LINCOLN, TRUMP AND THE KNOW NOTHINGS
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY M WARNER
FEBRUARY 14, 2017
GANGS OF NEW YORK, THE MOVIE BY MARTIN SCORSESE WHICH CAME OUT IN 2002, WAS AN ENACTMENT OF THE NATIVIST MOVEMENT IN AMERICA, WHICH INCLUDED GREAT VIOLENCE AGAINST FOREIGNERS, ESPECIALLY IRISH CATHOLICS AND GANG WARFARE BETWEEN THEM. IT WAS A WHITE ON WHITE CONFLICT, BUT SO MUCH LIKE THE MORE DISREPUTABLE GROUPS WHO ARE FOLLOWING TRUMP SO AVIDLY TODAY, THAT I WANTED TO MENTION IT. I HOPE YOU WILL TAKE THE TIME TO READ THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ON THE KNOW NOTHINGS. THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT, WOMEN’S RIGHTS, AND OTHER THINGS WHICH I APPROVE HIGHLY WERE RELATED TO THE KNOW NOTHINGS, SO IT ISN’T THAT THEY DID NOTHING USEFUL FOR THE COUNTRY, BUT THE GROUP CONFLICTS IN PLACES SUCH AS NEW YORK WERE VERY VIOLENT. DO WATCH “GANGS OF NEW YORK” IF YOU DON’T FEEL TOTALLY UNABLE TO STOMACH THE BLOODY SCENES. THAT MOVIE DIDN’T HAVE TO BE THAT GRAPHICALLY PRESENTED, BUT THAT’S THE SCORCESE TRADEMARK.
I MENTION THAT BECAUSE OUR EVER SO SELF-PROTECTIVE ELEMENTS IN SOCIETY, THE WELL TO DO AND THE WELL EDUCATED. THEY, AND EVEN ME TO SOME DEGREE -- DID NOT EXPECT THAT A TRUMP WIN WAS LIKELY AT ALL. PEOPLE WHO OWN A NICE HOUSE IN THE CITY PROBABLY HAVE BEEN CAUGHT ALMOST UNAWARE OF THE “ANTI-OTHER” RAGE THAT IS A FRIGHTENINGLY LARGE PART OF THE TRUMP WORLDVIEW.
I STILL HAVE FAITH THAT THE JUDGES, SOME RELIABLE LEGISLATORS AND A HUGE NUMBER OF VOCAL CITIZENS MAY PREVENT THE FLIP TO A TRULY FASCIST POSITION. FOR A GOOD SOCIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATION OF WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED ON NOVEMBER 8, SEE THE FEBRUARY 11, 2017 BLOG NEWS ARTICLE FROM POLITICO ON THE SUBJECT, “A LETTER FROM PEPIN COUNTY”: “http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/blue-red-state-democrats-trump-country-214647.”
THIS IS A GREAT ARTICLE, BECAUSE RATHER THAN TALKING DOWN TO OUR OWN PERSONAL INBORN RACISM AND GROUP INSECURITIES – THE SEED OF WHICH LIVES IN EVERY HUMAN, I BELIEVE -- IT EXPLAINS AND ILLUSTRATES HOW THE LONG IGNORED “COUNTRY FOLK” HAVE MORPHED INTO A PROTO-MOB UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DONALD TRUMP, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, TO WHAT THEY FEEL AND ARE REACTING AGAINST. THESE THINGS HAPPEN MOST WHEN AN AREA IS ECONOMICALLY DISTRESSED AND PEOPLE LITERALLY START TO LOSE THEIR SELF-CONTROL. IT’S A MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE. IN SHORT, THEY NO LONGER BELIEVE THAT THEIR PREVIOUSLY STABLE SOCIAL POSITION IN SOCIETY IS “SAFE” FROM ASSAULT.
IN PEPIN COUNTY, THE ASSAULT ON LOCAL CULTURE WAS SEEN AS COMING FROM WELL TO DO LIBERALS AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM. AS THE LOCAL PEOPLE SAW THEIR SOURCES OF INCOME DRYING UP DUE TO THINGS LIKE AUTOMATION, WERE HAVING A HARDER AND HARDER TIME HOLDING ON. THE NEW “GENTRY” HAD BOUGHT UP LAND AND HOUSES IN PEPIN COUNTY AND CREATED THEIR OWN WEALTHY SECTION OF TOWN. AS ONE RESIDENT SAID, “WE DON’T GO THERE AND THEY DON’T COME HERE. THEY “TALKED DOWN THEIR NOSES” AT THE LOCALS, AND COMPLAINED ABOUT THE NEW ATV TRACK THAT THE COUNTRY PEOPLE LOVED. TO THE LOCALS IT WAS EXCITING AND ENTERTAINING, BUT TO THE MORE WELL TO DO, IT WAS JUST NOISY AS HECK, AND SPOILED THEIR BEAUTIFUL, PEACEFUL COUNTRY EXPERIENCE. THERE WERE CLASHES. THE FIRST SIGN OF THE CHANGE IN CLIMATE HAPPENED WHEN THE FORMERLY DEMOCRATIC COUNTY GRADUALLY BEGAN TO TURN REPUBLICAN.
BERNIE SANDERS “WON HANDILY” IN SEVERAL LOCAL ELECTIONS. LIKE TRUMP, HE IS A STUMP SPEAKER, AND LIKES “THE COMMON PEOPLE.” UNFORTUNATELY, WHEN HILLARY CLINTON WAS CAMPAIGNING SHE MAINLY HIT THE BIG CITY AND WEALTHY AREAS, WHERE HER PREFERRED CONSTITUENCY WAS. SHE DIDN’T SET FOOT IN PEPIN COUNTY, NOR THE WHOLE STATE, THAT ARTICLE SAYS. THEN WHEN DONALD TRUMP CAME AROUND HE CAME TO PEPIN AND STUMPED, TAKING CARE TO SCHMOOZE WITH EVERYONE AND KISS BABIES. HE ALSO DANGLED THE RACE CARD IN FRONT OF THE CROWD, AND HE PROMISED ECONOMIC MIRACLES. THEY FOLLOWED HIM WITH NOISY, RAUCOUS DELIGHT. ONE THING THAT ALL HUMANS DISLIKE IS BEING IGNORED OR TREATED BADLY. PEOPLE DIDN’T HATE HILLARY BECAUSE SHE WAS A DEMOCRAT, BUT BECAUSE OF THE DISMISSIVE WAY SHE TREATED THEM.
FROM MY VIEW, THAT ALSO TURNED ME AGAINST HER. I GREW UP IN THE ERA OF TRADE UNIONS WHO TOOK TO THE STREETS AND WON MORE MONEY AND BETTER BENEFITS FOR WORKERS. THEY WERE HEROES. NOW ALMOST THE WHOLE DNC IGNORES THE WORKING POOR, BECAUSE CELEBRITY BENEFITS HELD COZILY IN WEALTHY HOMES WERE EASIER AND MORE LUCRATIVE. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A WARNING TO THE DNC WHEN SANDERS CAME ALONG AND RAISED MILLIONS FROM THE MIDDLE TO LOWER INCOME PEOPLE, AND LIKE TRUMP, DREW HUGE CROWDS, MANY OF WHOM WERE NEWLY REGISTERED VOTERS. THAT IS A FORM OF POLLING THAT SHOULD NEVER BE DISMISSED AS A FLASH IN THE PAN. THE DNC SIMPLY BLEW IT. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IMPLODED. THEY TRIED TO BLAME BERNIE, BUT THERE IS A NATURAL DIVIDING LINE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FAITHFUL, AND IT FELL APART BASED ON THE WHITE WORKING CLASS VERSUS THE MAINLY CITY DWELLING IMMIGRANTS, ETHNIC/RACIAL AND OTHER LESS POWERFUL GROUPS. I AM SAD ABOUT IT, NOT FOR HILLARY, BUT FOR THE GRAND OLD DEMOCRATIC PARTY. I TRULY LOVED IT.
BUT ABOUT THE BEHAVIORAL AND IDEOLOGICAL DIVIDE BETWEEN CITY AND COUNTRY PEOPLE. IN THE CITY, WE ALL DO TEND TO INTERACT MOSTLY SELECTIVELY, ESPECIALLY WHEN KNOWN RACIAL HOSTILITY ISSUES EXIST, SO THAT TOLERANCE OF EVERYONE IS IMPORTANT, ON THE SURFACE AND BELOW. TOO MANY CHILDREN AND MARRIAGE PARTNERS KNOW, COLD LOVE IS WORTHLESS.
AS EVERY CITY DWELLER KNOWS, HOWEVER, YOU WILL WANT TO GO DOWN THE LEAST HOSTILE STREETS WHEN WALKING AT NIGHT, AND IF YOU DO HAVE TO INTERACT WITH STRANGERS, BE RESPECTFUL BUT VERY FIRM. THAT IS A NECESSARY OUTGROWTH OF STABLE CITY LIFE. THERE IS A CERTAIN FACIAL EXPRESSION WITH SUSTAINED EYE CONTACT AND ERECT BODILY STANCE THAT WILL PREVENT MANY WOULD-BE ATTACKERS FROM PICKING YOU AS A VICTIM. THE WEALTHY, OF COURSE, HAVE THEIR PERSONAL DRIVER TAKE THEM WHEREVER THEY WANT TO GO OR HIRE BODYGUARDS.
THE REAL ADVANTAGE OF CITIES IS THE ENTERTAINMENT, THE IMPROVED SOURCES OF JOBS, FOREIGN RESTAURANTS, THE PRESENCE ON THE STREET OF PEOPLE WHO ARE DRESSED IN INTERNATIONAL COSTUMES. IN OTHER WORDS, JUST WALKING DOWN A DOWNTOWN STREET CAN BE VISUALLY EXCITING. THE ADVENTUROUS ARE DRAWN TO CITIES. THERE IS AN EXHILARATED FEELING I GET IN MY VERY BODY FROM BEING ON THE MALL IN WASHINGTON DC, OR IN A CROWDED SUBWAY STATION THAT IS SIMILAR TO A WINDY BEACHFRONT. MY MIND IS FILLED WITH STIMULI.
THE BAD SIDE OF CITIES IS THE LOSS OF PERSONAL CONTACT WITH OTHERS WHO ARE STRANGERS. IN A SMALLER AREA, ESPECIALLY IN THE SOUTH, THERE IS A HABIT OF PEOPLE SPEAKING POLITELY TO STRANGERS WHO DO HAPPEN TO LOOK HARMLESS. IT’S CALLED NEIGHBORLINESS. THE STEREOTYPE THAT NORTHERN CITY DWELLERS TEND TO BE LESS FRIENDLY THAN RURAL AND PARTICULARLY SOUTHERN CITIZENS, AND EVEN DOWNRIGHT RUDE. SOUTHERNERS DON’T LIKE RUDE.
