Are Freepers the equivalent of the modern Civil War South?

[laura888]

I went to see Frederick Douglass's house in Anacostia today with my partner and his niece.

Hearing once again about the struggle against the South's oppression made me think of Freepers. It seems to me that today's republicans, as a group, care more about profits than human beings.

The niece, who is a 18 and half-black and republican, insists that republicans ARE not this way. but if you were to sum up the republican philosophy, somehow the idea that those that are oppressed deserve to be, would come up.

[jobycom]

1. Nah, once you got past slavery, the South had some legite complaints

The Republicans have none.

Winners write history. The North won. So History says that the South supported slavery and the North virtuously opposed it. Not so fast. The entire southern economy was based on slavery, and abolishing it would destroy the economic structure of the south. That's fine, it should have been done, anyway.

But the North still profitted from slavery. Taxes for export of cotton helped the nation as a whole, especially when combined with the protectionist methods the North used to force the South to buy its products. The wealth of the south made the north richer, too. Foreign ships that bought cotton brought over goods to trade with the North as well as the South, and the constant trade boosted the dollar, which helped northern industry.

The North never seriously offered to financially assist in abolition. They wanted to keep the profits, and make the south bear all the costs. This would have economically destroyed the South. So the North went to war in the South, invading, wiping out the entire land system, and destroying the economy. This ended slavery, but it also made the South poor beyond reason for a century. Much of the poverty has never been eradicated. And this poverty is much of the reason southern whites are the way they are.

Both sides were dirty, both had economic interests in slavery, and neither side wanted to bear the cost of ending it, until one side finally destroyed the other and reaped the profit.

Like racism, slavery was a national, not a regional, sin.

[salinen]

2. freepsters

it's so difficult to understand the conservative positions where the individual acually receives no benefit. tax breaks went to the rich with a bone fed to the middle class. no benefit there. middle class republican voters represent 99% of that population. to side with industry over environmental protections. no benefit there, and actual harm to the health of the individual. same sex marriage. no benefit or loss. oops, i'll try to finish this later. my wife wants some hot cocoa. her back went out.

[fishnfla]

3. Well we had one DUer in here awhile back

claim that most people are too stupid and need to be led due to their lack of education, so it works both ways.