El Blog de Montaner

 

By Carlos Alberto Montaner

I copy from a cover of Insider, a usually well-informed publication: “The far right is calling for civil war after the FBI raid on Trump’s home.” And then they make a necessary caveat: “Experts say that fight wouldn’t look like the last one (1861-1865).”

It is true, it will be different from the second half of the 19th century, they will be isolated terrorist acts, but they will have one thing in common—the dangerous division of society. Before it was the fate of black slaves in a republic guided by liberal principles. Now is the method of counting votes. Republicans think Democrats are cheating. Michel Lindell, an imaginative Republican, author of the most intricate conspiracy theories, seller of pillows and dreams, affirms, although they are lies, that the Democrats cheat in the “swing states,” snatching victory from Donald Trump.

I go on. A survey, published by Spectrum News, states that “virtually 30% of Americans think that they may have to take up arms against the nation’s government.” That involves the fight against the FBI.

Indeed. In 1860 an election gave Abraham Lincoln a narrow victory. Some Southern states prepared for secession. The issue of slavery was part of what was sure to come. Lincoln, although he repeated the jokes against black people, knew that it was completely wrong to affirm that “all people are equal before the law,” the key tenet of the Republic, and leave African Americans out of that principle.

A century earlier, the Founding Fathers had ignored this precept. George Washington (one of the richest men in the 13 Colonies) freed his slaves after his death, through a “last will” document.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president, thought that the next generations would be the ones in charge of solving this devilish problem. He didn’t even bother in life to free the beautiful mixed-race Sally Hemings, his concubine for 37 years, or her children, who served in Monticello. Sally mitigated the loneliness that his wife Martha Wayles Skelton left him after she died. Sally had given him six children, four of whom reached adulthood. Incidentally, Martha and Sally were half-sisters on their lustful father’s side, despite the disparity in age. Sally was a little girl when Martha died. Jefferson “discovered” her, never better said, at the age of 14.

James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, believed that separating from the British Crown was the main objective of the insurrection and before that enormous task everything paled. If the liberation of black slaves were added, the focus would be lost and neither one nor the other would be achieved. In any case, until Zachary Taylor, in the middle of the 19th century, there were 12 US presidents who owned slaves, while 1,715 legislators owned “people of color,” that is, black people. Most of them were members of the Democratic Party.

Perhaps that is why what has happened is much more significant. The Republican Party, the party of Lincoln, the one that liberated the black people, has given up its starting principles under Donald Trump, and now it is the party of whites, while the Democratic Party, the hotbed of the KKK, is the one that has opened its arms to the deep and widespread diversity seen in American society.

What has happened? Religious intolerance has made its way. Trump sold his soul to evangelicals. Not that he cares much (or at all) about the fate of women who want to make their own decisions about their bodies. What he vehemently wants is to return to power and he will do whatever it takes to do so.

Can Trump unleash a civil war? I don’t think so. He won’t be able to cause damage. Fortunately, the path he found is very narrow. He faces the opposition of a large number of women, people of color, including Hispanics, Jews, and LGBTQ, as well as educated whites who believe America grew rich thanks to an intense international trade, and don’t agree with the extreme nationalism that this gentleman wants to impose. He won’t achieve anything.