And the apparently great counter-example - that the Civil War freed the slaves - turns out to be a good deal more ambiguous that it seems. See now Douglas A. Blackmon, "Slavery by Another Name: The Re- Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II" (Doubleday 2008).
The war, a great evil in itself, led to the "loss of liberty" (and life) of more than a half million Americans, plus those injured and immiserated.
It was a contest between two ruling classes with incompatible methods of exploiting labor - chattel slavery and wage slavery. The latter won, but it's not at all clear that liberty did.
--CGE
On Jan 23, 2012, at 12:13 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Jan 23, 2012, at 1:04 PM, Carl G. Estabrook wrote:
>
>> In fact, far from being a racist, Ron Paul is the only major party
>> candidate who has attacked the single most racist program of the
>> federal government, the "war on drugs."
>
> You really have to wonder how much a man values black people when he
> says that the Civil War marked a loss of liberty. I've spent a lot
> of time following the right and I still find that remark shocking.
>
> Doug
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