Sen. Tom Cotton Calls Slavery Nation's 'Necessary Evil' In Shocking Interview

[Jhhnn]

America, like most empires before it, was built on cheap labor. The original sins of America were slavery and manifest destiny.

Poor immigrants from Europe filled the void of slavery, south and central Americans filled the void once the poor European immigrants clawed their way into the middle class, and globalization opened new horizons to labor exploitation.

We need to acknowledge that past, but should also evaluate historical figures within the context of societal shifts.

Not exactly. Sharecropping, black codes & Jim Crow filled that void in the South. You know, a kinder & gentler form of not quite slavery. Throw in lynchings & monuments to confederate "heroes" so everybody understands who rules. Jeff Davis up on a pedestal & black bodies swinging in the breeze made it all perfectly clear.

 

[HomerJS]

I mean, I wanna say this is over the top hyperbole, but the intentional tone deafness of the right and what they tend to say and do means this could actually be a slogan and it would not be shocking at all.

I think his opponent should run that commercial along with his "necessary evil" quote. To make it hit home run it in minstrel fashion. Use this guy in the spot

 

[hal2kilo]

Sadly, he was speaking honestly, by accident. I'm sure that's what his schools taught him. Still, he has no excuse for not educating himself about the real truth of the economic system which could only happen by using free labor. People will not work for free unless enslaved. White people convinced themselves that they were better than any other race, so they could one, evict the original people who occupied those lands, and then compound the sin by bringing in other people they considered subhuman so they could look themselves in the mirror when they were quoting scripture. Yea, I got John Lewis's funeral on in the background, and that ass wipe McConnel just had the nerve to show up and praise him. Amen.

 

[esquared]

Do not fall for propaganda @esquared

The man was talking about this nation's founding. You cannot change what it was. Or how it happened. That is settled, and the history books make it VERY CLEAR that slavery was part of America in the beginning. Do not belie that. Do not run from it. It is the truth. Virginia and the Southern States saw to it. Despite our national creed, one of the compromises to form this Union was that slavery was not abolished.

You saw what happened when it was. It took a Civil War to make a correction that was necessarily avoided at our fragile founding.

Nothing shocking in saying how it was.

Read the fucking article, and my post.
No propaganda falling here.

 

[Indus]

I say we turn MAGA into MSSN now: Make Slavers Sorry NOW!

 

[Moonbeam]

We need to acknowledge that past, but should also evaluate historical figures within the context of societal shifts.

What say you to the possibility that is exactly what is happening but the reevaluation that is actually happening isn't to your tastes. After centuries of being scapegoated maligned and denied equality of treatment, perhaps what you would consider proper reevaluation is something to which a growing majority simply don't give two shits about. What conservatives fear more than all else is to have done to them what they do to others.

 

[Ajay]

Only a right wing American will demonize brown people from Mexico but don't want to pay $10 for a head of lettuce.

I was thinking that some southern democrats might still feel that way. Though I hope that there aren't many left or that they've had their morals set straight.
When Johnson signed the civil rights act, it' been reported that he quipped that he had cost the democratic party the south for a generation - that turned out to be optimistic.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Jesus fucking Christ.: One stroke of the lash would change his fucking mind real quick. Another depressing reminder of how the Party of Lincoln has become so grossly debased as to become the Party of Pro-Slavery Apologetics.

If we allow that the south was never going to give up its claims to slavery, and there could never be a sustainable union or constitution without the south, then we can say slavery was… maybe not a necessary evil. An unavoidable evil. You make a deal with the devil, and eventually he collects and you keep paying up forever. Every southern apologist who acknowledges his argument about the founding of the union is admitting that the southern states would have had NO economic viability without slavery. Which means that everything the south has or is today, was built on the backs of those slaves.

 

[IronWing]

Study after study show the negative economic impacts of racism on black and other American minorities. I wonder if there are studies to show the economic impacts of racism on white Americans. I kind of look at it two ways. One - wage suppression leading to lower costs for goods and services for whites, a benefit. Two - racism leading to lower economic output by black and other minority Americans leading to an overall smaller economy for all, a negative. I also wonder how the economic benefits/costs of racism are spread with income and wealth levels among white Americans. Who benefits/hurts the most among white Americans as a result of racism against black Americans and other minority groups?

 

[sportage]

If America needed slavery to make her great then maybe America didn't deserve to be so great. People toss the word SLAVERY around like it is only a word. One only need to understand what slavery was and more so what it was to be a slave. Whipped, treated like an animal, starved, chained, sold at an auction, watching your family split up and sold at an auction, having Master sell your mother or wife or child to a near by plantation owner, and to be beaten for the desire to learn or read. Being a slave was no piece of cake. Slavery was in fact America's version of the holocaust, and I'd like to hear Tom Cotton call the holocaust a necessary evil. Just give Tom a day or two, and he will.

 

[Fenixgoon]

If America needed slavery to make her great then maybe America didn't deserve to be so great. People toss the word SLAVERY around like it is only a word. One only need to understand what slavery was and more so what it was to be a slave. Whipped, treated like an animal, starved, chained, sold at an auction, watching your family split up and sold at an auction, having Master sell your mother or wife or child to a near by plantation owner, and to be beaten for the desire to learn or read. Being a slave was no piece of cake. Slavery was in fact America's version of the holocaust, and I'd like to hear Tom Cotton call the holocaust a necessary evil. Just give Tom a day or two, and he will.

for most americans it's very much an abstraction, in (large?) part because they don't live under its consequences.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Not exactly. Sharecropping, black codes & Jim Crow filled that void in the South. You know, a kinder & gentler form of not quite slavery. Throw in lynchings & monuments to confederate "heroes" so everybody understands who rules. Jeff Davis up on a pedestal & black bodies swinging in the breeze made it all perfectly clear.

