On this day in 1781, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. They were worthless. But you can see why conservatives love them. Basically, the combined government — the Confederation Congress — could ask for money from the states, but they had no power to enforce such a request. It reminds me of how modern conservatives think employment should operate: we all be nice to the rich and they will hire the rest of us and give us proper compensation.

I’m constantly amazed that conservatives think that liberals are naive. The whole conservative mentality is based on the idea that people will just do “what’s right” — as though that something that we all agree on. People have an amazing ability to justify why whatever helps them will be best. And what history has shown very clearly is that people will pay their taxes only when they are forced. And it does not matter how low those taxes are. That was one of Ayn Rand’s big claims was that if you just got the government small enough people would voluntarily pay their taxes. But she was a thoroughly modern intellectual — in the sense of never actually reading anything that disagreed with her except for the explicit purpose of attacking it.

But the main reason that conservatives hate the federal government and think that local government is always better is because you can be much more powerful on the local level. Look at Frankly Curious: it is tiny, but like Yertle the Turtle, I am ruler of all I see! And what is it that these conservatives really want? Is it low taxes and regulations? Not really! It’s having slaves. And I assure you that if every state in the United States became independent, there are states that would bring back slavery.

But imagine if the Articles of Confederation had not been replaced. What would have happened? I can’t say for sure, but I think history guides us to a fairly obvious conclusion. The states would begin to have wars. And eventually, the greatest warrior would have brought all the colonies together. So it would have been like what we got, with one exception: it would have been an autocracy. There would have been no Bill of Rights. And of course, the Articles of Confederation would have been a thing of the past. But conservatives don’t think that far ahead. That would have been King Andrew Jackson. Or perhaps just King George, because once the colonies were fighting, it wouldn’t have been hard to defeat them.

The Articles of Confederation were a joke. But they are what conservatives want. Because local governance is always better. I mean, the federal government does terrible things like make people pay their taxes. And the local government only does things like enslave people.

On this day in 1987, the Tower Commission released its report on the Iran-Contra Affair. It “held Reagan accountable for a lax managerial style and aloofness from policy detail.” I think the only one who actually went to jail over the whole thing was Oliver North. Of course, he’s a great hero to conservatives. There is nothing that conservatives love so much is people who break the law in the name of overthrowing democratically elected governments.

I remember Reagan testifying before the Tower Commission. Basically, he just couldn’t remember anything. Not that it matters. It’s kind of like Chris Christie. Everyone knew what the big man wanted. And what he wanted was for his people to break a law that Congress passed specifically to stop the administration from doing what it was doing — and did.

The only reason the power elite put up with democracy in America, is because they know they control it. When democracy actually works in other places — when the government isn’t completely beholden to our government and corporations — well then, democracy is a bad thing. It’s a very Animal Farm kind of thing: democracy is something we completely believe in — as long as it results in what we want. What the people want doesn’t matter in the least.

So the Tower Commission found that Reagan was incompetent. But almost no one today knows what the Tower Commission was. And they think that Ronald Reagan was a super keen president. This is despite the fact that during the Tower Commission, Reagan was doubtless already suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. But what does that matter when he was so great in front of a television camera? The truth is, he seemed deeply confused in the first debate he had against Mondale in 1984. He probably wasn’t all there in 1980. But maybe a president doesn’t have to be — at least a Republican one.

On this day in 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave a speech to party insiders, “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences.” It was basically an attack on former Premier Joseph Stalin. You can’t read about it without being told that it was all part of Khrushchev’s efforts to consolidate his power against the remaining Stalin loyalists. And while that was certainly the case, the implication is always that the Soviet leaders had ulterior motives but somehow here in America we are pure as the driven snow.

I guess it is just when I grew up and the fact that it was in a conservative household that I find so sad our tendency to trivialize the government of the Soviet Union. It isn’t that I have a all that much respect for it. But it was complicated. My father liked to point out that although they had elections in the Soviet Union, they had only one political party. While that was largely true, there were various factions of the party. And I really can’t say that there was less diversity within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union than there has been between the Democratic and Republican Parties.

