Image History advises that collective punishment is rarely a good teacher. That is why Huntsville should try to live up to its reputation as the forward-looking, high-tech standout in an underdeveloped Heart of Dixie and redeem itself through a little enlightened self-interest. As the 2020 election deniers found their precedent in the Compromise of 1877, which anointed President Rutherford B. Hayes and not coincidentally ended Reconstruction, Huntsville could begin a reverse process of self-Reconstruction by rejecting Confederate politics and bringing them in line with its Union purpose. Huntsville has long had an exceptionalist attitude toward the rest of the state. Even Mr. Brooks plays into the local âmost Ph.D.s per capitaâ urban legend as the nerd-demagogue with a degree in politics and economics from Duke.