In yet another attempt to justify our nation’s shameful embrace of slavery, MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan offered the following: “slavery brought blacks freedom and prosperity” without mentioning that up until the Africans became slaves, they were already free in Africa, and as prosperous as they could be.
Slavery had lasted 246 years in America, from 1619 to 1865, well into the end of the Civil War. Even after slavery, it took over 100 years to give blacks the “freedom and prosperity” Pat Buchanan described, and it was only after they fought and defeated relentless Jim Crow segregationists like Buchanan himself.
In creating Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”, Buchanan allied with, and personified the Klan fronts like the White Citizens Councils which battled tooth and nail to deny blacks their basic civil rights. This is solid fact, easily confirmed history. Buchanan was a segregationist and did use white supremacist organizations to rile white voters and canvass for voters. If it were even true that slavery brought freedom and prosperity, the first slaves had some 350 years to wait for it.
No one here is calling for reparations. It’s just that as long as the likes of Pat Buchanan are actually considered sober and respectable pundits we have a massive, disfiguring sty in the face of America; an ignorant and unrepentant channel for the ghosts of slavers and segregationists past. If bigot fuckwits like Pat are the only way to rally conservatives, I guess the silver lining is the conservative movement can only die sooner.