Necessary history

Not long ago -- in a segment which I did not catch when originally broadcast -- Rachel Maddow delivered an important history lesson. Most people were never taught the facts that she relates here. I was going to write about the Know Nothings myself, but there's no need: Maddow does the job superbly. When people seem befuddled by my insistence that Catholics were historically shat upon in this country, I point to these untaught aspects of American history.

Here is what Abe Lincoln said:

I am not a Know-Nothing. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of Negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring "all men are created equal." We now practically read it, "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty--to Russia, for example, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

I have a pretty good idea of what Lincoln would say about the Know-Nothingism represented by Donald Trump.



The die-hard BernieBots -- and there are enough of them to swing the election -- have switched to Libertarian Gary Johnston, thereby demonstrating that they were never amenable to socialism or even liberalism. They are, in fact, advocates of Corporate Assholism.