AN ANTHROPOLOGY PROFESSOR BACK IN COLLEGE DAYS SAID THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE PREDISPOSED TO LIVING IN GROUPS OF AROUND FIFTY, NOT FIFTY THOUSAND. IN THAT SIZE OF ACQUAINTANCESHIP ONE WILL KNOW EVERYBODY, AT LEAST BY REPUTATION. PEOPLE JUST CAN’T HELP RUNNING INTO EACH OTHER AS THEY GO ABOUT THEIR DAILY BUSINESS, TALK ENTHUSIASTICALLY ABOUT COMMON UNDERSTANDINGS AND VIEWPOINTS, AND GOSSIP, GOSSIP, GOSSIP. IT’S A VERY COMPANIONABLE RELATIONSHIP. ON THE OTHER HAND, IT LEADS TO A TERRITORIAL GROUP FEELING. A TURBAN IS NOT ONLY FEARED, IT MAY BE ACTIVELY DISLIKED. I HAPPEN TO LIKE THAT KIND OF THI
IN CITIES, THERE IS AN EMOTIONAL OVERLOAD OF HAVING TO BE AROUND SO MANY STRANGERS, BECAUSE WE INSTINCTIVELY EVALUATE EVERYONE WE MEET TO SEE WHETHER, INDEED, THEY ARE SAFE AND BENIGN. DOING THAT WITH FIFTY THOUSAND PEOPLE JUST ISN’T POSSIBLE. IF PEOPLE ARE DRESSED LIKE US, TALK LIKE US, AND THINK LIKE US IT FEELS MUCH SAFER.
THAT KIND OF THING DOESN’T REALLY BOTHER ME, BECAUSE WHEN I LOOK AT THE BODY LANGUAGE AND FACIAL EXPRESSION OF THOSE PEOPLE I LOOK FOR HOSTILITY AND “SHIFTINESS.” THAT GUY COMING TOWARD ME MAY NOT REALLY BE A PURSE SNATCHER OR WORSE, BUT IF HE LOOKS LIKE ONE I AVOID HIM OR PUT UP MY DEFENSE OF BEING MORE FORMIDABLE THAN I ACTUALLY AM. THAT GUY IF HE IS CLEVER, WILL PROBABLY KNOW THAT HE OUTWEIGHS ME BY FIFTY POUNDS, BUT IF HE SEES A DISMISSIVE BLANK STARE HE WILL THINK I MAY BE HIDING A WILLINGNESS TO PUT UP A FIGHT. IT’S JUST A BLUFF, BUT IT’S EFFECTIVE, EXCEPT WITH A DETERMINED ATTACKER. THAT IS EXACTLY THE REASON WHY A DOG OR CAT THAT FEELS THREATENED OR ANGRY WILL EXPAND THE FUR ALL OVER ITS’ BODY AND STARE AT THE ASSUMED ADVERSARY. IT PUTS ON THE APPEARANCE OF THEIR BEING QUITE A BIT LARGER, AND IT’S A PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGNAL TO BEWARE. EVEN A SIZABLE DOG, IF IT MEETS A CAT THAT LOOKS LIKE THAT WILL USUALLY GO AROUND IT. INSTINCT TRUMPS CONSCIOUS THOUGHT IN TIMES OF STRESS. THAT ANIMAL INSTINCT COMES OUT IN CITIES. UNFORTUNATELY, WHEN WE CITY DWELLERS COME TO A SMALL TOWN WE TEND TO CARRY SOME OF THAT PROTECTIVE BODY LANGUAGE WITH US, BUT THE LOCAL PEOPLE SEE IT AS DISDAIN AND REACT WITH ANGER. I WISH SCHOOL KIDS WOULD BE TAUGHT BASIC PSYCHOLOGY IN HIGH SCHOOL. IT’S INTERESTING AND VERY INFORMATIVE. I BELIEVE THE RESULT WOULD BE A BETTER ATMOSPHERE IN CITIES.
IN A CITY ENVIRONMENT, I DON’T EVALUATE PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THEIR SIN-FREE STATUS, BUT ACCORDING TO THE LIKELIHOOD THAT TURNING MY BACK ON THEM WILL CAUSE ME TO BE ROBBED OR KILLED. IN A SMALL TOWN, THERE IS CONSIDERABLY LESS DANGER OF THAT HAPPENING, OR SO WE INSTINCTIVELY BELIEVE. THAT’S WHY THE SARI, TURBAN, OR VEIL FILLS SMALL-TOWNERS WITH ANXIETY AND GROUP ANGER. SMALL TOWN PEOPLE ARE SIMPLY UNUSED TO ENCOUNTERING ANYTHING UNFAMILIAR. THERE IS ALSO HATRED, OF COURSE, BUT IN MY OPINION WHERE THAT OCCURS THE HATRED LIES DEEPER WITHIN THE INDIVIDUAL’S PSYCHE RATHER THAN IN THE SIMPLE CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH AN ODD-LOOKING STRANGER.
I KNOW FROM LIVING IN A SMALL SOUTHERN TOWN, THAT NOT EVERYONE HAS THAT HATRED AND DISDAIN, THOUGH THEY ARE CAUTIOUS AT FIRST, BUT FOR THOSE WHO DO ACTUALLY FEEL HATRED, IT IS FIRST LEARNED AT THEIR PARENTS’ KNEE. ANTI-BLACK JOKES ARE RAMPANT, AND IN SOME HOMES, ANTI-JEWISH OR HISPANIC OR NATIVE AMERICAN COMMENTARY IS EQUALLY PREVALENT. IN CITIES WHERE THERE IS A MUCH GREATER EXPOSURE TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE AND ATTITUDES, FOLKS ARE MORE RELAXED WITH IT AND EVEN ENJOY SUCH THINGS. IN SMALL TOWNS PEOPLE HAVE A TENDENCY TO FEEL THAT THEY “OWN” A CERTAIN PSYCHIC AND PHYSICAL SPACE. THIS IS MY TOWN, MY RELIGION, MY PERSONAL VIEWPOINTS, AND YOU DEFINITELY DON’T BELONG. GET OUT.
FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THAT GREATER FRIENDLINESS ON THE SURFACE, I LIKE SMALL TOWNS, BUT WHEN THE DOWNRIGHT NOSINESS AND ABUSE OF INDIVIDUALS OVER NOTHING MORE DEEPLY IMPORTANT THAN A TURBAN CROP UP, AND THEY DO; THE FUR RISES UP ON MY NECK, AS THE OLD REFERENCE GOES. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE DANGER FROM THOSE VERY SMALL TOWN PEOPLE AND THE CITY CRIMINAL TYPES IS LIKE THAT BETWEEN A FUNNEL WEB SPIDER AND A PIT VIPER. I’LL TAKE THE PIT VIPER. I’LL SEE HIM, AND WILL SIMPLY WALK AWAY. THE FUNNEL WEB WILL BE IN MY SHOE ONE MORNING WHEN I PUT MY FOOT IN IT.
IN CITIES, A CERTAIN CULTURAL RELATIVISM DOES DEVELOP IN MOST EMOTIONALLY STABLE PEOPLE, TO ALLOW SIMPLE PEACE ON THE STREETS AND IN THE MARKETPLACE. I WAS BROUGHT UP TO CALL IT POLITENESS, BUT THESE RURALLY BASED HARDCORE TRADITIONALISTS OF THE ALT-RIGHT TYPE (NOT THE HONEST COUNTRY PEOPLE WITHOUT SOCIAL PRETENSIONS) CALL IT “POLITICAL CORRECTNESS,” AND CONSIDER IT AN OUTRIGHT ASSAULT ON THEIR STRONGLY HELD TRADITIONAL AND LOCAL VIEWS -- SUCH AS THE RECENT LEGAL REQUIREMENT TO TREAT LESBIANS, GAYS, CATHOLICS, ISLAMIC PEOPLE, BLACKS, AND JEWS AS EQUALS; BLACKS ARE OFTEN CONSIDERED TO BE LESS INTELLIGENT THAN WHITES, OR DIRTIER OR MORE SINFUL, AND SO ON. THE MORE TRADITIONAL AND POOR THE PLACE IS, THERE MAY BE AN UNDERSTANDING THAT DOING VERBAL OR PHYSICAL VIOLENCE AGAINST AND “OUTSIDER” IS A-OKAY IF YOU DON’T GET CAUGHT. HENCE THE MIDNIGHT RAIDS BY THE KKK OR SOME IGNORANT AND VIOLENT TEENAGED BOYS. A TEENAGER IS BIG ENOUGH TO CAUSE HARM PHYSICALLY, BUT YOUNG ENOUGH TO THINK LIKE A TWELVE-YEAR OLD SOMETIMES.
TO MAKE THE URBAN/RURAL HOSTILITY WORSE, THOSE WELL-HEELED AND WELL-EDUCATED PEOPLE IN PEPIN AND SIMILAR PLACES HAVE A CERTAIN TENDENCY TO CONSIDER THE LOCALS TO BE BENEATH THEM, LITERALLY, AND ACT RUDELY TOWARD THEM. THAT CAUSES HURT, AND ON THE HEELS OF THAT, FURY.
WHEN I GO TO THE CHECKOUT COUNTER IN PUBLIX, I SPEAK BRIEFLY TO THE USUALLY BLACK YOUNG WOMAN AT THE CASH REGISTER, SMILE AND MAKE EYE CONTACT. MOST HUMANS OF ANY COLOR RESPOND POSITIVELY TO THAT. SOME ARE CLEARLY HOSTILE, HOWEVER, SO FRANKLY I MOVE ON AND DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT UNLESS THEY ARE ABUSIVE TO ME, IN WHICH CASE I WILL TELL THE MANAGER WHAT HAPPENED. BLACK PEOPLE OFTEN DON’T WANT TO BE CALLED RACIST, BUT THEY ARE JUST AS LIKELY TO REACT WITH HOSTILITY TO THE WRONG SKIN COLOR OR SLANT OF EYE AS WHITES ARE. A LOT OF BLACKS I’VE MET REALLY DON’T LIKE JEWS, FOR INSTANCE. HUMANS ARE RACIST.
IN ORDER FOR AMERICA’S RACIAL PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED, WE NEED TO BE HONEST AND CAREFUL, AND TREAT PEOPLE ONE TO ONE RATHER THAN AS A GROUP MEMBER. ONE THING I DON’T DO IS APPROACH BLACK PEOPLE TIMIDLY, HOWEVER, OR ANYONE ELSE FOR THAT MATTER. IT’S AN INVITATION TO THEIR BECOMING ABUSIVE TO ME. IF ANYBODY OF ANY COLOR VERBALLY ASSAULTS ME I AM LIKELY TO SPEAK BACK IN A WAY THAT WILL PUT THEM ON NOTICE. HOWEVER, WHAT I TRY NOT TO DO IS UNCONSCIOUSLY TREAT THEM BADLY OR SAY TO MYSELF, “THAT’S HOW BLACK PEOPLE ARE. I HATE THEM.” IF WE CLOSE OUR MIND AND OUR HEART, THE BATTLE IS LOST.
