Political Landscape by W illiam Scott M agill

Political Landscape
by W illiam Scott M agill
“Slavery may be the original sin o f
hum anity but n o t o f the U.S. America’s
legacy is that o f the most-rapid abolition
o f slavery o f any country or people. Our
slavery lasted one human lifetim e.”
I
N TODAY’S WORLD, where right is wrong and wrong is right,
The New York Tunes has orchestrated the most-diabolical lie intended to secure a win for socialism and the devastation of the
U.S.—The 1619 Project, marking the 400th anniversary of American slavery. It is designed to mn through the 2020 election cycle—an
effort to rewrite history and convince the uninformed that the truth of
the U.S. is untrue.
The U.S. came into existence unlike any other nation in history—
through the ratification of a document drafted by representatives of “We
the People.” By codifying into law our earlier proclamation to the
28 USA TODAY ★ NOVEMBER 2019

Political Landscape â–º
world that “We hold these truths to be self-evident. that all men are created equal,” our
forefathers were announcing the arrival of a
new era for humanity.
Brilliant solutions to the trials and errors of
countless prior generations were embodied in
that document. The rule of law replaced the
rule of men. All citizens were equal before
that law, regardless of their wealth or status.
Rights would be protected, but not granted,
by government, in recognition of their source
as divine, not human. Government officials
would serve by the will of the people, not by
inheritance or privilege. Government powers
were limited strictly to those listed (enumerated) in that document, and further limited by
dividing them among three separate-but-equal
branches, each with the ability to check the
other two.
Benjamin Franklin described the Constitution itself to be “as close to perfection as to be
astonishing”— but still not perfect. Ratification was followed by two centuries of amendments, and more trial and error in the continuing struggle “to form a more perfect union”
by living up to those principles. During that
time, the U.S. became the freest, most-prosperous nation on Earth, and the most-significant force for good of any nation in history.
Though slavery stained our nation for its first
four score and seven years, nothing could be
further from the truth than The New York Tunes’
rewritten history that American heritage and development is rooted in slavery and racism.
Slavery existed everyw here for 10,000
years of civilization; we know the Egyptians
had slaves, and the A m erican Indians enslaved each other for thousands of years.
Americans fought and died to end slavery in
our Civil War— and, when Germany brought
slavery back to Europe in the mid 20th century, and the Soviet Union’s gulag slave labor
camps terrified Eastern Europeans for most of
the last century, Americans fought and died to
end that modem-era slavery in Europe, too.
In North America, we inherited slavery
from British mle. Yes, the year 1619 marks the
first African slaves arriving in Jamesport, Va.,
but they were brought there by British Privateers. In the early 1700s, some colonies voted
to make it illegal to own slaves. This effort
rapidly was overruled by the British crown,
and man’s inhumanity to man was forced by
the British to continue in their American colonies for a total of 164 years— under their law.
The U.S. cannot be held responsible for
what happened under British rule. After all,
we fought a Revolutionary War to be independent of England. The U.S. only is responsible for what happened after we won our independence in 1783.
The Abolitionist Movement began the day
of our founding and, within 24 years of our independence, slavery virtually was eliminated
in nearly all the northern states. By tine time of
the Civil War, 11 Democrat-run states clung to
the practice— the same Democrats that formed
the KKK and closed the House of Representatives in order to watch their hangings.
Slavery may be the original sin of humanity, but not of the U.S. America’s legacy is that
of the most-rapid abolition of slavery of any
country or people. Our slavery lasted one human lifetime. A slave could have been bom
the same year as the nation and freed by the
end of our slavery era— a true greatness of action on behalf of humankind. ★
William Scott Magill, M.D. is founder and
executive director o f Veterans in Defense of
Liberty, Springfield, Mo.
ACIST REDUX
N
ow that the Russia collusion story has
lost its glow, the Left’s narrative— beyond, of course, impeachment— is that
anyone expressing a contrary opinion is a
racist. It is so exhausting.
