Posted on 09/17/2007 2:35:27 PM PDT by Delacon
What you said...nice post.
YES! I like it!
So much for "Live Free or Die!"
Of course, the strange thing is that it's always somebody else who would be better off as a slave. Those who recommended slavery for others would take up arms at even the slightest infringement of their rights -- particularly the "right" to enslave others. There's a major contradiction in libertarian arguments that minimize the evils of slavery and exaggerate the evils of government or taxation.
But the thing about being Jefferson's slave is -- you wouldn't be his student or his friend or his protege, you'd be his slave. You wouldn't learn much from him. And chances are you'd actually be the slave of some overseer or other. You wouldn't have much say over whether you worked in the house or in the field, and you wouldn't be sure whether you or your loved ones would be sold off.
And the whole comparison's a little silly. You're probably a middle class person who recoils at the dangers of coal mining, but you'd be willing to sign on to a life as a field hand as a better alternative! That's plausible. But other people made the opposite choice. For all the disadvantages of their way of life as seen from a middle class suburban point of view, coal miners probably did have more freedom and opportunities than slaves did.
Racial attitude. They went into the war thinking they were worth any ten Yankees. Just imagine what they thought they were worth compared to Black Yankees.
There's a false assumption there. Just about anybody would agree that the Nazis "trump" other outrages -- if you want to put it that way -- though some would say that about the Communists. But if you're talking about American history, slavery is pretty darned important. And the more some people say it isn't, the more others will talk about it.
I would like to see the high and mighty on black race issues attack thug culture or abortion or inner city crime or black hatred of whites with the same vigor they do the Confederate Battle Flag or Dixie.
That's a matter of context. If you're talking about history, people are going to emphasize past things, not present ones. If you're looking at the whole history of the country, rappers and drive-bys aren't going to be that important.
Probably we should be talking more about those things, but human nature's involved here: when there are people who apparently think slavery was less of an imposition than high tariffs or federal voting rights laws, is it surprising that other people stress slavery and ignore other, more current concerns?
I am with you, although, sure, I have fond feeling for an independent family living a self-sufficient rural life and being free of government restraints.
But that fantasy has very little relevance to modern America.
Most of us live -- and will continue to live -- in urban areas. And, in addition to population density, we are bound together in our lives by specialization and technology. When masses of people live closely together, there must be a mechanism to harmonize the rough edges. Else, I am likely to shoot my neighbor who believes that it is his sacred right to go screaming out of his driveway on his Harley at midnight, etc.
The garden of Eden is gone; the garden of government is with us. Best that we try to manage it.
Slavery was not presented as much of an excuse till post Jim Crow ironically....and that’s nationwide not just in the south. It was taught as a fact and a custom of the human condition till it largely ended in the late 1800s
What it boils down to for me is that some folks think that the black man’s demise was historically simply at the hands of the white race and ultimately so is his redemption.
I think that is no less bigoted than racial supremacy arguments and in a backhanded way, it’s still racial supremacy. The white man can make or break you philosophy.
Nearly all democrats buy into this and a fair number of race sensitive republicans as well.
Further I think ignoring the fact that a majority of black culture is broken and affects all of us yet meanwhile droning on and on about the evil white man and chasing down CSA battle flags, schoolhouse names, and sports team mascots rather than a chilling self reflection into the soul of that majority broken culture is simply wrong, hypocritical, weakminded and will ultimately do us all harm.
I'm amazed every day about the sort of cultural depravity that is celebrated today....it is astounding.
I just took a bath and read that they have made a comedy movie about the black woman who hit and killed the white man in Texas and left him to die in her windshield for days while some of her homeys laughed about the cracker in the windshield. The movie did not have the balls to show it real to life, instead they put a white woman with cornrows as the star...Mena Suvari. And it’s a damn comedy.
Can you imagine a comedy about James Byrd?
This is sort of stuff is a sickness to me and so many fall for it because the average white man or woman would rather undergo chemotherapy than be called bigoted or racist and it infects everything we deal with from domestic entitlements to war with Islam to immigration.
Angry old white guys like me are fading away slowly no doubt but we weren’t always angry...far from it in my case.
it's a sad damned state of what might have been and sure doesn't reflect what I once hoped for
btw...that was a rant....not directed to you personally....you've been here a long time and are reasonable while others have come and gone ...on both sides
The trailer is available online. It ain't a comedy.
Buy into it, or simply play it for all it's worth?
The Democrat party has relied on race pandering and fear mongering since before the Civil War. It's just that 160 years ago, they dealt the race card from the other side of the deck, but the tactics are no damn different today.
It is a fact that you can gain and maintain power by dividing the people via fear and guilt. The Democrat party are masters of the tactic.
I just read a review here where it is described as a black comedy by someone who saw it and reviewed it. A critic I know oddly enough.
