Sen. Fulbright on Vietnam

This post of an excerpt by the Abbeville Institute from William Fulbright’s book The Arrogance of Power reminds us that not all Southerners are idiots as the New York Times and Washington Post would have us believe.  The people who got us into Afghanistan and Iraq would have done well to read Fulbright’s book.  Fulbright wrote:

The attitude above all others which I feel sure is no longer valid is the arrogance of power, the tendency of great nations to equate power with virtue and major responsibilities with a universal mission. The dilemmas involved are preeminently American dilemmas, not because America has weaknesses that others do not have but because America is powerful as no nation has ever been before and the discrepancy between its power and the power of others appears to be increasing….

We are now engaged in a war to “defend freedom” in South Vietnam. Unlike the Republic of Korea, South Vietnam has an army which [is] without notable success and a weak, dictatorial government which does not command the loyalty of the South Vietnamese people. The official war aims of the United States Government, as I understand them, are to defeat what is regarded as North Vietnamese aggression, to demonstrate the futility of what the communists call “wars of national liberation,” and to create conditions under which the South Vietnamese people will be able freely to determine their own future. I have not the slightest doubt of the sincerity of the President and the Vice President and the Secretaries of State and Defense in propounding these aims. What I do doubt and doubt very much_is the ability of the United States to achieve these aims by the means being used. I do not question the power of our weapons and the efficiency of our logistics; I cannot say these things delight me as the y seem to delight some of our officials, but they are certainly impressive. What I do question is the ability of the United States, or France or any other Western nation, to go into a small, alien, undeveloped Asian nation and create stability where there is chaos, the will to fight where there is defeatism, democracy racy where there is no tradition of it and honest government where corruption is almost a way of life. Our handicap is well expressed in the pungent Chinese proverb: “In shallow waters dragons become the sport of shrimps.”

Early last month demonstrators in Saigon burned American jeeps, tried to assault American soldiers, and marched through the streets shouting “Down with the American imperialists,” while one of the Buddhist leaders made a speech equating the United States with the communists as a threat to South Vietnamese independence. Most Americans are understandably shocked ant angered to encounter such hostility from people who by now would be under the rule of the Viet Cong but for the sacrifice of American lives and money. Why, we may ask, are they so shockingly ungrateful? Surely they must know that their very right to parade and protest and demonstrate depends on the Americans who are defending them.

The answer, I think, is that “fatal impact” of the rich and strong on the poor and weak. Dependent on it though the Vietnamese are, our very strength is a reproach to their weakness, our wealth a mockery of their poverty, our success a reminder of their failures. What they resent is the disruptive effect of our strong culture upon their fragile one, an effect which we can no more avoid than a man can help being bigger than a child. What they fear, I think rightly, is that traditional Vietnamese society cannot survive the American economic and cultural impact….

The cause of our difficulties in southeast Asia is not a deficiency of power but an excess of the wrong kind of power which results in a feeling of impotence when it fails to achieve its desired ends. We are still acting like boy scouts dragging reluctant old ladies across the streets they do not want to cross. We are trying to remake Vietnamese society, a task which certainly cannot be accomplished by force and which probably cannot be accomplished by any means available to outsiders. The objective may b e desirable, but it is not feasible….

If America has a service to perform in the world_and I believe it has_it is in large part the service of its own example. In our excessive involvement in the affairs of other countries, we are not only living off our assets and denying our own people the proper enjoyment of their resources; we are also denying the world the example of a free society enjoying its freedom to the fullest. This is regrettable indeed for a nation that aspires to teach democracy to other nations, because, as Burke said!

“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.” . . .

There are many respects in which America, if it can bring itself to act with the magnanimity and the empathy appropriate to its size and power, can be an intelligent example to the world. We have the opportunity to set an example of generous understanding in our relations with China, of practical cooperation for peace in our relations with Russia, of reliable and respectful partnership in our relations with Western Europe, of material helpfulness without moral presumption in our relations with the developing nations, of abstention from the temptations of hegemony in our relations with Latin America, and of the all- around advantages of minding one’s own business in our relations with everybody. Most of all, we have the opportunity to serve as an example o f democracy to the world by the way in which we run our own society; America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, should be “the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all” but “the champion and vindicator only of her own.” . …

If we can bring ourselves so to act, we will have overcome the dangers of the arrogance of power. It will involve, no doubt, the loss of certain glories, but that seems a price worth paying for the probable rewards, which are the happiness of America and the peace of the world.

From J. William Fulbright, The Arrogance of Power (Random House, 1967).

Polls Are Wprthless

 John Heilman looked like an out of touch idiot on “Morning Joe” this morning, as did most of his Democratic diehard colleagues sitting around the table.  The polls on the Virginia governor’s race were off, but the polls on the New Jersey governor’s race had no resemblance to reality.  Whether the Democrat Murphy wins or loses, the polls about the election that had him winning easily were wrong. 

Polling companies in America appear to be corrupt, bought by the Democrats who cite the fake polls everyday in the political punditry.  Based on polls, Hillary Clinton prepared a big fireworks display to mark her victory over Donald Trump in the 2018 presidential election.  Polling data seems to be strongly biased in favor of Democratic candidates, and the Democrats seem to cite polling more than Republicans, since the polling favors them. 

Unfortunately it makes the media and election campaigns look corrupt and undermines public faith in elections and democracy.  Joe Scarborough, John Heilman and the other Democrats are leading efforts against free and fair elections that are as damaging as Donald Trump’s.  America is becoming a third-world country, at least in part due to the Democrats plan to bring in as many third-world immigrants as possible to stuff the ballots for the Democrats. 

