The change in rhetoric has constituted a revolution in how people view themselves and how they view the middle class, the Bourgeois Revaluation. People have become tolerant of markets and innovation.
Deirdre N. McCloskey, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World (2010).
On March 8, 1775, “African Slavery In America,” the first known essay advocating the abolition of slavery in America, was published anonymously in the Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Advertiser. Thomas Paine (pictured) is believed to be the essay’s author.
The first anti-slavery society was formed in Philadelphia weeks after publication, and Paine was a founding member.
Exactly 120 years earlier, a court in Northampton County of the Virginia Colony ruled that John Casor, then working as an indentured servant to Robert Palmer, must be returned to Anthony Johnson as Johnson’s “lawful” slave for life. Ironically, Johnson was one of the original indentured servants brought to Jamestown, had completed his indenture to become a “free Negro” and the first African landowner in the colony. The case marked the first person of African descent to be legally-recognized as a lifelong slave in England‘s North American colonies. The first official chattel slave in English-speaking North America was of African descent, and was owned by a man also of African descent.
As public political discourse descends to new lows, what is a common-sense person to do?
Well, not go over the deep end.
What is that end?
Maybe it is Trump Anxiety Syndrome, the haunting fear that Donald Trump may become the next president.
Hey, I don’t support The Donald, but I always try to avoid syndromes.
Besides, I know many of his supporters. They are not as crazy as folks on the left think they must be. Indeed, East and Left Coast elites think that Trump is Hitler, and that his supporters are Nazis and white supremacists — as per a Saturday Night Live mock TV ad, just aired this weekend.
That’s way off, and those with common sense to apply should stop the demonization. It is not winning over Trump supporters.
Indeed, one plausible theory about the rise of Trump mania is that it is a reaction to previous unhinged leftist sneers and extremist excesses.
Extremes breed extremes. Calling someone who hates Nazis a Nazi might even make them hate Nazis less. Smart people don’t encourage that.
So, you oppose Trump? Seriously? Then, let’s consider emphasizing reason over bile. Avoid ad hominems and demonization. Left, right or center, the only workable Trump opposition will be done with facts and arguments . . . that address the real, legitimate concerns that led to Mr. Trump’s popularity.
And maybe try a bit of charity — at the very least to his admirers.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
On March 7, 1644, Massachusetts established the first two-chamber legislature in the American colonies.
One hundred thirty years later, to the day, British forces closed the port of Boston to all commerce.
The Bill and Hillary Show has never stopped playing in America. Click on over to Townhall, for this weekend’s expansion of Friday’s Common Sense. Then come back here for a walk down Memory Lane — and don’t be fooled, at this point, it still makes a difference!
On March 6, 1967, Soviet Premiere Joseph Stalin’s only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, defected to the United States. (She later took the name Lana Peters, upon marriage to William Wesley Peters. The marriage was short-lived.)
| The March 6 date also marks term limits advocate and initiative organizer Paul Jacob’s birthday. He was born on the anniversary of the births of Michaelangelo, Cryano de Bergerac, and Alan Greenspan. He is also, obviously, the reason this site, ThisIsCommonSense.com, exists. (It continues, however, only through the continued support of readers like you.)
| On this day in 1820, the Missouri Compromise was signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brought Maine into the Union as a free state, and made the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
Fascinating topic . . . how well-intended programs backfire.
Things I once thought were funny are scary now. I often feel like a resident of Pompeii who has been asked for some humorous comments on lava.
Tom Lehrer, Tom Lehrer, People (1982).
On March 5, 1616, Nicolaus Copernicus’s book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, was placed on the Catholic Church’s Index of Forbidden Books. This censorship notwithstanding, the Earth continued to revolve around the Sun. The book had been first published in 1543 in Nuremberg.
| In 1770, the Boston Massacre took place on March 5.
| March 5 is magician Penn Jillette’s birthday. He turns 61 today, beginning his 62nd year of life.
We could call our time The Age of Teflon, but that conjures up memory of Ronald Reagan — “the Teflon President” is what Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) called the 40th Commander in Chief — and, please recall, Reagan had nothing on Bill Clinton.
Nicknamed “Slick Willie,” Clinton was the politician who really demonstrated what slipperiness is all about. Prez 42 had what it takes to get out of any scandal whatsoever, even criminal:
We have lived in the Age of Clinton ever since. Even the grossest enormities fail to fall heavily upon a politician who is, somehow (usually because of partisanship, but not always), impervious to the blemish of a crime. The accusations (even charges) don’t stick.
Now that American voters have the chance to anoint another Clinton to office, making a dynasty out of a done deal, we sort of just assume — by political inertia — that the Age of Clinton will continue, with invulnerability the only thing adhering to the most corrupt politician of our time, the Mrs. of the Age.
Yet, the FBI is investigating former Secretary of State Hillary “Smart Power” Clinton’s email server scandal. One of her subordinates, a tech guy, has been given immunity after extensive pleadings of the Fifth Amendment.
Could the Age of Clinton end with her prosecution?
Unlikely, given how partisanship now routinely trumps the rule of law.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
A healthy democracy depends on the spreading of good ideas. If you found this article useful, please share it with friends by clicking on any of the social media icons below.
Also, please consider showing your appreciation by dropping something in our tip jar (this link will take you to the Citizens in Charge donation page… and your contribution will go to the support of the Common Sense website). Maintaining this site takes time and money. Your help in spreading the message of common sense and liberty is very much appreciated!