Friends of Padre Steve’s World,
I pondered writing this post late last night but was too tired to write it. It’s not long at all and it it is something that I wrote about previous shutdowns. Back in 2011 I wrote the following words regarding the shutdown provoked by Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and their Right Wing supporters at Fox News and Right Wing pundits, which ended up with the disastrous policy of sequestration.
“The attitudes that we have formed and angry words which we now use so ubiquitously are reflective of a deep hatred that now is becoming what defines us as a people. In fact the deep and abiding hatred which now permeates our society is now threatening the international standing and I would say the national security of the United States. We have only ourselves to blame because through our actions and inactions of the past decade we have made our choice to be what we have become and there is no one group especially in our political, media and business elites that have served us well. In fact we have as voters chosen this toxic mix of elected officials often more influenced by hate spewing pundits and our own self interests rather than that of the nation and future generations much as we would like to claim that we are looking out for the future.”
Interestingly enough these same people, hitched their wagons to President Trump’s disastrous decision to shut down the government to build his monstrous monument to his morbid #MAGA manhood; that big beautiful wall. Of course anyone with a knowledge of history knows that such walls are expensive and ultimately self defeating.
For now the current Shutdown is over. Increasingly isolated Trump had no other exit for the trap that he laid for himself. Standing alone in the Rose Garden he capitulated to reality.
So for at least three weeks, the shutdown is over. Of course it really isn’t over as long as Trump thinks he can succeed, and there remains the ever present threat of him declaring a National Emergency. I think the latter is more likely, especially if the crisis in Venezuela results in bloodshed at the American Embassy. But for that we have to wait and see. My hope is that a legislative fix is found that actually increases border security without wasting money on that wall. One does not return to provenly ineffectual past remedies to solve present problems, but I digress…
To quote from the testimony of the former Confederate General Robert E. Lee before a Congressional Committee after the disaster of the American Civil War, or as it should still be called the War of the Southern Rebellion.
Before the committee, Lee, who had resigned his commission less than a month of been promoted to full Colonel and rejecting President Lincoln’s offer to command the Armies of the Union accepted commissions by Virginia and the Confederacy said:
“I may have said and I may have believed that the position of the two sections which they held to each other was brought about by the politicians of the country; that if the great mass of the people, if they had understood the real questions would have avoided it. I did believe at the time that it (the war) was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forbearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides.”
But Lee was engaged in the same sort of moral equivalence that many politicians and pundits use today. In his testimony, Lee blamed both sides and conveniently left out his role in the conflict. Before the war Lee inherited the slaves of his father in law who had expressly said that they were to be emancipated. He delayed and did not do it. When he resigned his U.S. Army commission he said that he would only raise his sword in defense of Virginia, but he personally led two invasions of the North, invasions that his Army used to capture free blacks and return them to slavery. Despite the urging of some Confederate Generals, Lee steadfastly opposed the emancipation of slaves to serve in the Confederate Army until February of 1865. When the war was for all purposes lost, Lee redoubled his efforts and had hundreds of deserting Confederate Soldiers sentenced to death at Drumhead Court Martial. The vast majority of those troops were from Georgia and the Carolinas and their states, families, and homes were being ravaged by William Tecumseh Sherman’s Army’s March to the Sea.
Yes the American Civil War was an unnecessary condition of affairs, as was the Trump-McConnell Shutdown. In each case the blame is not shared across the board. These disasters can be laid at the feet of the men who provoked them and demanded them. In the case of the Civil War, those were the leaders of the South, who having the assurance of Lincoln that slavery was safe in the Slave states decided to secede, and who through the Fugitive Slave Law Of 1850 had an instrument to enforce slavery in the Free States.
In the current situation it all comes down to race once again. President Trump and many Republican leaders have blamed immigrants and racial minorities for all the problems of the country. They offer support to White Nationalist, Neo-Confederate, and Neo-Nazi groups, while demonizing anyone with darker skin. Trump’s Wall, like his Red MAGA hats are symbolic of that race hatred, and fear mongering. The Trump Shutdown can only be blamed on that. Trump bragged about the Shutdown and took responsibility for it. He owns it, maybe we should start calling it the #TRUMPDOWN ? It does have a nice ring.
So until tomorrow when I return to other subjects,
Peace,
Padre Steve+
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 