History doesn’t repeat itself — it mutates. The Confederacy may have lost the Civil War, but its ideology—white supremacy, authoritarianism, and a rigid social hierarchy—never died. It survived Reconstruction, outlasted Jim Crow, and embedded itself in American life. Now, it’s reemerged not as a rebellious region, but as the ideological engine of the federal government itself. The Confederacy has come to Washington.

Across the country, we are watching the nationalization of Confederate values: hostility to diversity, weaponized white grievance, the persecution of immigrants, and an open contempt for gender and racial equity. It’s no longer the South fighting to maintain white power—it’s the federal government executing that worldview on a national and even global scale. And the consequences are staggering. Humanitarian aid to African nations has been slashed. USAID—a program supported by my own faith tradition—recently pulled $500,000 in funding from an institute serving African communities. These cuts are not just fiscal decisions. They reflect the worldview of a president who once described African nations as “shithole countries.” This is systemic racism on the global stage, administered from Washington.

Domestically, we are seeing the unlawful detention of immigrants, foreign students, green card holders, and even naturalized U.S. citizens. These actions are not the work of rogue state governments but of federal agencies operating under executive authority. Worse, other countries are now assisting in this crackdown, echoing the global coordination we saw in the 20th century to persecute and exclude.
We’ve seen this before. Germany once implemented its own version of Confederate ideology, cloaked in nationalism and racial “purity.” The results were catastrophic. And though fascism was defeated militarily, its ideology was never fully eradicated. Today, as right-wing extremism gains ground again in Europe—and billionaires here openly perform Nazi salutes at political rallies—we are watching history repeat, with the United States as its epicenter. And yet our media behaves as though it is above the fray. For years, entire national networks serves as a propaganda arms for this ideology, legitimizing Confederate values under the banner of “traditionalism” or “free speech.” But this is not freedom. It is the elevation of hate as policy, the institutionalization of cruelty, and the erosion of a multiracial democracy.

The truth is, no one is immune. Not the press. Not the public. Not the passive. Just as every institution contributed to this moment, every individual and institution is responsible for getting us out of it. This includes voters, churches, universities, and yes—newsrooms.
We are watching the dismantling of the post-WWII global consensus—the moral reckoning after the Holocaust, the birth of human rights law, the Civil Rights Movement, affirmative action, gender equity, and the hard-won visibility of LGBTQ+ lives.

We cannot afford to pretend this is normal. The Confederacy has come to Washington. And this time, it’s not just the South at risk.
It’s all of us.