For your weekend discussion: In the decade before the Civil War, the North came to believe that the enslaver power of the South was intent on not only preserving slavery where it existed - which many in the North were willing to accept - but to expand it. Indeed, the South’s political orientation was offensive: using the courts in the the 1857 Dred Scott decision and their power in Congress through the seniority that came from being a single-party state whose representatives had nearly liftime power to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, the enslaver’s goal was to authorize the expansion of slavery into the western territories and the states that would be created there. Rather than just protecting slavery within their borders, the Southern states sought to control federal policy potentially to the point of overriding the prohibitions against slavery in the free states.
Really interesting stuff, and maybe the way to look at it is this: To have one nation, everybody has to compromise. But the people who won't compromise are obvious in our history, and they are the ones who push us to the brink or beyond.
Kevin Kruse, whom many know on Twitter as the Princeton professor who dunks on Dinesh D'Souza, once shared some research showing how, when Strom Thurmond led the walkout from the 1948 Democratic convention, republicans almost immediately began inviting southern Democrats and racist northern Democrats to come to their side. Nixon's contribution was, of all things, to create more subtle phrasing than Goldwater and his southern and western allies used.
Speaking of professors, the diseased streetwalkers who comprise 99.999999% of the political media dismissed Timothy Snyder when he kept saying that republicans were bringing us fascism. Ahem.
Yeah, that's good analysis. When the Republicans made their first offer in 1948, the Dixiecrats and Conservo-Dems hadn't yet lost any real power in the Democratic Party, so they had no real reason to take up the offer. The dam was starting to break with Goldwater, which is why his opposition to the 64 Civil rights Act won him the Deep South. When Nixon made his offer, they had lost power in the Democratic Party and were ready to make their move.
The main point being there has been a section of the GOP always ready for this. They just had to start growing in influence while the southerners lost power in the Democratic Party.
Absolutely. Granting their myriad problems, Democrats have paid the price for doing the right thing. Come to think of it, Ev Dirksen did help get the bill passed, though watered down, and later got removed as leader. So he paid a price too.
I'll always remember Bill Moyers' account of the night the Voting Rights Bill passed. He was in the oval office with LBJ, who told him "We've lost the South for a generation." As it turns out he was optimistic - it's now been several political generations.
No good deed goes unpunished, Dirkson and LBJ being examples. The red state values are rich white people first whose credo is, "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine also."
I should have said that the ones who didn't ignore Snyder tended to think he was full of it. Because, hey, that might ruin their clickbait if they actually, you know, reported.
Except he's been right all along and they haven't. "bloodlands" is a real eye-opener for most of us who are sketchy at best in understanding eastern European history.
I think our general lack of knowledge about Eastern European history was the pervasive feeling among the less-than-brilliant folks responsible for the curriculum in those days that spending any class time dwelling on that part of the world could possibly have been construed as...uhh...shall we say "questionable."
even as late as the mid-'60s there was plenty of residual paranoia.
There's also the very old Western European tradition, which we descendants of Western Europeans brought with us of looking down on the "Slavic hordes." Think about the ethnic "jokes" (that weren't).
I've seen and read THE RED AND BLUE as described, the political, geographical, gender, racial, ethnic, economic, ethical, legal....divides over and over again. Although I'm familiar with the dictionary, the two hundred words or twenty-five to describe America...I could do it, but the country is a painting, and I could not name the painter who could do it. I imagine six or seven of the them painting on top of each other's canvases, and the gallery would be filled by a small number of sculptors working on several pieces; documentaries and film clips playing on large and small screens; computers galore; a symphony orchestra, jazz band, marching band and rap group do their thing; hundreds of smart phones/iPhones/cell phones with social media messages turned up; wrestling ring, race track for runners; a children's daycare center and one for seniors; thousands of containers filled with pills; a dozen RED yard signs; a bunch of old and new cars; lots of needles; a liquor store, …get the picture? I see a field of dreams and nightmares.
The basic point of my 'field of dreams and nightmares' is can the 'captured' in our country hear the facts and know what is real above the lies, the noise and shiny objects that America makes?
