American Conservatives: If a State Wants to Permit for Slavery, Then That Is Perfectly Fine

Nikki Haley's 'gaffe' has deep roots in the American conservative movement

Courtesy of Photografix

It pains conservatives to admit that slavery was bad. When pushed, they will say stuff similar to what Ms. Haley said the day after her gaffe in New Hampshire at a town hall meeting: “Of course, it [the Civil War] was about slavery. That’s the easy part.” 

When not in the confines of their wretched little world of race hate and fascism, conservatives love to make the rest of us feel like we are “obsessed” with slavery. They want to shout at us, “Get over it! It ended in 1865, and many of ‘them’ (Blacks) are worse off now than they were then…I mean, I am just saying. Look at the Southside of Chicago.” Yes, I have heard conservatives, blessed by whitish skin, say such things. 

In her half-hearted mea culpa, Haley said that what she meant by her original answer was that the Civil War was about state rights and the freedom to do what someone wants to do commercially. After all, why should a far-off federal government regulate and sometimes restrict commercial activity? Doesn’t such behavior smack of communist central planning? Isn’t the essence of America unbridled commercial freedom?

This is what conservatives believe, and so that is why the issue of freeing the “Black slave” was not so much a question of humanity but property rights and capitalism. Deep down in the dankness of Nikki Haley’s soul, the former governor of South Carolina thinks stuff like, “So what next, will the federal government decide what of my legally-owned property I can sell at my yard sale?”

The act of selling “Negros” was nothing personal to the humans involved. The well-intentioned Southern whites were making the lives of the heathens better and, at the same time, building the nation in the capitalist ethos. If the people of, say, Mississippi chose to permit the existence of the sale and trade in humans, then that is the prerogative of the people of Mississippi — not Washington. This is what Haley was getting at, but this approach clearly fails to accept the savagery of slavery. 

Conservatives won’t accept that the “peculiar institution,” a misnomer if there ever was one, was tainted with all of the trappings of pure evil. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the blanket of cultural corruption is something that we can easily drape over most of the South. The Black citizens of the South, the descendants of yesterday’s chattel, are still looked upon by many as stolen property — as meddling by the federal government. 

State rights 

Conservatives love to speak about “state rights” like they are hardcore patriots standing up for the original words passed down by the Founding Fathers. The protections afforded by this fight to grant states all the power to decide what is good and evil are forever changing. When it comes to abortion, conservatives want a federal ban. When it comes to voting, they want a national ID. Regarding religion, they want an alignment of the state with Christianity. When it comes to slavery, however, they don’t want that pesky, overreaching federal government to get in their way.

Both race hate clearly drive their motivations, and a penchant for stomping on the weak and vulnerable motivates America’s conservatives. If an economic gain can be made, then the state should be permitted to make whatever decisions it chooses without the federal government interfering. Thanks to this belief, child labor laws in traditionally conservative states like Arkansas and Iowa are being thrown out. 14-year-olds in Arkansas can work in meat coolers and industrial laundries, and teens 15 and older can work on assembly lines around dangerous machinery.

Conservatives will tell us that they are for the free flow of commerce. Commerce should prevail over everything, and if profits are maximized, then the community’s boat is lifted. We have seen how that worked out since conservatives became infected with Reagnomics. The rich got richer, and the poor got poorer. The divide is greater now than it has ever been in our history, and people like Nikki Haley blame the economic displacement on federal interference in the commerce of states and federal overreach while conveniently hiding the truth. 

Every proposal Republicans come up with to make everyone economically whole again only sets vulnerable Americans ever further behind. Human trafficking is now a $200 billion-a-year business. Children are kidnapped from all over the world and sold into sexual slavery. The country with the greatest demand for child prostitutes and “lovers” is — guess! — the United States. Can the child slavery rings that undoubtedly exist in some states also be explained away by Haley’s positive spin on slavery? “Let’s not forget what came out of that. An understanding of government’s role. Individual liberties. The freedom of what people could and couldn’t do” and a slew of other good things.

Haley then criticized the voter who dared ask her a tough question. Her abhorrent answer was not to be judged because of the thorny question clearly posed by a “Biden plant.” Is that how she will explain away tragedies in the United States or the world if she becomes president? “It’s not my fault. It’s those terrorists.” When did American conservatives become so adept at running from responsibility?