Monday was Jefferson Davis Day in Alabama, and thank God for that.
If there’s one thing this state needs — and that many states need — at this point in American history is a solid reminder of the legacy and actions of the Confederacy’s only president. And the consequences that can befall the rise of such a shallow, inept, greedy and incompetent man.
To be clear, Jefferson Davis was all of those things and then some. In fact, he was so incompetent and self-absorbed that he somehow managed to anger the very southerners who held such character flaws as attributes. After all, you have to be rather unique for your self-importance to be so astronomical that it irritates those who believe they are so lofty that they can relegate other humans to the status of animals.
But that is Davis, in all of his glory. And Alabama is genius, if only by accident, to continue drawing attention to such a buffoon.
Sarcasm aside, Davis should never, ever be honored — not by a serious state anyway — for his hateful, vile and sinister acts. He shouldn’t be honored by Alabama in particular because he apparently loathed the state, wasn’t from here, couldn’t wait to leave here and had zero ties here. In fact, his only tie to the state is a shared hatred of Black Americans, which a number of even current state residents continue to hold.
Still, Alabama honors the date of his birth with a statewide holiday and its lawmakers have repeatedly resisted forthright and serious efforts to exchange that holiday with one that honors any of the Alabama-born, truly honorable and decent humans who have made selfless sacrifices in pursuit of equal rights and equal treatment of other humans. Or those Alabamians who have fought with distinction for this country — all of this country.
Instead, Alabama has chosen this dolt. Not because of his honor or service or sacrifice, but because this honor irritates and humiliates those “uppity” Black Alabamians who dared demand what the Constitution and that Pledge of Allegiance we all said every morning in grade school promised us: liberty and justice for all. And even now, when they know better, and some actually want to do better, they can’t bring themselves to risk losing the support of the mouth-breathing brigade.
That leaves us once again celebrating Davis, on a day we should rightfully call “Cautionary Tale Day.”
Because Jefferson Davis is nothing short of a shining example of what happens when an incompetent narcissist is elevated to a position of consequence: People die. More people suffer. Bad things happen.
Davis was an awful human long before he rose to the president of the Confederacy. Born with a silver spoon and gifted by his sibling the money to purchase land and slaves, Davis accomplished almost nothing on his own and he governed like it.
His terrible decisions are legendary, as were his financial blunders and insane appointments. His leadership during the Civil War has been cited as one of the major factors leading to the extremely high number of deaths.
And like all good narcissists, once it was all over and the dust had settled on more than 600,000 dead Americans, Davis wrote a ridiculously long book explaining how it was all everyone else’s fault — mainly those good-for-nothing Blacks who continued to hold the strange notion that they deserved equal rights.
Of course, the weight of 600,000 dead wasn’t enough for him to alter his point of view, either. Davis continued to hold the belief that the war was worth it, and never admitted regret.
But then, that’s always been the problem with the racist movement: It’s hard to find a smart man capable of holding such stupid beliefs.
But that hasn’t stopped us from trying — over and over and over again. Some might argue, correctly, that we’re trying it currently, as government thugs travel the country terrorizing brown people at the direction of our current narcissist-in-chief.
It is destined to fail, like all of the previous efforts, and that’s a lesson that Jefferson Davis should teach us. But it’s not the only one. The continued celebration — or the celebration at all — of Davis should also be a lesson, one that provides necessary insight into how these goobers will behave when all of this ultimately blows up.
They will not admit error. They will not use this as a teaching moment and try to be better Americans, better neighbors and more decent humans.
They will attempt to rewrite history. They will tell you that you didn’t experience what you experienced. They will twist the hateful and deplorable acts into virtuous examples of conflicted men who were victims of their time or who held complicated views.
They will be relentless. They will never let it go. No matter how many facts and how much evidence you provide, they will never admit their fault. Even when it doesn’t make sense, even when the truth would be better and more beneficial, they’ll still cling to their ignorance.
And we know this because yesterday, the state of Alabama celebrated Jefferson Davis Day.
