Posted on 08/28/2019 3:13:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
The New York Times has begun a major initiative, the "1619 Project," to observe the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe American history so that slavery and the contributions of black Americans explain who we are as a nation. Nikole Hannah-Jones, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine wrote the lead article, "America Wasn't a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One." She writes, "Without the idealistic, strenuous and patriotic efforts of black Americans, our democracy today would most likely look very different -- it might not be a democracy at all."
There are several challenges one can make about Hannah-Jones's article, but I'm going to focus on the article's most serious error, namely that the nation's founders intended for us to be a democracy. That error is shared by too many Americans. The word democracy appears nowhere in the two most fundamental founding documents of our nation -- the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Instead of a democracy, the Constitution's Article IV, Section 4, declares, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government." Think about it and ask yourself whether our Pledge of Allegiance says to "the democracy for which it stands" or to "the republic for which it stands." Is Julia Ward Howe's popular Civil War song titled "The Battle Hymn of the Democracy" or "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"?
The founders had utter contempt for democracy. James Madison, the acknowledged father of the Constitution, wrote in Federalist Paper No. 10, that in a pure democracy "there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual." At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, delegate Edmund Randolph said, "that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy." John Adams said: "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall observed, "Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos."
The U.S. Constitution is replete with anti-majority rule, undemocratic provisions. One provision, heavily criticized, is the Electoral College. In their wisdom, the framers gave us the Electoral College so that in presidential elections, heavily populated states could not run roughshod over sparsely populated states. In order to amend the Constitution, it requires a two-thirds vote of both Houses, or two-thirds of state legislatures, to propose an amendment, and requires three-fourths of state legislatures for ratification. Part of the reason for having a bicameral Congress is that it places another obstacle to majority rule. Fifty-one senators can block the wishes of 435 representatives and 49 senators. The president, with a veto, can thwart the will of all 535 members of Congress. It takes a two-thirds vote, not just a majority, of both houses of Congress to override a presidential veto.
In addition to not understanding our Constitution, Hannah-Jones's article, like in most discussions of black history, fails to acknowledge that black Americans have made the greatest gains, over some of the highest hurdles in the shortest span of time than any other racial group in mankind's history. The evidence: If black Americans were thought of as a nation with our own gross domestic product, we'd rank among the 20 wealthiest nations. It was a black American, Gen. Colin Powell, who headed the world's mightiest military. A few black Americans are among the world's wealthiest. Black Americans are among the world's most famous personalities.
The significance of this is that in 1865, neither a slave nor a slave owner would have believed that such progress would be possible in less than a century and a half, if ever. As such, it speaks to the intestinal fortitude of a people. Just as importantly, it speaks to the greatness of a nation within which such progress was possible, progress that would have been impossible anywhere else. The challenge before us is how those gains can be extended to a large percentage of black people for whom they appear elusive.
Excellent item. So, "true" black slavery in America was instituted by a black African. That is hilariously ironic (and simultaneously tragic).
Nice to see a little bit of pushback on “democracy.” Next, push back on the idea that universal suffrage is healthy for a republic.
Normal, sane people would celebrate the END of slavery. People who hate this country are compelled to keep reminding us of slavery for the next 10 centuries.
But they forget about m*slims holding slaves today.
Of course they’ll talk about the British Empire. The British Empire is one of the favorite punching bags of these people. The evil white imperialists who invented all that is wicked on the planet.
They probably won’t make the point that slavery is as old as history records.
They probably also won’t mention the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron founded at great expense in 1808 to help suppress the Atlantic slave trade.
And as for that man, Wilberforce, probably far too pale (and therefore evil) to be mentioned.
“The whole problem with this New York Slimes stories (and that is what they are just “stories”) is that there was slavery in North America BEFORE 1619!”
Some Native American tribes practiced forms of slavery prior to Europeans appearing in the Americas.
In addition some indigenous peoples in North and South American practiced human sacrifice.
You have a very serious issue with the truth in that you are letting facts get in the way of propaganda.
I cannot see just how the NYT expects to come out on top with this crap. The only ones they can possible influence are the extreme die hard left.
Their Russian collusion Trump trashing put the noose around their neck. This garbage will open the trap door.
Thanks for the reminder and ping for later.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, you areone stupid bitch. The USA is not a democracy, it is a Republic.
You can look it up, and see the difference.
A democracy is mob rule, like Chicago or Baltimore.
A Republic has more respect for the rule of law, not the daily wants of which ever mob has the loudest screams.
“Without the idealistic, strenuous and patriotic efforts of black Americans, our democracy today would most likely look very different — it might not be a democracy at all.”
Yeah, it might become a *shudder* Constitutional Republic. Sorry, no sale on 1619. First one to argue FOR chattle slavery was a black man. He won his arguement. Not my fault, not my guilt.
It figures the NYT would suppress the fact that the court case establishing the legality of slavery in the U.S. was brought by a black man.
And it isn't. It is a republic as it always has been.
btt
Those early slaves in 1619 that The New York Times focuses on arrived on the San Juan Bautista. If that name doesn’t sound English, that’s because it isn’t. It was a Portuguese ship en route to Spanish Mexico. Off the coast of Mexico, it was attacked and captured by English pirates masquerading as Dutch. They sold their enslaved human cargo at Jamestown.
Slavery is no more ‘native’ to the American experience than, well, anything.
Ms Hannah-Jones, my 8 year old son could ask you the difference between a Republic and a Democracy? I bet you don’t know since you said we are a Democracy, but we are a REPUBLIC, you liberal nutcase!
if the slave ship had delivered its cargo to the Spaniards in Mexico their life span would not have lasted long. The Spaniards were brutal to their slaves.
So, i will make a controversial statement by saying the Jamestown slaves lived much longer and better lives under the Brits on the James River than if they had been delivered to Mexico.
A matter of time. Just a matter of time.
1619 Project,” to observe the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery.
Will the name where in Africa the tribes that sold there own people and the names of all the black slave owners and how many they had....................................................
bump
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