General Discussion

and were able to win the struggle as to whose version of history came to be considered "mainstream." This was the "Gone with the Wind" narrative that portrayed Reconstruction as corrupt and indecent. The actual history was of course quite different. I'm reminded of this when I see instances of MAGA trying to re-frame January 6 as"peaceful."

Another really good book on this is by David Blight: "Race and Reunion:the Civil War in American Memory." It looks at how that distortion of the history happened, and the backstory of how Reconstruction was betrayed by the power brokers--North and South--of the time.

I think a significant turning point was marked when Reagan did his first big campaign rally of his 1980 bid for the presidency in Philadelphia Mississippi, the site where four civil rights workers were murdered in the early 1960s. He used the occasion to emphasize "states rights" as an obvious dog whistle to white racists.

Nowadays the dog whistle has been replaced by a bullhorn, what with Elon Musk doing a Nazi solute at the inauguration, and the GOP nominating and supporting a candidate with a history of openly racist statements and actions.