiscally and socially more like what Eisenhower’s GOP was than what the GOP is now, but by current standards it’s only conservative by the lights of other rich nations—not America. Can they outlast Trump? Will his movement self-destruct? Maybe, maybe not.
Easy to see why there’s so little resistance from elected Republican politicians who haven’t retired or announced their retirement.
And if they did speak out, who’s going to listen to them? Remember that 90% Trump approval rating among Republican voters. GOP dissident polls would get the 10% of Republican non-Trump worshipers. With zero leverage. They might have a shot at a place in the Democratic Party, but it’s not an easy fit. One House member has resigned from the GOP to become an independent. Perhaps he has a strong hold on his district and can resist both parties’ desire to dislodge him, but he’ll never be a Senator or President and probably never get committee assignments he wants—or chairmanships. Not to mention the plum industry jobs awaiting congressmen who make big business happy.
Those not blinded by ideology may still have their hands stayed by personal/practical considerations, in other words.
It’s not surprising so few have spoken out. Just read the Trumpublican answers here to see what a clear-eyed Republican politician is up against—and even more an ethical one, if any are left.
That's largely accurate.
And the world needs to let them die!!!
just sharing an interesting insight from quora
Why do the Republican Party's ideologies and policies appeal much more to people in rural communities than the Democratic Party?
(Sigh) I could write a book.
Look, the bottom line idea is pretty simple: the larger and more population dense a place— any place— grows, the more law and enforcement is required to keep the peace.
In a small, rural town you can park your car pretty much wherever you like. Heck, if you see your cousin and you want to talk to him about the upcoming church social, you can wheel into the left turn lane in the center of the road, throw it in park, and head off to the cafe for a coffee and some conversation. Nobody is going to complain because you aren’t causing a traffic problem, and if you leave the car running, nobody’s going to steal it. Everybody already knows whose car it is.
If Joe, the local cop, sees your car parked, running, in the middle of the main street, and he knows you have a history of heart disease— Joe knows everything about everybody in town, that’s his job— he’ll probably spend a few minutes looking for you to make sure you don’t need help. When he finds you and your cousin Bob in the cafe, he might say “Now, dammit, Jim! Go git your car outta the middle of the street, willya?” But that will be all. Nobody will be mad, you will not get a ticket and it will be more funny than a problem.
I don’t recommend you try this in New York or LA or even Houston. Your car will be booted or towed in minutes, you’ll be facing several hundred bucks in citations and if you get mouthy with the cop, you might be in for a ride to the city hotel.
Why? Because in a big city, parking your car in the middle of the street does cause a traffic problem, does truly inconvenience a lot of people, and really does cause a public safety issue; a thing entirely untrue in our little rural town.
This has always been true. In about 700 BC, the Assyrian King Sennacherib forbade illegal parking on the main drag in Nineveh, placing stone poles at the verge carved with an inscription reading “Royal Road. Let no man lessen it.” Why? Because they were needed.
And this is the difference. In this country the real political divide is not by party or race or gender identity or any of the rest of the stuff the parties preach. It’s about population density. People who live in dense places tend to have a lot more government, and approve of it far more, than they do in rural places. People in dense places need more government, and they support the party who promises it to them. In the less dense areas, people are thrown much more on their own devices; there’s less government, it’s spread more thinly, and it’s a lot less powerful. People who live there don’t like it as much, and support the party who promises less of it.
Why do the Republican Party's ideologies and policies appeal much more to people in rural communities than the Democratic Party?
(Sigh) I could write a book.
Look, the bottom line idea is pretty simple: the larger and more population dense a place— any place— grows, the more law and enforcement is required to keep the peace.
In a small, rural town you can park your car pretty much wherever you like. Heck, if you see your cousin and you want to talk to him about the upcoming church social, you can wheel into the left turn lane in the center of the road, throw it in park, and head off to the cafe for a coffee and some conversation. Nobody is going to complain because you aren’t causing a traffic problem, and if you leave the car running, nobody’s going to steal it. Everybody already knows whose car it is.
If Joe, the local cop, sees your car parked, running, in the middle of the main street, and he knows you have a history of heart disease— Joe knows everything about everybody in town, that’s his job— he’ll probably spend a few minutes looking for you to make sure you don’t need help. When he finds you and your cousin Bob in the cafe, he might say “Now, dammit, Jim! Go git your car outta the middle of the street, willya?” But that will be all. Nobody will be mad, you will not get a ticket and it will be more funny than a problem.
