Not stomping out ALL of the Confederates and their sympathizers is all of what we have to deal with now. The South lost the war and won the peace. We've been dealing with it ever since.
We’re amazingly good at Phase Ones. We consistently fail at transitioning to Phase Twos and beyond. We do something once (or a few times) then we think we’re done.
We don’t handle well either making or following long term plans.
It’s like a national, untreated attention deficit.
Basically the north was too nice. If they had stopped the shit like "The south will rise again!" and constant treasonous talk.. things might be a lot better.
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When I thought Harris would win, I thought we would actually start to complete the process of reconstruction.
Instead, we'll get (at least) another 4 years of reconstruction, including the rampant corruption and white supremacy.
We don’t handle well either making or following long term plans.
It’s like a national, untreated attention deficit.
But either way, ending reconstruction early was a mistake.
The Lost Cause is a helluva drug.
https://www.apr.org/news/2023-12-13/new-book-reveals-more-about-alabamas-involvement-with-the-union-during-the-civil-war