You got the cars in here, Fern! YES! And cars have been exhibited, and will be exhibited again at MoMA. Among the formative experiences of my childhood, 3 x-country road trips, at ages 4, 7, and 8. All moves between Boston and Seattle. One in the 1950 Studebaker Champion, and two in the '57 Chevy wagon. At 10, I figured out that I could ride a bicycle across within a summer vacation, and at 22, after graduating from Berkeley, I rode from Seattle to Boston. Some time in the next year or two, I'm gonna do it by car again. Leisurely.
I won't take much convincing. trains have ALWAYS been my favorite way to get anywhere...you can actually move around and switch up what you prefer to do. driving and flying involve sort of putting your life on "hold." at least for me.
I love to drive probably partly because of those three x-country trips when I was a kid. (I have no recollection of the round trip cross-country train trip we took either when I was one and a half.) But I very much enjoyed the Oakland to Boston x-country train trip I took while in college. Met nice people, had a lot of fun with them. I hope you have a great one.
Yes my Mom was both of those. I remember lying on top of the car in New Mexico and Arizona staring at the stars. We had never seen so many stars, and it was beautiful. We travelled Route 66 when it was the main highway, before the interstates. Many very cool places and memories from that time. Sounds like you and your family experienced great adventure too.
I hitchhiked from Colorado through the Far West and then to Chicago with my friend late in the Summer of '65, almost all of it on Route 66. a genuine adventure. we finally got to NYC two days before the famous Dylan concert at the Forest Hills tennis stadium. it was a serious adventure and when I think about it today, I try to imagine how my parents would have felt if they'd known what I was doing. but it freaks me out too much to take that thought experiment very far.
People are different about stuff. My father drove that Studebaker alone across the country three times in around 18 months (when he got the job at U Washington, and the following summer, back to Boston for the summer, and at summer's end, back to Seattle. The last trip in the Studebaker was four years after that. My parents got the Studebaker because my father had been in USSR during the war, and the Studebaker trucks sent over under lend lease had held up so well on the washboard roads in the frigid winters that American soldiers and Russians would start friendships over the Studebakers (my father was eager to learn the language and talked frequently with Russians).
If you have any interest in traveling x-country again, I think TCinLA's idea is a good one. I had one trip--in '74--Berkeley to Boston on Amtrak. The day riding over the Sierras and through Nevada was one of the most memorable of that decade for me.
back in the day, my favorite kind of vacation was going to Europe with a Eurailpass and a British Rail equivalent. I don't think there's been any such thing for a very long time, but I bet the European trains are great.
from everything I've read in recent years, British Rail has become a horrible joke. once upon a time, you could set your watch by when those trains came and went. Thatcherism and Brexit-ism...the Old Country's Reaganism and T****ism.
In '89, I took the Train a Grande Vitesse from Avignon to Paris. 3 hours, for a drive that's 6.5-7.5 hours according to google maps, very pleasant. Their trains are much nicer than anything I've been on in the US.
Bill Graham actually had him at Winterland in 1969. All these other guys have these "wall of sound" huge speakers behind them. He comes out carrying his speaker like a suitcase, plops it on a folding chair, plugs in, and proceeds to blow the roof off the place.
Also the backroads tend to be much prettier. I now go to my best friend's outside of Albany NY via the backroads. It's about an hour longer than by the interstates, but instead of wishing myself there already, I enjoy the views for most of the drive.
My dad had a 195? Studebaker Silver Hawk. His pride a joy, til my bro had a wreck with a cement mixer, the downside of having four boys , three teenagers. I digress, yes, love trains, and would do that in a nanosecond if a few years younger.
My single mom with four small children drove us across the country from Illinois to California in a 56 Chevy station wagon, pulling a trailer with all of our belongings when I was eight. We had so many mishaps I wish I had kept a diary and written a book. It was a cross between Grapes of Wrath and Pioneers in a Chevy Wagon. The latter being my description. I agree, Amtrak is a great option.
Sounds like your Mom was brave, or intrepid, or both. For our trips, my parents had each other, two young sons (4 & 6 for the first trip, 7 & 9, and 8 & 10 for the other two), and Mab, the 75 lb airedale. In the Studebaker, Mab would sometimes stretch across the back seat, pushing my older brother and me onto the floor. When that happened, I'd often ride standing up behind the front passenger seat (always behind the front passenger seat--I would never sit on the other side of the Studebaker, for which my mother dubbed me David Doorside). Most of the stuff would go by moving van.
