The first Lost Cause has been a legend for 155 years. It is the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.
The second may become a legend if we are not sufficiently aware of its beginnings, which are playing out before us via President Trump’s “Stop The Steal” campaign. It is the Lost Cause of the Stolen Election.
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy has been one of the principal sources of racial division, social division and political polarization in our country. It is grounded on the racist view that white people are superior to black people and therefore had the right to enslave them. “All knew that this interest [slavery] was, somehow, the cause of the war,” wrote President Lincoln in his Second Inaugural.
The Lost Cause of the Election, whose principal allegations of voter fraud have been directed at the Black majority or plurality cities of Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Atlanta, is grounded on an equally racist view.
“Black people are corrupt, Black people are incompetent, and Black people can’t be trusted,” said Dana Nessel, the Michigan attorney general, accurately characterizing the themes of President Trump’s multiple attacks on the election results.
The Lost Cause of the Election, if it proves as enduring and powerful as the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, will be a force multiplier for the latter. The effect will be ruinous for the democracy.
Robert E. Lehrer, Loop
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Teachers, go back to the classrooms
It’s now clear to me that Chicago School Teachers simply are not putting our children first. If this was their pay and or pensions, they’d be marching in the streets.
Teachers, take that same energy you march with and get back into the classroom with these children. Yes, COVID-19 is real yet; so is the task you all took on to educate. Let’s stop the hiding behind COVID and get back to work.
Mark Wilkins, Bronzeville