In her April 12 column, Heather Cox Richardson quotes Elizabeth Allston, a South Carolina plantation owner and writer, who described the reaction of the people of Charleston when the state seceded from the Union in 1860: “The whole town was in an uproar. Parades, shouting, firecrackers, bells ringing, cannon on the forts booming, flags waving, and excited people thronging the streets.”
Five years later, 258,000 Confederate soldiers lay dead on faraway battlefields, 360,222 Union soldiers with them, and an estimated 50,000 southern civilians also dead from the war.
A total of 668,222 Americans were killed in a war that should have never been fought, a war whose beginnings the residents of Charleston celebrated in the streets of their beloved city only to see it later destroyed.
As a native southerner, those people were my ancestors. I wish I could ask them a simple question, “What were you thinking?”
Isn’t that often the question history raises?
To the Christians who joined the six great Crusades from 1096 to 1271 that killed some 1.7 million people, doesn’t history ask them the same thing, “What were you thinking?”
To the emperors, armies, and loyal patriots who fought the Hundred Years War between England and France in the late middle ages that killed over 3 million people, history asks, “What were you thinking?”
To President Martin Van Buren who ordered the U. S. Army to force the relocation of the Cherokee peoples from the region of North Carolina and Georgia that came to known as the Trail of Tears that resulted in the death of 4000 native Americans, doesn’t history look him in the eye and ask, “What, sir, were you thinking?”
To the over 17 million German citizens who voted for Hitler in 1933 history’s question is, “What were you thinking?”
To the 74 million plus Americans who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 after witnessing the corruption, incompetence, and sleaze of his presidency, history’s question is, “What were you thinking?”
History is always a sobering reminder of just how misguided, foolish, and morally blind people can be in the decisions they make. It happens so often, in fact, that I wonder if Shakespeare’s Antonio in “The Tempest” didn’t get it exactly right when he said, “What’s past is prologue”?
Because people make such tragic decisions so often, it does seem as if what has happened becomes the precursor to what eventually does happen.
Human beings are amazingly capable of doing wonderful things, accomplishing great feats, of solving what seem like unsolvable problems.
At the same time, we are equally capable of making bad decisions, stupid decisions, tragic decisions, even when the horrible consequences they would produce can be anticipated by anyone with eyes to see.
And so history tells the story of the consequences of decisions people made that were so obviously wrong that future generations ask themselves, “What were they thinking?”
But what if people stopped before they made such decisions and asked themselves, “What am I thinking?” How different would history have been?
But, alas, history tells us more.
It tells us that sometimes before people realize how wrong they are they must experience getting what they want only to discover that they don’t want what they got.
Of course, by then it’s too late. Nations don’t get to go back and undo a bad decision their people made. Instead, they are forced to live with the consequences, ever how tragic they may be.
Is that where we’re headed as a country? Will it take our getting a second term with Donald Trump in the White House before we realize that we don’t want what we got?
As is always the case, it’s in our hands, just as it was for the cheering crowds in the streets of Charleston before they suffered the devastation of the war they thought they wanted.
But all is not lost yet. We still have time to ask ourselves, “What are we thinking?”
If we don’t do that, then the history we will write will surely cause future generations of Americans to ask themselves the question of all questions, “What were they thinking? What in the world could they have possibly been thinking?”
linnposts.com 
Thank you, Jan, for always being the voice of reason with your articulate/eloquent messages to your choir. It’s a shame that those who need to read these messages do not/will not.
Thank you, Kay. My posts are a small ripple, but a ripple is a ripple and joined with others gets bigger. That’s my hope.
I agree, and appreciate you so
much! Kay
this should be “required reading”… to timely and so undeniable…
Thank you, Andy.
I have not responded for awhile, but still read these. This one, I am confused.
First, you cite decisions made that resulted in hundreds and even millions of deaths and then you seem to equate voting for Trump in 2020 as a moral equivalency to those. Frankly, this is absurd
If you are confused, I can try to explain why Virginia seceded from the Union, can’t speak for the other states
What are people thinking when voting for Trump? We miss the 1.2% inflation (Biden lied on CNN when he claimed he inherited 9% inflation)
We miss cheap gas and cheap groceries. We miss not having a major land war in Europe and major land war in the Middle East. We miss a secure southern border. We miss the fact the United States stood solidly with the Israelis. We miss the time when antisemitism was not allowed on college campuses. We miss the years this country projected strength. Now the world sees weakness. In Africa both Chad and Republic of Niger have kicked our military out. We miss the time before cocaine was found in the White House, the time before bare tran breast were shaken on the White House lawn, before gay sex was filmed in a Senate hearing room. Both candidates are morally suspect
Decisions can be similar in moral blindness but have different effects. I do indeed believe that any vote for Donald Trump anytime reflects a moral failure. The man shows no moral conscience about anything and is a danger to the nation. As for Virginia, I am a native, still have family there, and I know the history of my home state well. I know it was among the last to secede, but once it did it join forces against its own country in pursuit of maintaining the evil of slavery. Nothing more need be said. The South was morally wrong in what it did and the people who supported it were foolish to do so and paid a horrible price for it. As for the Biden and Trump presidencies, the only thing Trump did for the economy was to add a trillion dollars to the debt because of his tax cut for the rich. Members of his own Cabinet now say he was incompetent and unfit. The economy under Biden is the best we’ve had in generation, and is so after dealing with the effects of a world-wide pandemic. Your complaints say more about you than him.
The polls reflect what most voters see. Biden is an utter disaster, our enemies are emboldened, our allies are wondering what we stand for. There is a power vacuum in the world and the Chinese are starting to make their move, along with the Russians, and Iranians. The economy under Biden is the best we’ve had in a generation? Seriously, Biden will loose this election because of the economy and the southern border. I’m not sure how much of Biden is even still with us. The fact you can support this utterly incompetent career politician ‘says more about you than him’, whatever the hell that means
The only reply I can make is that for you to mention the southern border while your own party refused to pass legislation negotiated by one of your most conservative members makes everything you say about everything all about partisanship and nothing about facts.
Chilling to read and absorb and ask that very question. Imagining a country and world where each of us was truly the human God created us to be. And grounded in the “grace to create space for each person to not be me”.
History has that effect, Dixcy, which is why I struggle to imagine the world as you suggest. I at least can hope for good to be stronger than evil.
When in the thick of the debate/conflict those on the wrong side of history can’t see the “What was I thinking?” side of the equation. It’s only after the dust settles that they find out what they wished for is not what they wanted.
Absolutely! Thanks, Rollie.
I traveled to several countries in Europe in 2017, and that was the question on many people’s minds: “What were you people (in the U.S.) thinking?”
I am not surprised, Gene. I just hope they won’t be asking the same question in November.
well said Jan, but sadly if trump is re-elected then we will have lost our democracy. BTW that Keefer guy is supporting a traitor and we will never forget who they are
How can everyone not see what you’re saying? Another good question, Guy.
I post your comments – ever how inane or fact-less as they may be – when they are in response to my blog, but my rule is I don’t allow you or anyone else to continue responding to comments yours may elicit.
Great column, Jan. For me the overriding issue in the coming election is our democracy. Trump is a threat to that. I certainly don’t know what Trump supporters are thinking but it’s quite apparent they’re not thinking about saving our democracy.
No, they’re not, Wilbur. But if we lose it, they will, too. Apparently, they don’t think so.