Donald Trump’s MAGA base (which includes many of the Southern people) is galvanized like never before after the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life. Two things in particular have annealed them to the former president as it regards this traumatic incident: the tough guy image of a man who ‘took a bullet for America’ and the vitriol of his opponents.
But faithful Southerners may well wonder at the double-standard that is applied when it comes to their own heroes and to their own people here in Dixie vis-à-vis those two things.
The South is full of heroic men who took bullets for both the American union and their own native country.
Jefferson Davis, for one. When he was serving as a colonel in the Mexican-American War, took a ball to the ankle during the battle at Buena Vista. Despite having fragments of his brass spur stuck in his ankle and bleeding profusely into his boot all day, he remained on his horse, in command, and helped the United States Army win a decisive victory (Jefferson Davis: Private Letters 1823-1889, H. Strode, edr., Da Capo Press, New York, 1995, pgs. 46-7).
General Stonewall Jackson is another. He had a rifle ball rip through his bridle hand during First Manassas, which broke one finger and wounded another. Yet he refused treatment after the battle was over until all the seriously wounded had been tended to by the doctors (Rev. R. L. Dabney, Life and Campaigns of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, Blelock & Co., New York, 1866, p. 226).
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, finding himself surrounded by belligerent Yankees after a battle near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1862, received a rifle ball that entered above his hip and struck his spine. His right leg went limp as a result, but after surgery and several weeks of rest, he returned to active duty, fiery as ever (Andrew Lytle, Bedford Forrest and His Critter Company, J. S. Sanders & Co., Nashville, Tenn., 1984, pgs. 84, 86-7).
A full list would be too lengthy for an essay. Many were the Southerners who returned from the War with the invading Yankees who had lost limbs due to combat wounds. And yet Southerners are forbidden to honor these noble men. Why is it proper in MAGA world to lionize Mr. Trump for an ear-grazing by a bullet, but not any of these Southerners?
But let us move on.
The violent rhetoric against Donald Trump has also outraged folks, leading to denunciations from Republicans and Democrats:
‘Majority Leader Steve Scalise from Jefferson Parish, nearly died in a shooting in 2017 after he and other Congressmen were shot at a park said on Fox News the rhetoric charged the shooter.
‘“I mean everybody’s got to look at the rhetoric. But, you know, it’s one side that is going after Donald Trump in a way to demonize him personally. You know, when we talk about the policies of the Democrats and the progressives, it’s those policies that need to be front and center but the left seems to have targeted Donald Trump as a person. They don’t talk about how they don’t like his pet tax and border policies. They just go after him personally, they demonize him.”
‘ . . . “Violence has no place in political discourse, regardless of our vehement philosophical differences. We must stand united against such actions and uphold the principles of democracy and respect” Democratic New Orleans Congressman Troy Carter.’
Once again, we see the double-standard at work, however. The violent rhetoric against Southrons, whether in the past or in the present, is never denounced.
Professor Eric Foner speaks of those violent voices from the past:
‘ . . . with the Fugitive Slave Law, a number of abolitionists who were pacifists began to say: "Well, this is a law which justifies armed resistance. You can't just let this be enforced." People like Frederick Douglass said the way to prevent the rendition of fugitives is to make a few dead fugitive catchers. In other words, it [would] be justifiable to kill someone who was trying to apprehend fugitive slaves.
. . .
The rest is at https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/an-outrage-double-standard/. Thanks to an unnamed person for the Steve Deace link.
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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