For part of trip #2--I think east of Denver--we'd get up while it was still dark, the back seat would be down, my brother and I would lie in sleeping bags, and I can remember watching the stars overhead for the couple of minutes I'd remain awake, and next thing I knew, we were pulling into a diner for breakfast.
My English class read Grapes of Wrath when I was a senior in high school. Now, whenever I'm ready to leave somewhere, but having a hard time doing it, I say, I've gotta get the Joads on the road.
So if someone commits to posting links to trusted sources with verifiedl information, one could make a huge difference in the view of those people reading them? This is something a visionary would do Fern.
Bliss, I moved my clarifying comment to connect it directly to the initial 'field of dreams and nightmares'. Your encouragement, support and humor shine.
I would echo David Holzman's observation about the youth vote. The young seem less interested in power for the sake of power and more interested in a good quality of life that's not driven by the greed is good mantra of the '80's. They do not harbor the same prejudices of the previous generations. Recent trends in education have aimed the young at problem solving. I'm pinning my hopes on them--and on their peers around the world.
Once there was a secession. Maybe now there should be a jettison. Let the red be red. Let the blue be blue. But we keep the military and all the nukes. They can keep their militias.
They can have their Extreme Court. We'll appoint a new Supreme Court - with term limits.
Offer sensible tolerant people from red states relocation assistance.
Many of us are sick of "Americans" acting like the Taliban. Jettison and let them wallow in their self righteous idiocracy. Call the red place Talibama.
AND I read on some news blurb that one of the states (Missouri?) voted down a bill that would make the legal marriage age 16! That was voted down! I think there was some "reasoning" that that would take away from a parent's rights! The bill stated with a parent's consent. Convoluted thinking in every way shape & form.
I love the idea of a jettison. We'd be such a great country if we could get rid of the red states. And I say that despite the fact that I love the geography of a lot of the red states. But I'd love having a sane country a lot more.
Those are problems you point out. I'm not sure exactly how problematic they are. But I have more of a problem with the insanity of the GOP. I want to live in a sane country.
But I can't help thinking that elderly red staters are not going to want to give up Medicare and Social Security, and that other Biden programs are going to make a lot of them better off, so that the Democratic Party may gain more Senators and Reps, and a greater presidential margin in the next national elections. And aren't young people becoming bluer even in the red states, likely giving us more young voters?
my understanding is that Lincoln MIGHT have been fine with that, but he wasn't going to tolerate the EXPANSION to western states. and Dred Scott was a ridiculous piece of judicial overreach.
I read sometime in the last year or so that some law schools weren't teaching that decision in significant detail because its language was so brutally offensive and might injure the tender sensibilities of students. it's fucking LAW SCHOOL and it's fucking AMERICA, so I really don't get it.
actually, it's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.
It's why Huckleberry Finn has dropped off the literary academic radar, despite it being the best social description of what life was like in the antebellum South.
and also...there's a difference between the generalized political correctness thing (which is just misguided and unofficial) and not teaching an important SCOTUS decision in law school (which is academic malpractice).
I know. it's very sad but I'm finding a lot of this stuff so insupportable that I think eventually people are going to catch on and pull at least SOME of it back. having said that, I still don't know about "Huckleberry Finn" returning to the curriculum any time soon, which is really tragic (and that's a word I almost never use because I HATE that now it's come to mean "very sad").
oy...I don't want to get started on how much vocabulary is becoming more and more debased. I can tolerate "iconic" and a few other imprecisions, but using "fulsome" to mean "complete, comprehensive" really bugs the shit out of me. and that's one example out of hundreds.
you're completely correct about this. but since you're acknowledging that we're separate nations, I refer you a book called "American Nations" by Colin Woodard. he's writing about different stuff from what you're talking about (much more cultural than political), and he includes the rest of North America, but he isolates (or maybe 12...it's been a while). I think you'll like it; at least you'll think it's interesting, if you haven't already read it.
having accomplished my usual bibliographical thing, I find the story you tell a very depressing one. on the most basic emotional level, it's been feeling like most of us have to watch helplessly while the scumbags take over with these sick laws. you mentioned Pompeo, and the short excerpts I've read from his book are very scary. he's a fucking lunatic, and he's not a moron. "not a moron" makes him very dangerous. and he's much subtler than DeSantis, who's already a self-caricature.
when you mentioned Calhoun, I immediately flashed on Hofstadter's famous characterization of him as "the Marx of the Overclass."