HENCE THE FIERCE BACKLASH AGAINST THE CORPORATE CLINTON DEMOCRATS, WHO LEFT THE MAINLY WHITE RURAL POOR BEHIND IN THE DUST WITHOUT EVEN A BACKWARD LOOK, WHEN THE POWER OF THE REAGAN MOVEMENT MADE THEM TRY TO SHIFT RIGHTWARD TO FOLLOW THE PERCEIVED DIRECTION OF THE VOTER POOL. HILLARY’S EXTREMELY UNFORTUNATE COMMENT WHEN SHE CALLED TRUMP FOLLOWERS A “BASKET OF DEPLORABLES,” WAS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT LOST HER THE ELECTION, NOT BERNIE SANDERS OR EVEN DONALD TRUMP.
THEN IN 2008, THE ELECTION OF A BLACK MAN, NO MATTER HOW INTELLIGENT, EDUCATED AND GENTLE HE IS, WAS THE IMMEDIATE DIRECT STIMULUS OF THE TRUMP FUROR IN THIS COUNTRY, BUT IT DIDN’T START RECENTLY. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT WAS CLEARLY THE START. OUR URBAN/RURAL, WHITE/BLACK, EDUCATED/UNDEREDUCATED, RICH/POOR CONFLICT HAS BEEN GETTING WORSE SINCE THE 1960S ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY, AND THE ELECTION OF PRESIDENT OBAMA IS THE PILE OF RESINOUS FAT PINE WOOD WHICH BEGAN BURNING WHITE HOT. WHITES HAD BEEN PUBLICLY DISGRACED AND “UNFAIRLY” VOTED DOWN AT THE POLLS. THE FURY WAS IMMEDIATELY NOTICEABLE.
WHAT DO ALL THOSE FACTORS HAVE IN COMMON? OUR CONSIDERABLE SOCIAL CONCEIT IN THIS COUNTRY – CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS, IN SHORT. WE RAN FROM IT OUT OF EUROPE, WHERE MOST OF OUR FAMILIES WERE NOT OF NOBLE BIRTH, BUT ARTISANS AND FARMERS. JUST LIKE THOSE *!#$* MEXICANS, EYE-TALIANS, AND AN ENDLESS VARIETY OF OTHER IMMIGRANTS, WE WERE LOOKING FOR A BETTER LIFE. WE TEND TO FORGET THAT MOST OF US WERE GIVEN LAND FROM THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT IN ORDER TO GET US TO COME IN AND DO THE HEAVY WORK OF FARMING, BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND WORKING IN BUSINESSES. WE DIDN’T INHERIT IT FROM OUR PARENTS, LIKE THE SONS OF BRITISH LORDS.
THOSE, BY THE WAY, THE PRIVILEGED AND VERY DEEPLY CLASS CONSCIOUS WELL-HEELED BRITS, WERE THE ONES WHO SET UP THE FAMOUS PLANTATION ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTH BASED ON THE MONEY-SAVING DEVICE OF BUYING OUR HELP RATHER THAN HIRING THEM. THAT’S WHERE THE PROBLEM STARTED. THERE WAS A GREAT ARTICLE ON THE NET – WHICH UNFORTUNATELY I HAVE APPARENTLY LOST FROM MY FILES – ON THE HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS OVER SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC LIBERALISM.
RELATIVELY GREATER LIBERAL THINKING HAS CHANGED BACK AND FORTH AT LEAST TWO OR THREE TIMES SINCE THE BIRTH OF OUR NATION, THE CIVIL WAR, THE FDR ERA, THE 1960S CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE, AND NOW THE POST REAGAN REVERSION OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY TO A TRULY TOXIC ULTRA-CONSERVATISM OF ALL KINDS. WHEN BABIES ARE STARVED BECAUSE RICH PEOPLE WANT MORE YACHTS, THAT IS GENUINELY TOXIC. THE PEPIN COUNTY ARTICLE PUTS IT DOWN TO THE ESPOUSAL BY LBJ/CLINTON DEMOCRATS OF CIVIL RIGHTS OVER A HIGHLY LAYERED SOCIAL SYSTEM, DOWN TO THE PRESENT EMERGENCE OF OTHER ABUSED GROUPS -- LGBT, RURAL/URBAN, INTELLECTUALISM OVER PRACTICAL, AND RELIGIOUS OVER PHILOSOPHICAL THINKING. THAT IS AN EMOTIONALLY VERY SENSITIVE CULTURAL DIVIDE, AND IT MAY – I DO HOPE NOT – END IN A KIND OF CIVIL WAR, OR AT ANY RATE A SOCIAL REBELLION WITHIN THE RANKS OF BOTH PARTIES. IT’S A REAL CAN OF WORMS!
IT’S ALL ABOUT OUR ENDLESS HIGHLY TOUTED AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS AND THE TOTAL REFUSAL TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER OR EVEN HAVE EMPATHY. WE TALK ABOUT BEING “COMPETITIVE” AS THE END ALL BE ALL, BUT WITH TOO LITTLE COOPERATION AMONG OUR PEOPLE, WE WON’T HAVE A SAFE OR PLEASANT COUNTRY HERE ANYMORE. COMPETITION IS TOO OFTEN NOT FRIENDLY AT ALL; AND THE SOUTH, ESPECIALLY, HAS ALWAYS BEEN CLASS CONSCIOUS. I WAS BORN IN THAT ENVIRONMENT, BUT I JUST DON’T REMEMBER FEELING IT THIS SEVERELY WHEN I WAS YOUNG. MY HOME TOWN WAS A QUIET PLACE THEN, AROUND TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE, AND COMPARED TO WASHINGTON DC, IT STILL IS.
THE PIEDMONT NC AREA HAS “GROWN LIKE TOPSY,” HOWEVER, WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH A NATIONAL TREND ON THE EAST AND WESTERN COASTS, BUT IN THE MIDDLE AND ESPECIALLY THE WEST, THERE ARE STILL LOTS OF SPARSELY POPULATED PLACES. IN THOSE PLACES THE NEWLY MILITANT AND RADICAL CONSERVATISM IS PRETTY MUCH TAKING OVER, IN AREAS WHICH USED TO HAVE PHILOSOPHICALLY MODERATE AND ECONOMICALLY COMFORTABLE POPULATIONS. UNFORTUNATELY, THOSE PLACES ARE SHRINKING, AS PEOPLE MOVE TO LARGE CITIES FOR A BETTER JOB MARKET.
CITIES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY HAVE GROWN TREMENDOUSLY SINCE THAT TIME. NORTH CAROLINA IS FRANKLY UNRECOGNIZABLE TO ME WHEN I DRIVE THROUGH THE PIEDMONT WHERE I GREW UP. THAT DOES GIVE ME A TWINGE OF TRUE GRIEF. WE HAD BEAUTIFUL OPEN FIELDS, PLANTED WITH TOBACCO, SOYBEANS, AND MORE, AND LARGE STANDS OF FOREST LAND. MOST OF THAT IS GONE THE WAY OF ALL UNDEVELOPED LAND. IT HAS SPROUTED HOUSES, LARGE HIGHWAYS AND WHOLE NEW TOWNS. THE SPIRIT OF THE COUNTRYSIDE IS CHANGED, AND I MISS THE OLD, BUT I AM HIGHLY ATTUNED TO CITY LIFE. I WANT THE RANGE OF OPPORTUNITIES THAT CITIES HAVE.
OUR COMPETITION-BASED DISTRUST OF ONE ANOTHER ISN’T THE ONLY EMOTIONAL FACTOR INVOLVED IN OUR CONFLICTS TODAY, BUT IT’S THE DYNAMITE IN THE MIX. OF COURSE, OUR INCREASINGLY MILITANT FUNDAMENTALIST RELIGIOUS GROUPS – SOME OF WHICH ARE ACTIVELY TRYING TO TURN THIS COUNTRY INTO A THEOCRACY, DAMN THEM – IS THE REST OF THE MATTER, FROM MY STANDPOINT. THAT JUST ISN’T THE “OLD TIME RELIGION” THAT I GREW UP WITH BUT A THINLY DISGUISED RADICAL RIGHTIST DESIRE TO STAMP OUT FREEDOM OF THOUGHT BY MANDATING SOME PRETTY STRANGE DOGMAS, WHICH HAVE LITTLE TO DO WITH LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS AS OURSELVES.
I CONSIDER THAT AN OPEN ASSAULT ON “THE AMERICAN WAY,” AS SET OUT PRETTY CLEARLY IN THE CONSTITUTION. THE CITIZENS UNITED DECISION BY THE SUPREME COURT AND THE GUTTING OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS OF THE ‘60S, HAVE BEEN THE LAST STRAW. THE DAVID KOCH-CREATED TEA PARTY ARE THE BARBARIANS ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY WAITING TO SACK OUR DEMOCRACY FOR ITS’ OIL, COAL, FARMLAND, AND CHEAPER LABOR HERE IN THE SOUTH. I DON’T WANT SOCIETY TO USURP OUR LITTLE BIT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL LIVING SPACE THAT WE ALL NEED TO BE HAPPY – OUR MOST UNIQUE CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEE AS STATE SO BEAUTIFULLY, “THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.”
THE TRADITIONALISTS, OF COURSE, WOULD CONTINUE TO CLAIM THAT WE IRRELIGIOUS CITY FOLK JUST AREN’T ACCEPTABLY MORAL. LIBERAL CITY PEOPLE DO TEND TO PLACE ETHICS ABOVE ANY SPECIFIC RELIGION, MORALITY, AND THAT PUREE-LIKE GROUP UNITY THAT THE CONSERVATIVE TENDS TO SEE AS GOOD. BEING A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESSIVE, I DISAGREE WITH THAT INTENSELY, AND I BELIEVE THAT MY VIEW IS THE ONE PREFERRED IN THE CONSTITUTION.
OUR PEOPLE CAME OVER HERE FOR A NUMBER OF THINGS, BUT THE FREEDOM FROM ANY RELIGIOUS MANDATE AT ALL WAS ONE OF THE MOST DEEPLY FELT. MANY WERE PHILOSOPHICAL RATHER THAN RELIGIOUS. THEY HAVE ADDED TO FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND ACTION IN THE US. THOREAU AND EMERSON, TRANSCENDENTALISTS, WERE INVOLVED IN ISSUES LIKE SLAVERY AND OTHER FORWARD-THINKING VIEWS. MANY SUCH PEOPLE WERE UNITARIANS. THOREAU WROTE A FAMOUS ESSAY CALLED “RESISTANCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT,” OR “CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE,” SO THOSE WILDLY REBELLIOUS “HIPPIES” OF THE 1970S WEREN’T DOING ANYTHING NEW, AND CERTAINLY NOT “UNAMERICAN.” IT’S VERY AMERICAN. IT’S ALSO A VERY EFFECTIVE TOOL TO GET LEGISLATORS TO CHANGE THE EXISTING LAW, AND IT ISN’T USUALLY VIOLENT.