I don’t recommend you try this in New York or LA or even Houston. Your car will be booted or towed in minutes, you’ll be facing several hundred bucks in citations and if you get mouthy with the cop, you might be in for a ride to the city hotel.
Why? Because in a big city, parking your car in the middle of the street does cause a traffic problem, does truly inconvenience a lot of people, and really does cause a public safety issue; a thing entirely untrue in our little rural town.
This has always been true. In about 700 BC, the Assyrian King Sennacherib forbade illegal parking on the main drag in Nineveh, placing stone poles at the verge carved with an inscription reading “Royal Road. Let no man lessen it.” Why? Because they were needed.
And this is the difference. In this country the real political divide is not by party or race or gender identity or any of the rest of the stuff the parties preach. It’s about population density. People who live in dense places tend to have a lot more government, and approve of it far more, than they do in rural places. People in dense places need more government, and they support the party who promises it to them. In the less dense areas, people are thrown much more on their own devices; there’s less government, it’s spread more thinly, and it’s a lot less powerful. People who live there don’t like it as much, and support the party who promises less of it.
And how has that benefited them? Seriously asking question.
I don’t give a lot of credence to any theory about the current state of republican Politics if it doesn’t put the emphasis on racism.
Dying of whiteness’ during the coronavirus pandemic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jonathan-capehart/
By
Jonathan Capehart
Opinion writer
May 5, 2020 at 6:01 a.m. EDT
Subscribe on:
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Cape Up with Jonathan Capehart | Podcast
‘Dying of whiteness’ during the coronavirus pandemic
For more conversations like this, subscribe to “Cape UP”
In his book “Dying of Whiteness: How the politics of racial resentment is killing America’s heartland,” Jonathan Metzl, the director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health and Society, put a human face on the opposition to many policies that would save lives and livelihoods. We talked all about it when I interviewed him back in January. I brought Metzl back because the novel coronavirus is amplifying his argument.
“It was kind of a warning of the lengths to which white working class voters could either have underlying racism or be manipulated to vote in support of wealthy donors and corporations, but against their own lifespans,” Metzl told me in the latest episode of “Cape Up.” “And it’s just been on steroids since this pandemic started.”
Protesters around the country marching on state capitals demanding their governors fully reopen their states to commerce and socializing are a manifestation of this. “People, when they’re the most desperate, it’s not like they become the most centrist. They become the most terrified,” Metzl explained. “Trump has been very artful at manipulating those anxieties and shifting the blame in ways that I think are very dangerous.”
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Prime example is those West Virginians who are still waiting for 45 to bring coal back. He cost them their jobs, homes, health care and for alot of them food stamps and they are still going to vote for him and wait for him to save their dumb assess
The funny shit is Trump respects a rich street hustler
Way more than he could ever respect
A wight person that never seen six zeros in their bank account..
Trump detest poor cac trash ...
They know it..
They just refuse to accept it...
Just sharing
Do you believe losing friends over who they voted for in the 2020 election is petty and childish?
There’s a quote in the movie Enola Holmes:
I understand for some people, politics are philosophical partisan squabbles with no real impact on their lives. Of course, why would these people lose friends over something silly? So your friend voted for a different old white dude than you. So one dirty politician replaced another politician, life goes on.
Right?
Well, congratulations on winning the privilege lottery. You’re born with so much privilege that not only politics does not concern you, our current political system is set up to keep people such as yourself in the position of power at the expense of other groups of people.
Like Edith said: you’re uninterested in politics, you think breaking up your personal relationship over something trivial is stupid because the system already works in your favor. It doesn’t matter who wins the election, the system remains. Doesn’t matter how bad things become, you will not be impacted.
And because of your privilege, you can rise above it all and look down at us silly people who get panic attacks just thinking about Trump getting a second term. We silly minorities with our silly triggers.
Right?
You have never felt powerless. I don’t mean the “incel” kind of powerless, that no girl will give you the time of the day because you’re not a Chad.
I meant, truly powerless.
You never know the fear of being stopped by cops, thinking you might not live through it.
You never know the fear of having ICE knock on your door, and drag you to some detention center. And, yes, it doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or not. Natural born citizens had been detained or even deported by ICE. But you don’t think about it, do you?
You don’t even know about this. Because ICE will never come after you. And it has nothing to do with citizenship.
You never know the fear of being fired for who you are (not what you do).