Quite a thoughtful piece. I’ll re-read with coffee in the morning. One point not mentioned is the lack of representation by population in the house. It too has a disproportionate bias.
This is excellent, one of the best "how the hell did we get here" essays I have aver read. We are in a heap of trouble. The only hope I have that we can survive this is the disparity in Covid deaths and the apparent realization among the young that if they vote, they can actually make a difference. The Democrats HAVE to sell their programs in terms of what they will do for average Americans, the way Smokin' Joe did in his State of the Union speech this week.....wish us luck.
OMG, wish your voice had the power of Rupert. Did you cover all bases, or what. On first reading at 3am, I am gobsmacked at the depth and breadth of what you write. And I feel the knife’s edge sharpen as I reach the point when I am less able to be an activist, physically and financially. I will pass this on, hopefully, younger voters will care about this more than the Super Bowl.
Okay, on third coffee. Lots of food for thought here. Many national elections certainly, and I wonder if Biden’s sowing of seeds, I.e. broadband vs. TVA, will be allowed to flourish. In Virginia Youngkin dumped a battery plant designed to supply Ford ostensibly because of involvement by the Chinese. Performative for sure. The area is an extremely poor outskirt of Appalachia. The plant is now going to Detroit as I understand it. I need to do more research on this. I hope the very Red area understands their loss.
More progress regarding healthcare I see also as seed sowing. Florida comprised 20% of new enrollment in ACA, where the State has refused Medicaid expansion. With the sundowning of Covid Medicaid relief the result could be calamitous. This aside from the Florida legislature giving the guv $10 million to fly migrants from anywhere, to anywhere.
Maybe I’m overly optimistic this morning but perhaps these “seeds” will begin to accomplish what FDR’s policies did in bringing together the two nations.
Need some edits here: No Red State has increased the minimum age past the federal minimum of &.25, while all Blue States have increased the minimum afe.
Just one small quibble. Arkansas is a very red state but the minimum wage here is now $11 per hour for businesses that have 4 or more employees. In 2018 a citizens group collected enough signatures to put a minimum wage increase on the ballot and 68% of the voters approved it. The wage floor increased from $8.50 in 2018 to $11.00 in 2021.
Tom, you are 100% correct. Same thing happened in Missouri in 2018 with that minimum wage going from $7.85 in 2018 to $12.00 in 2023. Ordinary voters like the increases even if the legislators and business owners do not!
Bliss, I wonder how many minimum wage jobs someone with a family had work in order to at the very least, put food on the table. And I guess in too many states thats exactly how they do it.
That is how a lot of folks made ends meet. Most of the college students I worked with were working two jobs and finishing their degree. These part time Pre-School were making more than minimum wage, but the cost of an apartments, food, heating, just wasn't enough. I hope the law suits against Biden's loan debt forgiveness, will be settled soon. That will go a long way, for these young people.
Really interesting stuff, and maybe the way to look at it is this: To have one nation, everybody has to compromise. But the people who won't compromise are obvious in our history, and they are the ones who push us to the brink or beyond.
Kevin Kruse, whom many know on Twitter as the Princeton professor who dunks on Dinesh D'Souza, once shared some research showing how, when Strom Thurmond led the walkout from the 1948 Democratic convention, republicans almost immediately began inviting southern Democrats and racist northern Democrats to come to their side. Nixon's contribution was, of all things, to create more subtle phrasing than Goldwater and his southern and western allies used.
Speaking of professors, the diseased streetwalkers who comprise 99.999999% of the political media dismissed Timothy Snyder when he kept saying that republicans were bringing us fascism. Ahem.
Yeah, that's good analysis. When the Republicans made their first offer in 1948, the Dixiecrats and Conservo-Dems hadn't yet lost any real power in the Democratic Party, so they had no real reason to take up the offer. The dam was starting to break with Goldwater, which is why his opposition to the 64 Civil rights Act won him the Deep South. When Nixon made his offer, they had lost power in the Democratic Party and were ready to make their move.
The main point being there has been a section of the GOP always ready for this. They just had to start growing in influence while the southerners lost power in the Democratic Party.
Absolutely. Granting their myriad problems, Democrats have paid the price for doing the right thing. Come to think of it, Ev Dirksen did help get the bill passed, though watered down, and later got removed as leader. So he paid a price too.