It is certainly the case that what Khrushchev said in “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences” was widely shared. They knew they had a major problem on their hands when Stalin was in power. He was exactly the kind of autocrat that the communists hated in the fascist leaders. The truth was that Stalin greatly admired Hitler until the Nazi leader stabbed him in the back. (This was a major mistake; the Nazis probably would have survived World War II if they had managed to keep the Soviet Union out of it.)

Whose Cult of Personality Is Worse?

The Soviet Union changed over time. And it eventually allowed a man as liberal as Mikhail Gorbachev to rule it. Can you imagine the United States ever electing a leader that would admit to our major errors? As it is, even Bernie Sanders, a man who is hardly a radical, has been vilified by a whole industry of opinion leaders who supposedly represent the left of politics.

Also on this day in 1991, the Warsaw Pact was disbanded. Yet NATO continues on. To counter what? Wasn’t the fall of communism the time when the west should have most firmly embraced the United Nations? But instead of using the event to make a better world, the United States used it to consolidate its power. We don’t have a cult of personality here; we have a cult of “exceptionalism.” And it is dangerous. Donald Trump could become our next president. And there are a lot of people in this country who are thrilled at the idea of a cult of personality. Even when it requires the personality of Vladimir Putin.

On this day in 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran offered a $3 million bounty for the death of Salman Rushdie. This followed ten days after the fatwa against him for writing The Satanic Verses. This was a stupid thing to do. And maybe if Khomeini, who I generally think of as having been a pretty smart guy, had been younger, he wouldn’t have done it. But he was almost 90 years old, and only months from death.

We accept that people are stupid. I see it all the time. Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t tell me about some minor thing that they are outraged about. But leaders are supposed to be educated and thoughtful. Even if you are a fundamentalist, you need to pick your battles. At a time when Iran should have been trying to integrate itself with the rest of the world, the fatwa just made Iran seem like a thuggish state. The fatwa went along with a one million dollar bounty for Rushdie’s murder. And then Khomeini ups it to $3 million? It’s just pathetic.

The Satanic Verses Wouldn’t Have Been a Hit

At that point, Salman Rushdie was a celebrated writer. He had won the Booker Prize. But he was hardly JK Rowling. The fatwa made Rushdie’s career. And The Satanic Verses would have continued in that tradition. Most people today would not have ever heard of Salman Rushdie nor The Satanic Verses had it not been for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s ridiculous assassination contract.

Obviously, I’m not talking about the immorality of calling for murder because someone writes a book you don’t like. I don’t think we need to discuss that. Everyone around here agrees on that point. And I seriously doubt that Khomeini read the book, anyway. And I doubt anyone important in the fatwa process had read the book. Yet Iran has now renewed the bounty for the outrage of The Satanic Verses. My understanding is that in modern Iran, everyone wants to grab onto the mantle of Khomeini and so that’s what this is all about. Perhaps the most stupid thing the man ever did in his life, when his mind feeble, and they are still chasing it as though he were God.

I feel sorry for Salman Rushdie. But I feel more sorry for the Iranian people, who have been so ineptly ruled both before and after Khomeini. And this business about publicly calling for the murder over The Satanic Verses is the best encapsulation of this that there is.

On this day in 1836, the Battle of the Alamo started. I remember visiting it when I was a kid. But I have no idea where. They seem to move the damned thing around all the time. But what’s amazing about it is that it’s this big deal in the mythology of America. But there are a few problems with it. First, it was part of the Texas Revolution. It wasn’t part of the United States. And the people of Texas were even worse than than they are now. The other thing that is remarkable about it is that the Texans lost the battle.

