History Chat - September 24, 2020

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Summary: History of the Republican party during the time of President Obama, and how it reinforced Republicans beliefs of people voting for the redistribution of wealth, which they believe is laying the foundation for Communism. This is the beginning of the thought process of anyone who believes in a social safety net and believes the government should have a role to play is a “Liberal” and basically softcore communist.

Timestamp 7:25: When Barack Obama is elected, he is the image of what Movement conservatives have been against since the 1950’s. The things that are what they believe would lead us to Socialism are him using the government to level the playing field, promote infrastructure, and offer a basic social safety net. Obama molds himself after Abraham Lincoln by offering Change. All the changes he promised in his campaign would prove difficult to execute as the Movement Conservatives who controlled the Senate blocked much of his legislation.

Timestamp 11:21: In the election of 2016, Hillary Clinton had a long history of political activism, and the Movement Conservatives didn’t support her becuase she didn’t “fit the mold” of wife/mother/ sex object, which risked the Patriarchial system of government in the United States. Donald Trump was the most conservative of the candidates, and promised things that are usually considered “liberal”.

Timestamp 18:11: When Trump announced his Candidacy for Presidency, when he discussed Mexicans and immigrants being rapists, he was reflecting the Movement conservative rhetoric that the United States is a country that should be run by a few White men. This goes back all the way to Reconstruction, and was emphasized in the 1950’s - Current day. This is why he got away with accusations of harassment and rape, because for his supporters (Movement conservatives) that was totally acceptable.

Timestamp 23:10: Donald Trumps logic during the 2016 election of having a few men in power votes for policy that benefits them. This slows down America, which is how the 1896 Coup in North Carolina Started. It was a legitimate election, but the coup occurred because they voted for Redistribution of wealth and the opposition claimed they “Shouldn’t have been voting anyway”.

Timestamp 25:50: Where the Democrats open the doors for more candidates in the election, whereas the Republicans “Frontload” their candidates and caucuses in low education states. They bank on a candidate being successful that has a popular name, but they didn’t bank on a more popular candidate, which was Donald Trump. During this time through Citizens United, the National Riffle Association receives a large sum of money. This is believed to be from Russian Oligarchs to the Trump election, which defeats the argument of Democrats are Communist, as it is illegal to accept anything from international countries in the midst of an election.

Timestamp 29:33: The allegation of Social media influencing the 2016 election comes from Frank Stanton. Frank Collected information from people’s radios’. The people claimed they were listening to Educational programs and such, but Frank was able to track what they were actually listening to. This allowed him to make a demographic from collected data. This reinforces the idea that if you are not paying for a product, you are the product. This allows them to microtarget where their information goes. This does not guarantee all the recipients will be receptive to the information provided, but it increases the chances and is in line with Psychological Warfare.

Timestamp 36:51: Many factors work in the favor of Donald Trump Winning the Presidency. These things include continued communication from the Trumo campaign to the Ukraine through encrypted lines. Another item is the historically accurate Exit Polls projected a win for Hillary Clinton in swing states, which is when a Newscaster who was being considered for a position in the Trump campaign delivered the results to the Trump campaign, which is not standard Procedure. In addition to the Voting Machines malfunctioning in the Carolina’s, any one or combination of these things could have caused him to be victorious against Hillary.

Timestamp 39:58: Once Trump takes over, Steve Bannon is by his side spreading a level of Disinformation, Sexism, and intense Racisim. This allows them to Purge Society, and pave the way for Movement conservatives to spread their vision of America.

Timestamp 43:48: Trump almost immediately gutted the State Department , as well as Business Regulations, to mimic the Movement Conservative agenda. He also cuts Social welfare programs,as Movement Conservatives feel the federal government has no role in these areas. He attempts to Privatize infrastructure, which would benefit the few that he would choose, that he has investments with.

Timestamp 51:27: The “ Trump Party” thrives on a disinformation campaign and the assistance from Russia. They acknowledge Trump’s lack of popularity, and paint their opponents, the Democrats as inhuman and the destructors of American Culture. They promote the idea of even though voting is a right, it should be limited, which is his premise of Voting Fraud in the 2020 Election.

