Every century produces the same man, calm, confident, and furious that progress exists. He calls himself a conservative, believes change is dangerous, and assumes history will eventually apologize.

It never does. In the 1800s, John C. Calhoun calmly argued that slavery wasn't cruel, but natural, orderly, and good for society. He warned abolition would destroy everything.

Slavery ended anyway. Everything survived. When compromise failed, Alexander H. Stevens helped build a nation openly founded on slavery and white supremacy.

They blocked doors calmly and smiled while enforcing injustice. History stepped around them. They stayed mad. In the 1960s, George Wallace literally stood in a doorway to block integration. He promised resistance forever. History waited briefly and walked past.

Josephine Dodge warned that letting women vote would destroy families, morals, and civilization itself. Women voted anyway. Families survived.

Civilization barely noticed. When workers demanded safety and weekends, conservatives and the National Association of Manufacturers called unions radical. They hired the Pinkerton Agency to stop them.

Workers unionized anyway. Everyone enjoyed Saturdays. After civil rights passed, the Dixiecrats, led by Strom Thurmond, didn't disappear. They switched sides. They gradually moved into the Republican Party, bringing the same resentments with them. New label, same energy.

Conservatives embraced eugenics because cruelty sounds smarter with charts. Figures like Charles Davenport promoted forced sterilization as progress. History reviewed it and buried it in shame.

The panic aged badly. Today, conservatives fear immigration and replacement, echoing the old immigration restriction league. Equality feels like loss when dominance felt normal.