You never know the fear of getting pregnant but denied your bodily autonomy.
For the past four years, many of us, women, minorities, LGBTQ people lived in fear. But it doesn’t impact you. And you just don’t have the compassion to feel for other people’s pain.
When people vote for Trump, some of them voted for him because they like his personality; some of them voted for him because they believe Trump is good for the economy (whatever the hell that means).
But it doesn’t matter. Their reason doesn’t. matter. They voted for a guy who repeatedly downplayed a deadly virus, repeatedly spread misinformation, they vote for a racist, a sexist, and general despicable person.
They don’t get to choose which aspect of him they support. They vote for him wholesale.
So no… I can’t be friends with people who supported Trump, doesn’t matter what reason.
I don’t have that privilege.
Just sharing
Do you believe losing friends over who they voted for in the 2020 election is petty and childish?
There’s a quote in the movie Enola Holmes:
I understand for some people, politics are philosophical partisan squabbles with no real impact on their lives. Of course, why would these people lose friends over something silly? So your friend voted for a different old white dude than you. So one dirty politician replaced another politician, life goes on.
Right?
Well, congratulations on winning the privilege lottery. You’re born with so much privilege that not only politics does not concern you, our current political system is set up to keep people such as yourself in the position of power at the expense of other groups of people.
Like Edith said: you’re uninterested in politics, you think breaking up your personal relationship over something trivial is stupid because the system already works in your favor. It doesn’t matter who wins the election, the system remains. Doesn’t matter how bad things become, you will not be impacted.
And because of your privilege, you can rise above it all and look down at us silly people who get panic attacks just thinking about Trump getting a second term. We silly minorities with our silly triggers.
Right?
You have never felt powerless. I don’t mean the “incel” kind of powerless, that no girl will give you the time of the day because you’re not a Chad.
I meant, truly powerless.
You never know the fear of being stopped by cops, thinking you might not live through it.
You never know the fear of having ICE knock on your door, and drag you to some detention center. And, yes, it doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or not. Natural born citizens had been detained or even deported by ICE. But you don’t think about it, do you?
You don’t even know about this. Because ICE will never come after you. And it has nothing to do with citizenship.
You never know the fear of being fired for who you are (not what you do).
You never know the fear of getting pregnant but denied your bodily autonomy.
For the past four years, many of us, women, minorities, LGBTQ people lived in fear. But it doesn’t impact you. And you just don’t have the compassion to feel for other people’s pain.
When people vote for Trump, some of them voted for him because they like his personality; some of them voted for him because they believe Trump is good for the economy (whatever the hell that means).
But it doesn’t matter. Their reason doesn’t. matter. They voted for a guy who repeatedly downplayed a deadly virus, repeatedly spread misinformation, they vote for a racist, a sexist, and general despicable person.
They don’t get to choose which aspect of him they support. They vote for him wholesale.
So no… I can’t be friends with people who supported Trump, doesn’t matter what reason.
I don’t have that privilege.
Sidebar...
My oldest loved that movie she reading the books now
Just sharing
Do you believe losing friends over who they voted for in the 2020 election is petty and childish?
There’s a quote in the movie Enola Holmes:
I understand for some people, politics are philosophical partisan squabbles with no real impact on their lives. Of course, why would these people lose friends over something silly? So your friend voted for a different old white dude than you. So one dirty politician replaced another politician, life goes on.
Right?
Well, congratulations on winning the privilege lottery. You’re born with so much privilege that not only politics does not concern you, our current political system is set up to keep people such as yourself in the position of power at the expense of other groups of people.
Like Edith said: you’re uninterested in politics, you think breaking up your personal relationship over something trivial is stupid because the system already works in your favor. It doesn’t matter who wins the election, the system remains. Doesn’t matter how bad things become, you will not be impacted.
And because of your privilege, you can rise above it all and look down at us silly people who get panic attacks just thinking about Trump getting a second term. We silly minorities with our silly triggers.
Right?
You have never felt powerless. I don’t mean the “incel” kind of powerless, that no girl will give you the time of the day because you’re not a Chad.
I meant, truly powerless.
You never know the fear of being stopped by cops, thinking you might not live through it.
You never know the fear of having ICE knock on your door, and drag you to some detention center. And, yes, it doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or not. Natural born citizens had been detained or even deported by ICE. But you don’t think about it, do you?
You don’t even know about this. Because ICE will never come after you. And it has nothing to do with citizenship.
