The revocation of segregation of Plessy v. Fergusen in 1896 with Brown v. Board of Education in
1954 signaled an ominous threat to social conservatives that fated year. Even
more ominous, Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Act ten years later gave
African-Americans finally equal voting
status as citizens in the United States. Democratic President Lyndon Baines
Johnson signed this act while also telling his aides that they just lost the
South for a generation – ostensibly to the Republicans. It lasted for far more
than a generation! For the next half-century and more, Republicans legislated
consistently against FDR’s New Deal and essentially acted toward stopping the
changing demographics that threatened their majority. These angry Southern
Democrats saw no choice but to predictably side with Republican President
Richard Millhouse Nixon when he made history for his party in 1968 with the
success of the “Southern Strategy.” The traditional Southerner and American
racist had taken many hits on their old socially-conservative White Supremacy
and developed a vicious hatred for the Democratic Party – now seen as the
“Negro Party.” Some Southerners hoped to arrest “Negro Rule” development by
forming the Dixiecrat Party, but it was short-lived and ineffective. They soon
recognized that their brand of conservatism – ideologically in line with
fascist oligarchs who tried to overthrow FDR in 1933 – could best survive
within the Republican Party. Nixon made it happen – the old Confederacy, still
angry and unyielding, found great power once again. Almost overnight, socially
conservative Southern Democrats – some, members of the Ku Klux Klan – had
switched to the GOP. This led to an ominous future: as more and more
Republicans took on the old Southern policies of religiously-focused, anti-government
“states’-rights.” The South truly “Rose Again” and joined with Republican
fascists, once exposed by the Business Plot of 1933! It’s hard to ignore when
twenty-eight of the fifty-three current Republican senators (2019) are from
traditionally Southern states of the old Confederacy and all others but one are
from western rural states – ideologically in lock-step with Southern
conservatives.
Republicans slowly morphed
into an even more criminal party than they were already! Richard Nixon’s
impeachment in 1974 was for actual crimes committed – violations of the U.S.
Constitution – firing of investigators and attempting to cover up a break-in of
the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Hotel! Nixon was the
first to invite Southern White Supremacists into his Republican Party; and, he
was the first Republican president ever brought up on criminal charges and
tried for impeachment. Coincidence? Probably not. It should be remembered that
Southern conservatives have never respected anything about United States’
federalism, democracy, or laws. They especially despised the U.S. Constitution
which restricted their ancestors’ brutal taste for slave-driven capitalism.
Arguably, these West-Indian descendants preferred only one constitution – the
Confederate States Constitution with “God” used in place of “creator.” This
conclusion is derived from complex political machinations since 1968 and can
only be treated properly in a book or volumes of books. Furthermore, any of the
plethora of books written about the highly criminal Trump Administration of
today would surely suffice!
Crimes of the Republican
Party did not stop with Nixon’s impeachment – they got worse. Under the conservative
“unitary executive theory,” the office of president controlled increasingly
more power until it reached near dictatorship! Vice President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton during the Iraq War made over
$39.5 billion, reflecting actions of the earlier rampant capitalist abuses of oligarchs
of whom Gen. Smedley Butler wrote in War
is a Racket; this was the “military-industrial complex” later warned about
by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower – in a betrayal of his Republican Party’s
policies, by the way. Later, in a serious conflict of interest, it was revealed
that Halliburton “gave [Cheney] a $34 million signing bonus to become vice
president of the United States."[1] The Bush Administration then
was found to have faked evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) by Iraq’s
leader, Saddam Hussein, to start a war with that country – again, making profit
for Dick Cheney’s Halliburton and others. We nearly revisited this same “Wag
the Dog” scenario with Iran when Donald J. Trump assassinated – without clear
cause – their very important Major General Qasem Soleimani of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps. Dick Cheney was also instrumental in pushing forward
the policy of a “unitary executive” or making the president a virtual dictator!
Brutal Southern ex-slavers made an ideal companion for fascist oligarchs –
profit flowed like Spanish doubloons into their coffers and overflowed into
their overseas bank accounts! War is, indeed, a racket, Gen. Butler – when
conducted by these racist megacorporate criminals and politicians – land
pirates extraordinaire!
Most of us generally regard
piracy in the past as an undesirable thing. Still, why do we place
eighteenth-century piracy in a “Golden Age;” why do we covet a time of greed
and excess? Why do we still allow Wall Street the legal latitude, corporate
taxpayer subsidies, the ability to outsource jobs, and store massive profits in
offshore accounts to avoid taxation – especially while other countries are
jailing bankers and other capitalists for similar abuses across the world? Why
don’t the people recognize this as corruption? It’s because we grew up in it – our very culture is
criminal!