INFURIATINGLY AND SADLY, THE MODERN DOMINIONISTS, WHO ARE SPRINKLED LIBERALLY AMONG THE KOCH DRIVEN “CONSERVATIVE” MOVEMENT, HAVE SEVERAL TIMES ARGUED THAT WHAT THE CONSTITUTION REALLY MEANT WAS THAT THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION WAS TO HAVE DOMINANCE, AND YADDA, YADDA, YADDA. THERE REALLY IS A HUGE AMOUNT OF POLITICAL LYING GOING ON THESE DAYS, AND GULLIBLE PEOPLE ARE BELIEVING IT. SO, AS YOU CAN UNDOUBTEDLY TELL, I TEND TO THINK OF THE ABUSE OF GROUPS OR INDIVIDUALS BECAUSE OF THEIR NON-CRIMINAL DIFFERENCES TO BE ONE OF THE VERY WORST KINDS OF IMMORALITY – UP THERE WITH PARENTAL INCEST WITH THEIR CHILDREN. IT IS THE BREAKING OF A LAW OF HUMAN NATURE, THE LAW OF BASIC FAIRNESS. MY VALUES OR NONE AT ALL! MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY! YOU, THERE, JUST GET OUT! YOU AREN’T WANTED HERE!
WE DESPERATELY NEED TO “UNLAX, DOC,” AS THE GREAT BUGS BUNNY USED TO SAY, AND GIVE PEOPLE A FIGHTING CHANCE TO PURSUE THEIR OWN PERSONAL HAPPINESS. CLEARLY, THAT MAY INVOLVE SOMETHING LIKE GAY MARRIAGE. GAY RAPE WOULD BE AS BAD OR WORSE TO ENDURE AS ANY OTHER KIND OF RAPE, BUT MOST GAY PEOPLE DO NOT RAPE. THE CHILD ABUSERS AREN’T ORDINARY GAYS, BUT PEDOPHILES. GAYS ALMOST NEVER WANT A LITTLE BOY, BUT A GROWN MAN. THEY WANT TO BE WITH PEOPLE OF THEIR OWN KIND. OTHER THAN FORCING “CONSERVATIVE” THINKERS TO VENTURE OUTSIDE THEIR OWN MENTAL PRISONS AND EXPERIENCE SOMETHING NEW -- OR WORSE STILL TO SHARE THE UNITED STATES WITH PEOPLE WHO DARE TO BELIEVE DIFFERENTLY -- GAYS DO NOT HARM SOCIETY.
BELOW I HAVE INCLUDED THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN LETTER BECAUSE IT PERFECTLY DESCRIBES TRUMP’S FOLLOWERS AND THE PLIGHT OF OUR SOCIETY RIGHT NOW. IN LINCOLN’S LETTER, HE USES THE TERM “KNOW NOTHINGS,” WHO WERE THE SOCIETALLY TROUBLESOME GROUP OF THE TIME. THE TERM HAS APPEARED IN SOME NEWS ARTICLES SINCE THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHANGED OUR SOCIAL FRAMEWORK. I ASSUMED IT WAS AN INSULTING DESCRIPTIVE TERM, BUT IT’S A POLITICAL NAME CHOSEN BY THEMSELVES. BEING CURIOUS ABOUT NEW THINGS, I GOOGLED IT. SEE BELOW.
THE TERMS “KNOW NOTHING” AND “NATIVIST” COME FROM THE INTENSE SECRECY OF CERTAIN MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY POLITICALLY ACTIVE GROUPS,’ AND THEIR DISLIKE OF “OUTSIDERS” LIKE IRISH CATHOLICS. MOST IRISH PEOPLE HERE IN THE RURAL SOUTH, ARE PROTESTANTS, FROM ULSTER, AND THE WARFARE BETWEEN THE TWO GROUPS GOES BACK INTO OR BEYOND THE 1500S. “I KNOW NOTHING” WAS THE PHRASE THAT THEIR MEMBERS WERE SUPPOSED TO SAY IF THEY WERE CAUGHT BY THE AUTHORITIES DOING SOME SUSPICIOUS DEED. THE KKK WAS PART OF THE BROADLY BASED NATIVIST MOVEMENT OF THE TIME, AS WAS ABOLITIONISM ON THE OTHER END OF THE SPECTRUM. I TEND TO DISLIKE GROUPS LIKE THAT – ESPECIALLY THE RELIGIOUS RADICALS WHO SHOOT ABORTION DOCTORS IN THE NAME OF GOD. TO ME, THAT SIMPLY ISN’T RELIGION, BUT WAR.
IT MAY BE TIME FOR US IN THIS COUNTRY TO START SOME POLITICALLY ORIENTED GROUPS LIKE THOSE, HOWEVER TO PRESERVE DEMOCRACY. I’VE BEEN THINKING OF ONE I WOULD LIKE TO SET UP CALLED “COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE,” A COMMUNICATION NETWORK TO LET OTHER FREETHINKING PROGRESSIVES KNOW WHEN THE FIRST AMERICAN POGROM IS ABOUT TO BEGIN. SO, OKAY, THAT’S RADICAL AND SOUNDS A LITTLE PARANOID, BUT GIVEN OUR SITUATION THESE DAYS, IT’S PRETTY LOGICAL. IN FACT, SOME OF THE INTERNET GROUPS I’M IN TOUCH WITH ARE IN ABOUT THE SAME CLASS, THOUGH THEY AREN’T AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, SECRETIVE. THEY’RE OUT ON THE WEB BLASTING THEIR RACIST POISON ALL OVER THE WORLD, AS OUR GREAT NATION GIVES THEM THE RIGHT TO DO. SIGH.
I WILL JUST SAY IT ONE MORE TIME: BEWARE OF GROUPTHINK, ESPECIALLY IN THE FORM OF THIS HIGHLY EXCLUSIONARY “NATIVISM,” WHICH WE HAVE TODAY, AS SUCH GROUPS ARE SO OFTEN MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN USEFUL. PEOPLE ARE SIMPLY BORN QUARRELSOME, AND THE MORE THERE ARE OF US IN ONE PLACE, THE BIGGER THE FIGHT WILL BE. THE PROBLEM WITH OUR CITIES IS THAT THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE LIVING NEXT TO EACH OTHER FOR US TO KNOW THEM ALL WELL ENOUGH TO PICK WHO WE SHOULD TRUST, SO WE START USING THESE EXTERNAL MEASURES INSTEAD. A TURBAN, A GAY WALK, A DARKER TONE OF SKIN COLOR.
BLACK SKIN MEANS “DIFFERENT” AND DIFFERENT MAY POSSIBLY BE DANGEROUS. SOME PEOPLE THINK MORE ANALYTICALLY AND CLEARLY THAN OTHERS, AND IT TAKES REASONING TO GET BEYOND OUR KNEE JERK REACTIONS TO THE SITUATION OF OVERCROWDING THAT WE FIND OURSELVES IN THIS CENTURY. I WOULD ENCOURAGE ALL WHO READ THIS TO MAKE A REAL EFFORT TO DELVE INTO YOUR/MY OWN INNER MINDS AND SEE WHAT OUR THOUGHT PATTERNS ACTUALLY ARE. A TALKING GROUP IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO DO THAT. MOST OF US LIE TO OURSELVES OVER ISSUES THAT PROMPT US TO FEEL SOME GUILT, SUCH AS FEELING UP A LITTLE CHILD, AND WE PUT UP A WALL OF RESISTANCE AGAINST MAKING CHANGE, ESPECIALLY THE SORT OF CHANGE THAT MAKES US COME TO A POINT OF ACTUALLY HEARING ANOTHER PERSON SPEAK THEIR MIND. WE MIGHT JUST CONSIDER HOW GREAT A FRIEND THE BLACK SKINNED PERSON WE HAVE JUST MET AT A SOCIAL OCCASION, OR IN THE APARTMENT BUILDING WHERE WE LIVE, COULD POSSIBLY BECOME. HECK, IF WE DID THAT IT WOULD BE “A RACE TRAITOR.” WE NEED TO OPEN UP TO SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION.
IN A VIOLENT AND DANGEROUS TIME PERIOD, SUCH AS THE DARK AGES IN EUROPE, WHEN WAR LORDS (LIKE THE SEMI-FICTIONAL KING ARTHUR) RODE AROUND ON THEIR CHARGERS AND FOUGHT WHOEVER THEY HAPPENED TO RUN ACROSS WITH AX AND SWORD AND LANCE, STEALING THE POOR PEASANT’S CORN CROP OR PIGS TO FEED THEIR ARMIES, WE WOULD INDEED NEED TO BE ARMED TO THE TEETH AND SEGREGATE OURSELVES BY SKIN COLOR AND RELIGION. RIGHT. ALL ENEMIES MUST BE DETECTED BEFORE THEY CAN ATTACK US. RIGHT. INSTEAD OF THAT, LET’S COURAGEOUSLY FORM GROUPS ACROSS COLOR LINES THAT BIND US TOGETHER INSTEAD OF FRACTURING OUR SOCIETY DOWN THE MIDDLE. LETS GET TOGETHER WITH CHRISTIANS OF ANOTHER RACE INSTEAD OF MERELY WITH OUR FELLOW WHITE BAPTISTS.
THANK GOD, IN OUR TIMES, THINGS ARE SIMPLY NOT LIKE THE DARK AGES. WE HAVEN’T HAD THAT LEVEL OF INSECURITY IN THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS OR SO, EXCEPT FOR SOME HORRIFIC BREAKDOWNS IN LOCALIZED AREAS. THE TWO THAT COME TO MIND WERE GEOGRAPHICALLY NOT WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT – ONE WAS IN THE NORTH AND THE OTHER IN THE SOUTH IN THE 1920S. BOTH OF THOSE WERE MASSED ATTACKS BY WHITES ON BLACK COMMUNITIES IN WHICH DOZENS WERE KILLED AND BUILDINGS WERE BURNED. DURING AND AFTER THE CIVIL WAR AND IN THE WESTERN FRONTIER IT WAS MUCH MORE COMMON THAN THAT.
IN THE WEST, THERE WERE “RANGE WARS,” DUE TO THE FACT THAT FARMERS HAD AN ANNOYING HABIT OF PLANTING CROPS ON THE LAND RATHER THAN ALLOWING CATTLE GRAZING, AND SHEEP HERDERS VERSUS CATTLE HERDERS HAVE A SIMILAR LAND USE ISSUE. SHEEP LITERALLY PULL THE GRASS UP BY THE ROOTS TO EAT IT, WHICH KILLS IT. IT WON’T GROW BACK THERE WITHOUT BEING SPECIFICALLY PLANTED. THERE WERE ALSO THE WATER WARS, AND MORE. GUN TOTIN’ LAWMEN LIKE MARSHALL DILLON WERE NOT JUST A MATTER OF FICTION. OF COURSE, ON GUNSMOKE, MATT TRIES HARD NOT TO KILL PEOPLE UNNECESSARILY, UNLESS HE OR SOMEONE ELSE IS ATTACKED. HE BRINGS THEM BACK INTO TOWN TO BE TRIED BY A JURY BEFORE THEY’RE HUNG. I, PERSONALLY, DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS FAIRLY CIVILIZED NATION BROUGHT DOWN TO THAT LEVEL AGAIN, BUT QUITE A FEW OF THE TRUMP FOLLOWING ACTUALLY ADVOCATE THINGS LIKE EVERYBODY CARRYING A GUN SO THEY CAN “PROTECT THEMSELVES.” THE MICHAEL DUNN SHOOTING IS ONE OF THOSE. SELF DEFENSE IS A MATTER OF PERCEPTION.
