Nothing is as dangerous as ignorance in action

Trump's Civil War fatuousness is exemplary

Donald Trump, who probably has never read a book and insists the Constitution has 12 rather than 7 articles, has taken ignorance to a new level. This is what he jabbered last Saturday about the Civil War: “The Civil War was so fascinating, so horrible. So many mistakes were made. See, there is something that I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you [conspicuously omitting what was to be negotiated]. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died, so many people died. You know, that was a disaster.”

The language and syntax speak volumes—at a first grade level at best. The substance is sheer blather. Was it horrible to free slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation? Was it horrible to prevent a new nation to be born of white supremacy? Was it horrible to defend the nation against traitors who had defied the Constitution by firing the first shot at Fort Sumpter?

President Lincoln repeatedly pledged to respect slavery in States where it existed. He did nothing to undermine that pledge. He agreed to compensated emancipation as the British had done in its colonies. The secessionists said no. He did balk at enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. His whole life preached the rule of law as the nation’s political religion. He obtained congressional retroactive ratification of his acknowledged extraconstitutional acts upon the outbreak of the war.

The secessionist traitors fought to preserve their political power. They could see that new States could not or would not support slavery, and ultimately with free states would propose and ratify a constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery. Their power would plunge because slaves would no longer be counted as 3/5ths of a person in apportionment and would be unlikely to vote for their former slaveowners.

Trump is a white supremacist ignoramus as are his MAGA ruffians. Birds of a feather flock together.