I came by accident across this description of Southern Slavery by Frederick Olmsted, best known as a designer and architect of Central and Prospect Park. He was also an accomplished writer and conservationist.
In the shortened quote about him taken from Wikipedia, the author observes that:
“Olmstead argued that slavery had made the slave states inefficient (a set amount of work took 4 times as long in Virginia as in the North) and backward both economically and socially. . . the profits of slavery were enjoyed by no more than 8,000 owners of large plantations . . . but the proportion of the free white men who were as well-off as a Northern working man was small. Slavery meant that 'the proportion of men improving their condition was much less than in any Northern community. . . Olmsted thought that the lack of a Southern white middle class and the general poverty of lower-class whites prevented the development of many civil amenities that were taken for granted in the North.”
The Wikipedia articles further states that Olmstead wrote that:
“The citizens of the cotton States, as a whole, are poor. They work little, and that little, badly; they earn little, they sell little; they buy little, and they have little – very little – of the common comforts and consolations of civilized life. Their destitution is not material only; it is intellectual and it is moral ... They were neither generous nor hospitable and their talk was not that of evenly courageous men.”
Poor Whites Backed Slavery . . . MAGA Backs Trump
Olmstead’s views on the backward nature of the slave economy were not unique and shared by many other Northerners.
. . . Neither Generous nor Hospitable
However, his last sentence above in bold reminded me of much of the talk I’ve heard coming from MAGA supporters. It’s been 159 years since the end of the Civil War, but the eruption of the MAGA movement has reminded America that the negative consequences of slavery, racism and white supremacy have not only survived, they have resurfaced today with a vengeance.
Which is reminiscent of the poor whites who long ago foolishly took up the cause of the Southern aristocracy against their own material interests.
Today, many whites have adopted the culture and values, in many cases without even realizing it, of the most irresponsible, cruel, greedy and backward class of modern day billionaires either side of the Mississippi. Personified to them by Donald J. Trump, but representing mega-wealthy scoundrels they have probably never heard of.
If I had to point to one factor that has kept white supremacy and racism alive, it’s been the failure of America to achieve anything approaching economic and social parity between blacks and whites. Those in control of the economy, as well as some past governments, have chosen to promote racial divisions and racist propaganda by maintaining white skinned privileges in jobs, housing, wages and status and to explain the poverty ridden nature of many black communities as a racist expression of black biological inferiority.
Treason, not Patriotism, is the MAGA Goal
The MAGA cause today is intent on a treasonous course aimed at destroying our democratic and Constitutional government. One that will not only enslave and repress the poor, blacks, leftists, women and progressives of all classes, but the MAGA cultists themselves. In effect, MAGA has been the racially motivated spearhead of a second Civil War.
Olmstead was one of many Northerners and progressives who observed the backwardness, moral depravity and poverty of the poor whites and the slave economy itself. Karl Marx also observed that capitalism when compared to Southern Plantation slavery was economically progressive.
Flattery Will Get You Everywhere
What was observed about the Southern poor whites, however, is not restricted to just them today. MAGA has recruited mainly alienated and biased whites all across the country in search of a movement which offers them re-enforcement of their culture of backwardness, racism, multiple other biases and violence directed at those who would advocate progress.
It’s still true today, as LBJ once said in the 60s, that: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Meet the new Boss . . . Same as the old Boss
This sort of racial, anti-socialist, anti-communist, anti-liberal and anti-immigrant perspective which scapegoats the poor, blacks and immigrants in place of the short-sited policies of fat cat capitalism has been served up for more than a century. MAGA and Trump just provided a new face for these old and backward ideas, long ago incorporated into the Republican Party after the deaths of Lincoln and Grant.
The same rationale that today many used to critique 21st Century capitalism was used to criticize Southern plantation owners in the days of slavery. The advanced, technological revolution has led to tremendous concentrations of wealth and power into relatively few hands and wide spread popular alienation in government.
Untouchable Monopolies
Fewer but much larger corporations dominate the scene. Along with mega-wealthy individuals using their tremendous wealth to dominate media, culture and government, Congress and court appointees. The policies they advocate are aimed at further lowering of their taxes and increasing privately own business wealth and their profits.
Much of this wealth is being used to fund the American fascist movement and scoundrels like Donald Trump. Such forces have taken over many state governments, received help from Putin, and are using elected government officials to undermine it’s ability to resolve problems and enforce the rule of law resulting in the destruction of American government and democracy.
Starving Government with “Tax Reform”
The failure over time of mega-businesses and individuals to pay a fair amount in tax revenues is bankrupting state and federal government. And is making it impossible to afford addressing perpetual problems like poverty, economic inequality, crime, infrastructure renewal, the housing crisis, provide adequate health and affordable senior care plus a hundred other things that sufficient funds are never able to address.
Socializing Capitalism?
Is it possible to socialize capitalism? “While seriously flawed, it is still better than any other system”, so goes the argument often given in support of the it. Although it’s not one I agree with.
But I do like considering socializing capitalism as a possibility, keeping what works about the system, but tying it to social justice criteria, wealth sharing, and stringent ecological regulations.
While a man-made system, capitalism is often falsely ascribed powers as if it obeyed natural physical laws, like gravity. The only laws it willingly obeys are those of compulsion, profit and exploitation, under which large numbers of people are permitted to work together, a chief benefit of capitalist production. But not work for themselves in their own interests. It certainly is never guided by moral principles unless they are forced upon them.
Workers are much-like the army general’s raw recruits. Their boss’s concept of the ideal work force is one managed by a maniacal drill sergeant overseeing a non-union shop, spouting curse words and profanities.
Recognizing the international nature of today’s market capitalism, the numbers of the wealthy and privileged in the so-called developed nations are far out numbered by the millions of have nots here and in the underdeveloped nations. Sounds like the antebellum South all over again described by Olmstead, but on a much larger international scale.