So you won't mind when Ivanka and Jared show up

You don't need to know a ton about the aftermath of World War II to know that, after the war ended, a number of prominent Nazis made their way via "ratline" to South America. Adolf Eichmann settled in Argentina. Josef Mengele made his way to Paraguay. Klaus Barbie relocated to Bolivia. 

And for countries that weren't able to import enough Nazis on their own, there was the fictional story, The Boys from Brazil, which was all about growing Hitler clones.

Anyway, most of us are at least vaguely aware of the Nazi-South American connection. What I'd never heard about Brazil's connection to the Confederacy:

It’s one of history’s lesser-known episodes. After the Civil War, thousands of defeated Southerners came to Brazil to self-exile in a country that still practiced slavery... 

The newspapers called it “Brazilian fever.” With the war lost, thousands of Southerners, fearful of living under Northern rule among freed slaves, were seeking other opportunities. Some pushed for Mexico. Others for Venezuela. But Brazil, which wouldn’t abolish slavery for another 23 years, proved to be the most attractive of countries.

Emperor Dom Pedro II, a fierce advocate of the South during the war, tried to induce their immigration, offering free transport, cheap land and an easy path to citizenship. Before long, Southerners sailed out from New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., for Rio de Janeiro. Eventually, between 8,000 and 20,000 immigrated.

“Move here and buy land,” Col. Charles Gunter urged in a letter to the Charleston Mercury newspaper in 1868. “We have here a beautiful place for our village, in the center of rich land, and on a grand river.”

But historians say one of the central draws was a country where Southerners could freeze time and continue a lifestyle that had been put to a violent end in the United States. In journals, one bragged about how inexpensive Brazilian slaves were; another lamented that they couldn’t bring recently freed American slaves to Brazil. (Source: WaPo)

So much for the notion that the Civil War was not fought over slavery.

The confederados, as the immigrants were known, brought more than their slave-owning propensity with them. 

"They also brought the ideology of white supremacy and racial terrorism from the United States South to Brazil.."

And they were involved in at least one lynching.

Just what Brazil needed, I'm quite sure.

This is all coming to light because Brazil is having its own reckoning with racism, in part around an annual festival - hoop skirts, Confederate flags, re-enactors and all - run by descendants  of those immigrants and dedicated to the celebration of Dixie heritage. Much of the growing opposition to the festival has been prompted by what's been going on in the United States: Dylan Roof and the Charleston church massacre. The demonstrations in Charlottesville. The BLM response to the murder of George Floyd.

All of a sudden, folks are looking at those hoop skirts and Rebel yell flags - something that up until now has been something of a footnoted quirk in Brazil's history - through a different lens. The confederados have by now been pretty well-assimilated into overall Brazilian culture and society. But they've stuck with the Confederate festival, and what some of them really want to do is keep waving the Confederate flag.

The festival was canceled this year, thanks to Covid. But the issue, like the pandemic, isn't going away anytime soon. 

Reading about this obscure bit of history does have me thinking about where the most ardent of Trumpists would flee if and when their reign of dishonesty, incompetence and greed ends. Especially those Trumpists who may have engaged in activities that might be a smidge on the illegal side.

Saudi Arabia is a possible hideout, but it might not be all that much fun and games, unless the Trumpists could have their own compound, one that follows American rules and lets women drive cars and appear in public without being covered up. 

Russia's an obvious choice, even though it's probably not that much of haven if you're a golfer.

South America, with lots of country options, might be an excellent choice. Decent weather. Mostly speaks a language that's easier to learn than Arabic or Russian. 

Sure there's abject poverty, but that probably doesn't scare anyone coming from the US of A. And to counterbalance that, there are plenty of affluent communities. 

And I bet there are some swell golf courses. 

I don't know what our extradition treaties are with countries in South America, but that info is probably plenty easy to find. 

Ivanka's been promoting a jobs initiative called "Find Something New." Maybe she and Jared should think about taking their own advice.