Reactionaries Are Having a Bad Month

[Zorro]

But they’ll be dangerous in the months ahead.

What is Braxton Bragg to Donald Trump, or Trump to Braxton Bragg?

It was always strange (and outrageous) to have U.S. military bases named for traitors — for Confederate generals who rebelled against the Union to defend slavery. And military leaders seem willing to change those bases’ names. But Trump says no.

Why would he take that position at a time when white Americans finally seem to be acknowledging the injustice African-Americans routinely face, leading to surging public support for Black Lives Matter? The smart thing, surely, would be to emulate much of corporate America: Make a few cheap gestures on behalf of social justice while changing nothing fundamental. I mean, even NASCAR has announced that it will ban the Confederate flag at events. And renaming military bases would be very cheap.

But Trump evidently can’t bring himself to make even a symbolic show of sympathy. And trying to understand his incapacity helps explain what Trumpism — and, indeed, modern conservatism as a whole — is all about.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/opinion/trump-confederate-flag-military-bases.html

[SCantiGOP]

1. It took the South 100 years to win the war

By 1960, using the Senate seniority system, every major Senate Committee was led by a Southern Democrat.
And they dominated House military committees.
So, a whole lot of military stuff got built in the South, and they got to name it.
Joke when I was a kid was that Charleston could secede in 1960 and it would be a military standoff. A Charleston Congressman headed House Military Affairs for about 20 years.