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INA S INSIGHTS: A look at the United States election of 1876
Ina Michele Resnikoff / Columnist
The Boston Globe’s columnist, Jeff Jacoby, is an excellent writer but generally much too conservative for me.
On Valentine’s Day, he published a heartwarming article about our 19th president , Rutherford Hayes. I like to think that as a student of American history, I know enough about the past to inform my current analyses of the events and ideas that shape our todays. But …. Jacoby really got me thinking.
The basic decency and quiet courage of President Hayes in his stands on human rights included abolition as his guiding principle but he also advocated for women and other then-minorities. Interestingly, he was the first one to promote the appearance of women before the U.S. Supreme Court.
S.F. had its own demagogue who capitalized on racist grievances
Gary Kamiya
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Denis Kearney, a San Francisco politician and activist known for his anti-Chinese bigotry in the 1870s and ’80s, in an undated photo./ The Chronicle
Almost 150 years before Donald Trump harangued a mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol, San Francisco had its own demagogue who rose to prominence by capitalizing on the rage of disaffected working-class voters, demonizing minorities and promising to drain the swamp of corrupt officials.
The difference between Denis Kearney and the 45th president of the United States is that Kearney not only incited his followers to storm the citadels of power, he personally led them there.