The Virginia GOP has decided to say the quiet parts out loud post-Charlottesville, claiming that
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam has turned his back on his heritage by stating that he supports the removal of monuments that glorify the Confederacy. I can't really say that I have any predecessors that I would be ashamed of- my people have been largely scrappy peasant types who have overcome adversity and gained middle class success, with a couple of upper-middle class types who fled their stultifying lives in the old country thrown into the mix. The 'crimes' of my ancestors have all been ones that I find to be colorful, nothing to be ashamed of- one of my great-grandfathers was reputed to belong to an absinthe-smuggling ring, one of my great-grandmothers had a still blow up in the house during Prohibition... I consider my ancestors to have been scoffing a stupid laws, laws which were eventually repealed. Northam's family, though, engaged in activities which Northam does not countenance. He is repudiating the aspects of his heritage for which he cannot be proud:
The Virginia GOP has deleted its tweets calling out Northam as a traitor to the treasonous 'lost cause',
but the wags won't let this go away:
By deleting that tweet you are erasing history.
The GOP emblem should be a mayfly, rather than an elephant- they have a knack for flushing facts down the memory hole.
I'm actually kind of surprised that as a society America is far too immature to get past its own historical racial animosity. I probably shouldn't be. Many of our fellow citizens desperately cling to their own tribal hatreds because they are like a warm blanket, providing them with what they perceive to be an anchor to their culture.
ReplyDeleteIt's a dumb reason to kill each other, but kill each other we will. And it's a dumb reason to destroy a pretty high quality tradition of democracy and justice, but we're watching it torn to pieces on the alter of pointless hate...