We are allowed to ignore
our brutal piratical ancestry because, as one scholar put it, “Progressive Era
reformers and twenty-first-century economists think about corruption in a way
that is, in one critical dimension, 180 degrees removed from the concept of
corruption that prevailed
until the mid-nineteenth
century.”[2] Still, venturing from the
concept of venal (money focus or “treasure-seeking”) to systematic corruption (broader
political focus), as economic historian John Joseph Wallis puts it, is when
America gets to a point similar to that of eighteenth-century liberally-oppressive
Stuart conservative status. In his view, “The survival of a systematically
corrupt government depends on limiting access to markets and resources in order
to create rents that bind the interests of the ruling coalition [or oligarchy]
together.”[3] He explained:
In polities plagued with
systematic corruption [like piratical hegemony], a group of politicians
deliberately create rents by limiting entry into valuable economic activities,
through grants of monopoly, restrictive corporate charters, tariffs, quotas,
regulations, and the like. These rents bind the interests of the recipients to
the politicians who create them. The purpose is to build a coalition that can
dominate the government. Manipulating the economy for political ends is
systematic corruption… In contrast, venal corruption [for example, manipulating
Virginia’s politics for Alexander Spotswood’s own private interests against Blackbeard
or Donald J. Trump’s extortion of Ukraine for his campaign needs] denotes the
pursuit of private economic interests through the political process.[4]
The best example today of systemic v. venal
corruption would be the piratical rise of the highly corrupt Republican Party (systemic)
to extreme levels – that of the greedy, immoral, and dishonest Donald J. Trump
(venal) and the use of his office to enrich himself and his sycophants. Trump
exposed the criminality of the Republican Party simply because he turned
corruption back into a personal (venal) political tool. Still, the systemic
corruption of the modern Republican Party, taking Russian campaign money and from
other dictatorial regimes, allowed for Trump’s own rise to “unitarian” power,
threatening the “separation of powers” of the U.S. Constitution and our very
Democracy itself!
Republicans today behave as
if they’re pirating our national ship to later cut us loose in a torn and
crippled vessel! Then again, they see little choice, for the changing
demographics are forcing the dominant white male from politics! As a result, they
completely ignore any semblance of patriotic duty or traditional mores – even
siding with and taking money from America’s greatest enemy of the Cold War –
Russia! White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, by way of an openly venal
example, promoted radical and draconian immigration policies on the Southern
border. With seeming little concern for consequence, he later leaves his public
office and joins the board of a corporation that benefits from that same
policy![5]
It appears that Republican government is now so openly diseased that
politicians simply grab what spoils they can before America finally succumbs to
the contagion or Russian control.
In 2015, former Democratic President
Jimmy Carter reflected upon the rising systemic corruption of the GOP (although
he tactfully did not point fingers) and that America had become an “oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery.”[6]
He made reference to the results of white-supremacist conservative resurgence
following the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As far as today’s racist GOP sees it, a
nation that allowed “Negro Rule” – as with Barack Obama from 2009-2016 –
deserves to die anyway. Southern-infected Republican politicians are giving up
on their nation because of the ancient diseases of racism and greed – and, if
you remember the founding Routledges of South Carolina, Southerners have never
been that committed to it from the start!
Since Civil
Rights, America had been dominated by
racially-tinged Republican anti-liberal policy. Their customary adherence to Constitutionality
only when it suited their politically corrupt agenda is clearly telling. The
usual oath of office means little when securing corrupt control over the
federal government. Essentially, the era of FDR’s New Deal that followed the
Great Depression of 1929 was a short progressive blip on America’s overwhelmingly
conservative and greedy political radar – the results of being founded
originally as a “Commonwealth of Pyrates!” Even FDR’s solitary progressive itinerary
was nearly arrested by a fascist attempt of corporate leaders to overthrow democracy in 1933 in
the “Business Plot” – yes, by the ancestors of President Carter’s reputed modern
corporate oligarchs![1]
America’s wealthy have never truly respected the all-encompassing and immigrant-welcoming
notion of our original “E Pluribus Unum” or “from the many, one” – essentially,
a perfect definition of democracy. “Negro Rule” again reared its ugly head in 1898,
again in 1964, and again in 2016. America quickly returned to its formerly oligarchic
conservative – but, also white-supremacist – control. The final leg of that
racist trend, President Barack Obama’s terms from 2009-2016 initiated yet
another wholly corrupt Republican coup over “E Pluribus Unum.” Perhaps some
reflection may be warranted upon the 1950s replacement of “In God We Trust”
over the more democratic original motto. Thanks to Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Civil Rights of 1964, and
their “Southern Strategy” of 1968, Republicans have fully embraced the “god of
the slavemaster” and gave up completely on the secular “E Pluribus Unum,” as
endowed by their ethereal “Creator.”
