This powerful op-ed by ⁦ @davidwblight1⁩ misses a troubling analogy between the creation of the Lost Cause Myth in the 1890s and Trump’s GOP today: Like Dems today, opponents of the Redeemers just didn’t have the votes to stop the Blue-Gray alliance. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/opinion/trump-capitol-lost-cause.html

The 1890s GOP made a last-gasp effort to enfranchise black Americans with Henry Cabot Lodge’s 1890 Elections Bill, but silver Republicans from the West defected. After 1890, Lodge himself abandoned black civil rights for anti-immigrant politics.

After 1890, there were half-hearted efforts to fight white supremacy (eg Hoar’s 1901 anti-lynching bill), but Southerners could stymie any serious effort to overturn white supremacy. (Allan Ware has the detailed account of the votes: https://books.google.cg/books?id=YWQfyhWMkGUC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false )

Sobering warning for Dems today: Moral fervor cannot make up for lack of a commanding majority. Given the vetogates in American politics, a stubborn and large reactionary minority can pick off votes from a loose coalition to stymie comprehensive efforts at equality.

It’s no good to say that one will not compromise with evil. Compromise is not a matter of moral willpower but electoral math. It is forced upon you by a system prone to gridlock where a determined and substantial minority can stop reforms in their tracks.