Which is why the Confederate statues and monuments need to come down.

 

[Starbuck1975]

What say you to the possibility that is exactly what is happening but the reevaluation that is actually happening isn't to your tastes. After centuries of being scapegoated maligned and denied equality of treatment, perhaps what you would consider proper reevaluation is something to which a growing majority simply don't give two shits about. What conservatives fear more than all else is to have done to them what they do to others.

No one really gives two shits about Confederate generals anymore or the Lost Cause, which is why there is a societal consensus around removing them. I don’t believe that consensus extends to the Founding Fathers, and there is a high level of ignorance around why we even have so many Columbus statues to begin with.

 

[Fenixgoon]

No one really gives two shits about Confederate generals anymore or the Lost Cause, which is why there is a societal consensus around removing them. I don’t believe that consensus extends to the Founding Fathers, and there is a high level of ignorance around why we even have so many Columbus statues to begin with.

the resistance to having them taken down suggests otherwise

 

[Indus]

No one really gives two shits about Confederate generals anymore or the Lost Cause, which is why there is a societal consensus around removing them. I don’t believe that consensus extends to the Founding Fathers, and there is a high level of ignorance around why we even have so many Columbus statues to begin with.

AFAIK Columbus didn't even step on what now became America..



So who gives a shit about a piece of rock with his name. It's not like America is named after him either.. that honor goes to Amerigo Vespucci.

 

[Moonbeam]

the resistance to having them taken down suggests otherwise

Not to mention that individuals who are resistant to anything at all, the spectrum range of them that can manifest can do so, in my opinion without conscious awareness of it. For me, what I see is some ego Identification that creates a sense of self importance generated by holding them sacred gets threatened triggering fear.

 

[Meghan54]

White people convinced themselves that they were better than any other race, so they could one, evict the original people who occupied those lands, and then compound the sin by bringing in other people they considered subhuman so they could look themselves in the mirror when they were quoting scripture.

You've left out a very important part.....they were quoting Scripture to justify owning blacks as slaves, so they had no problem with looking in the mirror. God, via the Bible and their religious leaders, TOLD them it was God's will that blacks become slaves. And God's never wrong.

 

[Starbuck1975]

AFAIK Columbus didn't even step on what now became America..

View attachment 26895

So who gives a shit about a piece of rock with his name. It's not like America is named after him either.. that honor goes to Amerigo Vespucci.

Again, you should read up on why there are so many Columbus statues (hint, it has to do with his national origin and the mythos of exploration instead of historical accuracy)

 

[shortylickens]

If America needed slavery to make her great then maybe America didn't deserve to be so great. People toss the word SLAVERY around like it is only a word. One only need to understand what slavery was and more so what it was to be a slave. Whipped, treated like an animal, starved, chained, sold at an auction, watching your family split up and sold at an auction, having Master sell your mother or wife or child to a near by plantation owner, and to be beaten for the desire to learn or read. Being a slave was no piece of cake. Slavery was in fact America's version of the holocaust, and I'd like to hear Tom Cotton call the holocaust a necessary evil. Just give Tom a day or two, and he will.

You need to study world history.

"Deserve" has nothing to do with it.

 

[Indus]

Again, you should read up on why there are so many Columbus statues (hint, it has to do with his national origin and the mythos of exploration instead of historical accuracy)

Considering Amerigo and Columbus are both Italian, what're you getting at?

 

[Starbuck1975]

the resistance to having them taken down suggests otherwise

That’s how democracy works. Despite some voicing opposition, statues are coming down, especially on academic campuses and in places of honor. The Army is receptive to renaming bases named after generals who served the Confederacy. The military is moving towards banning Confederate symbols, which were prevalent when I served.

It’s not like the daughters of the Confederacy tried to setup an exclusionary zone in Richmond or chained themselves to statues to protect Monument Ave. Some are quietly working to move some statues to private collections and museums, but that’s about it.

 

[Fenixgoon]

That’s how democracy works. Despite some voicing opposition, statues are coming down, especially on academic campuses and in places of honor. The Army is receptive to renaming bases named after generals who served the Confederacy. The military is moving towards banning Confederate symbols, which were prevalent when I served.

It’s not like the daughters of the Confederacy tried to setup an exclusionary zone in Richmond or chained themselves to statues to protect Monument Ave. Some are quietly working to move some statues to private collections and museums, but that’s about it.

You said no one really gives a shit. A bunch of fine people as part of the "unite the right" march in Charlottesville protesting against removal of Robert E Lee's statue says you're incorrect that "no one" gives a shit.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Considering Amerigo and Columbus are both Italian, what're you getting at?

The Knights of Columbus were at one time a powerful Catholic fraternal order, similar to the freemasons and well established in blue collar Italian-American communities. Italians embraced Columbus as a symbol representing their contributions to the American mythos, and as they gained political power, Columbus Day was how they chose to celebrate essentially gaining a seat at the American political table.

Most Italians are not emotionally connected to Columbus, but the Columbus monuments have a cultural element, as I’ve we’ve seen in Chicago and other cities with large Italian populations, they would appreciate the opportunity to repurpose rather than remove those symbols.

 

[Starbuck1975]

You said no one really gives a shit. A bunch of fine people as part of the "unite the right" march in Charlottesville protesting against removal of Robert E Lee's statue says you're incorrect that "no one" gives a shit.

How did that work out for them?

 

[JEDIYoda]

The way the article reads is that he was describing the thoughts of the forefathers when the comment was made. It was not that he said it, he was talking about the mindset of the time.

“We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country,” Cotton said. “As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built.”

And he quoted or paraphrased Lincoln: Cotton also noted that the “union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.”

hahahhahaa,,,,Tom Cotton said it and he believes it and di not offer a solution! Instead he tried to justify it!!