Do American elections –
when trusted – still provide a choice between “lesser of two evils” or is this
merely the impression politically provided by Republican anti-liberal – especially
in the Trump Era: anti-socialist – rhetoric? Quite ironically, it almost always
seems that liberals are rhetoricized as “radicals,” “socialists” (here
conservatives actually imply “communists”), or the enemies of the American people
even though FDR gave us the most popular social program ever and saved America
from the ravages of the conservatives who actually started the problem by
crashing the economy! This is essentially the same fascist method employed in
Adolf Hitler’s propaganda in 1930s Germany, or Donald Trump’s usual rhetoric in
hour-long diatribes before the cameras, or that of the Family’s Samuel A’Court
Ashe against Blackbeard or pirates in general – to accuse your enemies of
exactly that which you yourself are guilty! Google “Joseph Goebbels.”
“We the People” do not
resist merely to allow control by another wealthy or corporate “Great Man” (most
certainly white male) like those of old historical and traditional narrative. Like
Edward Moseley or Maurice Moore, they achieved their greatness and immense
wealth by any method necessary, no matter how corrupt – even if they must
murder a business associate like Edward Thache. Compare this with almost any of
Donald Trump’s policies – directly with the assassination of Iran’s Soleimani.
More especially contrast this with Trump’s taking of children from their
mothers and put in cages, only to be sold and farmed out to rich slave owners.
Compare this to allowing an American journalist to be killed and chopped up by
Saudi Arabians, Trump’s favoritism of Russian president Vladimir Putin, his
betrayal of Kurd allies in Syria, or encouraging his followers to seek and
destroy the whistleblowers exposing these
crimes! This is the epitome of fascism and corruption!
Still, these criminals
impress our conservatives – perhaps like Al Capone, Vlad the Impaler, or
Genghis Khan. We grew up hearing of past Republicans’ great exploits and
endeavors since the Civil War, their trials and tribulations, their successes
and their many bankruptcies – destroying our economy with their greed,
inevitably resulting in yet another frequent economic recession. They spew
rhetoric from two sides of their mouths, Janus-faced - they are our “Heroick
and Active Spirits,” our worshiped champions of industry – these oligarchs –
these pirates – they are our modern Drakes! Some of us still dream of being like them one day. We have been weaned on capitalistic
dreams of fishing treasure from the water, taking it away from other entrepreneurs,
and picking them clean to leave them destitute and in fear of their lives in
the gutters. “Nothing personal – it’s just business!”
Again, this is unnatural. It
is not human nature. It is merely
criminal and it must stop!
Today, progressives fight
against great odds – against such piratical forces of corporate oligarchy and
privatization who would continue to pick us clean – without “trickling-down” of
riches to the people. You may have heard that pirates tend not to share. They
prey upon not only other merchants and those of darker skin: ex-slaves, and
Native Americans, but against everyone – the poor or lower-middle class
mainstream – the 97% or so of citizens who only recently received the franchise
without having to purchase property for the right to vote. They resent that all
of the 97% now have the vote. Remember Jamaicans in the early eighteenth
century who ousted their governor – the “landed” gentlemen who once preyed upon
the “landless,” unpropertied, or poor common people?
In this corporate-dominated
corrupt environment, justice – even democracy itself – become merely commodities
to be traded or sold at market – like slaves – in exchange for more dominance
and political control. Money can buy almost anything and corporate capitalists
prefer systemically-corrupt oligarchy – a government truly of their own – not
to live under constraint of democratic rules and regulations. They prefer to
call the shots alone – like Donald Trump’s making unilateral dictatorial
decisions without consult – without the consent of the people. But, then,
Republicans wished to lord over the people as in Carnegie’s seemingly
beneficent and parental Gospel of Wealth or
“Trickle-down” ideology, as if they
might better care for the people than their own democratically-elected
government! Edward Thache, however, was a different man from these Republicans
of today. He most certainly would not have made the same decisions as Donald
Trump. He would not have assassinated anyone or bribed someone for political
advantage. He would not have withdrawn troops formerly aiding American-allied
Kurdish rebels; a monstrous decision that led to Turkish and Russian forces
driving them to their slaughter and taking their land. Even Blackbeard would
have seen this as simply another betrayal. The man Republicans favor most was
Stede Bonnet – the man Edward “Blackbeard” Thache rejected!
