Replies

>>OIFVeteran wrote: “Wanted to add a follow up comment on what you mention here about Kalamata claim about knowing Marines that think Lincoln was a tyrant. I served almost 21 years in the US Military. Started in the Marines and retired from the Army. Served both active duty and reserves, enlisted and officer. Over that time I met exactly two people that believed Lincoln was a tyrant and the south was justified in seceding. They were my roommates for awhile when I was lower enlisted in the Marines. One from Virginia and one from Tennessee, both white. They were also the two most racist people I’ve have ever had the misfortune to meet in real life. (Sadly I’ve met even more racist people on line.)”

I see you are still playing the moral-superiority card. I thought you were done with that.

You have lived a very sheltered life. I ran into many racists in the military, but admittedly I served long before you. The most racist people I have ever experienced were the town’s people of a Pennsylvania college I attended, but that too was long ago.

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>>OIFVeteran wrote: “They always liked to say the south will rise again. I got sick of it one day and retorted “and the north will kick your a*^ again!” That shut them both up.”

The South has already risen again. Many of the more productive and less progressive northerners have moved or retired to the South, like me. That migration will slow down, or possibly reverse, now that Trump has brought the jobs back; but for now the labels are “Progressive North; Conservative South.”

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>>OIFVeteran wrote: “Of course for both of us this is all just anecdotal evidence.”

Of course.

Mr. Kalamata

Kalamata to OIFVeteran: "I see you are still playing the moral-superiority card.
I thought you were done with that."

OIFVeteran merely pointed out that he met a small number of racists in the military, and somehow in Kalamata's warped mind that becomes "playing the moral-superiority card"?

Kalamata "You have lived a very sheltered life.
I ran into many racists in the military, but admittedly I served long before you. "

That is the first claim I've seen from Kalamata that he actually did serve, though curiously, he says it was so long ago there were still many racists then.
I too remember the military from very long ago and I can tell you it was always less racist than the civilian worlds most of the soldiers came from.

Kalamata: "The most racist people I have ever experienced were the town’s people of a Pennsylvania college I attended, but that too was long ago."

Pennsylvania is normally a "blue state" and voted for Democrats like pro-slavery Doughfaced Northerner James Buchanan in 1856.
On those rare occasions when Pennsylvania flips sides, we can help elect game-changing Republicans like Lincoln, Reagan and Trump.

In 1964 Pennsylvanians knowingly chose Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" over Barry Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative".
So however racist you imagine those old Pennsylvanians were, there weren't enough of them to swing the election.

Kalamata "The South has already risen again."

The South was never down for long.
About 400,000 Southerners lost some of their "property", but within a few years they'd effectively nullified the 13th, 14th & 15th Amendments and restored their major export, cotton, to production levels well above antebellum levels.

Sure, even today Southerners on average earn less than Northerners, but it also costs less to live in the South and anyone accustomed to high taxes for Northern roads is always amazed to see Southern roads maintained at much lower costs.
And if your definition of "the good life" includes enjoying the relaxed outdoors with your family & friends, then it would be easy to construct a chart showing that the further North you travel, the less of that you find.

As of today, the center of gravity of Republican party voters is, I'd guess, somewhere around Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln's birthplace, meaning roughly equal numbers of Republicans live North, South, East and West of that point.

But while Republicans North & East of Hodgenville are often in the minority, those in states South & West are more often the majority in their states.