From ballots to bullets: what caused the Civil War?
While Democrats deny voting rights, Republicans forget history
This was a week when two states in our American Union took the anti-democratic step of removing the name of Donald J. Trump, Republican candidate for President, from their primary ballot. The specious reason for this stunning move has been propagated far and wide, namely, a misreading of article 3 of the Fourteen Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which stipulates that any state or federal lawmaker (or elector) who had previously taken an oath of office shall be ineligible to hold public office if they engaged in rebellion against the United States. Conspicuously missing from that text is the office of President, an omission which the vote deniers are loathe to acknowledge.
The throwback to a constitutional provision adopted immediately following the Civil War is odd, as hostilities ceased long ago, but perhaps not to Colorado and Maine partisans, who have been describing Trump as a menace as terrifying as that all-out war. But I remembered that in the 1860 presidential election 10 southern Democrat states kept Abraham Lincoln’s name off the ballot. Unlike his stunning rise to greatness following the Civil War, our 16th President’s name was trashed in the Confederacy and even in northern states. So, taking his name off the ballot is “just politics,” if not a righteous cause, if you are a rebel.
As the Civil War was the most disruptive event in American history, there is good reason to remember it with all its momentous effects both short and long term. Slavery officially ended, states’ rights became a discredited cause, commerce replaced agriculture as our main way of business, and Republicans dominated American politics until the Great Depression. And just a day or two ago, we were reminded why we should remember the lessons of the Civil War.
Asked by a New Hampshire voter on this point, Nikki Haley said its lesson was that it matters what government powers and individual rights are in dispute, leaving out the central issue of slavery. This left both Left and Right in some surprise, the former eager to find fault and latter embarrassed by the omission. The Democrats routinely accuse Republicans of racism and the latter are defensive about that charge.
But the fact is that this narrow view of the Civil War has it all backwards. The Democrats were pro-slavery. Those Democrat states that held slaves wanted it perpetuated. Those who did not hold slaves wanted to be free to hold them if they desired. Indeed, this split divided their party and enabled Republicans to win despite slave states having denied Lincoln a place on their ballots. Republicans were the antislavery party, who produced three amendments to end slavery, secure equal protection of the laws, and establish equal voting rights for all races. Sadly, with the end of this Reconstruction, these amendments were seriously undermined for the next century by “states’ rights.”
Why are Republicans to this very day allowing Democrats a free pass on slavery and even segregation? The politics are simple. For decades Republicans dominated Congress and elected all but two Presidents between 1860 and 1932. But when Democrats began decades of national dominance, the GOP realized it needed southern Democrats to hold back passage of sweeping administrative measures for Big Government. Even though Republicans had impeccable equal rights credentials, the lingering racism of many Americans and the long-standing anti-federalism of southern Democrats encouraged Republicans to form that anti-Democrat alliance.
Nothing made that alliance obvious more than the nomination of Republican Senator Barry Goldwater for president in 1964 as he opposed the Civil Rights Act on states’ rights grounds, having long supported equal rights in his home state of Arizona. Ever since that disastrous Republican defeat, Democrats have made the racism charge. Which is amazing in that major civil rights laws passed with a majority of Republicans in support, while no Democrats in the South did so. So, back in the 1860s and in the 1960s, Republicans were united in support of civil rights.
And no less did Democrats back in the 1860s keep Republicans off the ballot as they are doing right now.