The wealthy have always
misunderstood human nature – because they behaved so not like humans. Carnegie’s
Gospel of Wealth abused the people
personally by wrongly accusing them of being completely self-interested –
innately selfish – a “pirate” from birth. Capitalists wrongly assure the people
that in order to keep everyone from being abused by their neighbors that we
should all be as greedy and selfish as them; but, this is not a scientific fact
– rather a capitalist myth – humans are not
inherently greedy. As the lords of wealth prophesize, money provides and it can
taketh away! Our American lords assure us that they need fewer rules or
regulations in order to grab the wealth. But, deregulation engenders systemic
corruption, abuse, inequality, and trade monopolies. De-regulation – when
government is seen as the “problem” rather than the solution – when individual
self-interest is elevated above the good of society as a whole – when political
favors are exchanged for money and power – when “absolute freedom” of that
ruling class becomes the freedom of absolute rulers and dictators, like Saddam
Hussein, Moamar Gaddafi, and now, Donald Trump – selfishly maximizing profit
and profit alone without care for the people.
America’s first president,
George Washington believed that party politics or divisions might serve
immediate ends, but they inevitably lead to corruption. He could easily
envision systemic corruption or oligarchy that plagues America today because of
British monarchial corruption of his day – he saw it personally. Abuse leads to
more abuse. Unchecked venal builds to systemic corruption. Piracy leads to crony
capitalism. The past progresses to the present and the present can degrade back
into the past – history can indeed repeat
itself, echo, burp – whatever you’d like to call it. Despite our narrative of
progress, the excessive greed of today’s politics, systemic corruption in
government, is certainly much worse than the venal – or the simple stealing of
resources for your own or for your associates’ use – like piracy of the Golden
Age. The actions of anti-immigrant Donald J. Trump today reflect the actions of
wealthy gentleman pirate and Barbadian sugar plantation owner, Major Stede
Bonnet – not so much Royal Navy veteran Edward Thache of St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica. Still, Thache generally left enough
food and water for his victims to return home – even the hated Catholics of
France and Spain – Qasam Soleimani wasn’t so lucky!
The Republican Party of
today that clearly supports President Trump’s corruption without hesitation –
and Trump has given them significant reason to hesitate – is best understood as
a body engaged in a broader, systemic corruption to pirate American government.
Fox News as the state media
mouthpiece for Trump’s MAGA or “Make America Great Again” rhetoric is the same
as the Raleigh News and Observer
newspaper serving as the mouthpiece for the racist conservative retrenchment in
North Carolina of 1898. Fox News
merely needed the “Fairness Doctrine” eliminated to begin the temporal
regression backwards. MAGA with its dependence on “alternate facts” and
rejection of the so-called “fake news” mainstream media is so little different
than “Capt. Charles Johnson” or Nathaniel Mist’s counterfactual literary
invention in A General History of
1724! They both rely on lies and misdirection portrayed as reality. Thache may
even have liked Trump – for a short while – but he would have soon taught the
pedantic Trump a lesson in manners! After all, Thache had done the same to the
privileged and pedantic Stede Bonnet!
The lessons we have learned
from history are enormously valuable – if
we pay attention to them. These lessons of the past, from the Lords
Proprietors of Carolina, are meaningful today; they show us that the old Stuart
ways are way overdue for cancellation – there is little social unity without democratic
government. It is meaningless to even propose a “union” without unity. Channeling
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson also warned us of the greediness that
threatened our nascent union – largely unrealized today. Jefferson wrote in
1825 to William Branch Giles of a "vast accession of
strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the
feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of
an Aristocracy, founded on banking institutions and monied in corporations
under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures commerce
and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared
yeomanry."[2] Our democracy was
shanghaied by these monied corporations nearly from the start. And, they’re
still attempting to hold control over the nation!
The only difference between
a rebellion and a revolution is who wins in the end. “History is written by the
winners.” And yet another comparison may be that the difference between a
privateer and a pirate is who profits from the theft and how. In America,
“beyond the line,” profit transcended national loyalty, making capitalism into
an issue of personal freedom – at most, the piracies of Edward Thache and even
Donald J. Trump were the “venal” lesser of the systemic corruption of the
Republican Party since 1964. At least Edward Thache expressed some loyalty to
his “country” of Jamaica – similar to Jefferson’s love of his country – Virginia!
[1]
Jules Archer, The Plot to Seize the White House (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 1973).
[2] Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, December 26,
1825.
[1][1] Louis Jacobson, “Chris Matthews says Cheney got $34 million payday from Halliburton” (May 24, 2010), Politifact.
[2] John Joseph Wallis, “The Concept of Systematic
Corruption in American History,” Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's
Economic History
(University of Chicago Press, 2006), 24.
[3]Ibid.
[4]Ibid., 25.
[5]
"John Kelly Cashes in on Child Separation
Policy He Pushed," Crew (9 May
2019).
[6]
Jon Schwarz, “Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political
Bribery,”The Intercept, 30 Jul 2015,
https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/
(accessed 28 Feb 2017).