I'll always remember Bill Moyers' account of the night the Voting Rights Bill passed. He was in the oval office with LBJ, who told him "We've lost the South for a generation." As it turns out he was optimistic - it's now been several political generations.
Bill has always been my hero.
No good deed goes unpunished, Dirkson and LBJ being examples. The red state values are rich white people first whose credo is, "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine also."
Loved Everett D. Last Repub I had an iota of respect for.
I thought they just ignored him (Prof. Snyder).
I should have said that the ones who didn't ignore Snyder tended to think he was full of it. Because, hey, that might ruin their clickbait if they actually, you know, reported.
Except he's been right all along and they haven't. "bloodlands" is a real eye-opener for most of us who are sketchy at best in understanding eastern European history.
I think our general lack of knowledge about Eastern European history was the pervasive feeling among the less-than-brilliant folks responsible for the curriculum in those days that spending any class time dwelling on that part of the world could possibly have been construed as...uhh...shall we say "questionable."
even as late as the mid-'60s there was plenty of residual paranoia.
There's also the very old Western European tradition, which we descendants of Western Europeans brought with us of looking down on the "Slavic hordes." Think about the ethnic "jokes" (that weren't).
yep...there's also THAT.
of course, my people ARE the "Slavic hordes." at least geographically.
actually, "chronic victims of the Slavic hordes" is more like it.
I've seen and read THE RED AND BLUE as described, the political, geographical, gender, racial, ethnic, economic, ethical, legal....divides over and over again. Although I'm familiar with the dictionary, the two hundred words or twenty-five to describe America...I could do it, but the country is a painting, and I could not name the painter who could do it. I imagine six or seven of the them painting on top of each other's canvases, and the gallery would be filled by a small number of sculptors working on several pieces; documentaries and film clips playing on large and small screens; computers galore; a symphony orchestra, jazz band, marching band and rap group do their thing; hundreds of smart phones/iPhones/cell phones with social media messages turned up; wrestling ring, race track for runners; a children's daycare center and one for seniors; thousands of containers filled with pills; a dozen RED yard signs; a bunch of old and new cars; lots of needles; a liquor store, …get the picture? I see a field of dreams and nightmares.
Pretty good analysis Fern, particularly the last.
The basic point of my 'field of dreams and nightmares' is can the 'captured' in our country hear the facts and know what is real above the lies, the noise and shiny objects that America makes?
what would we do without you, Fern?
Worse. That's what.
it was a rhetorical question. but you knew that.
You got the cars in here, Fern! YES! And cars have been exhibited, and will be exhibited again at MoMA. Among the formative experiences of my childhood, 3 x-country road trips, at ages 4, 7, and 8. All moves between Boston and Seattle. One in the 1950 Studebaker Champion, and two in the '57 Chevy wagon. At 10, I figured out that I could ride a bicycle across within a summer vacation, and at 22, after graduating from Berkeley, I rode from Seattle to Boston. Some time in the next year or two, I'm gonna do it by car again. Leisurely.
we also had a 1950 Studebaker. and now it's a classic.
but I don't like the cross-country drive and I definitely don't have another one in me.
take the train Amtrack has great service on board now.
I won't take much convincing. trains have ALWAYS been my favorite way to get anywhere...you can actually move around and switch up what you prefer to do. driving and flying involve sort of putting your life on "hold." at least for me.
I love to drive probably partly because of those three x-country trips when I was a kid. (I have no recollection of the round trip cross-country train trip we took either when I was one and a half.) But I very much enjoyed the Oakland to Boston x-country train trip I took while in college. Met nice people, had a lot of fun with them. I hope you have a great one.
Yes my Mom was both of those. I remember lying on top of the car in New Mexico and Arizona staring at the stars. We had never seen so many stars, and it was beautiful. We travelled Route 66 when it was the main highway, before the interstates. Many very cool places and memories from that time. Sounds like you and your family experienced great adventure too.
I hitchhiked from Colorado through the Far West and then to Chicago with my friend late in the Summer of '65, almost all of it on Route 66. a genuine adventure. we finally got to NYC two days before the famous Dylan concert at the Forest Hills tennis stadium. it was a serious adventure and when I think about it today, I try to imagine how my parents would have felt if they'd known what I was doing. but it freaks me out too much to take that thought experiment very far.