THE PROBLEM WITH GROUP VIOLENCE IS THAT SUCH FLASHOVERS CAN OCCUR RAPIDLY. IT CAN ERUPT IMMEDIATELY WITHOUT ENOUGH GOOD REASON TO EVEN PREDICT ITS’ OCCURRENCE, ESPECIALLY IN A TIME WITH THIS LEVEL OF SOCIAL TENSION, AND THE IDEA THAT MANY OF US WOULD BE CARRYING GUNS IS HORRIFYING. ALL THAT GLORIOUSLY POLITICALLY INCORRECT BEHAVIOR SUCH AS VERBAL AND PHYSICAL SLURS – THE SEVERED HEAD OF A PIG WAS LEFT IN FRONT OF A MOSQUE WITHIN THE LAST YEAR HERE IN OUR DEMOCRATIC, CHRISTIAN SOCIETY – AND ALL OF THAT SORT OF THING ADDS IMMEASURABLY TO THE LEVEL OF OVERT RESENTMENT AND HATRED. IT IS NOT PARANOID TO CONSIDER THAT WE COULD END UP WITH STREET WARFARE OF A HORRIFIC SORT. IT IS HIGHLY LIKELY TO CAUSE GRIEVOUS RACIAL CONFLICT HERE AGAIN. GO TO THE INTERNET AND LOOK UP “ROSEWOOD, FLORIDA.” WE SHOULD READ THINGS LIKE THAT THOUGH THEY’RE PAINFUL, TO FAMILIARIZE OURSELVES WITH WHAT IS POSSIBLE WITHIN THE MINDS OF PERFECTLY NICE PEOPLE UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES. GERMANY’S HOLOCAUST OF THE 1930’S DIDN’T EMERGE IN A CULTURAL VACUUM, BUT IN A SOCIETY WHERE JEW BAITING WAS PAR FOR COURSE. IT WASN’T EVEN SCORNED, BUT CHEERED.
WHAT WE NEED TO DO ON A DAILY BASIS IS ALLEVIATE THE DARNED SOCIAL TENSION AMONG OUR CITIZENS BY SMILING, MEETING THE EYE AND SPEAKING TO EVERYONE BE THEY BLACK, WHITE OR POLKA DOTTED, AND TREAT THEM FAIRLY. IF WE DO THAT WE WILL HAVE MUCH LESS CONFLICT IN OUR LIVES THAN IF WE DON’T, AND THERE WON’T BE ANY NEED TO SEGREGATE GROUPS. THEY WON’T FEEL AS MUCH DISTRUST AND RAGE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
FOR ANOTHER AMERICAN EXAMPLE, READ THE FOLLOWING BIO OF SAMMY DAVIS, JR. HIS STORY IS TOLD IN THE ARTICLE WHICH I HAVE PLACED BELOW TO SHOW EXACTLY WHERE WE WILL SLIDE BACK TO IF WE ALLOW WHITE SUPREMACISTS TO GET A FIRM CONTROL HERE AGAIN. BEFORE WE PROUDLY SAY THAT WE WHITES HAVE BEEN GENTLE AND DECENT PEOPLE TOWARD OTHER RACES, LOOK AT THIS DAILYMAIL ARTICLE.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2607068/He-endured-called-boy-c-n-N-word-Sammy-Davis-Jr-s-greatest-humiliation-came-JFK-refused-let-perform-inauguration-married-white-woman.html
“CONSERVATIVES,” LED BY THE NRA, THE MILITIAS, THE TEA PARTY AND THE KKK, WHICH TO VIRTUALLY ALL POLITICAL SCIENTISTS AREN’T CONSIDERED CONSERVATIVE AT ALL, BUT RADICAL AND REACTIONARY, ARE THE GROUPS THAT I FEAR MOST. THEY HAVE THE LEAST SANITY AND AMELIORATING EDUCATIONAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND TO GENTLE THEIR SOULS, AND THEREFORE ARE AT LEAST AS “DANGEROUS” AS AN UNKNOWN BLACK MAN ON A CITY STREET; SOME HOT BLOODED YOUNG MEN IN THOSE GROUPS PROFESSEDLY WANT TO START A CULTURAL WAR WITH REAL WEAPONS HERE; ONE SUCH MAN WAS INTERVIEWED BY A REPORTER AND HE CASUALLY SPOKE OF “THE RACE WAR” THAT IS COMING. THE WORST OF IT WAS THAT HE SEEMED TO WANT IT TO HAPPEN. IT FEELS TO ME AS THOUGH WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A NATIONAL MENTAL BREAKDOWN, AND I FOR ONE WILL NOT “GO QUIETLY” IF I AM CONFRONTED FOR SOMETHING LIKE PERSISTENTLY DOING A PROGRESSIVE BLOG ON EVENTS THAT DONALD TRUMP FEELS SENSITIVE ABOUT. I CAN EASILY BELIEVE THAT THESE TRUMP FOLLOWERS WILL TRY TO CHANGE OUR LEGAL SYSTEM TO THE DEGREE THAT THINGS LIKE “CHECKS AND BALANCES” WILL CHEERFULLY BE OBLITERATED. TRUMP HAS ALREADY TAKEN A STRONG SWIPE AT THE LEGITIMACY OF JUDICIAL REVIEW. WHAT ARE WE THINKING ABOUT?
THE ACTUAL AMOUNT OF “DISORDER” OR “UNAMERICAN” BEHAVIOR WARRANTING ALL THIS ANTI-LIBERAL CULTURAL DIVISIVENESS IS BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION BY THE ILLIBERAL AND TRULY “FAKE” NEWS SOURCES SUCH AS BREITBART. THERE WAS A CALL BY A MIDWEST MILITIA MEMBER LAST YEAR FOR THE USA TO BECOME “A WHITE NATION.” THAT SCARED ME. ONE, GUYS, THAT WON’T HAPPEN EASILY, AND WILL INVOLVE FIGHTING IN THE STREETS. TWO, IF YOU DO TRY THAT YOU WILL FIND HOW MANY LIBERAL/ PROGRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS THERE ARE OUT HERE TO FIGHT YOU. THIS KIND OF SOCIAL DIVISION CAUSES HORRIBLE VIOLENCE TO ERUPT AND PRODUCES LITTLE GOOD UNLESS IT DOES RESULT IN THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
THE FACT IS THAT A COUNTRY THIS SIZE, NO MATTER WHAT THE SKIN COLOR DISTRIBUTION, WILL NOT BE WITHOUT CONFLICT, BECAUSE HUMANS JUST AREN’T THAT MENTALLY WELL BALANCED. FIGHTING IS PART OF WHAT WE DO. AT BEST, IT KNITS TOGETHER THE EDGES OF A SUBCULTURE WITH ALL THAT GROUP UNITY; AT WORST IS OPENS UP THAT NORMALLY LOCKED EMOTIONAL DOOR TO OUR MOST PRIMITIVE INSTINCTS, AND WHEN I SAY PRIMITIVE, I DO MEAN APELIKE. WHAT HAPPENED UNDER ADOLF HITLER WASN’T FULLY HUMAN, BUT BESTIAL. READ SOME OF THE THINGS THEY ACTUALLY DID THEN.
PERSONALLY, I CHOOSE TO HANG BACK FROM THE CROWD, EVEN IF THEY ARE “POPULAR,” AND FOLLOW A PATH OF MY OWN. THOSE WHO LISTEN TO THEIR OWN DRUMMER ARE SOMETIMES ACTUALLY PSYCHOTIC, BUT RARELY. MUCH MORE OFTEN THEY ARE JUST CREATIVE FREE THINKERS WHO ARE WHAT WE USED TO CALL “SHY.” I’LL TAKE A GOOD INTROVERT ANY DAY OF THE WEEK OVER AN AGGRESSIVE SOCIAL PERSON LIKE THESE. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATIVISTS AND NAZIS IS A VERY SMALL ONE OF DEGREE RATHER THAN OF CHARACTER. NATIVISM IS DEFINED AS “THE POLICY OF PROTECTING THE INTERESTS OF NATIVE INHABITANTS AGAINST THOSE OF IMMIGRANTS.” THERE IS ROOM FOR NEWCOMERS, AFTER ALL. GENETICALLY IT PRODUCES NEW GENES WITH WHICH TO HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF EVOLVING BEYOND THIS ONGOING RACIAL AND ETHNIC WAR WHICH WE HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN SO OFTEN HERE. OUR MINDS WERE GIVEN TO US NOT MERELY TO MEMORIZE MATHEMATICS, BUT TO REASON OUR WAY INTO A KINDER AND GENTLER NATURE.
UP TO A CERTAIN POINT, I UNDERSTAND THAT IMPULSE TO PROTECT “OUR OWN” PEOPLE AND WAYS, BUT THE KIND OF LIFE I WANT TO LIVE WOULD BE CRAMPED INDEED BY FINDING FEW IF ANY PEOPLE WHO WERE DIFFERENT FROM ME, SO THAT I COULDN’T LEARN AS MUCH FROM MY SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AS I CAN NOW. IN ADDITION, SUCH A PHILOSOPHY OF NATIVISM ALMOST ALWAYS INCLUDES MORE RESTRICTION ON THE INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN’S THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS THAN I COULD HAPPILY ABIDE. IT WOULD MAKE ME WANT TO GO TO SOME OTHER PLACE WHERE THERE ARE ENGLISH SPEAKERS, ESPECIALLY ENGLAND OR AUSTRALIA. WE ALL NEED TO THINK MUCH MORE DEEPLY AND MORE OFTEN ABOUT OUR BELIEFS AND ABILITY TO RESPECT AND TOLERATE THOSE OF OTHERS.
IN ADDITION, THE HOSTILE TAKEOVER THAT HAPPENED HERE THIS LAST NOVEMBER 8, COULD HAVE BEEN FORESEEN AND PREVENTED IF WE HADN’T HAD OUR EYES CLOSED ABOUT THE PAINFUL JOBLESSNESS AND LIVING CONDITIONS AROUND THE COUNTRY; AND HAD PUT MORE MONEY INTO SPECIFIC AREAS – SUCH AS THIS DYING TOWN CALLED PEPIN -- WHERE JOBS ARE MOST NEEDED TO THE POINT THAT PEOPLE HAVE TO MOVE OUT TO SURVIVE. THE PEOPLE THERE ARE BECOMING HOSTILE DUE TO THEIR POORLY PAYING JOBS, UNTIL RADICALISM EMERGED UNDER THE INFECTIOUS RANTING OF DONALD TRUMP.
