“We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country. As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built…”
—U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 26, 2020. [And they dare to call it the Party of Lincoln.]
“If chattel slavery…where it was legal to rape, torture, and sell human beings for profit — were a ‘necessary evil,’ …it’s hard to imagine what cannot be justified if it is a means to an end,”
—New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, in response to Cotton’s remarks, July 26, 2020.
“I just saw our new Trump-Reagan Commemorative Coin Sets and WOW, these coins are beautiful — I took one look and immediately knew that I wanted YOU to have a set.”
—Donald Trump, in true snake-oil salesman fashion, hawking the commemorative “coins” showing him shaking hands with Pres. Ronald Reagan back in 1987 in exchange for a $45 campaign “contribution.”
“We own the likeness of President Reagan and they used his image for the coin without our consent.”
—Reagan Foundation marketing officer Melissa Giller, July 25, 2020, demanding that the Trump campaign cease the sale of the “coins.”
“I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the Yankees on August 15th.”
–Trump tweet, July 26, at 2:44 p.m. [Those damned bone spurs on his elbow, don’t you know.]
Louisiana Voice 
Lt’s stop and think about Tom Cotton’s view of slavery in the founding of America….did God say this is how we should view slavery? Did God say “Slavery is a Necessary Evil?” I didn’t think so….what say you Tom Cotton? So….what say you Christian supporters of Tom Cotton?
I don’t presume to speak for them, but I have heard some say things like, “The Bible was okay with slavery.” I’ve given up trying to figure how most organized religions simply pick and choose among various sacred texts and decide what they want to believe and what they do not.
They simply follow the Republican methodology Mr. Winham.
I couldn’t agree with that last sentence more!
It’s also worth pointing out to Mr. Cotton and others who see slavery as having been “necessary” and therefore unavoidable that the argument that slavery was generally and widely accepted in the eighteenth century is pure bunkum. Slave owners were not simply “the product of their times” and therefore somehow cannot be criticized. There were many in their times that were arguing against slavery. The abolitionist movement took off in the 1770s. Benjamin Franklin was an abolitionist. Vermont abolished slavery in 1777. Who knows how anyone alive today would have come down on the issue? But the point is that it was an issue that the Founding Fathers and others debated.
Cotton is another Jindal/trump, will lie to support his narcicism. You might wonder why the FIRST amendment starts with” there shall be no establishment of religion (paraphrasing), and Mr. Winham, Ms. Edith and Mr. cjg, well said. I do not hear much from several of my baptist brothers after I called the Hagee Ministers and bigot So. Baptist President,on Markism all horseshit. Even one dear love one ask me to pray for Trump and passed on the picture of poor people laying hands on trump (I coudn’t say anything to her, I have sinned, I still have lust in my heart) ron thompson
Trump was never invited to throw the first or any pitch opening day at Yankee Stadium. Trump is a magical mystery delusion that has the country on the verge of disassociating. Come November-lucidity.