Posted on 04/25/2008 5:07:54 PM PDT by Braak
In the summer of 1863, Robert E. Lee led an ill-advised incursion into Pennsylvania. His army was defeated at Gettysburg, and thence afterward Lee beat a fighting retreat until the South lost the Civil War. One hundred and forty-five years later, the South--or what has become the South-Southwest--has won another kind of Civil War. It has transformed the sensibility of the country. It is setting the agenda for our political, social and religious mores--in Pennsylvania and everywhere else.
This thought, which has been recurring to me regularly over the years as I've watched the Southernization of our national politics at the hands of the GOP and its evangelical base, surfaced again when I read a New York Times story today. The article was about an "American Idol" contestant--apparently quite talented--who was eliminated after she sang the title song from "Jesus Christ Superstar." When it debuted 38 years ago, the rock opera was considered controversial for its rather arch portrayal of a doubt-wracked, very human Jesus, but the music was so good and the lyrics so clever that it quickly became a huge hit. In the delicate balance of forces that have always defined American tastes--nativism and yahooism versus eagerness for the new and openness to innovation--art, or at least high craft, it seemed, had triumphed. But our national common denominator of taste is so altered today that the blasphemous dimension of "Jesus Christ Superstar" now trumps the artistic part. And somehow, no one is surprised. Our reaction is more like, "Why would she risk singing a song like that?"
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
This same arsewipe would be screaming bloody murder if anyone published a piece about the “ghettoisation” of American culture.
Don’t let your typewriter hit you in the A$$ on your way out you maroon.
“Read more at newsweek.com”
Ummmmmm....No.
One ... two ... three ... HEAVE!
Hey, dufus, the South was mostly Democratic from 1828 up until Jimmy Carter's disastrous administration.
What a moron!
Ill advised? You usually do not win if you do not take risks.
Lee came damn close to winning at Gettysburg, a poor aim here and a CMofH performance by 20th Maine and the outcome quite probably would have differed.
Just one more revelation of the kind of ungrateful, disgusting scum we have in this country. Why are these primates allowed to breed?
“Ill-advised incursion...”
IMHO, the move into Pa was not ill-advised...fighting on that ground for the second two days cost the war. If the rebs had moved south after the first day, and cut off the Union Army from D.C., who knows what may have happened.
I posted that a bit too quickly, as I had not read the entire article. It was not my intention to hijack the thread.
Warren, as you probably know, was an engineer by profession and was quick to catch on just how important that hill was to commanding the entire battlefield.
Oh, you did nothing wrong...I think we both fixed on the author’s “ill-advised” comment. Hi-jack away. :-)
This guy hasn't a clue, there is a lot of commonality in ideas between us Typical White People, than this turkey realizes.
Which is exactly what Longstreet wanted to do.
“Lee came damn close to winning at Gettysburg, a poor aim here and a CMofH performance by 20th Maine and the outcome quite probably would have differed.”
Lee lost Gettysburg two months earlier when Jackson was killed at Chancellorsville. And J.E.B. Stuart’s gallivanting around the Pennsylvania countryside instead of being where he was supposed to be didn’t help Lee’s efforts, either.
Exactly.
Every time I visit Gettysburg(and not so often Fredericksburg), it is mindboggling that soldiers attacked up that hill over open ground.
I think he shares the honors for spotting that weakness and moving to remedy it, with Gen. Strong Vincent, who was also present. I don't remember which of them sent word for a brigade to come up and hold the ground -- the brigade that included the 2nd & 20th Maine.
This clueless putz probably thinks it’s a national tragedy that the MSM is on deathwatch. This is the closest I’ve come to reading Newsweek in about 10 years.
It is a very interesting visit, we did so year's ago with our two boys. Our trip included a late night walk through Devil's Den, which was very eerie.
As I recall, when I was there I concluded that the stage for the loss by the South was set when Ewell, on day one, failed to follow up on Howard's retreat through the town. Had Ewell moved more quickly and taken the area around Benner's Hill he may have been able to cut off the retreat or prevent Howard from entrenching on Cemetery ridge.
Certainly though you are right that securing Little Round Top was a key factor in the victory for the North.
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