Youngkin’s victory, however, shows that there is hope for future elections, despite the Democratic pundits’ efforts to control them.  

Infrastructure Is Reparations

There are two components to the “infrastructure” plan being debated in Congress – a plan to do construction and a plan to distribute money to people. There is bipartisan support for the “hard” infrastructure bill to repair roads and bridges, expand internet access, and do other types of physical work. The “soft” distribution portion is actually a down payment on reparations for slavery. President Biden is committed to paying reparations because his election was totally dependent on the support of the black community, epitomized by his primary victory in South Carolina, which was engineered by black congressman Jim Clyburn, and which made him the Democratic nominee after losing badly in earlier primaries.

Although President Biden has traditionally been a moderate Democrat, his obligations to both the black electorate and the progressive wing of the Democratic party are pushing him strongly to the left. The gigantic portion of his infrastructure plan that is not for physical construction is a sop to the progressives and the blacks. Its goal is a transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor, especially to people of color. It addresses inequality and calls for reparations, although the funding is not explicitly called “reparations.”  Biden is paying his debts to those who elected him.

Since it is not called reparations, it will not end the calls for reparations, but it will temporarily appease blacks, who will benefit disproportionately from the soft money for childcare, paid leave, unemployment insurance, and other social safety net provisions.

First, the soft provisions bill must pass. If it does, we will see how much time it buys Biden to deal with the pressure from the people of color on the left. No matter how many trillion dollars it is, it will not be enough.

Lee on Slavery

 

The following is from a Christmas 1856 letter that Robert E. Lee wrote to his wife.  At the time he had never owned more than half a dozen slaves, and they had probably been inherited or given to him by his father-in-law, Mr. Custis. 

“In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral & political evil in any Country.  It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages.  I think it however a greater evil to the white than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in hehalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former.  The blacks are immeasurable better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically.  The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things.  How long their subjection may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence.  Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild & melting influence of Christianity, than the storms & tempests of fiery Controversy.  This influence though slow, is sure.  The doctrines & miracles of our Saviour have required nearly two thousand years, to Convert but a small part of the human race, & even amont Christian nations, what gross errors still exist! While we see the Course of the final abolition of human Slavery is onward & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who sees the end; who Chooses to work by slow influences & with whom two thousand years are but a Single day.  Although the Abolitionist must know this, & must See that he has neither the right or power of operating except by moral means & suasion, & if he means well to the slave, he must not Create angry feelings in the Master; that although he may not approve the mode by which it pleases Providence to accomplish its purpose, the result will nevertheless be the same; that the reasons he gives for interference in what he has no Concern, holds good for every kind of interference with our neighbors when we disapprove their Conduct; Still I fear he will persevere in his evil Course.  Is it not strange that the descendants of those pilgrim fathers who Crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom of opinion, have always proved themselves intolerant of the Spiritual liberty of others?”   

From Lee by Douglas Southall Freeman

Rise of Muslims after 9/11

 

Watching the analysis of the 20^th anniversary of 9/11, I was stuck by how many of the talking heads were Muslims.  It looked like 9/11 and Osama bin Laden were the best things that ever happened to American Muslims.  Twenty years ago, you seldom saw women wearing head scarfs; now you see them everywhere. 

It was a rough few years for Muslims immediately after 9/11 as suspicious minds tended to believe that all Muslims were terrorists.  But then the reaction set in.  American media and academia defended and supported Muslims as good, ordinary people.  As a result Muslims and Islamic ideas have become much more important to American politics and thinking.  America has become more Islamic and less Christian. 

Islamists not only won the war in Afghanistan, they won the war for minds in America.  Osama bin Laden did not “win,” but he should be proud of what he accomplished in terms of promoting Islam. 

In 2001, there were no Muslims in the American Congress; today there are three.  More and more Muslims are running for office and assuming more important positions around the country.  The Los Angeles Times reports that Muslims are becoming more politically active, particularly in Michigan which has a large Muslim community.  The PBS NewsHour, under Muslim Amna Nawaz’s leadership, has been particularly active in lobbying for and promoting Muslims and Islam in the US.   

Another View of Lee

The Abbeville Institute published a letter by L. Q. C. Lamar written on December 5, 1870, to commemorate Robert E. Lee’s death, which offers view of Lee very different from what we hear today.  Lamar wrote:

The day of his death will be the anniversary of the South’s great sorrow. But it was not his darkest day. I was at Appomattox when the flag which had been borne in triumph upon his many battlefields was torn from his loving and reluctant grasp. After the terms of capitulation had been arranged, chance brought him to the spot where my tent was pitched.

 

I had seen him often before. On one occasion, especially, I remember how he appeared in a consultation of leading men, where, amid the greatest perturbations, his mind seemed to repose in majestic poise and serenity. Again, I saw him immediately after one of his grand battles, while the light of victory shone upon his brow.

 

But never shall I forget how completely his wonted composure was overthrown in this last sad interview. Every lineament of his grand face writhed, and the big tears fell from his eyes as he spoke of the anguish of the scene he had just witnessed. And yet his whole presence breathed the hero still. A consciousness of a great calamity to be greatly endured gave to his face the grandeur of victory as well as the mournfulness of death; and when he exclaimed, “It is worse than death!” I could easily see how he would have welcomed the grave for himself and all that he loved, could it have only averted his country’s awful woe. Ah, my countrymen! well may you weep over his grave, for there lies one whose heart broke in the very tension of its love for you and your country….

