Posted on 09/29/2010 2:45:19 PM PDT by Superstu321
What do the Tea Party and the Prohibition advocates of the 1920s have in common? To most people not much, if anything at all. However, according to Ken Burns they’re very similar. In an interview yesterday with podcast host Adam Carolla, Burns had this to say about the upstart political party:
Carolla: Prohibition as it pertains to – I guess you know a lot of people draw the comparison to drugs…
Burns: you know what it’s such a stupid parallel to draw and the reason is, yea, you could talk about that stuff, but drugs have always been parts of some very rare subculture – every culture drinks alcohol, as fermented or distilled spirits. The real connection about prohibition to me the thing that there’s nothing new under the sun is that this is a story about right-wing, single issue, campaigns that metastasize it. This is the story about the demonetization of immigrants, this is story about state and local governments complaining about unfunded mandates, this is the story about smear campaigns against Democrats, this is a story about unintended consequences, it is almost exactly what’s going on now, it’s the last gasp of Protestantism. We keep these Romans from getting their wine; you know we’ll still be able to hold on; it’s like a Tea Party thing. It’s unbelievable how….
While this is a rather odd parallel for someone to make, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Burns is an unabashed liberal who has slammed everyone from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to former President George W. Bush, and did an 18-hour documentary on his love America’s national parks.
So while none of this comes as a surprise it’s a good reminder about the type of director we’re dealing with when we see his films.
(Excerpt) Read more at threefingersofpolitics.com ...
Thats a little too long for me to care what he says today.
Something about Burns makes me want to squash him like a bug.
Funny, Every Tea Partier I have talked to has wanted government NOT to tell them what they can drink/smoke/eat/do in their own houses.....
Burns is PBS’s own Oliver Stone.
At some level he is equating gorging on public debt to gorging on alcohol.
He has no idea how badly and openly evil his personal mores and political and ideological leanings appear under this comparison.
He’s one of Erik Rush’s negrophiles.
Odd how Kenny and most “historians” never want to talk about the impact of giving women the vote just before this Prohibitionist era. How did so many states get the necessary “push” to accomplish the Prohibitionist era? Once Kenny starts to grin when you ask this...you can just walk away and realize that he’s not much of a real historian.
Well said.
Ken Burns, like Ben Affleck, Steven King and other nut-job Red Sox fans, should stick to what they know best, entertaining people, and STFU about real matters.
I heard an interview recently with Robert Duvall and he scored huge points with me when he responded to a political question with a “Nobody really cares or should care what I think”.
It's his unwarranted and unproductive conversion of oxygen into carbon dioxide.
Burns is a big-time Obama water carrier. Anyone who’s seen the Civil War knows that almost every episode it was all about “racism”. The only redeeming part was that the late Shelby Foote, noted for his Civil War writings was in the series.
Going back to the interview. Carolla interviewing Burns, an unfunny overrated hack interviewing an overrated propagandist.
http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/Ken_Burns.php
wow...a lifelong liberal doesn’t like the Tea Party? what a shock....
As opposed to single-issue groups that supported the Democratic Party platform, like the KKK?
This is a pretty bad comparison though. The Tea Party movement is just that, a movement. There is no head, no controlling organization or structure, no one well-coordinated and funded push for various legislation for that issue. Prohibition was forced by the Anti-Saloon League, a well-controlled, highly-structured organization that strategically had their issue pushed throughout government.
Most modern single-issue organizations (not movements, but organizations) on both sides of all issues owe their effective structures and tactics to the Anti-Saloon League, but not the Tea Party.
Most of the prominent women in the suffrage movement were also part of the temperance movement. They didn't just want equality, they wanted to control the men.
I hate it when he lets his bias intervene.
However, I give credit where credit is due.
I really enjoyed his Lewis and Clark piece, and the Shakers is one of my favorite documentaries.
But it doesn't need to be the focus of EVERY other presentation of American history.
I watched about 5 minutes of The Story of US until I saw the Herny Gates was one of the commentators. I couldn't grab the reomte fast enough.
Apparently, he's another godless liberal. Imagine that.
Ya know, the hardest thing for me to do is to have a Christian heart and not wish tragedy and deprivation on these people to humble them before God.
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