Tag: Civil War
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I’m glad to be “woke”
It’s not just House Republicans, but Republican politicians everywhere that are scared of being “woke”. Admittedly, it’s hard to say what “woke” actually means to Republicans, but allowing kids to be “woke” greatly upsets them. It upsets them to the point where they are passing legislation and ordinances to not allow “woke” teaching because, well,…
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Inadequate to the stormy present
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.” Abraham Lincoln This quote has been…
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Save the republic?
It all feels so inevitable because this is a play we’ve been watching unfold for decades. Republicans have known that long that demographics are against them. For conservatives, it’s largely always been that way because they stacked the deck so that if they lose, it won’t be very often. Assembling this country we call the…
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A real constitutional crisis is well underway
I was hoping Trump’s defeat would lead to the death of the Republican Party. Obviously that didn’t happen. It is fair to say that the Republican Party is basically the Trump Party now, so in that sense it is dead. Ronald Reagan, for example, would not recognize the party, although he did much to put…
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It’s going to get crazy after the election
I’ve discussed many times my concerns for our upcoming election and specifically for the time between the election and Inauguration Day. I’m hardly alone in thinking it will be the most dangerous time in our country since the Civil War. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised that the results won’t be seriously contested, and a preponderance…
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On Civil War monuments, American Nazis, white supremacists and (maybe) necessary limits on free speech
Is there a difference between a Neo-Nazi and a white supremacist? My take: not really. A Neo-Nazi may be quicker to raise a Nazi salute and yell “Heil Trump!” (as happened in Charlottesville) while surrounding monuments to Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee. Both seemed happy to chant, “Jews will not replace us” readily enough.…
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Thoughts on the Civil War
Mission accomplished! I have now completed reading a comprehensive history of the Civil War, specifically Shelby Foote’s massive three-volume, 2,968 page, 1.2 million word tome, The Civil War: A Narrative. This war is now about a hundred and fifty years in our past. It remains a source of considerable interest, at least to a small…
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The Civil War is not over
I haven’t been posting book reviews lately because I’ve been focusing on The Civil War. I’m slogging through the last volume of Shelby Foote’s history of The Civil War and with luck I’ll finish it in a month or two. I read it a few pages at a time in the evenings shortly before turning…
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Review: Glory (1989)
I’m going through a Civil War phase (currently reading these books) so I thought I would supplement my reading with one of the many Civil War movies out there. Glory (1989) got some good reviews, so it seemed like a safe bet. However, Glory is a much different Civil War movie, because it focuses on…
Occam's Razor 