 

To Lee self-assertion was a thing unknown. His growth into universal favor and honor was the result of a slowly dawning consciousness in the popular mind of his retiring merit and transcendent excellence, of that affinity which silently draws together great men and great places when a nation is convulsed.

  

Voting

Both the Democrats and the Republicans want to change American voting laws.  The Democrats want to make it easier to vote and make it more difficult to confirm that voters are legally eligible to vote.  The Republicans want to make it easier to confirm that voters are eligible to vote without denying any eligible voter the right to vote. 

I favor the old-fashioned method of having every voter to personally to a voting booth in his precinct.  He should have picture ID which would be inspected by poll workers to make sure that he is someone on their list of registered voters.  The precincts should be small enough that they do not have to handle thousands of voters trying to vote at once, creating unwieldy lines and long waits.  Americans voted like this for hundreds of years and can keep doing so.  Black voters were discriminated against and prevented from voting, but not because they had to vote in person; it was because of other requirements imposed specifically to keep blacks from voting.  Absentee ballots should be difficult, but not impossible to get for people who really need them.  They should be return by election day. 

The Democrats want to change the laws to make it easier for more and more black people to vote, because blacks vote on only one issue – race – which means they almost all vote automatically for Democrats.  In the last election, Democrats assumed that Hispanics would vote like blacks and vote overwhelmingly Democratic, but Hispanics vote because of their views on a number of issues and do not vote as a bloc as blacks do.  Many successful Hispanics are dug into the American free enterprise system and vote relatively conservatively.  However, new immigrants like those currently flooding in from Central America predictably vote Democratic, which is why the Democrats are so eager to get them in and naturalized as quickly as possible.  If they get more power, they will certainly shorten the wait time and reduce the requirements to become American citizens who can vote. 

The states that put Biden over top in the 2020 election changed their laws to make it easer to vote shortly before the election.  Now they complain that the Republicans are changing voting laws while there is much more time to discuss them publicly.  The Republicans are in part trying to undo the changes that the Democrats made in 2020 and go back to the way we have voted for a hundred years. 

1619 Was Not the Beginning of Slavery

4th of July Independence from Britain 1619 was not the beginning I was stuck that very little of the media coverage of the recent 4th of July mentioned that the day celebrates the American colonies’ independence from Britain. All the criticism of present-day America and its racism seemed to hypothesize that America emerged fully formed from some dark womb of non-history, when in fact it was many years old and had already formed much of its nature from its years of colonization before 1776. The hatred of the 1619 project should be directed at Britain, which ruled the colonies in 1619. The 4th of July marks the independence of the American colonies from the oppression of the British king and his rule. To ignore America’s colonial past is not just revisionist history, it is made-up history to justify hatred of the white race. Despite what blacks claim, the first slaves in North America probably did not come directly from Africa, but from trade with the existing Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and South America, which began in 1526, according to Wikipedia. Virginia Company records indicate that the 1619 slaves were taken by privateers from Portuguese or Spanish ships transporting them to Brazil or Mexico. Slavery did not start by American planters sending ships to Africa to bring back slaves. It was an unplanned spreading of what the Spanish and Portuguese had been doing for years. There may have been some slaves in the Spanish colony of Florida in the 1500s. Many of the slaves brought to the US in the 1700s were brought by British ships, until Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807, the same year that the US banned the importation of slaves in the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807, according to Wikipedia. The French also participated in the slave trade and allowed slaves in French colonies like Haiti. Slavery was not a uniquely American problem. It became an important aspect of the European colonization of the entire Western Hemisphere. To denote slavery as beginning in America in 1619 is misleading. There was no “America” in 1619, and slavery was endemic in all the other colonies surrounding those that eventually became the United States. The emphasis on slavery around the July 4, 2021, Independence Day celebrations was very misleading. It obscured the actual history of what happened on July 4, 1776, and was intended to foment anger and discontent in the United States. Mainstream and social media are selling black hatred of the US to the US population, just like they sold liberal hatred of Donald Trump to the US. Hatred sells, and the media will do anything for money.

I'll Take My Stand

A recent blog by the Abbeville Institute was about the book I’ll Take My Stand, The South and the Agrarian Tradition. Google has a preview of the book which is missing a number of pages but still provides an oppotunity to see what it contains. Published in 1930, there are essays by twelve well-known Southern authors. Here is a link to the Google preview. A lot has changed since 1930, but these essays give some inkling of what the Old South was like after the Civil War and before wide-spread industrialization, a useful counterpoint to the seemingly ever-present condemnation of the South by liberal politicians and the liberal media. In Gone with the Wind, I see Rhett Butler as the representative of the New South, and Ashley Wilkes as the representative of the Old South. I’ll Take My Stand was the voice of the Old South, a call for gentility and grace, peacefulness in the face of industrialization It was made up of the voices of twelve Southern writers, including the poets from The Fugitive at Vanderbilt, including Robert Penn Warren.

Abbeville Institute

Facebook has kicked the Abbeville Institute off its platform.  This is an offence against free speech.  The Abbeville Institute is not a crazy, rabble-rousing place from what I can tell by the articles it publishs.  They are supporters of the old South, but this is not a criminal offense.  There are probably a few crazies who attach themselves to it, but this is true of any organization, including Black Lives Matter, the American Legion, the Brookings Institution, and the Democratic and Republican Parties. 