What is a racist, anyway?—an individual
who believes that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that
these differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Tethering a rival to
racism is designed to be a career-ender. Thus,
some presidential hopefuls profess embarrassment and remorse because they are Caucasian, while others believe themselves to be
morally superior because they are not.
The political pot-stirrers wail that our country is racist, despite the fact that we elected the
son of a black African and a white American to
be our leader. At about 12% of the population,
the “black vote” could not have unilaterally
pulled this off. Barack Obama captured the
white vote even after supporting his pastor
whose “incendiary language” expressed hatred toward white folks. Because they shifted
their political allegiance, the same 2008 Obama voters now are considered racists.
We have arrived at a place so vitriolic and
demented that Ivanka Trump was called a racist
because she bought a little white puppy for her
child. By today’s standard, Pres. Bill Clinton is a
racist because his ill-fated Waco tank attack in
1993 killed some 40 ethnic minority persons.
Then there was Attorney General Eric Holder’s
Justice Department refusing to allow a North
Carolina town to hold nonpartisan local elections on the grounds that removing the partisan
cue (Democrat) in municipal elections likely
would eliminate the single factor that allows
black candidates to be elected to office.
Indeed, is black film m aker Spike Lee a
racist for making the movie “Chi-Raq,” which
highlights Chicago’s violence and black on
black murders? Is Baltimore’s former black
mayor Catherine Pugh a racist for saying she
could smell the dead animals while touring her
city’s impoverished neighborhoods? No. They
were stating facts that in today’s brave new
world white people are forbidden from uttering.
Of course, the light shed on Baltimore inspired
many “racists” to help clean up distressed
neighborhoods.
Also, recall a CNN radio hosts stunning response to a black man after he expressed his
belief in the merits of responsibility and hard
work: “By virtue of being a white male you have
white privilege.” Talk about racial stereotyping— how could a black person possibly believe
that individuals, not the government, hold the
key to success?
Many black workers knew that government is
not always their friend. In the 1930s, many referred to Pres. Franklin Roosevelt’s National Recovery Administration (NRA) as the Negro Removal Act, Negroes Ruined Again, or Negroes
Robbed Again. The new minimum wage regulations on hiring practices favored the all-white
skilled labor unions. Many black workers were
unskilled and consequently lost their jobs.
Additionally, the New Deal’s Federal Housing Administration refused to insure mortgages
in and near black neighborhoods. Moreover,
FHA-subsidized developers were building whitesonly tract homes. Somehow, though, the Trump
Administration that is advancing opportunity
zones to encourage long-term investments in
low-income urban and rural communities nationwide is racist.
In a misguided attempt at reparation, the
War on Poverty drove children’s fathers out of
the home as a condition of financial assistance.
Elite colleges admitted unprepared black students with lower SAT scores and GPAs, resulting in a 38% graduation rate. Worse yet, some
of these colleges have blacks-oniy dormitories.
Since when is exclusion and segregation preferable to inclusivity and integration that we so
strenuously fought for?
The panderers who fundamentally want to
transform the U.S. need miserable people to
swallow their baloney. In truth, most of us do
get along. People from California to Mississippi
are socializing and working together and marrying each other at a steadily increasing rate.
At present, one-in-six U.S. newlyweds are married to a person of a different race or ethnicity
today, a fivefold increase since 1967.
Today, given his views on self-determination,
the runaway slave Frederick Douglass would be
ejected from the tribe: ‘What I ask for the Negro
is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but
simply justice…. What shall we do with the Negro? Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has
already played mischief…. All I ask is, give him
a chance to stand on his own legs!”
To anyone who tars his or her opponents as
racists: if it were not for double standards you
would have no standards at all.
—Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D.,
president of the Association
of American Physicians and
Surgeons, Tucson, Ariz.
30 USA TODAY ★ NOVEMBER 2019
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