deracinated
version of old lie, which she
carefully crafted

Starting off with a story I have already commented on but Sidney Blumenthal’s article, Nikki Haley’s comment on the US civil war was no gaffe, used the word ‘deracinated’ and I couldn’t let that go by.

Mr. Blumenthal writes: Though it was a stumble, it was not a mistake, but a message she has delivered for years and that has served her well until now. Her carefully crafted and closely memorized garble was a deracinated version of an old lie, which she had used before to attempt to mollify hostile camps in order to skid by.

Deracinated, by the way, is defined, “uprooted from one’s natural geographical, social, or cultural environment.”

When I read, “Her carefully crafted and closely memorized garble was a deracinated version of an old lie” I immediately called to mind Mr. Twain and his short story, The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg.

Mr. Twain writes, “There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practised in the tricks and delusions of oratory.”

Ms. Haley isn’t in South Carolina any more.

Reading Mr. Blumenthal’s article helped me understand, all over again, what politics is all about in the south.

In a goofy way, I appreciate Mr. Trump because I had bought into the notion of a New South but what I took for new growth was really just band-aids and scabs.

It took Mr. Trump, for different reasons, to tear off the band-aid and rip away the scabs and so the old ways are still there.