Posted on 04/16/2011 6:27:28 AM PDT by Davy Buck
This is a perplexing question, as it relates to the WBTS. In some ways, yes. In others, no. I, like many of you, recently (and for the 3rd or 4th time), watched Ken Burns' PBS documentary, The Civil War. Even though I have several criticisms of the Burns' film, I still find it a fascinating piece of work and very educational. I've always thoroughly enjoyed watching the film, despite its shortcomings. One of the more moving parts of this film comes near the end, as shown below. Pay close attention at about 30 seconds in and listen as historian David McCullough narrates the moving "reenactment" of Pickett's charge at the 50th anniversary reunion at Gettysburg. I believe one can detect the emotion in McCullough's voice as it sounds like he almost chokes up in recounting the emotional event. I don't think he's acting. I don't mind admitting that I too was moved with emotion in hearing McCullough recount the story . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com ...
I can’t bring myself to watch anything by uber-Communist Burns after I saw him compare Robert E. Lee to Adolph Hitler on a talk show a few years back. I also had a buddy who once had to drive Burns to an event from an airport. My buddy said that he was a completely self-absorbed prick, kinda like a white Spike Lee.
Reconciled?
What has changed since that event (not a question)!
A lot of Liberals are like that.
I see and hear many experts and historians talk about why Southerners (and only Southerners) are still so divisive about the Civil War. The causes of the war are written about and discussed endlessly but not very much is said about the aftermath, except for partial stories of the founding of the KKK. Told from a victor,s view. I would suggest a documentary along the lines of âThe Civil Warâ on the era known as RECONSTRUCTION. An honest look at this period, 1865-1880 would go along way in explaining just why we are so defensive and defiant.
I have friends from all over the country, but even with similar interests there is, to me, an almost foreign aspect to some of them. The pot is far from melted yet.
This conflict was primarily "urban" vs. "rural" in nature, and was rooted in the philosophical differences between Hamilton's view of a strong Federal government and Jefferson's view of a loose confederation of states. In the first few decades after the American Revolution it was more of an East vs. West conflict, with the urban centers along the coast set against the rural uplands of Appalachia.
The settlement of the Midwest in the first half of the 19th Century and the Irish immigration of the 1850s likely changed all of this and turned the East-West differences into a North-South conflict. The Appalachian Mountains were no longer a frontier, and most of the Irish immigrants settled in northern cities and thus provided cheap labor for the North and drive the Industrial Revolution that ultimately spelled the South's doom.
Have we reconciled? The Civil War was not just about slavery and racism but also about the federal government sticking their nose into how states did their business. So no, we haven’t reconciled. Many blacks still have great anger over the past and the federal government is still like a hungry monster, seeking to gobble up as much power from the states as possible. The only good thing Obama and his administration has done is to bring this to the surface.
Good summary. Prior to the Civil War, just about every important question was basically a form of “Which region will come out on top?” After the Civil War, the answer was always “The Federal government will come out on top.”
IMO, so long as there are Republican and Democrat political parties, any such attempt will dissolve into a partisan mud-wrestling match. (good idea, though)
re that “pot”
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We are the only country in history that ever deliberately changed its ethnic makeup, and history has few examples of diversity creating a stable society.
Richard Lamm, former governor of Colorado
Food for thought...
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somewhere i read—must’ve been Dr DiLorenzo—that prior to the so-called civil war, the federal gubmint received 80% of its revenue from the south—dishonest abe certainly would never let that go...
Excellent suggestion. Texas Reconstruction was so nasty and so bitterly resented that once Republican Edmund J. Davis left the governor's office in 1874, a hundred and five years would pass before another Republican, Bill Clements, could win the office in 1979. So bitter were Texans that for most of that century a Republican barely had a ghost-of-a-chance to be elected to any position. Indeed, a ghost had a better chance.
A poster on the Old Virginia blog said this and I agree. Although my ancestors fought with the First Ohio Volunteers, I still agree that the federal government, as it exists today, is operating without constitutional authority.
There was nothing “conservative” about the confederacy.
As for the uninformed that talk of Robert E. Lee being a traitor, please read his statement about his allegiance to Virginia. To paraphrase, “I can not raise arms against MY COUNTRY." Lee believed his country to be Virginia. Much like an Italian to day thinks of himself as an Italian not a European Unionist.
I know, you're a white, guilt affected liberal bedwetter, right.
Let me preempt your rant about slavery.
It would have died on its own due the to weight of its inherent cost to slave owners - probably before the beginning of the 20th century. There was no need to kill 650,000 Americans over it.
The Civil War outcome has given us the current federal government.
Some months ago, I bought the DVD set. It did NOT have the reenactment scene, which was one of my favorites, nor did it have some others. I don’t know why.
I returned it and got my money back.
Three hundred thousand Yankees
Lie stiff in Southern dust
We got three hundred thousand
Before they conquered us.
They died of Southern fever
And Southern steel and shot.
I wish they were three millions
Instead of what we got.
I can’t take up my musket
And fight ‘em now no more,
But I ain’t going to love ‘em,
Now that is certain sure;
I don’t want no pardon
For what I was and am,
I won’t be reconstructed
And I do not give a damn.
From “I’m A Good Old Rebel”
Source:
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/I’m-A-Good-Old-Rebel-lyrics-Cracker/CC2AF7C1703EA79E48256B04000EAEF5
Look around. Look at places like the Wisconsin state capitol. Do you see “reconciliation”, or do you see a growing division?
Honest question (and no less than honest answers from Freepers will do):
What do you see that will ever “reconcile” the left with traditional Americans and conservative values?
Just sayin’....
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