Why Are Far-Right-Wing Extremists Worshiping John C. Calhoun?
Why Are Far-Right-Wing Extremists Worshiping John C. Calhoun?
A few days ago, the city of Savannah, Georgia took an important symbolic step toward racial inclusiveness, naming one of Savannah’s 23 historic public squares for a Black woman.
Susie King Taylor, born in 1848 to enslaved parents, became a renowned educator, setting up schools for emancipated children and adults – a laudable role model in America’s ongoing struggle to extend equal opportunity to all. Before adding Taylor’s name, though, the name that had been plastered on that square 170 years ago – John C. Calhoun – had to be subtracted. Council members did that last year, finding the South Carolina senator and two-time vice president unworthy of any public honor. Why?
Well, why would Georgians of 1853 create a monument to a lawmaker from another state? Answer: Slavery. No politician in our history has been a more vehement apologist and promoter of human enslavement than Calhoun. Thus, racist Southern leaders revered him. A rich son of plantation privilege, Calhoun owned dozens of slaves. More shamefully, he built his political career by fabricating a hokey economic theory asserting that slavery was such a “positive good” that even white workers in Northern factories should be converted to slave laborers.
Worst of all, Calhoun opposed the democratic ideal of majority rule, crying that it allowed the many to “interfere” with the freedom of the elite propertied class (his own) to do what they wish with their “properties” – including slaves. He even favored outright plutocracy, proposing that the rich should be given a special right to overturn laws they don’t like.
While Savannah is doing the right thing by saying no to this autocrat… beware, for the Koch brothers’ network of today’s plutocratic billionaires is now exalting Calhoun, furtively organizing to impose his plutocratic order over us. To learn more about and fight against the Kochs, go to: TrueNorthResearch.org.
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Why Are Far-Right-Wing Extremists Worshiping John C. Calhoun?
Here in MPLS we had a lake in the city called Lake Calhoun in spite of the fact that Minnesota was never a slave state and had no relationship with Calhoun. A few years ago the name was changed to Bde Maka Ska, the name used by the Dakota tribe. It means White Earth Lake.
If Democrats want to win big in 2024, they need to start campaigning for women's reproductive rights and access to abortion. Last month a 13-year-old girl who was raped gave birth in Mississippi because she could not get an abortion. She is starting the 7th grade as a new mother. That is a forecast of things to come if Republicans gain control of state and national government. It has to be every parent of a young girl nightmare that it could happen to them. Yet to date it was gotten little to no air time by the liberal media. Sorry to say, President Bidden can break his elbow trying to pat himself on the back for his accomplishments, but that is only preaching to the choir. The key to the next election is abortion rights, followed by gun crime and climate change. The President's achievements are in 4th place. "Would somebody please, get that man a gun!" or better yet a clue to what can win!