Lies and History

 

For years before and into the 1960s, there was a version of American history popular in the south and often accepted elsewhere claiming that the Confederates did not rebel in defense of slavery but over some other concerns, that slaves were well treated by their kind and genteel owners, and that slaves were satisfied with their condition. Every one of these assertions is false. These days very few people believe otherwise, and most would agree the history of slavery, the Civil War, reconstruction, and Jim Crow should be understood and taught accurately without such fables.

However we now have a new set of fables in place of the old, one claiming that Lincoln and the union army did not free the slaves who rather did it themselves spontaneously or something, that America and its wealth were built on slavery, that the American revolution was fought to escape from British abolitionists, and that ubiquitous, systemic white racism has resulted in a de facto continuation of Jim Crow into the present. Every one of these assertions is false. Yet they are preached in universities, diversity reeducation sessions, public schools, media companies, and even, for gosh sakes, Disney cartoons.

In accuracy and intent they are on the level of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and should get the same dismissal and contempt. There is no justification for accepting dishonest cover stories that all that is really wanted is to get the full story told. It has nothing to do with that. It is lying to libel this country and an entire race of people.

State of the Union Night

 

We didn’t watch the state of the union speech Tuesday. Instead we watched The Dark Horse, a 1932 comedy staring Warren William, Bette Davis, and Guy Kibbee. It is my favorite movie about politics, and it was particularly appropriate on that night. The movie begins in a deadlocked political convention where a tricky maneuver by one faction backfires and leads to the nomination of an unknown and randomly selected dimwitted ignoramus (played by Kibbee) as his party’s candidate for governor. The party’s secretary (played by Davis) persuades its desperate leaders to hire a slick and shifty political consultant (played by William) to run the campaign and try to get the nitwit elected. 

The film depicts William’s efforts to put over the candidacy of the “dumbest human being I ever saw.” Highlights include Kibbee being trained to answer every question with an attempt at a thoughtful expression and a “yes, and then again no” and a debate in which both candidates planned identical opening remarks plagiarizing the same statement of Lincoln’s. William does his dishonest work so well - telling wets and dries, Republicans and Democrats that his man is fully on their side, getting Kibbee made an honorary Indian chief, staging a photo op of Kibbee as a great fisherman, and so on – that Kibbee becomes favored to win. However Kibbee had become  involved with William’s predatory ex-wife who connives with operatives of Kibbee’s opponent to entrap him in a “love nest” right before election day. William saves the day at some cost to himself and temporarily to his relationship with Davis, and Kibbee is elected in a landslide. The movie ends with Kibbee headed for the governor’s mansion and William and Davis off to Nevada to do it again for some other candidate. It is good, cynical, perceptive fun. Some people might say its premise is unrealistic or even outrageous. That would be a mistake in a country that has elected Donald Trump and Joe Biden back to back.