GOP Sen. Tom Cotton calls slavery "a necessary evil"

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"Either we are the most evil people on earth or we are doing something very wrong. Whichever way your thinking goes you can see something is wrong here: we imprison nearly 5 times the world's average here! In God's name how can we lock up 5 times more than other nations? We pride ourselves in our vote to get things done right in America. And yet, the dictator of North Korea, who can have a man and his whole family executed with one word, does not allow his citizens to vote and still their prison system is nowhere close to locking up the percentage of people we do. How can this be?" [Sen. Jim Webb]

There is a bit of disconnect with the logic. If the founding fathers did put slavery on course for its ultimate extinction, did they anticipate needing a civil war? Slavery was also protected and recognized in the Constitution. The Constitution capped the import tax for slaves at $10, prevented any rights for Congress to legislate against slavery until 1808, and gave slave owners 3/4 of a vote for each slave they owned. While Congress was given the power to regulate commerce with other nations, states, and tribes, they had no power to control the importation of slaves, which was placed under state jurisdiction under the Constitution. I can't think of any "industry" that has equal protection in the Constitution. You would think the founding fathers might have put a bit more effort into ending slavery, if that was their goal.

It is worth pointing out that the Civil War was followed by segregation and Jim Crow. Naturally, Tulsa, OK, has played an interesting part of this history as well. The effects of slavey are still being felt by blacks in America. Perhaps that is why people are a little upset at Senator Cotton's spin on history.

Naturally, the biggest logical snafu was that slavery was necessary. In the land of the free where all men are created equal, you don't think we could have built a great nation without enslaving human beings?

The greatest feat of mass deception was that entry about "all men being created equal". Which is why when race is mentioned people look the other way in embarrassment.

There were those among the founding fathers who truly did want to abolish slavery, but the south would never support independence without slavery. As John Adams said, prophetically:
"Mark me, [Benjamin] Franklin. If we give in on this issue, there will be trouble one hundred years hence. Posterity will never forgive us"
Not quite a hundred years, but there were those who realized that they were kicking the can down the road. Gotta love the South ruining everything for everyone.

A huge irony of all this is Cotton was saying this in criticism of the 1619 Project, which argues that slavery was inextricably tied to America's founding and development. Hence, America came into existence as it did because of slavery. ...Which is what Tom Cotton is also saying.
The 1619 Project argues that America was built on slavery, and that makes America deeply flawed at best.
Southern apologists and Founding Father worshippers argue that America was built on slavery, and that means that slavery must not have been that bad.
One of these groups has better moral standards than the other.

Cotton isn't condemning The 1619 Project because they disagree about the role of slavery in America's earliest history, early identity or founding, he's condemning them because they annihilate his apologist take on the topic.