America's cancer

My daughter is a sophomore at the University of Iowa, where the windchill over the next few days is and will be around 35 degrees below zero. She will be casting her first vote in the caucus for Governor Haley. 

Nine years ago, her grandfather talked her into carrying a Winnipesaukee Republicans banner in front of Chris Christie in the Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, July 4th parade.

Her position has remained unchanged over many years. She is looking for revenge for having to do this, and it took great effort to convince her and her best friend Claire to consider voting for the truth teller — Chris Christie — despite the indignity of the Wolfeboro march. I told her it could have been a lot worse. What if her grandfather had endorsed Marco Rubio? 

She will be voting against the 77-year-old Donald Trump, while being completely alienated from the 81-year-old president, who is a source of unrelenting and constant mockery on her TikTok feed. This ad by the Trump campaign is an indication of the brutality ahead:

My daughter seemed confused around my absolute disgust for Nikki Haley’s candidacy. What I tried to tell her is that this election is about something very big. 

It can be hard to talk about history and the past with 20-year-olds because appreciating time — and thus how close the past is and how fast the future is coming — is not something they are particularly oriented around. 

I tried to tell her that what Nikki Haley said about slavery and the American Civil War was an abomination and a purposeful one. She knows better. It was as dishonest and cowardly a statement that could possibly be made by a woman who grew up facing real discrimination in the cradle of the Confederacy. 

The Confederate States of America was an evil nation. It was a slave republic that was militarily crushed in a sectional war that killed upwards of 750,000 Americans. 

The war was not fought over land and territory, or over political disagreements. There was a single transcendent moral issue around which the war was fought. It must never be forgotten because what sustained the Southern cause was a profound evil and malevolence that has never been extinguished. In fact, it is rising again. The deadliest lie in history is making a comeback. It gathers strength when it can remain obscured, hidden and camouflaged. 

Below is an excerpt from the “Cornerstone“ speech by Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy. Below is what the Civil War was about. Let the dead Confederates tell us plainly. They knew what they were fighting for, and their spiritual descendants are on the march again. 

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well, that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North, who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics. Their conclusions are right if their premises were. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be logical and just but their premise being wrong, their whole argument fails. I recollect once of having heard a gentleman from one of the northern States, of great power and ability, announce in the House of Representatives, with imposing effect, that we of the South would be compelled, ultimately, to yield upon this subject of slavery, that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics, as it was in physics or mechanics. That the principle would ultimately prevail. That we, in maintaining slavery as it exists with us, were warring against a principle, a principle founded in nature, the principle of the equality of men. The reply I made to him was, that upon his own grounds, we should, ultimately, succeed, and that he and his associates, in this crusade against our institutions, would ultimately fail. The truth announced, that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics as it was in physics and mechanics, I admitted; but told him that it was he, and those acting with him, who were warring against a principle. They were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal.

In the conflict thus far, success has been on our side, complete throughout the length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is upon this, as I have stated, our social fabric is firmly planted; and I cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of a full recognition of this principle throughout the civilized and enlightened world.

As I have stated, the truth of this principle may be slow in development, as all truths are and ever have been, in the various branches of science. It was so with the principles announced by Galileo it was so with Adam Smith and his principles of political economy. It was so with Harvey, and his theory of the circulation of the blood. It is stated that not a single one of the medical profession, living at the time of the announcement of the truths made by him, admitted them. Now, they are universally acknowledged. May we not, therefore, look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system rests? It is the first government ever instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes, He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made "one star to differ from another star in glory." The great objects of humanity are best attained when there is conformity to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders "is become the chief of the corner" the real "corner-stone" in our new edifice.

This is America’s cancer, and it’s chronic.

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