Here is the link:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Arts/Film/2007/09/20/One_Week_Seven_Days_33_Films/
I doubt I need to say that from my perspective the Radical Republicans were the social engineers of their day not unlike the Democrats of today.
I do agree though that you can divide folks via fear and guilt.
Generally true, except that a few klansmen, notably Grand Wizard David Duke, have wormed into the Republican party.
Aside from opposing slavery, how so?
That’s pathetic, though typical, that a film would change the race of the perp. Recall that in THE SUM OF ALL FEARS the terrorists miraculously were changed from Muslims (in the novel) to white supremacists.
I could be wrong but wasn’t the James Earl Jones character white?
I know Ryan’s Annapolis mate was black.
As much as I love James Dickey, I blame him for starting all this cracker stereotyping...Deliverance...dadgummit...though I’m not sure the redneck white as buggerers is in the book
I for one would like to testify that rednecks are the last sort of men to want another man’s booty..
Shawshank too....I have friends in prison...the incidence of involuntary buggery amongst whites is far far less than amongst other groups but not the way Shawshank projected it...was that in the book?
American History X white buggery...in the book ...I don’t know. I do know this. Homosexuality amongst Aryan Brotherhood prison gang members will result in a death sentence by the gang. They intimidate by killing, not by raping. Another Hollywood tale.
Grisham’s Time to Kill book.....true to the book like most of his but the scenario completely defies the reality. How many white males are on record abducting and raping black girls.....it’s like minuscule compared to the other way around but Hollywood would have us feeling like white men roam about looking for black girls to rape.....
all this stuff....and this is only the tip...is not by accident.
And much like today it cloaks their real agenda which is pure political power.
Modern day Dems wish to use black bloc political power and exploit it and they do.
Radical Republicans were simply extending a rift they had with the Southern states from inception over congressional representation of black population counts in the south even though blacks did not vote....course plenty of others did not vote till the 1850s(?) in both the north and south....there were many other issues too
The more slavery spread, the more diminished northern political power became with slave state whites outweighing them disproportionately due to things like the 3/5ths compromise etc
and so it goes....now instead of Republicans from states with tiny black populations demanding how the South should act, we have Democrats from northern states with smaller black populations telling us with large black populations how to act.
and of course the Republicans were not much on States Rights same as the Dems today
I could go on and on but you knew all this already, you’re not stupid Ditto...you just prefer to frame your views by your perspective same as I and from probably the same facts
I have never bought the notion that both parties are comparable over a long timeline....very inaccurate to me.
The white south is not GOP today because we changed but rather because the parties did.
The largest factor (aside from the Democrat party lurch to the far left on military and foreign affairs issues in the late 1960s) is likely the population shifts that occurred during the decades after WWII when white Republican professionals from Norther States began relocating to the South. (Thanks to air conditioning and the Cold War growth of the military and areospace industry in that region.) Guys with names like Gingrich, Barr and Bush. I have a number of friends and family members who are among those imported "Southern Republicans" and trust me, they have absolutely no relationship with the FDR New Deal segregationist Democrats who ran the "Solid South" of my youth.
The more slavery spread, the more diminished northern political power became with slave state whites outweighing them disproportionately due to things like the 3/5ths compromise etc
Kind on a confusing argument since the 3/5ths compromise only really mattered in congressional apportionment. Slaves, be they in Alabama or some new State, counted exactly the same in terms of congressional seats. How would spreading that slave population out over additional states effect the balance of power in Congress?
I guess where I'm coming from is: when there are people who obsess about the Civil War, or Sherman's March, or Reconstruction, or the evil Yankee, it's hard to argue that other people should just forget about slavery.
If it's a matter of going on and on about "what you did to us" some people are going to come out ahead.
I'm not saying everything's for the best now or that some trends aren't a little frightening, but it does pay to have some perspective.
I remember being with my daddy and talking to Jamie Whitten and Sonny Montgomery about the massive switch and yes....at least in Mississippi it was largely due to Lott and Bill Waller as governor in the 70s.
The Yankee migration south first hit Texas oil patch in the early 80s and the later Yankee migrations were later and have done the exact opposite of what you claim.
They have enhanced the Democrat party here today...primarily in metro Atlanta, Piedmont North Carolina and here in Metro Nashville and of course Florida that used to be reliably Republican.
The rest of Dixie is not terribly affected by Yankee migration and the white voters are more GOP than anywhere this side of Utah.
Dang Ditto....you must be younger than I thought.
We are mostly whites for GOP now because we are more socially conservative and the Dems left us. It has nothing to do with Yankee migrations south which paled compared to the reverse until very recently...1980s on. Gingrich, Barr and Bush represent a few Yankee descended politicians not a migration wave.
If you can't see how the 3/5ths rule and more slave states would further diminish Yankee political power than I'm not sure how I can explain the obvious. Don't tell me you think they did all that because of Christian charity.
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