Facebook appears to have a political agenda that it is forcing on the United States, as Pravda and other Communist media did in the old Soviet Union.  The book 1984 is relevant today; it has just taken us a few more years to reach its description of the political situation than George Orwell expected.  Mark Zuckerberg has become “Big Brother” whether he wants to be or not.  The First Amendment of the Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

is under serious assault. 

I do not think the Abbeville Institute is crying “fire” in a crowded theater or encouraging rebellion against the United States.  It is celebrating the exploits of the Old South militarily and socially before and during the Civil War.  People who oppose this are doing so on the same grounds they oppose all the accomplishments of European civilization: because they were done my white men.  The Roman Republic, Athenian democracy, English literature, Dutch master painters, classical music, the Renaissance, capitalism, and the industrial revolution are all opposed as evil for that reason.  The American founding fathers were influenced by European philosophers of the Enlightenment such as Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, which is now seen as evidence of their depravity. 

I believe the American Founding Fathers were great men who created a great country.  I believe many of the soldiers who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War were great men, certainly including Robert E. Lee.  I’m not sure my great-grandfather who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War was a great man, but he was a good man.  He was doing what he thought was right although he was born in Iowa and owned no slaves. 

I believe the continued suppression of speech by non-governmental media is a threat to our country, which has a history of free expression of ideas.  Indeed, it suppresses not only the current expression of ideas, but what we record of the history of mankind, and how we record it.  Great ideas will be lost.  We may return to a new “Dark Ages” of intellectual darkness, a rejection of truth, beauty, and science.  I am sad that this dark day may be coming unless we stand up against it. 

 

Stop Idolizing George Floyd

It is sad that Black Lives Matter has made such a point of honoring George Floyd.  He is a human being and should not have been killed by the police.  However, he was a convicted felon for a violent crime, in addition of being a drug user, a poor father, and generally a failure in life.  He was being arrested for committing a crime while being high on drugs.  He was a drag on the US economy and a bad example of the human race. 

The fact that he is being held up to such esteem by the black race indicates what a terrible state the black race is in.  There are many wonderful black individuals, but the black race looks pretty awful.  Africa is a failed continent, populated by the black race.  Why haven’t blacks made something of Africa.  Latin America is dark or brown because of the black intermarriage, and it too is a failed continent compared to the Northern Hemisphere.  Is the Southern Hemisphere failing because if is Southern, or because it is mainly populated by black and brown people? 

Black and brown people need good models for their race like Colin Powell, not failed criminals like George Floyd.  The fact that they honor George Floyd shows how violent, how uncivilized, how uneducated their race is.  They blame it on white oppression, but slavery ended 150 years ago.  Many blacks left the segregated South, but still failed to succeed in the northern US, turning cities like Detroit into spreading slums.  I would like to see an example of a failing city with a majority white population that improved itself as black people moved in and made it a better city.  I would like to see one; most examples are the opposite – nice cities that ran down as more black people moved in. 

When I was at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, I went down to Silesia to survey the coal mines there and to see what their environmental impact was.  The Pole who was escorting me made a point of taking me to an apartment house lived in by coal miners. He wanted me to see how neat and clean they were at home, despite their dirty occupation.  This is the kind of example the blacks need. I’m sure such an example exists, but I don’t know of it.  Blacks should publicize it, instead of praising a criminal like George Floyd. 

Reparations

Reparations is not about slavery; it’s about being black.  Slavery ended over 150 years ago. Blacks may claim the segregation lasted much longer, but many blacks moved from the South to the North where there was supposed to be no segregation.  They had the opportunity to make something of themselves, but they didn’t do much with it.  So now they just want money. 

America seems to be undergoing a transition in which blacks want a huge transfer of wealth from whites to blacks.  In fact, the immigration dispute reflects this same agenda.  Black and brown people around the world have been less successful than white people.  As a result, we see the mass migration from the southern hemisphere to the northern.  Africans are flocking to Europe.  Latin Americans are flocking to the United States.  These black and brown people are seeking a better life because they have failed to build one for themselves, just as black Americans failed to build themselves better lives after the Civil War. 

Now they have given up trying to better themselves and are just saying, “Give us money.”  Reparations are for being black, not for slavery.  It is easy to discriminate against blacks because blackness is so easily discernable, as opposed to religious beliefs or nationality.  Nevertheless, there are many successful blacks whose success demonstrates that blackness is not an insurmountable obstacle.  In fact, if blackness were identified with some particular skill or knowledge, it would be an asset instead of a liability. This seems to be the case in sports.  Blacks excel in sports, where football and basketball have both become dominated by black players.  If the same percentages were applied to sports that blacks want applied to other endeavors, teams could have only one black basketball player on the floor and football teams could have only two black football players on the field. 

Success in sports is good, but blacks need to do the same thing in other areas of life.  The last Oscars was devoted to awarding blacks, but the Oscars lost prestige because everyone recognized that they were given because of race and not because of the quality of the movies.  Blacks just ended up devaluing the Oscars, rather than improving their own image.  

Blacks need to prove themselves in areas other than sports and show business, rather than just asking for reparations payments because they were born black. 