Now, I understood that when I was a kid. But I had this idea that the Texans were totally outnumbered. Really, I remember it being presented as a couple hundred Texans against a hundred thousand Mexicans. Hooray! Ain’t the white man great! But that wasn’t the case at all. The Texans were a couple hundred strong, and they were inside the Alamo. They had the advantage. They were under siege by less than two thousand Mexicans. In the end, the Mexicans had about double the casualties as the Texans. Given the circumstances, I would say that the Mexicans did pretty well. If I were a Texan, I’d try to brush this historical event under the carpet.

But no. Everything is bigger in Texas, and nowhere is that as true as in its egos. Oh, but they fought to the death! That’s one of the great lies of manliness. There is nothing noble about fighting to the death unless you are doing it to protect others. If you are suicidal, then just get on with it. But don’t expect the rest of us to hold you up as some kind of a hero. Regardless, I’ve come to see pretty much all armed conflicts as a battle between two powerful groups over who will be the most powerful. The rest of us just want to be left out of it.

But I am pleased that Sam Houston survived and was able to keep all his slaves.

On this day in 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated. I don’t know that much about him. Some day I really should read Alex Haley’s book. But I want to talk briefly about what he seems to have represented to White America: the dangerous black man. I’ve often thought that what progress we’ve made regarding racial politics are thanks to Malcolm X. Because when I was growing up, it seemed to me that people were terrified of him. And note: he died just days after my first birthday. So they were terrified of a dead man.

Malcolm X vs MLK

That’s not to say that America’s Gandhi, Martin Luther King, didn’t terrify White America too. That is the true white man’s burden: fear of everything, but most especially that they will lose their preferred status, which is based a centuries old asymmetry of weapons technology. Of course, the White Man doesn’t exactly think in those terms. But I think he knows. I think we all know that in a fair fight, the white man would not come out on top. It would just be a mess — a diverse mess.

But if you have to negotiate a peace, you want to do it with King and his commitment to nonviolence rather than with Malcolm X and his commitment to “any means necessary.” None of this is to say that racism of any form is acceptable. But I’m much more of the separatist mentality myself. And I can’t believe there are many white men who have grown up with the privilege that we are given in his country deciding that turning the other cheek was a reasonable approach to the oppression that African Americans lived under then and continue to live under to this day.

A lot of people wonder what King might have accomplished had he lived longer. I think that Malcolm X might have had a much greater effect. As we’ve seen in this country, the times are rare when being polite and asking nicely get much accomplished.

On this day in 1900, there was Bloody Sunday. I know what you’re thinking, “Aren’t there about five hundred ‘Bloody Sundays’?” Yeah, pretty much. This one had to do with the Second Boer War. It was the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg. And the British were destroyed. The South African Republic completely dominated that day. But the battle lasted over a week, and the British ended up winning decisively — capturing over 4,000 soldiers on the other side.

I love the Boer Wars! They are such great examples of the futility of war. In one of my all time favorite films, Dean Spanley, the elder Fisk asks, “Did we win the Boer War?” And Fisk the younger replies, “I believe we lost more slowly than the other side.” In that particular case, the slowly losing included the Fisks’ son and brother.

The British did win the war. Not that it really matters. In the end, it really all comes down to who is going to collect the taxes. There isn’t much more than that. Of course, to the British people, imperialism was a great burden that they did for the good of the world. It’s very much like I discussed in the Morning Music post about “Political Science.” The people of countries always think their governments go about the world doing great deeds, but it’s all propaganda to get the people to continue to support the war machine so the power elite can continue to expand their power and wealth.

Bloody Sunday: We Never Learn

But what Bloody Sunday really reminds me of is this:

Don’t declare victory too soon. One day. A couple of weeks. Even a couple of years. These don’t mean all that much. Bloody Sunday didn’t. Things change. And they especially change when you have done precious little planning. The British lost the First Boer War, although admittedly, it wasn’t much of a war. When people talk of the Boer War, they mean the second one. Less than a hundred men died in the first one. Roughly 30,000 died in the second one. But young Fisk was wrong. The British had a huge advantage in terms of troops and lost twice as many. But the war was devastating on the civilian population — both white and black.

War is hell. That really is true. But a lot of people have a hard time believing it.