Nicki Haley does not know why we fought the Civil War. (1)
Documents of Southern states show what they were fighting for.
Secession Articles explain: preserving slavery
Was why they fought; they all say that, so white folks could be “free.”

But Nicki flubbed the question, citing “states’ rights” as the cause.
The “right” in question: owning slaves, is very clear, because
The CSA vice president called whites “superior,”
Which justified enslaving blacks, who were “inferior.” (2)

Some Southerners still teach their kids that their “lost cause” was just.
And we know racial bigotry has not decayed to dust.
It’s mostly southern Trumpists who still hold such views today
But you can find them everywhere. Were some folks born that way?

Or, do we think that bigotry’s, a subject we are taught? (3)
So, what was so persuasive that our Civil War was fought?
Six hundred thousand lives were lost in internecine strife,
As brothers slew their brothers, both sent to the afterlife.

Does Nicki need the bigot vote? Did that make her evade
A question on the Civil War? Of what was she afraid?
We know she needs some Trumpist voters; how can she win them?
They know that Donald is a crook, yet they still stick with him.

When Red State voters share Trump’s reprehensibility,
To win them, must you compromise your own morality?
To be successful, do their candidates all have to lie?
If only lying bigots win, democracy will die.

1-In a town hall, she was asked to state the reasons for the Civil War. She neglected to mention slavery, instead sticking with the “states’ rights” argument, common in many southern states.

2-See the “Cornerstone Speech” March 21, 1861, by Alexander Stephens, vice president of the CSA.

3-Listen to “You Have to be Carefully Taught,” by Rogers and Hammerstein in their musical, “South Pacific.”