WE SIMPLY MUSTN’T ALLOW A RADICAL POLITICAL PARTY, WHICH DOES NOT VALUE DEMOCRACY AT ALL, TO EMERGE NATIONWIDE AND BECOME UNIFIED AS THE TEA PARTY AND THE MILITIAS, ETC. DID IN THE LAST TEN YEARS. WE MUSTN’T ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE UNWILLING OR UNABLE TO PERCEIVE THE DANGER THAT WE HAPPEN TO BE IN THESE DAYS. LOOK UP, FOLKS. THERE’S A CLIFF EDGE JUST AHEAD. LET’S SLOUGH OFF THIS TRAITOROUS AND UNSOUND INDIVIDUAL WHOM WE HAVE ALLOWED TO COME TO POWER, AND REINFORCE OUR DEDICATION TO FAIRNESS AND THE FINANCIAL AID FOR INDIVIDUALS WHO, DUE TO EDUCATIONAL OR SANITY ISSUES, AGE OR PHYSICAL DISABILITY ARE UNABLE TO GET PICK THEMSELVES UP BY THEIR BOOTSTRAPS.
FOR YET ANOTHER STIMULANT TO YOUR GOOD HONEST DEMOCRATIC SENTIMENTS, READ THIS SAD DAILYMAIL ARTICLE ON THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT CURRENT WHEN I WAS YOUNG. THIS IS THE TIME PERIOD TO WHICH THE BREITBART FOLLOWERS WANT TO SEND OUR COUNTRY AGAIN, A BACKWARD MOVE IN ALL WAYS, ABOUT THE SAD LIFE OF SAMMY DAVIS JR., ONE OF OUR BEST AMERICAN MUSICAL PERFORMERS. IT WAS SAD PARTLY BECAUSE HE DIDN’T COWER, EVEN AT AGE SEVENTEEN IN THE MILITARY WHEN HE ENDURED BEATINGS FROM SOME FELLOW RECRUITS.
I HAD KNOWN THAT REALLY GREAT AFRICAN AMERICAN PERFORMERS COULDN’T STAY IN HOTELS, BUT THIS ARTICLE GIVES SOME EXCRUCIATING DETAILS THAT I WOULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED. I AM REMINDED, ALSO, BY THIS EQUALLY APPROPRIATE STORY ABOUT THE WONDERFUL AMERICAN SINGER, MARION ANDERSON, WHO WAS NOT ALLOWED TO SING IN CARNEGIE HALL OVER WHAT ONE PERSON – NO, I CAN’T REMEMBER WHO, NOR FIND IT ON GOOGLE -- WAS FILMED ON A TELEVISION INTERVIEW SOME 15 YEARS AGO ACTUALLY CALLING THE REASON FOR THAT SNUB, “THE QUALITY ISSUE.” WHAT KIND OF ASININE COMMENT IS THAT?? AMERICA NEEDS TO RETHINK ITS’ VIEWS, GOALS AND ATTITUDES, OR WE WILL SINK TO OUR NECKS IN THAT ONLY FORM OF STUPIDITY THAT I HAVE NO SYMPATHY FOR, WILLFUL STUPIDITY. THE GOD OF MY UNDERSTANDING DIDN’T MEAN FOR US TO USE OUR BRAINS FOR SUPPRESSING LOGIC. WHATEVER THAT IS, IT ISN’T FAITH, NOR IS IT VIRTUE. THIS IS A FAILURE OF OUR LEGISLATORS TO APPLY FUNDS, OVERSIGHT, AND TO STRESS A TRUE LIBERAL ARTS, WELL-ROUNDED, QUALITY EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE RATHER THAN FOSTERING PATRIOTISM OF THE CONSERVATIVE VARIETY – NOTHING CONTROVERSIAL ABOUT OUR SLAVERY HISTORY, FOR INSTANCE. I DON’T BY ANY MEANS HATE VIRTUE, BUT WHAT OUR KIDS ARE LEARNING IN LOTS OF SCHOOLS IS NO FORM OF VIRTUE.
THAT SHAMEFUL REFUSAL BY CARNEGIE HALL WAS QUICKLY FOLLOWED BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT’S ARRANGING AN OPEN-AIR CONCERT FOR HER ON THE STEPS OF THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL ON EASTER SUNDAY, 1939. THAT WAS DURING THE HITLER RISE TO POWER AND GOVERNMENTS AND POPULATIONS FROM ENGLAND TO THE USA WERE FOLLOWERS OF HIS VIEWS. ALONG WITH THAT WAS THE EQUALLY SHAMEFUL EUGENICS PROGRAMS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO PREVENT THE “FEEBLEMINDED” MEMBERS OF OUR POPULATION FROM BEARING CHILDREN. YES, WOMEN AND MEN WERE STERILIZED FOR A TENDENCY TO DEPRESSION OR BEING INTELLECTUALLY HANDICAPPED. MY UNCLE’S WIFE COULD NOT HAVE CHILDREN, AND SHE DID HAVE A TENDENCY TO BE VERY NERVOUS AND DEPRESSIVE. I HAVE WONDERED SINCE I FOUND OUT ABOUT ALL OF THAT WHETHER OR NOT SHE WAS STERILIZED. SHE WAS QUITE BRIGHT AND A GREAT COOK. HUMAN POTENTIAL WAS WASTED IN OUR PAST WITH NO NOTICEABLE PANGS OF CONSCIENCE AT ALL. SOMETIMES, THERE IS REDEMPTION, HOWEVER. THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE TALKS ABOUT THE GREAT WHITE PERSECUTOR OF BLACK PEOPLE, GEORGE WALLACE, AS HE MADE A PUBLIC APOLOGY TO THE BLACK PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY. CHANGE IS POSSIBLE.
THE PAINFUL BUT TRIUMPHANT LIFE OF DAVIS:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2607068/He-endured-called-boy-c-n-N-word-Sammy-Davis-Jr-s-greatest-humiliation-came-JFK-refused-let-perform-inauguration-married-white-woman.html
ANDERSON SINGING ON YOUTUBE AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAONYTMf2pk.
FOR HER EQUALLY FASCINATING BIOGRAPHY, GO TO WIKIPEDIA:
http://www.carnegiehall.org/History/Timeline/Timeline.aspx?id=4294968776
VIDEO IN WHICH GEORGE WALLACE IS DISCUSSED ON LARRY KING LIVE FEATURING HIS SON, JESSE JACKSON, MIKE WALLACE AND OTHERS -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00E-MoGAm5g
HERE IS THE SOURCE WHICH STARTED ALL OF THESE COMMENTS, AN EYE-OPENING LETTER FROM A GREAT AMERICAN THINKER, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. I DO TEND TO IDOLIZE ABRAHAM LINCOLN (A REPUBLICAN BACK WHEN THE REPUBLICANS WERE THE LIBERALS, A STRONG INDIVIDUALIST AND MORALIST), SO FORGIVE ME IF I OVERDO IT, BUT I THINK OUR FOREFATHERS HAD A GREAT DEAL TO SAY. I FOUND THIS LETTER FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO A PERSONAL FRIEND IN A BLOG POST ON THE WEBSITE CALLED “OCCUPYDEMOCRATS.” SEE IF YOU DON’T AGREE WITH ME THAT THE NEXT TO LAST PARAGRAPH IS EQUALLY APPLICABLE TO OUR TIME, AS TO HIS, IN FACT IT’S AMAZINGLY DESCRIPTIVE OF OUR PRESENT TIME, AND THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ON THE KNOW NOTHING MOVEMENT MAKES MY HAIR STAND ON END. I’M AFRAID IT MAY BE A HIGHLY PREDICTIVE SIGN OF THIS MOVEMENT TOWARD NEW FLARE-UPS OF GROUP HATRED WHEN THOSE THINGS HAD BEEN QUIET FOR SO MANY YEARS. PAINFULLY IT ISN’T JUST AN AMERICAN PROBLEM, EITHER, BUT IN A NUMBER OF PLACES AROUND THE WORLD. I DO FEAR THERE IS A WIDELY RANGING WAR COMING UP SOONER RATHER THAN LATER. THIS AMAZING BUSINESS OF TRUMP’S BEING, SEEMINGLY AT ANY RATE, INVOLVED WITH OUR TRADITIONAL ARCH ENEMY, RUSSIA AND ITS’ HIGHLY AMBITIOUS AND RUTHLESS LEADER VLADIMIR PUTIN IN A WAY THAT INDICATES PUTIN MAY HAVE BEEN GROOMING PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BE HIS OWN PUPPET IN AMERICA WHEN HE INTERFERED WITH THE 2016 ELECTION TO PUT TRUMP INTO POWER. I KNOW. TRUMP’S PEOPLE WILL CALL THAT STATEMENT PARANOIA. ALL I CAN SAY TO THAT IS “IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE!”.
THIS AMAZINGLY HUMAN AND CHARMING LETTER FROM THE PEN OF LINCOLN SHOWS HIM TO BE SPONTANEOUS ALMOST TO THE POINT OF BEING CHILDLIKE. PAY ATTENTION TO THE WAY HE EXPRESSES HIMSELF. HE ACTUALLY USED AN EMPHATIC THREE EXCLAMATION POINTS AT THE END OF ONE OF HIS SENTENCES. HE’S A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART.
https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/speed.htm
Letter to Joshua Speed
Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed met in Springfield, Illinois, during the 1830s. Although Speed returned to his native Kentucky, they remained friends throughout life. In this letter, Lincoln expresses his thinking about slavery, which contrasted with Speed, who grew up on a plantation and owned slaves. The year before Lincoln wrote this letter, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed Congress, repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and opened the territories to slavery. The passage of this bill proved a turning point in Lincoln's career. As he observed, "I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again."
Springfield, Illinois
August 24, 1855
Dear Speed:
You know what a poor correspondent I am. Ever since I received your very agreeable letter of the 22nd. of May I have been intending to write you in answer to it. You suggest that in political action now, you and I would differ. I suppose we would; not quite as much, however, as you may think. You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it. So far there is no cause of difference. But you say that sooner than yield your legal right to the slave -- especially at the bidding of those who are not themselves interested, you would see the Union dissolved. I am not aware that any one is bidding you to yield that right; very certainly I am not. I leave that matter entirely to yourself. I also acknowledge your rights and my obligations, under the constitution, in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught, and carried back to their stripes, and unrewarded toils; but I bite my lip and keep quiet. In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip, on a Steam Boat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continued torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border. It is hardly fair for you to assume, that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises, the power of making me miserable. You ought rather to appreciate how much the great body of the Northern people do crucify their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the Constitution and the Union.
