Friday, August 18, 2017

Charlottesville and confederate statues

The reason why Auschwitz was built is entirely different than the reason why it should never be torn down.

"Never Again"

The reason why these confederate statues were put up is entirely different than the reason why they should never be torn down.

"Never again"

I'm a libertarian. I'm "one of those" that wastes their vote every year, so my political views are generally hated by BOTH sides.

Southern states seceded before Lincoln was even inaugurated. Not until Trump have more Democrats boycotted an inauguration than Lincoln's. This fact is unsettling to an outside observer, like me.

The democrat mayor of Charlottesville declared it "the capital of the resistance" before Trump's inauguration... just as Richmond, just a few miles down the road, was named the capital of the confederacy (resistance) before Lincoln was inaugurated.

Staged violence was used to start the civil war, too.

"Never again"

Not one of the southern states had a republican governor, they were all ruled (super majorities) by democrats. The KKK was formed by a delegate to the DNC named Forrest (like in Forrest Gump). Not one democrat signed the first ANTI-KKK law, in fact, a democrat president vetoed it, but was overridden by Republicans.

The amendments to the constitution freeing the slaves, making them citizens, and giving them the vote were all done entirely by Republicans without a single Democrat senator's vote.

Auschwitz.

The Germans were not all Nazis. The average soldier believed they were fighting for their country, not to exterminate Jews. They were largely duped by their politicians.

The average confederate soldier believed they were fighting against northern aggression. They believed they were fighting for the states' rights to self-govern. Less than one percent owned slaves. Put another way, getting millions of poor southerners to fight for a plantation owners' rights to own slaves would be as hard a sell as getting the poor today to fight for the rights of millionaires to own yachts.

The average German soldier was not suited to the task of exterminating Jews. It sickened them so much that Hitler was forced into building death camps. Running rail cars, building camps, using ovens is far more expensive than firing a single bullet and letting the body rot where it falls. But the average German soldier wouldn't slaughter civilians without ruining themselves (PTSD), so the camps had to be built.

The death camps, in a way, are a testament to the reluctance to kill civilians of the average soldier. It took a special kind of evil to work at one of the camps that the average German didn't have.

Confederate soldiers were duped into fighting for a temper tantrum that the democrat party threw over the first republican president.

But they threw it for a reason.

Slavery.

The first constitution written entirely by democrats during the confederacy was the only pro-slavery constitution in history. Not one republican pen ever touched it.

3/5ths.

Anti-slavery republicans didn't want to count slaves at all. Slave-holding democrats wanted to count them as whole, even though slaves could never vote.

There was a twisted reason for this. By counting slaves as people, slave-states got extra seats in The House. Since slaves could not vote, this effectively let slave owners vote for their slaves. Sanctuary cities, all Democrat strongholds today, still use this strategy to inflate their power in House Seats.

The revolt and the Democrats' revulsion over Lincoln was largely over this issue (loss of house seats due to slavery), but this wasn't what was sold to the people.

The Democrats today Hate Trump because if he is successful in deporting illegals and building a wall, sanctuary cities lose house seats that let democrats vote on behalf of those illegals. They stand to lose as much illegitimate power as Lincoln took from them.

"Never again"

Those statues honor what confederates fought for, states' rights, and what they were duped into fighting for, slavery. It says "never again" very loudly, in a way mere words can not.

Robert E Lee.

Robert E Lee was an anti-slavery general that Turned Down Lincoln's request to fight on the side of the union. Lee bought into the 'states' rights' argument and fought out of loyalty to his state, over his country. This is an honorable thing. The first thing Lee did after the war was visit a Black Church and pray for forgiveness. His life after the war was dedicated to unification.

I lived near Monument in Va. These statues fit the area. They fit the architecture. As art, they are magnificently sculpted and a testament to the talent of the artists. They are museum quality art for everyone to see.

They may have been installed to intimidate republicans and to oppress blacks, but today they mean something very different.

Auschwitz means something different today too.

Both are testaments to people falling for the lies of politicians. Both are testaments to the fallen. Both are warnings to future generations that say "never again" in a way only they can.

As a libertarian, I fully expect both sides to hate all of what I just said, just as the duped soldiers of those two wars would.

But I hope, very soon, some will find themselves quietly praying for forgiveness, like Lee did, and work on the unification that is badly needed.