You never know the fear of being fired for who you are (not what you do).
You never know the fear of getting pregnant but denied your bodily autonomy.
For the past four years, many of us, women, minorities, LGBTQ people lived in fear. But it doesn’t impact you. And you just don’t have the compassion to feel for other people’s pain.
When people vote for Trump, some of them voted for him because they like his personality; some of them voted for him because they believe Trump is good for the economy (whatever the hell that means).
But it doesn’t matter. Their reason doesn’t. matter. They voted for a guy who repeatedly downplayed a deadly virus, repeatedly spread misinformation, they vote for a racist, a sexist, and general despicable person.
They don’t get to choose which aspect of him they support. They vote for him wholesale.
So no… I can’t be friends with people who supported Trump, doesn’t matter what reason.
I don’t have that privilege.
You're right, it's a privilege. I wrote about this in another post. I read in a article about people losing friends over politics. It said that Democrats were more likely to lose friends. I thought that made sense because blacks make up more of the party. It's personal for us. We don't have the privilege that white liberals do. Their privileged to be naive enough to think they're really arguing about tax cuts and the free market. We know better. We know this is about racism. We know what conservative judges mean, it doesn't mean de-regulation, it means the re-implementation of some form of Jim Crow. We know this isn't about small limited government, we know it's about a weakened government unable to protect civil right. We know it's not about law and order, it's about a broad and intrusive government to keep us in check. It's personal for us.Just sharing
Do you believe losing friends over who they voted for in the 2020 election is petty and childish?
There’s a quote in the movie Enola Holmes:
I understand for some people, politics are philosophical partisan squabbles with no real impact on their lives. Of course, why would these people lose friends over something silly? So your friend voted for a different old white dude than you. So one dirty politician replaced another politician, life goes on.
Right?
Well, congratulations on winning the privilege lottery. You’re born with so much privilege that not only politics does not concern you, our current political system is set up to keep people such as yourself in the position of power at the expense of other groups of people.
Like Edith said: you’re uninterested in politics, you think breaking up your personal relationship over something trivial is stupid because the system already works in your favor. It doesn’t matter who wins the election, the system remains. Doesn’t matter how bad things become, you will not be impacted.
And because of your privilege, you can rise above it all and look down at us silly people who get panic attacks just thinking about Trump getting a second term. We silly minorities with our silly triggers.
Right?
You have never felt powerless. I don’t mean the “incel” kind of powerless, that no girl will give you the time of the day because you’re not a Chad.
I meant, truly powerless.
You never know the fear of being stopped by cops, thinking you might not live through it.
You never know the fear of having ICE knock on your door, and drag you to some detention center. And, yes, it doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or not. Natural born citizens had been detained or even deported by ICE. But you don’t think about it, do you?
You don’t even know about this. Because ICE will never come after you. And it has nothing to do with citizenship.
You never know the fear of being fired for who you are (not what you do).
You never know the fear of getting pregnant but denied your bodily autonomy.
For the past four years, many of us, women, minorities, LGBTQ people lived in fear. But it doesn’t impact you. And you just don’t have the compassion to feel for other people’s pain.
When people vote for Trump, some of them voted for him because they like his personality; some of them voted for him because they believe Trump is good for the economy (whatever the hell that means).
But it doesn’t matter. Their reason doesn’t. matter. They voted for a guy who repeatedly downplayed a deadly virus, repeatedly spread misinformation, they vote for a racist, a sexist, and general despicable person.
They don’t get to choose which aspect of him they support. They vote for him wholesale.
So no… I can’t be friends with people who supported Trump, doesn’t matter what reason.
I don’t have that privilege.
What is commonly misunderstood about the Confederacy?
The reason poor whites who did not own slaves fought for the Confederacy.
The romanticized version is loyalty to their state and love of liberty. The documented reality is something else.
Wealthy plantation owners in government made a concerted effort to recruit poor white citizens to fight for the confederacy. I’m sure some fought out of a sense of duty. Some volunteered, others were conscripted, but all were encouraged to fight for the “cause.” Surviving literature documents the nature of those appeals. The following is from a published address by John Townsend, a South Carolina legislator and plantation owner from Edisto Island, SC, dated October 28, 1860. The language is typical of literature produced at the time to induce support for secession, and is very revealing of how the wealthy slaveowners played upon the fears of poor white Southerners about what would happen if slavery were abolished.
