Alright, I’m going to ramble a bit about the South here. Don’t know how long this one’s gonna be.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

You cannot understand the South without understanding the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

Emancipation didn’t just end slavery. It also wiped out at least a year of US GDP’s worth of real estate ‘assets’.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

I don’t have an exact figure, but it’s safe to say at least a quarter of the South’s capital pre-Civil War was tied up in slavery.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

So the Civil War didn’t just destroy a brutal slave-holding culture in the South, but it also destroyed its entire mode of production.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

Which is why you should not view the white supremacist groups that came about during Reconstruction as just reactionaries.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

A massive loss of capital combined with a national humiliation equals…fascists. The Red Shirts, the Klan…all of those folks were fascists.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

What’s more, Northern commercial interests still desired a flow of commodities from the South. Cotton and tobacco remained valuable.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

Anyways, after the end of Reconstruction, you saw parts of the South hold out against a rising fascist tide. NC was the last to go.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

The Populist/Republican fusion was able to hang onto power in NC until 1898 and only lost in the face of brutal racist violence.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

And so, blackshirts held the South and kept it for two generations, until the CRM gained sufficient momentum to challenge them.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

I guess my point, when you get right down to it, is that this legacy of noxious politics lingers down here.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

Until there’s a concerted effort to confront the right down here, and organize the folks who live here, nothing will change.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

Doesn’t matter how progressive the President is or how brilliant the policy is. The South’s problems do not remain the South’s problems.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

Capital mobility will fuck your labor policies right up. Capital flight will make it harder for your states to invest in public works.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

This is why I’m disappointed by Sanders’ dismissal of the South. Until this abcess is lanced, all leftish victories will be transitory.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

Because, after all, what was the South to textile companies but a way-station to Haiti or Bangladesh from Massachusetts?

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

Where were TRAP laws pioneered? Where were open-shop laws passed first? Look South.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016

If you want to fix shit in this country, look South, because that’s where the fight’s going to be won or lost in the long run.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) April 15, 2016