Biden as President

My last few blog posts have been critical of Biden, but I am glad he won.  Trump was a terrible President, but his strong point was that he represented and stood up for the cultural ideas that are espoused by many ordinary, middle class people.  He is the ultimate illustration of the problem highlighted by the book “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”  Many people vote against their economic interests because they believe cultural interests are more important.  In Trump’s case it is even more surprising because he is a bad cultural icon.  He is course, crude, immoral, impolite, selfish, stupid, and the list goes on and on.  However, regular old white people see themselves under attack from all sides, and Trump is someone who is willing to take on the hatred from American intellectuals and minorities.  That one trait got him elected and it almost got him re-elected.  The Democrats were smart to change the voting laws right before the election to make it easier to vote.  Democrats could get apathetic, uninterested blacks to make the minimal effort to vote by mail for Biden, and it worked.  This Denver Post article illustrates the two approaches to voting requirements, although it clearly comes down on the side of making voting as easy as possible.   

Trump has incorrectly claimed that there was something illegal about the mail-in vote, but the states involved had made it legal.  It probably did cost him the election, but the state Democratic politicians and judges did it legally.  Easier voting favors Democrats.  The Republicans used the 2010 census to gerrymander their states to favor Republicans.  Each side is looking for advantages.  There are arguments on both sides.  When the US was founded, in most states only white adult male property owners could vote.  They wanted to restrict voting to responsible people who had a stake in their country.  Today, the Democrats have completely different priorities from the nation’s founders. 

Anyway, Biden is a much more normal President and good for the country.  He is being pushed by the progressive wing of his party to do a lot of questionable things, questionable because they have never been done before and they are very expensive.  But the Republicans are in a position to block most of them, or to tone them down.  Infrastructure repair is needed, but it needs to be limited, and paying for it right after huge payments for the covid pandemic if bad timing.  It’s good that interest rates are so low now, making it reasonable for the government to borrow money. 

Biden is a welcome change from Trump on foreign policy issues.  Trump tended to alienate our allies and pander to our enemies.  Trump messed up relations with Europe and North Korea, among others.  His China and Russia policies could have been more nuanced.  Biden is currently facing tough decisions on Afghanistan and Israel-Palestine, but he is approaching them rationally and intelligently. 

Biden’s reassuring, comforting tone is another welcome change from the Trump’s often strident, mocking, confrontational approach.  This offsets my concerns that Biden will take the country too far left.  That may be the trade-off for having a more traditional President.  Let’s give Biden a chance. 

A Lie about Voting

I was put off last Sunday by all the political talk shows that characterized the Liz Cheney-Donald Trump standoff as being about the “lie” about the election.  There is more to the issue than simply calling Trump a liar.  The Democrats did win the election, but only by changing the rules for voting at the last minute.  In the weeks preceding the election, key states where Biden barely defeated Trump made it much easier to vote.  They made it easier to vote by mail, to vote early, and so on.  The main result was that many more blacks voted, and voted for Biden, than they would have if the laws had not been changed. 

It is not surprising that the Democrats would cry foul about the Republicans changing the voting lows now.  The Democrats know they won because they changed the voting laws then.  The difference is not so much about a “lie” about voting as it is about a fundamentally different view of how voting should be done.  Democrats want the uneducated, the poor, the unmotivated to vote, because they know they can win those votes by promising those voters money – welfare benefits, generous unemployment insurance, stimulus checks.  One of the main reasons for Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus act package was to pay off the black voters who put him over the top in the election.  Of course, he had to pay a lot of white people, too, but the main target was the poor, black underclass, the George Floyds of America who voted for him.  The Democrats would be happy to have as many people vote as possible, illegal aliens someday, but today Democrats just want to get them into the US so that they can vote later, perhaps not too much later, if they can change the citizenship laws. 

Meanwhile the Republicans prefer people to vote who are more motivated.  The Democrats probably win the intellectual vote, but the Republicans do well with people with ordinary educations and skills.  The Republicans appeal to people who love America, while the Democrats tend to deride America as an evil, slave-holding country that needs to turn its back on its past and welcome new, uneducated people with no history of participating in any kind of good government.  If you are part of a civil war or a drug cartel, the Democrats want you.  Right now, the Democrats want the District of Colombia and Puerto Rico to become states, but down the line they have their eyes on Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador as future US states.  For Democrats, the border between Mexico and the US will gradually disappear and citizenship in one will entitle a person to be a citizen of the other.  The United States of America will become the United States of Latin America and the old US ties to Europe will fade away.  The Aztecs and the Mayans will replace the Greeks and Romans as models of ancient civilizations. 

Democrats are looking for voting rules that promote their idea of an America that has no connection to European ideas and culture.  The Republicans want a voting system that perpetuates the European ideas embodied in the Constitution, the British common law, the English language and other cultural connections to the founders’ home country, Britain. 

There is more to the voting issue than that Biden’s victory is a “lie” or that Republicans are trying to deprive blacks of the vote.  There is no indication that the new voting laws in Georgia or other states will be applied inequitably between blacks and whites.  It is just that blacks claim they can’t vote according to the same rules that white people can.  They can’t show up at a specified time and place.  They can’t vote without help from their family, neighbors, and friends.  They can’t provide a picture ID.  If they could do these things, which white people can do, they could vote just like white people. 

So, calling questions about the election a “lie,” or stricter voting rules as “racist oppression,” is just sweeping under the carpet the issue of what kind of country people what this country to be.  The Democrats have one vision, the Republicans another.  Democrats are afraid to debate the real issue and hide behind a “lie.”

