Imagine if the Republican Party or those sympathetic to the Party’s ideas had governed, profitted from, and defended the slavocracy; seceded from the Union, creating its own nation, and made war on their fellow citizens; killed the President who abolished slavery; created the KKK and terrorized black familes for decades; lynched thousands of blacks, including women and chilldren; established Jim Crow segregation and fought in Congress to keep it; established internment camps for American citizens; assassinated civil rights leader MLK, Jr.
How would the Republican Party and its followers have any credibility in modern politics with this history? Would they not be seen almost universally as the party of white supremacy? It depends of course on whether conservatives and classical liberals controlled our sense-making institutions and were able to (assuming they had the predicate character to spin big lies) twist history in such an Orwellian manner as to make the Democrats appear to be the major party that did all these racist things. But Republicans don’t. And so for a lot of Americans, it’s the Republicans who are the party of white supremacy. (See History as Ideology: The Myth that the Democrats Became the Party of Lincoln; Republicanism and the Meaning of Small Government.)
This is arguably the greatest propaganda accomplishment in world history, and progressives could not have pulled it off had they not been so successful in colonizing the dominant administrative and intellectual apparatuses of the nation—and they could not have done that in a capitalist society without the desire of corporate leaders to see progressive ideology and its telling of history become the prevailing narrative in America culture and politics (and the West generally).
We hear that American is a racist country. I would suggest that, if so, the best evidence in support of the claim is the way the party of white supremacy was able to portray itself as the party of racial justice—and make its opposition wear its dress. Democrats could not have remained in power for so long but for a racist culture that sustained them over the decades. To be sure, racism had to adapt over the years—from slavery to Jim Crow to DEI—but its persistence and permanent home in the Democratic Party, and the success of the Party over the decades, tells us a great deal about the national character. Until we purge the last of these sentiments from our culture (and we came close in the decades following the struggle of the 1960s), we cannot come together finally as one people.
I will continue sharing messages like this to keep folks conscious of the trouble the nation will face should Republicans lose the midterm elections in 2026. It will be here before we know it and we need to keep up the enthusiasm for the long struggle for a more perfect Union. America is a constitutional republic. Elect those who understand its founding character. It is an ideal to be obtained by those who believe in it. Those who don’t, just get in the way.
***
I initially sought a different image for this essay. I went to Grok and prompted it with this: “Union versus confederacy on the battlefield. Over their heads write Democrat and Republican, thus correctly identifying the sides.”
It generated this image:
After a few confused image generations I asked Grok why it kept mislabeling the sides. “I apologize for the confusion. The mix-up likely stems from the evolution of political parties over time. During the Civil War (1861–1865), the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, supported the Union (North), while the Democratic Party had significant support in the Confederacy (South). However, modern associations with these parties can differ, which might have influenced the initial error. I’ve corrected the depiction to reflect the historical alignment: Republicans with the Union (blue uniforms) and Democrats with the Confederacy (gray uniforms). Thank you for your patience, and I’ll ensure greater accuracy moving forward.”
Grok never did generate an image with the sides correctly identified. So I gave up and used an actual historical image. The AI confusion of sides is a prime example of the effects of progressive ideology and the extent to which it has corrupted historical memory. One can easily imagine a future where the ubiquity of the myth of the parties flipping will be universally assumed as historical truth.
freedom and reason 