"Ron DeSantis and the Myth of The 'Lost Cause' "

"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)

Introduction:

As The Washington Post recently noted: "In [the] fight to lead America's future, [a] battle rages over its racial past: DeSantis defends his state's depiction of slavery; Biden bashes book bans and honors Emmett Till." Indeed, DeSantis promotes the old slavery-justification-Lost-Cause argument that slaves (I guess he meant "some" slaves) learned usable skills, like carpentry. He did not happen to mention that the vast majority of slaves died, in one way or another, before they possibly could have used any learned skill as freemen. Funny also is that he didn't mention the old pro-slavery saw that they were housed, clothed and fed.

With these kinds of arguments, one wonders why DeSantis did not use the classic justification of slavery uttered by the First Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, in his famous "Cornerstone Speech":

"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 law. 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 Cain, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. Our new government is founded on the opposite idea of the equality of the races. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone 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 condition."

Whether or not DeSantis is a personal racist, he knows that if Trump leaves the race for one reason or another (like fleeing the country for one reason or another), just as Trump ran on racism to the top of the ticket in 2016, he, DeSantis, can do the same thing in 2024. (By the way, Florida was the third state to secede from the Union, after South Carolina and Mississippi.) He is thus very clearly positioning himself to succeed to Position No. 1 should Trump vacate it for one reason of another. If you think that DeSantis is not running on racism first and foremost --- I have yet to see very much in the way of "dealing with nation's problems" (real or Republo-imagined) --- just look at the way he is very publicly going after Vice-President Kamala (he pronounces the name Ka-MAH-la) Harris, describing her as nothing more than "impeachment insurance."

Which brings me to the primary subject of this column, that is that DeSantis (and perhaps one or two other candidates for the GOP nomination when they come to realize how well the theme that I am about to elaborate on is working for him) appears to be getting ready to launch, in FULL-THROAT. That is the Resuurection of the Thesis of "The Lost Cause." And so, the balance of this column is based on a column that I published on that theme in 2021: "Racism, Historical Fact, and 'The Lost Cause' "

Confederate Reunion Parade Richmond.
(Image by Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Edyth Carter Beveridge)   Details   Source   DMCA

The tradition of the use of racism as a political weapon by the Republican Party can be traced back to its founding in the 1850s on the wreckage (over the issue of slavery) of the Whig Party (see: "Xenophobia and Racism: They're in the Republican Party's DNA"). As is well-known, the use of political racism has been brought to its highest peak by Trump and his key role in transforming the modern Republican Party into the Republo-fascist Party (see the references for a series of columns by me on this subject at: Click Here).

As an example of the use of racism politically, in the most recent elections, in many parts of the country, racism paid a major part of the Republican "platform." DeSantis' favorite, "Critical Race Theory," CRT, (which I am sure virtually no Republican, both lay and political operative/candidate, understands), played a major role. It was used as a battering, racist, ram by the Repubs. (As it happens, CRT is simply a method, developed by a group of academics back in the 1970s, for studying the role of race and racism in U.S. history. CRT is not about substance, per se, but about method.)

But given the history of the U.S., in which, for example, race and racism were built into the Constitution, the method quickly does get to substance in the hands of many of its users. (See, e.g., The 1619 Project.) Of course, it doesn't have to, but in current U.S. Republican politics, "CRT" has become shorthand for "they're indoctrinating our children with all sorts of stuff that is entirely unfair, inappropriate, unsuitable, and just dead wrong --- we are NOT racists; we just don't want our children exposed to any history or evidence that might indicate that we are."

Now as it happens, accompanying these political strategies and tactics is a (so far) subtle revival of the post-Civil War "Myth of the Lost Cause." As a book by that name says:

" The Myth of the Lost Cause was a constructed historical narrative on the causes of the Civil War. It argued that despite the Confederacy losing the Civil War, their cause was a heroic and just one, based on defending one's homeland, state's rights, and the constitutional right to secession.

"The Myth of the Lost Cause may have been the most successful propaganda campaign in American history. For almost 150 years it has shaped our view of the causation and fighting of the Civil War. As discussed in detail in prior chapters, the Myth of the Lost Cause was just that, a false concoction intended to justify the Civil War and the South's expending so much energy and blood in defense of slavery."

It was developed in the 1890's, declined at about the time of the passage of the Civil Rights Acts in the 1960, but it has never really gone away. Its persistence in the political consciousness in certain parts of the country (just guess which ones) is in line with the hypothesis that in reality the South actually won the civil war. This is a subject on which I have been writing (in short form) since 2009 (more recently in 2018). Heather Cox Richardson, Prof. of History at Boston College, published a very important book on the subject in 2020.

My own hypothesis on how the South won can be boiled down to this:

1. Chattel slavery is of course long-gone, but for a century it was replaced by "Jim Crow," and Blacks are still majorly discriminated against socio-economically. terms in the South, it existed on a certain level well into the last century.

2. Since the end of the War, The Dogma of White Supremacy continued to dominate the national political stage.

3. North American Continental Imperialism ended with the accession to statehood by Arizona in 1912. However, expansion beyond the boundaries of North America began with the annexation of Hawaii (1898) and has literally or figuratively continued since.

4. The "states' rights" basis of allotting seats in the United States Senate (which was of course put into the Constitution purely for the benefit of the slave-holding states) as well as votes in the Electoral College has of course continued, and current Republican policy is making it even worse.

5. A major element of Southern politics was the use of the Big Lie Technique. First that Africans and African-Americans were inferior beings, not "human." Second, that the Civil War, initiated by the Forces of Secession in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, 1861, was about "Southern Freedom." That of course included the freedom to maintain slavery, and to expand it into the Western Territories, without too much in the way of limitations.

6. At the same time that the CSA was fighting so bitterly and for so long primarily to defend the institution of slavery, it was able to get several hundred thousand poor white farmers and laborers to give their lives in the cause. How? By using the Doctrine of White Supremacy to convince them that they were indeed fighting for "freedom."

7. Central to the "Lost Cause" false narrative, the war was not a rebellion, but rather a "War Between the States," or, as a recent President of the NRA referred to it "The War of Northern Aggression," or "Abraham Lincoln's War," or "The War for Southern Independence."

And now we are seeing the revival of the "Lost Cause" doctrine, in modern dress, that is, once again, that the War was really about "states' rights," "the slaves didn't have it so bad," and "Southern freedom." Translated for current times, it is that the states can do whatever the h__l they please. See, e.g., Alabama's defiance of the Supreme Court on voting rights, conveniently ignored by the Republican Right as noted above. (That the "rights" and the "freedoms" of the CSA included the maintenance and the expansion of slavery, is conveniently forgotten.) It also included the elements in item 7 just above, terms which are still being used by a variety of defenders of the "Southern Way of Life," such as a fairly recent President of the National Rifle Association. And it is just like so many of the arguments that many (although not all) Republicans these days use to support their positions and policies (see "The Big Lie") that are not based on fact.

This is where DeSantis seems to be going. He is having a hard time attacking Trump directly. Actually, no-one is but Chris "Doesn't-have-a-Chance" Christie (and who knows what he is running for). So, oh my. Given that the base of the Republican Base rests on racism, for DeSantis it's clearly: "Let's revive the Myth of the Lost Cause, and at the same time go after the most prominent Black Woman in the U.S. That should do it."