Biden's Money for Drugs

 

There are many reasons to worry about President Biden’s huge stimulus proposal, but one I haven’t heard is that it will benefit the Mexican drug cartels.  One of the main ingredients of the proposal is to help blacks on welfare through various mechanisms.  One of the things we have learned from all the news reporting on killing of blacks by police officers is that the black community is deeply involved in drug trafficking.  Almost all of those killed were connected in some way to the drug business if only because they were using drugs when they confronted the police. 

George Floyd was high when he tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill and had a drug dealer in his car when he was arrested, who declined to testify at Floyd’s trial by taking the 5^th Amendment.  Brianna Taylor was sleeping with a drug dealer when police broke into her apartment and killed her while confronting her drug-dealer boyfriend.  Andrew Brown was killed when sheriff’s deputies were trying to serve a warrant on him for drug dealing. 

Lesson of the police shootings reported almost daily in the press is that drug use is widespread in the black community.  Thus, much of the billions or trillions of dollars that Biden is proposing to give the black community will go to drug use, to local drug dealers, but eventually to the cartel drug lords in Mexico.  Biden’s immigration policies are already big money makers for the cartels, which have branched out into providing coyotes to smuggle aliens into the US illegally.  Much of the additional “soft infrastructure” money will go for drugs and boost drug use throughout the black community.  It will be a huge boost for the drug network, enriching dealers all along the chain from users to cartel drug lords.  Money that is meant for childcare, elder care, unemployment compensation, food security, etc., will end up paying for drugs. 

Confederate Flag in the Capitol

The furor over the Confederate flag being carried by one of the invaders of the US Capitol is overblown.  Many more invaders were carrying American flags and using them as weapons, compared with one individual apparently walking quietly through the halls with a Confederate flag.  The man with the Confederate flag should not have been there, but it looks like his offense was considerably less than many of those with American flags.  Nevertheless, the Confederate flag photo has been highlighted because commentators believe it represents some kind of evil, like a Nazi swastika.  This is unjustified. 

The men who fought under the Confederate flag did not kill blacks; they killed white men fighting for the Union army.  Some black men fought for the Union and were killed along with their white colleagues, but that had nothing to do with their race.  To imply by comparisons with Nazi paraphernalia that the Confederate flag is a symbol of genocide is simply wrong.  It was a battle flag like those that troops have carried in war for thousands of years. 

Some may argue that the flag became a symbol of oppression and Jim Crow segregation after the war, but this was a misuse of the flag and not a true representation of what it stands for.  If you look at violence committed by the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups, you will probably find the Christian cross used as a symbol as often as the Confederate flag.  Should the cross be banned like the Confederate flag?  Should the American flag be banned because the rioters in the Capitol carried it during their rampage? 

The attack on the Confederate flag by liberals and Democrats has other motives, based on their own ethnic hatreds.  They want to destroy Southern white people as a political force, and the Confederate flag is a good symbol for their campaign of disparagement and disenfranchisement.  They have reopened the wounds of the Civil War and want to destroy the South this time around.  They believe Lincoln was too soft; they think he should have been more like Hitler and decimated and enpoverished the Southern white population, so that it would never have recovered from the war.  There should have been no “Reconstruction” after the war.  There should have been continued destruction.  They want destruction now. 

The decision to refight the Civil War has been made by the liberals and Democrats.  The disastrous Trump presidency was a reaction to their attack on ordinary white people across the nation, not just in the South.  Biden has not been a leader in this fight like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have been.  We will see if he gets dragged into it by them and their allies.  Trump’s impeachment may shed some light on what lies ahead.  Trump clearly urged insurrection, but it is not clear that impeachment is the remedy for what he did.  It is clear that it is part of the effort to destroy those Trump supporters whom the Democrats bitterly hate. 

White Supremacy

The term “white supremacy” is a racial slur, just like “nigger,” but the liberal media treat it as if it were a perfectly proper way to describe white people.  I see the term as expressing the extremist hatred and bigotry of those who use it. 

Although those who use it would say that it does not apply to all white people, that it only applies to certain white people like the Proud Boys (although the leader of the Proud Boys is not white).  In fact, it is intended to besmirch all white people.  White people who use the term may not think they are referring to themselves, but they are.  Many white people feel guilty for being born white and hate or at least dislike themselves for being white.  Jews use the term freely because they do not believe they are white.  They belong to the Jewish race.  Although they often accept the benefits of being perceived as white, they believe they are different.  They use circumcision to differentiate themselves from whites. 

Belief in white supremacy does exist, but so do many other forms of discrimination.  The Nazis believed in Aryan supremacy, a subset of white supremacy.  Jews believe that they are the children of God and other races are not.  Russia had the serfs for thousands of years.  Greeks and Romans (and Jews) had slaves during the height of their civilizations.   

Not everyone who believes in white supremacy is violent or a threat to society.  Whether it is right, wrong, socially incorrect, or even dangerous, there is nothing illegal about an idea if you do not act on it.  You are free to believe in white supremacy as long as you obey the laws relating to the treatment of individuals.  In America everyone is equal before the law, but that does not mean that everyone is an equally good athlete or speaker, or that everyone is equally strong or smart.  You are not forced by law to have a sports team of uncoordinated weaklings; you can choose good players.  But you cannot refuse to serve someone in your restaurant because he is an uncoordinated weakling. 

If you look around at the general population, the best accountants are probably going to be Jewish or white, and the best athletes are probably going to be black.  To deny generalizations like that is to close your eyes to the facts.  Liberals often do close their eyes to such facts, just as they accuse conservatives of denying other sorts of facts.  Liberals, like conservatives, tend to ignore or deny facts that do not fit into their worldview. People are different, but society can make laws to protect uncoordinated weaklings, just as it can make laws to protect black people. 

