Ku Klux Klan

Conservatives Resort To Time-worn Tactic Of 'Waving The Bloody Shirt' To Gaslight The Public
"Waving the bloody shirt" was a popular retort adopted by Southerners at Northern politicians, such as Rep. John Sherman, attempting to hold them accountable for Ku Klux Klan violence during Reconstruction. Image from: Cover of Puck magazine from 1887/Public Domain

Conservatives Resort To Time-worn Tactic Of 'Waving The Bloody Shirt' To Gaslight The Public

The right-wing narrative regarding the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol is an old rhetorical sleight of hand that has a long history of use by American conservatives: they call it “waving the bloody shirt.”