A Liberal Dose, June 17, 2021
Troy D. Smith
"Orwell Said It Best: The New Lost Cause Ideology"
This is the conclusion of a three-part discussion- click here to see PART ONE and PART TWO,
I’ve been talking the last couple of times about “Lost Cause
Ideology” and the fact that so many 21st Century Americans don’t
want to admit the Civil War was fought over slavery. Another aspect of that,
which we’ve been seeing for about the last 25 years or so, is the assertion
that thousands of black men volunteered to take up arms and fight in defense of
the Confederacy –a claim which historians reject and which is easily disproven.
Why, then, has it become so popular the last couple of decades? I’ll give you a
hint. The “Black Confederate” memes spiked on twitter during the riots in
Ferguson, Missouri in August of 2014.
Here’s the answer: if black people supported the
Confederacy, then the Confederacy (and the war) was not about slavery. If it
was not about slavery, it was not about race. If it was not about race, we can
believe our country doesn’t really have a race problem –and therefore there is
no further need for social change. Remember, conservatives by definition want
to either conserve the status quo or go back to how things used to be –it is
progressives who want social change to move forward.
And if we pass laws preventing teachers from teaching
students the complex issues surrounding slavery and race, we can pretend like
it never happened (or that it was not that bad a thing), simultaneously making
ourselves feel good and preventing the possibility of further social change.
All this, despite the fact that historians know the words of the very people
who formed the Confederacy, and their explicit admission that it was all about
slavery and race. In other words, conservatives could construct an alternate
reality built on what they want to hear. If it all sounds rather Orwellian, it
should. Let’s throw in a couple of George Orwell quotes from the novel 1984:
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls
the past.” And: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a
revolutionary act.”
This has set me to thinking about the insurrection at our
Capitol on January 6. We all watched it live on television; we know what
happened. Most Americans were shocked and outraged, and some were embarrassed
because the rioters were on their side politically. Some were already trying to
spin it, saying (and there is absolutely no evidence of this) that the violent
crowd was made up of antifa members in disguise. On that day, beleaguered GOP
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vigorously denied this claim to Trump
himself on the phone: “It’s MAGA. I know, I was there.” Several Republican
leaders condemned the president’s role in stirring up the murderous crowd, and
in the “Big Lie” that he actually won the election.
But now, five months later, it is a different story. All but
a handful of those Republican leaders have backtracked on what they said the
day of the insurrection (and the ones who have not are being punished).
Conservative commentators are blaming nonexistent antifa spies for all the
violence, and saying the MAGA crowd that day was, at best, a little
“rambunctious.”
What about Republican voters? A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted
just one month ago shows that 53% of them believe Trump is the “true
president.” 66% believe the election was stolen by Democrats. 20% believe those
crazy QAnon conspiracy theories. Those numbers seem to be growing instead of
shrinking.
It is the new Lost Cause Ideology. Conservatives are so
desperate to keep things going their way (and avoid charges of treason) that
they have made up a bizarre fantasy world and moved into it. Sadly, like with
the original, if they keep repeating it long enough they may get most other
people to believe it, too. Will Republican state legislators ban teachers from
teaching the truth about that, as well?
This is a real threat to democracy.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
A complete list of "A Liberal Dose" columns can be found HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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