From: The Doom of Slavery:
If emancipation occurred, poor whites feared that they would lose their superiority over freed black slaves, that they would have to compete with them in society, or, far worse, that they wound be at their mercy. Even the poorest white Southerner of the time, who in no way profited from the labor of slaves, had been indoctrinated to believe that the emancipation of black slaves was a threat to their way of life. Poor, white Southerners and plantation owners already feared slave rebellions, and strict laws were in place to prevent therm. If emancipation occurred, they feared roving bands of unrestrained Negroes (using the polite language of that time) would rob their homes, rape their women, and impregnate their daughters. They had been taught that even co-mingling with blacks in society was unnatural and ungodly. Well before the Civil War, wealthy slave owners justified their “peculiar institution” and embedded the doctrine of white supremacy, and the fear of unrestrained negroes, into the fabric of southern culture, literature, and religion.
So, many poor white Southerners fought to retain (as they saw it) their natural place of superiority over the black race. They fought to protect themselves and their families from being assaulted by free, unrestrained Negroes, whose only proper place was in bondage serving white people. The literature of the South from that era is full of examples of white superiority, and negro inferiority, as a prevalent social belief.
From "The Mud-sill Theory" speech by South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond, given before the Senate in 1858:
From Cannibals All! or Slaves Without Masters, by George Fitzhugh, a Virginia attorney, 1857.
There were many poor, white Southerners that were conscripted. Some may have not been racist, but most accepted white supremacy as the natural order.
See also: Why Non-Slaveholding Southerners Fought
Why Non-Slaveholders Will Fight For Slavery
The comment thread following the last post reflects the difficulty of coming to terms with the way in which slavery united white slaveholders and non-slaveholders of the South by the end of the ant…
http://cwmemory.com/2013/01/26/why-non-slaveholders-will-fight-for-slavery/
The interest in slavery of the southern non-slave-holder. The right of peaceful secession. Slavery in the Bible.
Also available in digital form.
https://www.loc.gov/item/11008376/
The Southern Argument for Slavery [ushistory.org]
27f. The Southern Argument for Slavery Southern slaveholders often used biblical passages to justify slavery. Those who defended slavery rose to the challenge set forth by the Abolitionists. The defenders of slavery included economics, history, religion, legality, social good, and even humanitarianism, to further their arguments. Defenders of slavery argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their economy. The cotton economy would collapse. The tobacco crop would dry in the fields. Rice would cease being profitable. Defenders of slavery argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos. This would lead to uprisings, bloodshed, and anarchy. They pointed to the mob's "rule of terror" during the French Revolution and argued for the continuation of the status quo, which was providing for affluence and stability for the slaveholding class and for all free people who enjoyed the bounty of the slave society. Some slaveholders believed that African Americans were biologically inferior to their masters. During the 1800s, this arguement was taken quite seriously, even in scientific circles. Defenders of slavery argued that slavery had existed throughout history and was the natural state of mankind. The Greeks had slaves, the Romans had slaves, and the English had slavery until very recently. Defenders of slavery noted that in the Bible, Abraham had slaves. They point to the Ten Commandments, noting that "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, ... nor his manservant, nor his maidservant." In the New Testament, Paul returned a runaway slave, Philemon, to his master, and, although slavery was widespread throughout the Roman world, Jesus never spoke out against it. Defenders of slavery turned to the courts, who had ruled, with the Dred Scott Decision , that all blacks — not just slaves — had no legal standing as persons in our courts — they were property, and the Constitution protected slave-holders' rights to their property. Defenders of slavery argued that the institution was divine, and that it brought Christianity to the heathen from across the ocean. Slavery was, according to this argument, a good thing for the enslaved. John C. Calhoun said, "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually." Defenders of slavery argued that by comparison with the poor of Europe and the workers in the Northern states, that slaves were better cared for. They said that their owners would protect and assist them when they were sick and aged, unlike those who, once fired from their work, were left to fend helplessly for themselves. James Thornwell , a minister, wrote in 1860, "The parties in this conflict are not merely Abolitionists and slaveholders, they are
https://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp
Causes Of The Civil War
Primary Sources: Slavery as the Cause of the Civil War
Last week, I had someone challenge me on Facebook about the cause of the Civil War. Because slavery wasn’t a cause of the war, he said, the point I was trying to make was moot. “It wasn’t *a* cause…
https://emergingcivilwar.com/2019/01/22/primary-sources-slavery-as-the-cause-of-the-civil-war/
That the Civil War was about the enslavement of those of the black race for profit is without question, according to the declarations made by the states that seceded from the Union (see: The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States and The Decision to Secede and Establish the Confederacy: A Selection of Primary Sources). That white supremacy was a motivating factor for both slavery and poor whites fighting to keep it is also without question.
