On both sides of the Atlantic, there is a notable overlap of politicians who defend symbols and monuments that endorse a pro-slavery stance, and those who relentlessly deploy anti-democracy tactics.
Take a look at the many statutes erected to commemorate people who profited from the slave trade or built their military career on defending the system of slavery. There are politicians who, as soon as they hear of any attempt to remove such statutes, summon up the most righteous anger to condemn anyone who dares to disrespect the country’s history. Note they are not saying that shameful chapters of the past should not be hidden away, but that there is nothing regrettable at all about these individuals who proudly stood on the side of slavery that should make any contemporary commemoration of them unwelcome.
These politicians are often found amongst those keenest to use anti-democracy tactics to stop the public from holding them to account. These tactics include: altering electoral boundaries to reduce the number of winnable seats for their opponents (widely deployed by US Republicans in states they control); the introduction of Photo ID to make it more difficult for the poor and minority groups to vote (a favourite of US Republicans and being introduced by the Conservatives in the UK); taking power from an independent body to determine what is or is not an acceptable political campaign in elections (UK Conservatives); and undermining judicial autonomy in upholding the rule of law (by packing the US Supreme Court with Republican-backed justices, or curtailing the UK Supreme Court’s ability to carry out judicial reviews of government actions).
Anti-democracy politicians often try to hide their affinity with pro-slavery traditions by misrepresenting historical connections. For example, some claim that it was the Tory MP Wilberforce who brought about the abolition of slavery. The truth is that Wilberforce was frustrated for years when his support for the abolition of slavery was repeatedly resisted by the majority of Tory MPs. It was the Whigs – precursors of the Liberals – who championed the ant-slavery cause. When Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, it was under a Whig Prime Minister; and it was a Whig Government that put an end to slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833.
In the US, contemporary Republicans are ever ready to invoke Lincoln, the Republican President who stood against the pro-slavery states’ armed attempt to break away from the United States. But many Republicans today side with those seditious confederate states in seeking to retain the symbols of their defiance in the American Civil War. Most pertinently, the Republican Party today shares the political DNA of, not Abraham Lincoln, but Ronald Reagan – the Reagan who opposed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act; who declared publicly that "if an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, he has a right to do so”; and who as president granted tax exemption to schools that put racial segregation in place.
It is no coincidence that politicians who are keen to deploy anti-democracy tactics are often the ones who have no trouble backing people with a pro-slavery stance. They don’t see the enslavement of others as an affront to society. They believe that it is perfectly fine for them to gain wealth and status by depriving others of power. They should not be allowed anywhere near public office.
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See: ‘Reagan’s Race Record’, by Matthew Yglesias, The Atlantic November 9, 2007: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/11/reagans-race-record/46875/
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