Posted on Aug 19, 2019
What the Reactionary Politics of 2019 Owe to the Politics of Slavery
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If you want to understand American politics in 2019 and the strain of reactionary extremism that has taken over the Republican Party, a good place to start is 2011: the year after a backlash to Barack Obama’s presidency swept Tea Party insurgents into Congress, flipping control of the House.
It was clear, at the start of that year, that Congress would have to lift the debt ceiling — the limit on bonds and other debt instruments the government issues when it doesn’t have the revenues to fulfill spending obligations. These votes were often opportunities for grandstanding and occasionally brinkmanship by politicians from both parties. But it was understood that, when push came to shove, Congress would lift the limit and the government would pay its obligations.
2011 was different. Congressional Republicans, led by the new Tea Party conservatives, wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and make other sharp cuts to the social safety net. But Democrats controlled the Senate and the White House. So House Republicans decided to take a hostage. “I’m asking you to look at a potential increase in the debt limit as a leverage moment when the White House and President Obama will have to deal with us,” said the incoming majority leader, Eric Cantor, at a closed-door retreat days before the session began, according to The Washington Post. Either the White House would agree to harsh austerity measures or Republicans would force the United States to default on its debt obligations, precipitating an economic crisis just as the country, and the world, was beginning to recover from the Great Recession.
It was clear, at the start of that year, that Congress would have to lift the debt ceiling — the limit on bonds and other debt instruments the government issues when it doesn’t have the revenues to fulfill spending obligations. These votes were often opportunities for grandstanding and occasionally brinkmanship by politicians from both parties. But it was understood that, when push came to shove, Congress would lift the limit and the government would pay its obligations.
2011 was different. Congressional Republicans, led by the new Tea Party conservatives, wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and make other sharp cuts to the social safety net. But Democrats controlled the Senate and the White House. So House Republicans decided to take a hostage. “I’m asking you to look at a potential increase in the debt limit as a leverage moment when the White House and President Obama will have to deal with us,” said the incoming majority leader, Eric Cantor, at a closed-door retreat days before the session began, according to The Washington Post. Either the White House would agree to harsh austerity measures or Republicans would force the United States to default on its debt obligations, precipitating an economic crisis just as the country, and the world, was beginning to recover from the Great Recession.
What the Reactionary Politics of 2019 Owe to the Politics of Slavery
Posted from nytimes.com
American History
Slavery
Culture
Society
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
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1619? America didn’t exist until 1776. The Spanish enslaved natives in the late 1400’s. The first recognized slave owner in the British American colonies was black. There were slaves in what is America before Europeans arrived. I guess native slaves didn’t count, isn’t that racist? The first country to end Slavery was England, the religious and moral underpinning to end slavery in England had it’s roots in America and the Quakers. America was the third nation to end slavery. Mexico out lawed slavery earlier but we ended it quicker. Slavery lasted 100 years in America. The level of BS put out by the New York Times May require me to buy a manure spreader to keep from suffocating!
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MAJ James Woods
The US was the third country to ban Trans Atlantic trade in 1808 but we did not abolish slavery until 1863 and then the 13th amendment in 1865; then Civil Rights in 1964. We’re not as progressive as you presume with your criticism of the NYT. So yeah there’s still merit to this article’s premise.
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LTC David Brown
MAJ James Woods - I think I clearly stated we ended slavery 100 years after America was founded. We cannot be held responsible for the actions of France, Spain and England since those countries ruled much of what is now America in 1619. If you read about the first person to legally own a slave in the British Colonies of America many who came from Africa, as he did, were not slaves but indentured servants. Am I defending slavery? No. What people fail to realize is that slavery has existed since before recorded history. Slavery is still practiced, sex trafficking in America and the old fashioned kind in many parts of the World such as Mauritania. Slavery was ended in Britain with help from The American Quakers. Slavery was argued about since America’s founding. This idea that America was some evil bastion of oppression is simply manure, and it isn’t fit for even composting! The idea that America was some bastion of suppression of blacks is also garbage. My father and his sister grew up in Nebraska. My Aunts childhood friend went to a school where she was the only white child. At the end of the civil war there were many biracial marriages in upper-crust families. During the Antebellum period the head of the Medical College of Georgia was married to a black women. Many slaves were allowed to conduct businesses and earned enough money to buy their freedom. Slavery was horrible and segregation was terrible but, if you will excuse the pu, it wasn’t all black and white.
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MAJ James Woods
LTC David Brown 1. No one is saying you’re defending saying. I’m just criticizing your simplification of history. 2. The first person to own a slave in the British colonies wasn’t from Africa unless you’re saying he was South African by way of European not African descent. 3. I say again, America wasn’t the third country to abolish slavery it was the third to outlaw the slave trade; thus, the import of slaves, while continuing the practice of slavery. Other countries abolished slavery before the US and had it not been for the Civil War it could’ve been a while longer before it was abolished in the US. 4. This isn’t about the sins of other nations or colonies but that of America. Quakers may have fought to end slave trade in England, it was abolitionists of various backgrounds that fought to end it in the US. Lastly don’t bother with the “Black colonist owned slaves” argument. Yes some African indentured servants that earned their freedom and was granted it in some of the colonies embarked on having their own indentured servants; some would eventually become lifetime indentured servants aka slaves. Africans enslaved Africans. Europeans enslaved Europeans. Arabs enslaved Arabs. Asians enslaved Asians. Native Americans enslaved invaders and trespassers. But when the historical American arguments that the Negro slave were a) had a good life as a slave, b) too inferior to be free men, c) were no different than my field animals, d) being a slave was a choice are why many condemn the history of slavery as institutionalized racism that fed another century of segregation, lynchings and fighting for equal rights. So just cause Black America made the most of every situation with moral fortitude to make life at least content it doesn’t mean their struggles were fair and acceptable consequences of living. So excuse me if I don’t see gray areas in the post Civil War history of Black America subjected to lynchings for looking at a White woman, police brutality for just being in the wrong place, or fighting for your country then told its not your country. Yeah the racism and racial profiling I’ve experienced and observed in the 80s to today doesn’t compare but it sure as hell is black and white in terms of human decency and respect.
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