Many sociologists and political scientists believe it is a root cause of racism today, even among whites who do not consider themselves racist. From the Miami Herald opinion section, The Confederacy was a con job on whites. And still is.:
Tom Buczkowski's answer to If you lived in the South in the 1800s, do you think you'd support slavery?
The reason poor whites who did not own slaves fought for the Confederacy.
The romanticized version is loyalty to their state and love of liberty. The documented reality is something else.
Wealthy plantation owners in government made a concerted effort to recruit poor white citizens to fight for the confederacy. I’m sure some fought out of a sense of duty. Some volunteered, others were conscripted, but all were encouraged to fight for the “cause.” Surviving literature documents the nature of those appeals. The following is from a published address by John Townsend, a South Carolina legislator and plantation owner from Edisto Island, SC, dated October 28, 1860. The language is typical of literature produced at the time to induce support for secession, and is very revealing of how the wealthy slaveowners played upon the fears of poor white Southerners about what would happen if slavery were abolished.
From: The Doom of Slavery:
There it is in plain terms. White supremacy.
If emancipation occurred, poor whites feared that they would lose their superiority over freed black slaves, that they would have to compete with them in society, or, far worse, that they wound be at their mercy. Even the poorest white Southerner of the time, who in no way profited from the labor of slaves, had been indoctrinated to believe that the emancipation of black slaves was a threat to their way of life. Poor, white Southerners and plantation owners already feared slave rebellions, and strict laws were in place to prevent therm. If emancipation occurred, they feared roving bands of unrestrained Negroes (using the polite language of that time) would rob their homes, rape their women, and impregnate their daughters. They had been taught that even co-mingling with blacks in society was unnatural and ungodly. Well before the Civil War, wealthy slave owners justified their “peculiar institution” and embedded the doctrine of white supremacy, and the fear of unrestrained negroes, into the fabric of southern culture, literature, and religion.
So, many poor white Southerners fought to retain (as they saw it) their natural place of superiority over the black race. They fought to protect themselves and their families from being assaulted by free, unrestrained Negroes, whose only proper place was in bondage serving white people. The literature of the South from that era is full of examples of white superiority, and negro inferiority, as a prevalent social belief.
From "The Mud-sill Theory" speech by South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond, given before the Senate in 1858:
Again, white supremacy.
From Cannibals All! or Slaves Without Masters, by George Fitzhugh, a Virginia attorney, 1857.
White supremacy.
There were many poor, white Southerners that were conscripted. Some may have not been racist, but most accepted white supremacy as the natural order.
See also: Why Non-Slaveholding Southerners Fought
Why Non-Slaveholders Will Fight For Slavery
The comment thread following the last post reflects the difficulty of coming to terms with the way in which slavery united white slaveholders and non-slaveholders of the South by the end of the ant…
http://cwmemory.com/2013/01/26/why-non-slaveholders-will-fight-for-slavery/
The interest in slavery of the southern non-slave-holder. The right of peaceful secession. Slavery in the Bible.
Also available in digital form.