I do oppose the extension of slavery, because my judgment and feelings so prompt me; and I am under no obligation to the contrary. If for this you and I must differ, differ we must. You say if you were President, you would send an army and hang the leaders of the Missouri outrages upon the Kansas elections; still, if Kansas fairly votes herself a slave state, she must be admitted, or the Union must be dissolved. But how if she votes herself a slave State unfairly -- that is, by the very means for which you say you would hang men? Must she still be admitted, or the Union be dissolved? That will be the phase of the question when it first becomes a practical one. In your assumption that there may be a fair decision of the slavery question in Kansas, I plainly see you and I would differ about the Nebraska-law. I look upon that enactment not as a law, but as violence from the beginning. It was conceived in violence, passed in violence, is maintained in violence, and is being executed in violence. I say it was conceived in violence, because the destruction of the Missouri Compromise, under the circumstances, was nothing less than violence. It was passed in violence, because it could not have passed at all but for the votes of many members in violence of the known will of their constituents. It is maintained in violence because the elections since, clearly demand it's repeal, and this demand is openly disregarded. You say men ought to be hung for the way they are executing that law; and I say the way it is being executed is quite as good as any of its antecedents. It is being executed in the precise way which was intended from the first; else why does no Nebraska man express astonishment or condemnation? Poor Reeder is the only public man who has been silly enough to believe that any thing like fairness was ever intended; and he has been bravely undeceived.
That Kansas will form a Slave Constitution, and, with it, will ask to be admitted into the Union, I take to be an already settled question; and so settled by the very means you so pointedly condemn. By every principle of law, ever held by any court, North or South, every negro taken to Kansas is free; yet, in utter disregard of this -- in the spirit of violence merely -- that beautiful Legislature gravely passes a law to hang men who shall venture to inform a negro of his legal rights. This is the substance, and real object of the law. If, like Haman, they should hang upon the gallows of their own building, I shall not be among the mourners for their fate.
In my humble sphere, I shall advocate the restoration of the Missouri Compromise, so long as Kansas remains a territory; and when, by all these foul means, it seeks to come into the Union as a Slave-state, I shall oppose it. I am very loth, in any case, to withhold my assent to the enjoyment of property acquired, or located, in good faith; but I do not admit that good faith, in taking a negro to Kansas, to be held in slavery, is a possibility with any man. Any man who has sense enough to be the controller of his own property, has too much sense to misunderstand the outrageous character of this whole Nebraska business. But I digress. In my opposition to the admission of Kansas I shall have some company; but we may be beaten. If we are, I shall not, on that account, attempt to dissolve the Union. On the contrary, if we succeed, there will be enough of us to take care of the Union. I think it probable, however, we shall be beaten. Standing as a unit among yourselves, you can, directly, and indirectly, bribe enough of our men to carry the day -- as you could on an open proposition to establish monarchy. Get hold of some man in the North, whose position and ability is such, that he can make the support of your measure -- whatever it may be -- a democratic party necessity, and the thing is done. Appropos [sic] of this, let me tell you an anecdote. Douglas introduced the Nebraska bill in January. In February afterwards, there was a call session of the Illinois Legislature. Of the one hundred members composing the two branches of that body, about seventy were democrats. These latter held a caucus, in which the Nebraska bill was talked of, if not formally discussed. It was thereby discovered that just three, and no more, were in favor of the measure. In a day of two Dougla's [sic] orders came on to have resolutions passed approving the bill; and they were passed by large majorities!!! The truth of this is vouched for by a bolting democratic member. The masses too, democratic as well as whig, were even, nearer unanamous [sic] against it; but as soon as the party necessity of supporting it, became apparent, the way the democracy began to see the wisdom and justice of it, was perfectly astonishing.
You say if Kansas fairly votes herself a free state, as a Christian you will rather rejoice at it. All decent slaveholders talk that way; and I do not doubt their candor. But they never vote that way. Although in a private letter, or conversation, you will express your preference that Kansas shall be free, you would vote for no man for Congress who would say the same thing publicly. No such man could be elected from any district in a slave-state. You think Stringfellow & Co. ought to be hung; and yet, at the next presidential election you will vote for the exact type and representative of Stringfellow. The slave-breeders and slave-traders, are a small, odious and detested class, among you; and yet in politics, they dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters, as you are the master of your own negroes. You inquire where I now stand. That is a disputed point -- I think I am a whig; but others say there are no whigs, and that I am an abolitionist. When I was in Washington I voted for the Wilmot Proviso as good as forty times, and I never heard of any one attempting to unwhig me for that. I now do no more than oppose the extension of slavery.
I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor or degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes" When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic].
Mary will probably pass a day to two in Louisville in October. My kindest regards to Mrs. Speed. On the leading subject of this letter, I have more of her sympathy that I have of yours. And yet let me say I am
Yours friend forever
A. Lincoln
Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler et al.
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WHO WERE THE “KNOW NOTHINGS”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing
Know Nothing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Native American Party, renamed the American Party in 1855 and commonly known as the Know Nothing movement, was an American political party that operated nationally in the mid-1850s.
The movement arose in response to an influx of migrants and promised to "purify" American politics by limiting or ending the influence of Irish Catholics and other immigrants, thus reflecting nativist and anti-Catholic sentiment. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, whom they saw as hostile to Republican values and as being controlled by the Pope. Mainly active from 1854 to 1856, the movement strove to curb immigration and naturalization but met with little success. Membership was limited to Protestant men. There were few prominent leaders, and the largely middle-class membership was divided over the issue of slavery.
Its most prominent leaders were U.S. Representative Nathaniel P. Banks[1] and former U.S. Representative Lewis C. Levin. The American Party nominated former President Millard Fillmore in the 1856 presidential election.[2]
History[edit]
Anti-Catholicism had been a factor in colonial America but played little role in American politics until the arrival of large numbers of Irish and German Catholics in the 1840s.[3] It then reemerged in nativist attacks on Catholic immigration. It appeared in New York politics as early as 1843, under the banner of the American Republican Party.[4] The movement quickly spread to nearby states, using that name or Native American Party or variants of it. They succeeded in a number of local and Congressional elections, notably in 1844 in Philadelphia, where the anti-Catholic orator Lewis Charles Levin was elected U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania's 1st District. In the early 1850s, numerous secret orders grew up, of which the "Order of United Americans"[5] and the Order of the Star Spangled Banner came to be the most important. They merged in New York in the early 1850s as a secret order that quickly spread across the North, reaching non-Catholics, particularly those who were lower middle class or skilled workmen.[6]
Name[edit]
The name Know Nothing originated in the semi-secret organization of the party. When a member was asked about its activities, he was supposed to reply, "I know nothing." Outsiders called them "Know Nothings", and the name stuck. In 1855, the Know Nothings first entered politics under the American Party label.[7][8]
Underlying issues[edit]
The immigration of large numbers of Irish and German Catholics to the United States in the period between 1830 and 1860 made religious differences between Catholics and Protestants a political issue. Violence occasionally erupted at the polls. Protestants alleged that Pope Pius IX had put down the failed liberal Revolutions of 1848 and that he was an opponent of liberty, democracy and Republicanism. One Boston minister described Catholicism as "the ally of tyranny, the opponent of material prosperity, the foe of thrift, the enemy of the railroad, the caucus, and the school."[9][10] These fears encouraged conspiracy theories regarding papal intentions of subjugating the United States through a continuing influx of Catholics controlled by Irish bishops obedient to and personally selected by the Pope.
In 1849, an oath-bound secret society, the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, was created by Charles B. Allen in New York City. Fear of Catholic immigration led to a dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party, whose leadership in many cities included Catholics of Irish descent. Activists formed secret groups, coordinating their votes and throwing their weight behind candidates sympathetic to their cause. When asked about these secret organizations, members were to reply "I know nothing", which led to their popularly being called Know Nothings.
Immigration during the first five years of the 1850s reached a level five times greater than a decade earlier. Most of the new arrivals were poor Catholic peasants or laborers from Ireland and Germany who crowded into the tenements of large cities. Crime and welfare costs soared. Cincinnati's crime rate, for example, tripled between 1846 and 1853 and its murder rate increased sevenfold. Boston's expenditures for poor relief rose threefold during the same period.
— James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 131.
Rise[edit]
In spring 1854, the Know Nothings carried Boston, Salem, and other New England cities. They swept the state of Massachusetts in the fall 1854 elections, their biggest victory. The Whig candidate for mayor of Philadelphia, editor Robert T. Conrad, was soon revealed as a Know Nothing; he promised to crack down on crime, close saloons on Sundays, and to appoint only native-born Americans to office. He won by a landslide. In Washington, D.C., Know Nothing candidate John T. Towers defeated incumbent Mayor John Walker Maury, causing opposition of such proportion that the Democrats, Whigs, and Freesoilers in the capital united as the "Anti-Know-Nothing Party". In New York, in a four-way race, the Know Nothing candidate ran third with 26%. After the 1854 elections, they claimed to have exerted decisive influence in Maine, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and California, but historians are unsure due to the secrecy, as all parties were in turmoil and the anti-slavery and prohibition issues overlapped with nativism in complex and confusing ways. They helped elect Stephen Palfrey Webb as Mayor of San Francisco, and J. Neely Johnson as Governor of California. Nathaniel P. Banks, former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was elected to Congress as a Know Nothing candidate, though he later aligned with Republicans (and as such was elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives).