Believing in “white supremacy” is not a crime, although the liberal media would like it to be.  The liberal hatred directed at people they believe to hold this belief is enormous.  Liberals are capable of extreme hatred, just as conservatives are.  They often don’t act on it, but they have in the past, in demonstrations against the Vietnam War, for example, or more recently in some Black Lives Matter demonstrations where the whites have been more aggressive than the black participants. 

To me, the solution to the “white supremacy” issue is to avoid the issue of race altogether.  There are a lot of good white people and a lot of good black people, and there are a lot of bad people of both races.  It is a lot easier to like an individual than it is to like a whole race.  And it’s not fair to blame one individual for something that someone else of the same race did.  But if black people say, “You have to love me because I’m black,” I don’t think it’s going to work.  It is not the same thing as saying, “You should love me because I’m a good person.”  Blacks and whites need to work harder at being good people and drop the white supremacy label.  Is a white man a good person, not is he better (or worse) than a black man because he is white?  “White supremacist” is just a shorthand way to denigrate white people like “nigger” is used to denigrate black people. 

Returning from Vietnam

The media focus on current and former military members’ involvement in the January 6 assault on the Capitol makes me wonder how much longer Americans will honor those who serve in the military.  The press reported that the FBI was investigating the backgrounds of the thousands of National Guardsmen who were called to protect the Capitol during Biden’s inauguration, and that several were told to leave because of detrimental information found about them.  

It reminds me of the horrible way that Vietnam veterans were treated by their fellow Americans when they returned from Vietnam.  I was not actually spit on, and I don’t know anybody who was, but there was a lot of contempt for veterans, even to the point of calling them baby-killing war criminals.  On one hand it is good that there is a Vietnam memorial to remember those killed in Vietnam; on the other, the memorial is anything but heroic.  It could be interpreted as a dark slash in the ground, a stark recognition of those who tragically wasted their lives by dying in Vietnam.   

It is interesting that the Vietnam memorial was built before the World War II memorial.  World War II veterans were widely respected for their service, although the movie “The Best Years of Our Lives” shows that many WW II veterans faced the same kinds of problems that Vietnam veterans faced.  Nevertheless, no one felt when they returned that they needed a memorial.  Their service was memorial enough. 

The World War II memorial and the various Confederate memorials that are being torn down followed similar paths.  Neither set of veterans felt that they needed a memorial, but as they began to die off in greater and greater numbers, the people left behind, often wives and daughters, worked to build them memorials to preserve their memory. 

I fear that after a generation of honoring veterans, mainly starting after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, we are moving back to suspicion of veterans.  Now, instead of being war criminals returning from Vietnam, they are pictured as traitors, insurrectionists, white supremacists who are dangers to the nation.  Now the proportion of the populations serving in the military is even smaller than it was during Vietnam, meaning that less and less of the population has any personal understanding of what military service is like.  No recent President has served in the military, and few senior political or other public officials have.  How many of the “talking heads” pontificating about American politics on TV have served?  Not many.  There is a group of veterans in the Congress, mostly because of 9/11, but it will probably shrink as time goes on. 

I worry that people will more and more view the military as something subversive, a hotbed of Nazi sympathizers and white supremacists, and thus military service will become less and less respected and more and more suspected. 

Trump and Brexit have been disasters for the white race.

When he was elected, it looked as if Trump was the “great white hope” standing up for white people against the assault of blacks and immigrants.  He declared there were good people on both sides of the Charlottesville incident; he was going to build a wall to keep illegal immigrants out.  Now, particularly following his incitement of the mob that invaded the Capitol, he has become an embarrassment to white people.  

I was pleased when Trump said that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the fracas in Charlottesville over the removal of Confederate statues.  I don’t know if there were very fine people who participated in the fights, but there were very fine people who opposed the removal of the Confederate statues as those in the fights did. 

The status quo in Charlottesville included the presence of Confederate statues, since Virginia had been a member state of the Confederacy and many Virginians had died bravely fighting for Virginia’s right to self-determination.  If the Confederacy had won the war, would slavery still have existed there in 1900?  We will never know, but it probably would not have.  World opinion was turning strongly against slavery, and a separate Confederacy would probably not have been able to stand up against pressure from the rest of the world, including the separate, northern United States.  One result might have been the end of slavery, the collapse of the Confederate economy, and an eventual reuniting of the North and the South. 

There was much less animosity between the North and the South in the years following the Civil War than there is now.  Veterans of the war tended not to hold grudges, much like US veterans often showed no animosity toward their former enemies in Germany, Japan, or Vietnam after those wars.   Today the political differences are more between the coastal elites and the center of the country, or perhaps urban versus rural.  The ongoing dispute about the existence of the electoral college is evidence of this remaining tension. 

The coastal elites dominate virtually all types of media, except for social media.  It’s hard to know whether Jewish TV media luminaries or star writers at the New York Times or the Atlantic magazine, hate Southerners so much because they are Jews, carrying 4,000 years of race-related baggage, or because they went to bastions of intellectual snobbery like Harvard, Yale or Stanford.  In any case, unhappy Southerners have tended to turn to social media for information and to express their unhappiness.  Social media are increasingly discredited by the mainstream media, in part properly, because of its fake news, but also unfairly.  The elites characterize social media as evil and illegitimate because it is the way for ordinary people to express ideas opposing the mainstream media consensus.  We see the “free press” arguing against press freedom. 

