You read past the headline?!?! The Trumpers, alas, did not. Or, if they did, the words were Othmar-ian babble to them. "What did you say about slavery, Miss Othmar?" "Wah wah wah, wah wah." "Uh, are you saying it was good or bad?" "WAH WAH WAH, WAH WAH."
It is funny how: 1) Cotton got into this mess trying to argue that some liberals are too negative about the founders, then immediately threw the founders under the bus when pressed on his words on slavery. 2) some Cotton defenders here didn’t get the memo that the “necessary evil” statement is wrong when Cotton himself quite clearly did and didn’t even try to defend it (and instead tries to say he was just saying that the founders believed it). Well, as Tracy McGrady says, it is what it is.
I'm honestly more perplexed about him thinking that statues and base names are how people learn history.
Here’s another quote from Cotton, courtesy of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette: “America is a great and noble country founded on the proposition that all mankind is created equal. We have always struggled to live up to that promise, but no country has ever done more to achieve it.” Cotton clearly missed the part of American history where slaves were 3/5th’s of a person or viewed as less before that. Or Plessy vs. Ferguson, which issued the Separate but Equal Doctrine to justify segregation. Then, it took until 1954 for the Supreme Court’s to rule in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional. Finally, the Civil Rights Act wasn’t passed until 1964.
I am not saying the that United States are the worst ever or anything close to it-- every other country around the world has its faults, too. However, there sure are countries that abolished slavery earlier than the U.S. did. So, I am not sure that we have "done more to achieve it" than all the other countries. I chose to come to this country almost 30 years ago, and am glad that I did. But loving a country does not require one to constantly say "We are No. 1!" in spite of reality.
Well said, Carl. I don’t think the U.S. is the worst country in the world, either. As someone born and raised in Houston, I’m proud to be an American, but I’m disgusted by our country’s leadership right now. I was pointing out Cotton’s idiocy of saying America was founded on the principle that mankind was created equal, but throughout its history, the nation has not come close to meeting that standard and has done the exact opposite in many cases.
I feel like Senator Cotton is trying to put a rosy view of America's history.....not that he agrees with slavery. I haven't read enough about "1619", but my history in Texas tells me conservatives like a certain image of America. Yes, slavery contributed to wealth and development of America.... Yes, removing the native populations allowed america to expand and prosper.... Yes, expanding coast to coast and even across the pacific set up a powerful, industrial country..... And yes.... America is hypocritical and has a very checkered past on its way to the superpower we are aprt of today.
Objectively, their record did not indicate so. Did I irrationally hope they'd be better? Yes, but at some point we gotta look at the analytics. If he insist on promoting a rosy view of a history that includes slavery, and argue that slavery was necessary, then he agrees with slavery.
I don't like Senator Cotton, but what does "agreeing with slavery" mean? Like he wants it back? Or he understands it happened, its part of our history, and he wants to minimize its history for political reasons?
Tell him, not me. Who knows how the US would have developed without slavery, without genocide of the native population, and manifest destiny. It sucks its a Hobbesian world, but it is what it is.
Slavery is over, but what if we're still living on the plantation? Black people aren't slaves now: does that mean everything is OK? White people aren't slaves: does that make everything OK? "Slavery is over" doesn't mean "We are free!"
If you have difficulty envisioning how the US could have developed into a profoundly better country without slavery then you are really, really broken.
Nah. That's a pretty loaded statement based off emotion. As barbaric as slavery is and the subsequent treatment of the chinese and irish (for example), you can't just wave away what they were forced to make and think that wouldn't alter the development of the US. It's okay to think of things from an academic perspective without needing to burn crosses or "cancel it".