https://www.loc.gov/item/11008376/
The Southern Argument for Slavery [ushistory.org]
27f. The Southern Argument for Slavery Southern slaveholders often used biblical passages to justify slavery. Those who defended slavery rose to the challenge set forth by the Abolitionists. The defenders of slavery included economics, history, religion, legality, social good, and even humanitarianism, to further their arguments. Defenders of slavery argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their economy. The cotton economy would collapse. The tobacco crop would dry in the fields. Rice would cease being profitable. Defenders of slavery argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos. This would lead to uprisings, bloodshed, and anarchy. They pointed to the mob's "rule of terror" during the French Revolution and argued for the continuation of the status quo, which was providing for affluence and stability for the slaveholding class and for all free people who enjoyed the bounty of the slave society. Some slaveholders believed that African Americans were biologically inferior to their masters. During the 1800s, this arguement was taken quite seriously, even in scientific circles. Defenders of slavery argued that slavery had existed throughout history and was the natural state of mankind. The Greeks had slaves, the Romans had slaves, and the English had slavery until very recently. Defenders of slavery noted that in the Bible, Abraham had slaves. They point to the Ten Commandments, noting that "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, ... nor his manservant, nor his maidservant." In the New Testament, Paul returned a runaway slave, Philemon, to his master, and, although slavery was widespread throughout the Roman world, Jesus never spoke out against it. Defenders of slavery turned to the courts, who had ruled, with the Dred Scott Decision , that all blacks — not just slaves — had no legal standing as persons in our courts — they were property, and the Constitution protected slave-holders' rights to their property. Defenders of slavery argued that the institution was divine, and that it brought Christianity to the heathen from across the ocean. Slavery was, according to this argument, a good thing for the enslaved. John C. Calhoun said, "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually." Defenders of slavery argued that by comparison with the poor of Europe and the workers in the Northern states, that slaves were better cared for. They said that their owners would protect and assist them when they were sick and aged, unlike those who, once fired from their work, were left to fend helplessly for themselves. James Thornwell , a minister, wrote in 1860, "The parties in this conflict are not merely Abolitionists and slaveholders, they are
https://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp
Causes Of The Civil War
Primary Sources: Slavery as the Cause of the Civil War
Last week, I had someone challenge me on Facebook about the cause of the Civil War. Because slavery wasn’t a cause of the war, he said, the point I was trying to make was moot. “It wasn’t *a* cause…
https://emergingcivilwar.com/2019/01/22/primary-sources-slavery-as-the-cause-of-the-civil-war/
That the Civil War was about the enslavement of those of the black race for profit is without question, according to the declarations made by the states that seceded from the Union (see: The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States and The Decision to Secede and Establish the Confederacy: A Selection of Primary Sources). That white supremacy was a motivating factor for both slavery and poor whites fighting to keep it is also without question.
Many sociologists and political scientists believe it is a root cause of racism today, even among whites who do not consider themselves racist. From the Miami Herald opinion section, The Confederacy was a con job on whites. And still is.:
For those who somehow think I am claiming absolute moral superiority of the North over the South, I am not. Many in the North who opposed slavery did not necessarily view the “Negro race” as equal to the “White race.” I suggest you read my answer here:
Tom Buczkowski's answer to If you lived in the South in the 1800s, do you think you'd support slavery?
Why are many non-wealthy Republicans opposed to tax increases on the wealthy, when they wouldn't be affected by those tax increases?
Americans have long been brainwashed to believe, with every fibre of their beings, that America is the land of opportunity, and anyone can make it big. To maintain this fantasy for more than just a few lucky individuals, SELL (Sports, Entertainment, Lotteries, and Lawsuits) gives a very few common people access. In exchange, the wealthy and powerful, get inspiring tales of success, to keep the rest motivated, and loathe to demand the sort of society and socio-economic system where everyone can get ahead:
As one of their most enduring and deeply-held myths, it’s worked wonders for decades, and still does, to this day.
Americans have long been brainwashed to believe, with every fibre of their beings, that America is the land of opportunity, and anyone can make it big. To maintain this fantasy for more than just a few lucky individuals, SELL (Sports, Entertainment, Lotteries, and Lawsuits) gives a very few common people access. In exchange, the wealthy and powerful, get inspiring tales of success, to keep the rest motivated, and loathe to demand the sort of society and socio-economic system where everyone can get ahead:
As one of their most enduring and deeply-held myths, it’s worked wonders for decades, and still does, to this day.
All white people, democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative have an interest in white supremacy. Once we accept and understand that principle then we will fully understand them.
So if you have a black father and a white mother, your mother has an interest in your oppression. She might love you but self preservation is a genetic mammalian trait so she will preserve herself over you and there's nothing she or you can do about it.
Only white people can end white supremacy but they never will as long as they consider themselves to be white. Whiteness as a principle is the enemy of all humanity and must be completely destroyed.
Thanks for attending my TED Talk.
So if you have a black father and a white mother, your mother has an interest in your oppression. She might love you but self preservation is a genetic mammalian trait so she will preserve herself over you and there's nothing she or you can do about it.
Only white people can end white supremacy but they never will as long as they consider themselves to be white. Whiteness as a principle is the enemy of all humanity and must be completely destroyed.
Thanks for attending my TED Talk.
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Reminds me of this comment from Brother Stretchwallz (rip)
from this thread:
VSB How Trump Ruined My Relationship With My White Mother | BGOL Community
Hey, as long as it henders you-know-who they don't care
