The Lost Cause Mythmaking

Some years ago I walked through a park in Savana, GA. I came across a monument to fallen Confederate Civil War soldiers at that site. The narrative on the plaque went into the unjustness of the Union army which had defeated the Confederates that day and, of course, defeated them in the larger Civil War. The Northern soldiers with their better training and superior fire power unfairly killed the Confederate heroes, the plaque said. Like Nikki Haley, it failed to mention the Civil War was about slavery. 

Trump plays the lost cause mythmaking at every stop. He supports the criminals who are in prison for attacking the Capitol. In his myth the criminals were heroes fighting for some grievance, not common criminals breaking the law. It's a myth-making narrative much like the post Civil War Southern one that continues to this day. 

Lost cause mythmaking has become part the anti-abortion narrative as well. A letter to the editor in the Fargo (ND) Forum complained rather bitterly about a recent visit by VP Kamala Harris to a women's clinic in St. Paul which performs abortions. The letter, written by a member of the clergy whom I happen to know and like, refused to address the reason VP Harris visited the clinic. She visited the clinic to highlight efforts to provide women with medical care. The letter writer ignored the reason for the VP's visit and replaced it with a myth. The myth is a religious view of when a human being comes into existence. It's a myth that one fertilized egg is a "human being." What VP Harris was addressing, that North Dakota, Mississippi and Texas passed laws limiting health care for women, is a historical fact, not a myth. 

The visit by VP Harris to a clinic that performs abortions is a first for either Presidents or Vice Presidents. It's a symbolic message abortions rights are on their way to a complete victory. 

The South lost the Civil War. Trump's ragtag "army" is mostly in jail. State by state anti-abortion laws are being replaced with abortion rights. It's understandable those faced with defeat need to create myths that help to hide their failures.