The things we got away with "back in the day"!
right??
So many hitchhikers back then, dangerous game today.
Wow! that IS a major adventure!
People are different about stuff. My father drove that Studebaker alone across the country three times in around 18 months (when he got the job at U Washington, and the following summer, back to Boston for the summer, and at summer's end, back to Seattle. The last trip in the Studebaker was four years after that. My parents got the Studebaker because my father had been in USSR during the war, and the Studebaker trucks sent over under lend lease had held up so well on the washboard roads in the frigid winters that American soldiers and Russians would start friendships over the Studebakers (my father was eager to learn the language and talked frequently with Russians).
If you have any interest in traveling x-country again, I think TCinLA's idea is a good one. I had one trip--in '74--Berkeley to Boston on Amtrak. The day riding over the Sierras and through Nevada was one of the most memorable of that decade for me.
back in the day, my favorite kind of vacation was going to Europe with a Eurailpass and a British Rail equivalent. I don't think there's been any such thing for a very long time, but I bet the European trains are great.
from everything I've read in recent years, British Rail has become a horrible joke. once upon a time, you could set your watch by when those trains came and went. Thatcherism and Brexit-ism...the Old Country's Reaganism and T****ism.
In '89, I took the Train a Grande Vitesse from Avignon to Paris. 3 hours, for a drive that's 6.5-7.5 hours according to google maps, very pleasant. Their trains are much nicer than anything I've been on in the US.
MUCH.
Interstates have ruined the joy of cross country driving. Drove RT 66 to California in 1969 heading West. Burma Shave.
We drove 66 to go to Texas from California in 1968.
Oh yeah. Listening to Johny Rivers on the eight track.
Bill Graham actually had him at Winterland in 1969. All these other guys have these "wall of sound" huge speakers behind them. He comes out carrying his speaker like a suitcase, plops it on a folding chair, plugs in, and proceeds to blow the roof off the place.
Cool Running in my new 68 Mustang!
were the first Mustangs '66 or '67? it'd have to be '66, I'm thinking...
One could still take the backroads. I hope to do that this year or next.
That would be cool as all the semis role on the interstates.
Also the backroads tend to be much prettier. I now go to my best friend's outside of Albany NY via the backroads. It's about an hour longer than by the interstates, but instead of wishing myself there already, I enjoy the views for most of the drive.
My dad had a 195? Studebaker Silver Hawk. His pride a joy, til my bro had a wreck with a cement mixer, the downside of having four boys , three teenagers. I digress, yes, love trains, and would do that in a nanosecond if a few years younger.
Those were very nice cars. Probably lucky your brother came out of the wreck OK.
My single mom with four small children drove us across the country from Illinois to California in a 56 Chevy station wagon, pulling a trailer with all of our belongings when I was eight. We had so many mishaps I wish I had kept a diary and written a book. It was a cross between Grapes of Wrath and Pioneers in a Chevy Wagon. The latter being my description. I agree, Amtrak is a great option.
Sounds like your Mom was brave, or intrepid, or both. For our trips, my parents had each other, two young sons (4 & 6 for the first trip, 7 & 9, and 8 & 10 for the other two), and Mab, the 75 lb airedale. In the Studebaker, Mab would sometimes stretch across the back seat, pushing my older brother and me onto the floor. When that happened, I'd often ride standing up behind the front passenger seat (always behind the front passenger seat--I would never sit on the other side of the Studebaker, for which my mother dubbed me David Doorside). Most of the stuff would go by moving van.
For part of trip #2--I think east of Denver--we'd get up while it was still dark, the back seat would be down, my brother and I would lie in sleeping bags, and I can remember watching the stars overhead for the couple of minutes I'd remain awake, and next thing I knew, we were pulling into a diner for breakfast.
My English class read Grapes of Wrath when I was a senior in high school. Now, whenever I'm ready to leave somewhere, but having a hard time doing it, I say, I've gotta get the Joads on the road.
Beautiful Fern.
So if someone commits to posting links to trusted sources with verifiedl information, one could make a huge difference in the view of those people reading them? This is something a visionary would do Fern.
Bliss, I moved my clarifying comment to connect it directly to the initial 'field of dreams and nightmares'. Your encouragement, support and humor shine.
Well thank you. You know how this works. Sometimes you are the flashlight, sometimes you are the mirror.