 If there is a stereotype of “dumb Southern Conservative,” Trump has reinforced that image.  Instead of being an example of a kind Southern gentleman, he has been a stupid, impolite, arrogant, immoral, vulgar white man -- trailer park trash -- even if he lives in elegant residences.  By his misbehavior he has sullied the image of all white men. 

I am afraid that something similar is happening in Britain because of Brexit.  Brexit started because ethnic Brits were unhappy with all of the non-Brits who were coming to Britain because of the provisions of the EU.  Britain, along with Germany, was one of the most prosperous, pleasant countries in the EU, thus attracting many immigrants from other EU countries, as well as from non-EU countries.  Many Brits supported Brexit because they did not want immigrants to change the country in what they thought was a worse direction.  The result, however, will be an isolated Britain.  It is almost as if the American Confederacy had succeeded in seceding from the United States.  Britain has seceded from the EU, probably to the detriment of its economy, and its cultural and intellectual life. It will be poorer in multiple ways.  The Anglo race, which was the core of the creators of the American republic, will be weaker.  Britain is no longer an imperial power with colonies to support it, and is no longer part of the EU, the second or third most powerful bloc in the world. 

America is becoming an increasingly less Anglo country, increasingly more African and Hispanic.  Trump was supposed to stop this transformation, but instead has probably strengthened it.  He has discredited the white race.  In the Biden administration, Biden is one of the few white men; the other leaders will be non-white, many female, starting with Kamala Harris.  In this group, I don’t count Jews as “white,” because they often don’t consider themselves as white.  When Jews are born, one of the first things that is done to them is circumcision, to mark them forever as Jews, not some other race, even if in other ways they resemble the white race.  Circumcision marks the members of the Hebrew tribe, and separates them from non-members.  Thus, I don’t count the many Jews in the Biden administration as “white” or Anglo.  The Biden administration will be emblematic of the new, diverse America. 

So, I have to ask, what do these new, diverse leaders bring to the table.  With Jews, it is pretty obvious.  They have been very successful in almost every area except athletics.  Blacks, on the other hand, have not been very successful in any area other than athletics.  Both Jews and blacks have been successful in the entertainment industry.  Asians, like whites have been pretty successful in governing, and remaining somewhat competitive if not leaders in other areas.  Asians and Jews clearly beat out the other groups intellectually.  Blacks have long been strong in religion, which has supported them in the trials they have faced over the years, but religion is becoming less and less important in American life. 

Trump ended up appealing to the worst qualities of white people, and bringing out some of their worst qualities, most recently illustrated in the assault on the US Capitol, one of the best institutions created by the white “founding fathers,” now sullied by Trump and his white followers. 

We may be witnessing the decline of the white race.  It had a good run.  I think on the whole colonialism was a good thing, bringing millions, maybe billions, of people into the developed world, although huge discrepancies still remain between the colonizers and the former colonies.  World Wars I and II were pretty big blots on white history, but so far wars seem to be part of the human condition, not just for whites.  One of the World War II aggressors was Asian.  I would say the Roman Empire was also a “white” period, and again one with a pretty impressive history.  China, India, Persia, Egypt, and some other ancient civilizations have similarly long, impressive histories, while Africa has none.  Maybe this is Africa’s time to shine, but so far it doesn’t look like it.  There doesn’t seem to be much of a chance for American Indians to make a comeback.  Perhaps the time has come for whites to pay a price for what they did to the American Indians and black slaves.  If so, will it be good for America?  I don’t think so, but as a white man, I may be biased.  The bigger question is, “Will the world be a better place?”  Will the standard of living continue to rise for all men?  Will political and intellectual freedom continue to spread to all men? 

In the great scheme of things, I think white people have been more generous than most in tolerating and working with other races.  In America it was white men who freed the slaves; the slaves did not free themselves.  A white Southerner, Lyndon Johnson, is probably the person most responsible for whatever civil rights are enjoyed by blacks today.  Trump had an opportunity to regularize the rapid changes that were occurring in America when he was elected, but he failed.  It’s not enough to be white.  You have to be white and a good person.  Trump was not a good person.  Robert E. Lee was white and a good person, a Southern gentleman.  Woodrow Wilson gets no credit for trying (and failing) to bring a just peace to the end of World War I that might have spared the lives of six million Jews and ten million Russians in World War II. 

It looks like something new is coming. Trump will be seen as something of an unpleasant coda to 250 years of American history.  Britain and the US have both recoiled at what they think may be coming. Their trying to turn back may end up being more harmful that trying to control the change. 

President-elect Biden is saying all the right things, except (for me) about Charlottesville.  Every time he mentions Charlottesville I recoil.  For me Charlottesville meant tearing down American history in a city synonymous with American history as the home of Thomas Jefferson.  But we tried going in the other direction under Trump, and it didn’t work.  Perhaps Biden will do better.  If not, we may find ourselves on the brink of another Civil War, basically over the same issue, the role of non-whites, blacks and immigrants, in American society. 

 

American Flag Was Symbol of Rioters

 

There were a lot more American flags at the Capitol riot than Confederate flags.  Do liberals believe that the American flag is a symbol of hatred like the much less displayed Confederate flag.? Confederate flags were vastly outnumbered by American flags as the emblem of the rioters.  Will Nancy Pelosi  burn her American flags because they are symbols of hatred?