A New Beginning
As we enter 2018, I have decided to drop the conceit of this blog that Donald Trump doesn't exist. He exists, he is evil, and he is a huge step backwards for this country. But I had said that in 2018 I was going to cover the local races that don't get enough coverage, and I can't do that without acknowledging that we have a president who hates half his country.
An explanation of the topic for this week
But before I move on to covering the Massachusetts races, I want to talk about one hopeful thing: The Unionis winning the Civil War.
Depending on which history book you read, you may say that the Union won the Civil War 150 years ago, or you may say that the military victory of the Union in the war presaged a political victory by the Confederacy in the Reconstruction, leading to 100 years of continued slavery by a different name. We are finally starting to move past the "Jim Crow" era... or we were.
The reason that Trump's victory hit me so hard was that I hadn't realized so many people actually wanted to bring back racist policies. I had had plenty of disagreements with people about what is the best way to dismantle racism, but the idea that the country was racist enough to want to bring "Jim Crow" back, that the country elected Donald J. Trump... That broke me a little bit.
But my talk about Massachusetts seceding from the United States doesn't make sense. This week, Let's look at the things that the Confederacy (as a metaphor for the political ideology behind Trump) wants that the Union (as a metaphor for the political ideology opposed to Trump) doesn't want, and vice versa. This isn't a discussion of who would win in a second civil war, merely a discussion of the fact that the Union is currently winning the war as it is being fought.
The Issues
This is a list of a few issues in which the Union and the Confederacy disagree. I do try to be fair in this list to both sides of the issue. Please let me know if there is a place where I mischaracterized the way the one side or the other sees an issue. Yes, I am aware that the Union and the Confederacy are not monoliths and that this drastically oversimplifies the issues!
- Guns
- The Confederacy wants people to have more guns, and believes that guns make the world more safe.
- The Union wants people to have fewer guns, and believes that guns make the world less safe.
- This is clearly a draw. There are state-by-state gun regulations, but federal regulations are very limited.
- Family Planning
- The Confederacy thinks that unborn babies have the right to grow up and live their lives, and that birth control is wrong.
- The Union thinks that women have the right to decide when and if to have children.
- The Union's view is the law of the land. The Confederacy has been stopped from passing laws even at the state level to protect its worldview.
- Social Dominance
- The Confederacy thinks that there is a particular hierarchy among people, and that white people are above other colors. Also, men are above women. They point to differences in educational attainment, annual earnings, and crime statistics as evidence of this view.
- The Union thinks that everyone should have equal opportunities, and point to differences in educational attainment, annual earnings, and crime statistics to show that the system is not providing an even footing.
- Again, this is a draw. Federal law protects people of color, but the system still discriminates against them in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
- Healthcare
- The Confederacy thinks that everyone should pay for themselves; being able to afford this is a matter of personal responsibility, and no one is responsible for those who can't afford healthcare.
- The Union thinks that everyone should take care of everyone else.
- This is another tie. Despite the fact that Republicans continually try to repeal it, ObamaCare is a Republican idea of how to administer healthcare. No one is particularly happy with it, but it is a compromise that both sides had a part in crafting.
On these four issues, as you can see, the country is either in a draw or siding with liberals. If "the Union" were to secede, very little would change in Union states, except that we could set up customs checkpoints to keep guns out. In the Confederate states, however, women would be left without sex ed, contraception, or access to abortions; people of color and women would lose more and rights, starting with the much tighter restriction of their voting rights; and healthcare would be restricted to the wealthy.
The Take-away Message
It is just a hopeful thought that... well, The Union is winning the Civil War, despite the election of a Jim Crow advocate like Trump.
