'Both Sides' of Slavery Argument Latest Proof John Kelly Is No Moderating Force

[riversedge]

'Both Sides' of Slavery Argument Latest Proof John Kelly Is No Moderating Force
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/10/31/both-sides-slavery-argument-latest-proof-john-kelly-no-moderating-force

Tuesday, October 31, 2017


"It's irresponsible & dangerous, especially when white supremacists feel emboldened, to make fighting to maintain slavery sound courageous."
by Jon Queally,


White House Chief of Staff John Kelly appearing on Laura Ingraham's show on Fox News on Monday, October 30, 2017. (Photo: Fox News/Screengrab)

Those who have repeatedly tried to dispell the myth—popular in some circles—that White House chief of staff John Kelly is somehow a "moderating force" on President Donald Trump are being widely vindicated after his appearance Monday night on the show of right-wing firebrand Laura Ingraham in which the former U.S. Marine general argued that it was "lack of ability to compromise" that led to the Civil War as he praised Robert E. Lee as a "noble man" and offered a very Trumpian "both sides" argument about the conflict that erupted centrally over the nation's institution of slavery.

As the New York Times observed, reaction to the comments was "swift and unforgiving, with many commenters ridiculing Mr. Kelly for suggesting that slavery was an issue on which a compromise could or should have been reached."

For another example, a forthright and unapologetic Eleanor Sheehan put it for Splinter News, "Gen. John Kelly, President Trump's current chief of staff and onetime media hopeful to steer the sinking ship that is the White House, continues to suck."

Walter Shaub, who served as the director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics before resigning in protest this summer, wrote on Twitter that, "It appears John Kelly is going as a racist for Halloween. I suspect he's also going as one for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday..."

Bernice King, a minister and the youngest child of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., also spoke out:

The Intercept's Jon Schwarz, who wrote this scathing takedown of Kelly nearly two weeks ago, chimed in as well:

In that piece, Schwarz observed that even as "Kelly may be personally far more palatable" than Trump, "there’s a reason these two men found each other."

Kelly, he wrote, is "proudly ignorant, he's a liar, and he's a shameless bully and demagogue."

...............................
And the president and his chief of staff, Schwarz concluded, "see the world in fundamentally the same way, and Kelly is going to help Trump do what he wants to it." ..

.......................

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Tom Rinaldo]

1. "slavery was an issue on which a compromise could or should have been reached."

Kelly is right. The Constitution considered slaves to be 3/5ths human beings. Abolitionists (and the slaves themselves - but their views didn't count) considered slaves to be full human beings.

Clearly a 4/5ths human compromise could have been reached if those damn Yankees weren't so obstinate.

[spanone]

2. in fact, he's using the same embarrassing bullshit trump did in charlottesvile....

there were good slave owners....

we now know who kelly is and he's as fucked up as trump

[Baconator]

3. I heard a podcast the other day...

... maybe something from crooked media.

Something like 'There are two categories of things to get outraged over. The first is the patently unacceptable behavior. That covers pussy grabbing comments... twitter wars with gold star families etc... The second is run of the mill conservative ideology. Cut taxes, limit government, southern pride'

We can and should expect something to be done about the first by members of the administration and majority party. The second is the shit part of being out of power.

That's the kind of stuff conservatives say... So I'm not all shocked and shaken...

Kelly is right-leaning and maybe even 'very' right-leaning but that still doesn't mean that he doesn't moderate the bullshit. I

[KitSileya]

4. Hey, you should credit the author of the article.

And your excerpt should be only 4 paragraphs long.