Posted on 06/17/2002 1:35:37 PM PDT by shuckmaster
Some say "the Democrat Party of 1860 is not the Democrat Party of a hundred years later."
I say "bull-hockey." They've ALWAYS been the same: Demagogues of the worst sort.
Way back when, they used race-baiting. Now, they use...race-baiting. The identity of the race with whom they're aligned may have changed, but that's simply because Democrats have no principle. Whatever works to get them elected and keep them in power, that's what they'll do.
The Democrats are almost single-handedly responsible for the Civil War. They bear responsiblity for nearly making the division permanent, with their "peace movement" in the 1864 election (Hm, "peace movement," trying to capitulate to an enemy far weaker than you are, I think I see a pattern there, too).
The Democrats made sure the southern United States was "kept down" through the years so as to secure their hegemony.
And Democrats ruled all those years as pretty much a single party, and are the major reason the South lagged economically behind the north during that entire time.
Support for the slaveholders' rebellion is, emphatically, simply a support of Democrat Party dirty tricks then and now.
It's a treasure and a must-read for any serious student of U.S. history.
It's something alright I'll give you that. It's a fanciful revision to condone lincoln's actions. Heck, even McPherson himself calls lincoln a 'benevolent dictator'. Yeah, it's chockful of something
Is there some sort of scale involved here? Say for instance, only 500,000 Americans were killed - would Lincoln have made "Saint"? < /sarcasm >
Lincoln had flaws like any other leader our nation's ever had. But he led us through the nation's darkest hour, a crisis that far exceeded the two World Wars we've fought in on FOREIGN SHORES. As the war ground on, very tough decisions had to be made. He made 'em, and he took the brunt of criticism for them.
History shows that he was the greatest President of the Nineteenth Century, hands down. Perhaps, like GWB, that was an accident of chance, but as I believe that God has had His Hand in the affairs of this country since it's beginning, I don't believe in chance--then or now.
In my salad days, you tried to be clever and intellectual. Now, it's definitely "in" to be an idiot.
I'm very busy at present, but you make it sound worthwhile.
The anti-Lincoln bigotry exhibited here, and the sentimental and regional base of it has been, to put it mildly, illuminating to me.
Regards,
Richard F.
Actually, I had a couple of customers in from Richmond about 7 years ago and they had a Saturday stay over so we went down to O'Garas and got liquored up on a Saturday afternoon. After some discussion, we decided to go down to the Historical Society and steal the Stars and Bars back for the Virginny Rebs!!! We were serious about doing it, but apparently it's locked in a sealed steel vault about three stories below ground. We basically wandered around like three Alzheimer's patients until a security guard kicked us out. It's fairly secure from seizure. Good fun, they were great folks. Those guys were game faced and ready to rock, too. It's not smack talk material with them. We actually went to a cash machine and got bail money before our assault! Yikes.
We should have returned the flag to the Virginia contingent three years ago. It's an important icon to a lot of folks down there, and up here it's virtually non-existent to our residents. It was a disrectful gesture IMO. Lots of brave kids from both sides died in that battle, it's no disrepect to the Minnesota dead to return a symbol of their kin's sacrifice back to them. I asked Terwilliger about, and I guess it was decided to deny Virginia's request in some committee. Stupid stuff.
The mental gymnastics are still going on, they've just been turned to discussion of history. Unfortunately, the passing of the segregationists means that people are able to construct their own Fantasy South. The Fantasy South looks a lot like the South or the America of today. But it's projected backwards to 1960 or 1930, 1860 or 1830. It's appealing to some in that one can appear to be a rebel and a loyalist, to thumb one's nose at political correctness, yet remain within its terms and conditions and even use current political correctness against those who tried to improve things in past years.
The old segregationists turned a lot of people leftward. If I had a dime for every liberal whose eyes watered at the mention of "Freedom Summer" and "Freedom riders" .... But the Russells at least made it clear that our past wasn't one great PC love fest. When one had to take ongoing segregation and bigotry into account, one couldn't whitewash past history, and turn Southern history into one long tale of victimization at the hands of the Yankees.
This is ignorant. Pig ignorant.
Shame on Ron Holland, who has done good work, and ought to know better.
Richard F.
So in your opinion it is okay for ONLY those you praise to committed genocide. That makes you hypocrite.
By the way, Hitler's greatest enemy was his own stupidity. Also, you completely ignored World War I.
So I think it all had to happen, to create the American Superpower, a nation that can lead the World in the war against nuclear terror.
No nuke, nor radiation bomb has YET been used against us.
If you HAD actually been paying attention to what the government has been saying. You would have noted that they say the only way they can protect us is only if they take away all OUR rights.
My opinion is I would rather be dead than be a slave. There is no point in living if you have no rights.
The Sum of All Fears is just a movie, but the nuclear threat is very real. It's time for us to fight together and launch some "pre-emptive strikes" against the sponsors of nuclear terror. Let's roll, y'all.
The Sum of All Fears MOVIE is a politically correct 'blame the white man' piece of garbage. Also, the only "pre-emptive strikes" , besides what has been done in Afghanistan, by the government has been against OUR rights.
If the government were serious about terrorists, Arafat and Saudam would be dead and the House of Saud would have fallen by now.
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