Timestamp 55:09: The effort to fill the supreme court seat to contiue the movement conservative agenda has not gone unnoticed. The Republicnas believe that Democrats will destory democracy, where as at least two parties are needed for Democracy to function. If Democrats lose their ability to vote or participate in legislature, the legitimacy of Democracy is lost.

[From wikipedia] Richardson’s first book, The Greatest Nation of the Earth (1997), stemmed from her dissertation at Harvard University. Inspired by Eric Foner’s work on pre-Civil War Republican ideology, Richardson analyzed Republican economic policies during the war. She contended that their efforts to create an activist Federal Government during the Civil War marked a continuation of Republican free labor ideology. These policies, such as war bonds and greenbacks or the Land Grant College Act and the Homestead Act, revolutionized the role of the Federal Government in the U.S. economy. At the same time, these actions laid the groundwork for the Republican Party’s shift to Big Business after the Civil War.

In this 2001 book, Richardson "focused on the “Northern abandonment of Reconstruction.” Building on the earlier work of C. Vann Woodward, she argued that a more complete understanding of the period required appreciation of class, not only race. As Reconstruction continued into the 1870s and especially the 1880s, Republicans began to view African Americans in the South more from a class perspective and less from the perspective of race that had driven their earlier humanitarianism. In the midst of the labor struggles of the Gilded Age, Republicans came to compare “the demands of the ex-slaves for land, social services, and civil rights” to the demands of white laborers in the North. This ideological shift was the key to Republican abandonment of Reconstruction, as they chose the protection of their economic and business interests over their desire for racial equality." [From wikipedia]

In this 2007 book, "Richardson presented Reconstruction as a national event that impacted all Americans, not just those in the South. She incorporated the West into the discussion of Reconstruction as no predecessor had. Between 1865 and 1900, Americans re-imagined the role of the federal government, calling upon it to promote the well-being of its citizens. However, racism, sexism, and greed divided Americans, and the same people who increasingly benefited from government intervention—white, middle-class Americans—actively excluded African-Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and organized laborers from the newfound bounties of their reconstructed nation." [from wikipedia]

In this book, published in 2010, Richardson "focused on the U.S. Army’s slaughter of Native Americans in South Dakota in 1890. She argued that party politics and opportunism led to Wounded Knee. After a bruising midterm election, President Benjamin Harrison needed to shore up his support. To do so, he turned to The Dakotas, where he replaced seasoned Indian agents with unqualified political allies, who incorrectly assumed that the Ghost Dance Movement presaged war. The Army responded by sending one third of its force in order to avoid spending cuts from Congress. After the event, Republicans tried to paint the massacre as a heroic battle to stifle the resurgent Democrats." [wikipedia]

In this 2014 book, Richardson "extended her study of the Republican Party into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book studied the entire life of the GOP, from its inception in the 1850s through the presidency of George W. Bush. The party’s founders united against the “slave power,” a small group of wealthy white men who controlled all three branches of government. These Republicans articulated a new vision of an America in which all hardworking men could rise. But after the Civil War, Republicans began to emulate what they originally opposed. They tied themselves to powerful bankers and industrialists, sacrificing the well-being of ordinary Americans. A similar process took place after World War II, when Republicans sought to dismantle successful New Deal policies and prop up the wealthy. However, in both cases, reformers within the party were able to return the GOP to its founding vision of equality of opportunity, first Theodore Roosevelt during the Progressive Era, and then Dwight D. Eisenhower, who enforced integration and maintained the New Deal. The Nixon and Reagan administrations have represented yet another fall from the GOP’s founding purpose. It's ironic, Richardson points out, that Republicans treated Barack Obama with an unprecedented level of disrespect, as Obama's rise from humble beginnings to the highest office in the nation embodied the vision of the original Republicans." [wikipedia]

In her most recent publication, Richardson argues "that America was founded with contradicting ideals, with the ideas of liberty, equality, and opportunity on one hand, and slavery and hierarchy on the other. United States victory in the American Civil War should have settled that tension forever, but at the same time that the Civil War was fought, Americans also started moving into the West. In the West, Americans found and expanded upon deep racial hierarchies, meaning that hierarchical values survived in American politics and culture despite the crushing defeat of the pro-slavery Confederacy. Those traditions--a rejection of democracy, an embrace of entrenched wealth, the marginalization of women and people of color--have found a home in modern conservative politics, leaving the tremendous promise of America unfulfilled." [wikipedia]