The results of the 1854 elections were so favorable to the Know Nothings, up to then an informal movement with no centralized organization, that they formed officially as a political party called the American Party, which attracted many members of the now nearly defunct Whig party as well as a significant number of Democrats and prohibitionists. Membership in the American Party increased dramatically, from 50,000 to an estimated one million plus in a matter of months during that year.[11]
The historian Tyler Anbinder concluded:
The key to Know Nothing success in 1854 was the collapse of the second party system, brought about primarily by the demise of the Whig Party. The Whig Party, weakened for years by internal dissent and chronic factionalism, was nearly destroyed by the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Growing anti-party sentiment, fueled by anti-slavery as well as temperance and nativism, also contributed to the disintegration of the party system. The collapsing second party system gave the Know Nothings a much larger pool of potential converts than was available to previous nativist organizations, allowing the Order to succeed where older nativist groups had failed.[12]
In San Francisco, California, a Know Nothing chapter was founded in 1854 to oppose Chinese immigration; members included a judge of the state supreme court, who ruled that no Chinese person could testify as a witness against a white man in court.[13]
Fillmore–Donelson campaign poster
In the spring of 1855, Levi Boone was elected mayor of Chicago for the Know Nothings. He barred all immigrants from city jobs. Abraham Lincoln was strongly opposed to the principles of the Know Nothing movement but did not denounce it publicly, because he needed the votes of its membership to form a successful anti-slavery coalition in Illinois.[14] Ohio was the only state where the party gained strength in 1855. Their Ohio success seems to have come from winning over immigrants, especially German American Lutherans and Scots-Irish Presbyterians, both hostile to Roman Catholicism. In Alabama, Know Nothings were a mix of former Whigs, malcontented Democrats, and other political outsiders who favored state aid to build more railroads. Virginia attracted national attention in its tempestuous 1855 gubernatorial. Democrat Henry Alexander Wise won by convincing state voters that Know Nothings were in bed with Northern abolitionists. With the victory by Wise, the movement began to collapse in the South.[15][16]
Know Nothings scored victories in northern state elections in 1854, winning control of the legislature in Massachusetts and polling 40% of the vote in Pennsylvania. Although most of the new immigrants lived in the North, resentment and anger against them was national, and the American Party initially polled well in the South, attracting the votes of many former southern Whigs.[citation needed]
The party name gained wide but brief popularity. Nativism became a new American rage: Know-Nothing candy, Know-nothing tea, and Know-Nothing toothpicks appeared. Stagecoaches were dubbed "The Know-Nothing". In Trescott, Maine, a shipowner dubbed his new 700-ton freighter, Know-Nothing.[17] The party was occasionally referred to contemporaneously in a slightly pejorative shortening, Knism.[18]
Leadership and legislation[edit]
Historian John Mulkern has examined the party's success in sweeping to almost complete control of the Massachusetts legislature after its 1854 landslide victory. He finds the new party was populist and highly democratic, hostile to wealth, elites, and to expertise, and deeply suspicious of outsiders especially Catholics. The new party's voters were concentrated in the rapidly growing industrial towns, where Yankee workers faced direct competition with new Irish immigrants. Whereas the Whig Party was strongest in high income districts, the Know Nothing electorate was strongest in the poor districts. They expelled the traditional upper-class closed political leadership class, especially the lawyers and merchants. In their stead they elected working class men, farmers, and a large number of teachers and ministers. Replacing the moneyed elite were men who seldom owned $10,000 in property.[19]
Nationally, the new party leadership showed incomes, occupation and social status that were about average. Few were wealthy, according to detailed historical studies of once-secret membership rosters. Fewer than 10% were unskilled workers who might come in direct competition with Irish laborers. They enlisted few farmers, but on the other hand, they included many merchants and factory owners.[20] The party's voters were by no means all native-born Americans, for it won more than a fourth of the German and British Protestants in numerous state elections. It especially appealed to Protestants such as the Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, and Presbyterians.[21]
The most aggressive and innovative legislation came out of Massachusetts, where the new party controlled all but three of the 400 seats; only 35 had any previous legislative experience. The Massachusetts legislature in 1855 passed a series of reforms that "burst the dam against change erected by party politics, and released a flood of reforms."[22] Historian Stephen Taylor says that in addition to nativist legislation the party also distinguished itself by its opposition to slavery, support for an expansion of the rights of women, regulation of industry, and support of measures designed to improve the status of working people.[23]
It passed legislation to regulate railroads, insurance companies, and public utilities. It funded free textbooks for the public schools, and raised the appropriations for local libraries and for the school for the blind. Purification of Massachusetts against divisive social evils was a high priority. The legislature set up the state's first reform school for juvenile delinquents, while trying to block the importation of supposedly subversive government documents and academic books from Europe. It upgraded the legal status of wives, giving them more property rights and more rights in divorce courts. It passed harsh penalties on speakeasies, gambling houses and bordellos. It passed prohibition legislation with penalties that were so stiff – such as six months in prison for serving one glass of beer – that juries refused to convict defendants. Many of the reforms were quite expensive; state spending rose 45% on top of a 50% hike in annual taxes on cities and towns. Extravagance angered the taxpayers; few Know Nothings were reelected.[24]
The highest priority included attacks on the civil rights of Irish Catholic immigrants. After this, state courts lost the power to process applications for citizenship and public schools had to require compulsory daily reading of the Protestant Bible (which the nativists were sure would transform the Catholic children). The governor disbanded the Irish militias, and replaced Irish holding state jobs with Protestants. It failed to reach the two-thirds vote needed to pass a state constitutional amendment to restrict voting and office holding to men who had resided in Massachusetts for at least 21 years. The legislature then called on Congress to raise the requirement for naturalization from five years to 21 years, but Congress never acted.[25] The most dramatic move by the Know Nothing legislature was to appoint an investigating committee designed to prove widespread sexual immorality underway in Catholic convents. The press had a field day following the story, especially when it was discovered that the key reformer was using committee funds to pay for a prostitute. The legislature shut down its committee, ejected the reformer, and saw its investigation become a laughing stock.[26][27][28][29]
Violence[edit]
Fearful that Catholics were flooding the polls with non-citizens, local activists threatened to stop them. Tensions came to a head on 6 August 1855, in Louisville, Kentucky, where in a hotly contested race for the office of governor, 22 were killed and many injured. The Louisville riot was only the most spectacular of violent riots between Know Nothing activists and Catholics in 1855.[30] In Baltimore the mayoral elections of 1856, 1857 and 1858 were all marred by violence and well-founded accusations of ballot-rigging. In Maine, Know Nothings were associated with the tarring and feathering of a Catholic priest, Father Johannes Bapst, in the coastal town of Ellsworth in 1851 and the burning of a Catholic church in Bath in 1854.[31]
South[edit]
In the South, the American Party was composed chiefly of ex-Whigs looking for a vehicle to fight the dominant Democratic Party and worried about both the pro-slavery extremism of the Democrats and the emergence of the anti-slavery Republican party in the North.[32] In the South as a whole the American Party was strongest among former Unionist Whigs. States-rightist Whigs shunned it, enabling the Democrats to win most of the South. Whigs supported the American Party because of their desire to defeat the Democrats, their unionist sentiment, their anti-immigrant attitudes, and the Know-Nothing neutrality on the slavery issue.[33]
In 1855 the American Party challenged the Democrats' dominance. In Alabama, the Know-Nothings were a mix of former Whig, malcontented Democrats, and other political misfits; they favored state aid to build more railroads. In the fierce campaign, the Democrats argued that Know-Nothings could not protect slavery from Northern abolitionists. The Know-Nothing American Party disintegrated soon after losing in 1855.[34]
In Louisiana and Maryland, the Know Nothings enlisted native-born Catholics.[35] Know-Nothing congressman John Edward Bouligny was the only member of the Louisiana congressional delegation to refuse to resign his seat after the state seceded from the Union.[36] In Maryland, the party's influence lasted at least through the Civil War: the American Party's Governor, and later Senator, Thomas Holliday Hicks, Representative Henry Winter Davis, and Senator Anthony Kennedy, with his brother, former Representative John Pendleton Kennedy, all supported the United States in a State which bordered the Confederate States. Historian Michael F. Holt argues that "Know Nothingism originally grew in the South for the same reasons it spread in the North – nativism, anti-Catholicism, and animosity toward unresponsive politicos — not because of conservative Unionism." Holt cites William B. Campbell, former governor of Tennessee, who wrote in January 1855, "I have been astonished at the widespread feeling in favor of their principles — to wit, Native Americanism and anti-Catholicism — it takes everywhere."[37]
Decline[edit]
Results by county indicating the percentage for Fillmore in each county.
The party declined rapidly in the North after 1855. In the presidential election of 1856, it was bitterly divided over slavery. The main faction supported the ticket of presidential nominee Millard Fillmore and vice-presidential nominee Andrew Jackson Donelson. Fillmore, a former President, had been a Whig, and Donelson was the nephew of Democratic President Andrew Jackson, so the ticket was designed to appeal to loyalists from both major parties, winning 23% of the popular vote and carrying one state, Maryland, with eight electoral votes. Fillmore did not win enough votes to block Democrat James Buchanan from the White House. During this time, Nathaniel Banks decided he was not as strongly for the anti-immigrant platform as the party wanted him to be, so he left the Know Nothing Party for the more anti-slavery Republican Party. He contributed to the decline of the Know Nothing Party by taking 2/3 of its members with him.
Many were appalled by the Know-Nothings. Abraham Lincoln expressed his own disgust with the political party in a private letter to Joshua Speed written in August 24, 1855. Lincoln never publicly attacked the Know Nothings, whose votes he needed:
I am not a Know-Nothing – that is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equals, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to that I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.[38]
Historian Allan Nevins, writing about the turmoil preceding the American Civil War, states that Millard Fillmore was never a Know-Nothing nor a nativist. Fillmore was out of the country when the presidential nomination came and had not been consulted about running. Nevins further states that:
[Fillmore] was not a member of the party; he had never attended an American [Know-Nothing] gathering. By no spoken or written word had he indicated a subscription to American [Party] tenets.[39]
After the Supreme Court's controversial Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling in 1857, most of the anti-slavery members of the American Party joined the Republican Party. The pro-slavery wing of the American Party remained strong on the local and state levels in a few southern states, but by the 1860 election, they were no longer a serious national political movement. Most of their remaining members supported the Constitutional Union Party in 1860.[40]
Fictional portrayals[edit]
The American Party was represented in the 2002 film Gangs of New York, led by William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), the fictionalized version of real-life Know Nothing leader William Poole. The Know Nothings also play a prominent role in the historical fiction novel Shaman by novelist Noah Gordon.
The Nativist spirit of the Know Nothing movement was revived in later political movements, such as the American Protective Association of the 1890s and the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s.[43] In the late 19th century, Democrats would call the Republicans "Know Nothings" in order to secure the votes of Germans, as in the Bennett Law campaign in Wisconsin in 1890.[44][45] A similar culture war took place in Illinois in 1892, where Democrat John Peter Altgeld denounced the Republicans:
The spirit which enacted the Alien and Sedition laws, the spirit which actuated the "Know-nothing" party, the spirit which is forever carping about the foreign-born citizen and trying to abridge his privileges, is too deeply seated in the party. The aristocratic and know-nothing principle has been circulating in its system so long that it will require more than one somersault to shake the poison out of its bones.[46]
The term has become a provocative slur, suggesting that the opponent is both nativist and ignorant. George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign was said by Time to be under the "neo-Know Nothing banner". Fareed Zakaria wrote that politicians who "encourage[d] Americans to fear foreigners" were becoming "modern incarnations of the Know-Nothings."[43] In 2006, an editorial in The Weekly Standard by neoconservative William Kristol accused populist Republicans of "turning the GOP into an anti-immigration, Know-Nothing party."[47] The lead editorial of the May 20, 2007, edition of The New York Times on a proposed immigration bill, referred to "this generation's Know-Nothings."[48] An editorial written by Timothy Egan in The New York Times on August 27, 2010, entitled "Building a Nation of Know-Nothings" discussed the birther movement, which falsely claimed that Barack Obama was not a natural-born United States citizen, which is a requirement for the office of President of the United States.[49]
In the 2016 United States Presidential Election, a number of commentators and politicians compared candidate Donald Trump to the Know Nothings due to his anti-immigration policies.[50][51][52][53][54]
See also[edit]
71st Infantry Regiment (New York)
Bowery Boys
John J. Crittenden
James Greene Hardy
Samuel Hinks
Know-Nothing Riot of 1856
Philadelphia Nativist Riots
Thomas Swann
Third Party System
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