I really like that!
I would echo David Holzman's observation about the youth vote. The young seem less interested in power for the sake of power and more interested in a good quality of life that's not driven by the greed is good mantra of the '80's. They do not harbor the same prejudices of the previous generations. Recent trends in education have aimed the young at problem solving. I'm pinning my hopes on them--and on their peers around the world.
I envy your optimism. I really do.
So do I, the youth of my realm are a mixed bag…
Once there was a secession. Maybe now there should be a jettison. Let the red be red. Let the blue be blue. But we keep the military and all the nukes. They can keep their militias.
They can have their Extreme Court. We'll appoint a new Supreme Court - with term limits.
Offer sensible tolerant people from red states relocation assistance.
Many of us are sick of "Americans" acting like the Taliban. Jettison and let them wallow in their self righteous idiocracy. Call the red place Talibama.
"Let it go...Let it goooo."
Here is a fine example of the red state mentality:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/missouri-votes-against-children-carrying-guns_n_63e71736e4b022eb3e305904
Gah!!!! Dear gods and godesses, do the R's have any commonsense AT ALL?????
No.
Oh, FFS.
REALLY, Missouri?
AND I read on some news blurb that one of the states (Missouri?) voted down a bill that would make the legal marriage age 16! That was voted down! I think there was some "reasoning" that that would take away from a parent's rights! The bill stated with a parent's consent. Convoluted thinking in every way shape & form.
Also Missouri legislature voted against a law prohibiting 14 year olds from carrying AR-15s in public.
Yup - they can get married AND carry an AR-15 at the wedding - what else is possible?
If they get impregnated they can't get an abortion regardless of health.
Nucken futz!
🤦♀️😡
Holy fcuk!!! I mean that's just crazy! We need to jettison the red states! These people are nucken futz!!!
ARGGGAAAHH! WTF.
sounds like a series on HBO Max slated for next season. those HBO guys sure do love their dystopias.
I love the idea of a jettison. We'd be such a great country if we could get rid of the red states. And I say that despite the fact that I love the geography of a lot of the red states. But I'd love having a sane country a lot more.
The unfortunate part of that is "Blue America" is not geographically connected.
I'm not sure how much that matters in this day and age. (But I'm not sure it doesn't.) I'd really like to live in a sane country.
Most countries are geographically contiguous. We could end up with an East and West Blue America, and what about Colorado and Illinois in the middle?
Those are problems you point out. I'm not sure exactly how problematic they are. But I have more of a problem with the insanity of the GOP. I want to live in a sane country.
Those thoughts intrude, too old to leave Texas but if I were younger…
Damned interesting analysis.
But I can't help thinking that elderly red staters are not going to want to give up Medicare and Social Security, and that other Biden programs are going to make a lot of them better off, so that the Democratic Party may gain more Senators and Reps, and a greater presidential margin in the next national elections. And aren't young people becoming bluer even in the red states, likely giving us more young voters?
I do wish Lincoln had let the South go.
That stuff has a good chance of happening, but that's why I said it's going to be 3-4 presidential cycles before we know the outcome.
my understanding is that Lincoln MIGHT have been fine with that, but he wasn't going to tolerate the EXPANSION to western states. and Dred Scott was a ridiculous piece of judicial overreach.
I read sometime in the last year or so that some law schools weren't teaching that decision in significant detail because its language was so brutally offensive and might injure the tender sensibilities of students. it's fucking LAW SCHOOL and it's fucking AMERICA, so I really don't get it.
actually, it's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.
It's why Huckleberry Finn has dropped off the literary academic radar, despite it being the best social description of what life was like in the antebellum South.
and also...there's a difference between the generalized political correctness thing (which is just misguided and unofficial) and not teaching an important SCOTUS decision in law school (which is academic malpractice).
I know. it's very sad but I'm finding a lot of this stuff so insupportable that I think eventually people are going to catch on and pull at least SOME of it back. having said that, I still don't know about "Huckleberry Finn" returning to the curriculum any time soon, which is really tragic (and that's a word I almost never use because I HATE that now it's come to mean "very sad").
oy...I don't want to get started on how much vocabulary is becoming more and more debased. I can tolerate "iconic" and a few other imprecisions, but using "fulsome" to mean "complete, comprehensive" really bugs the shit out of me. and that's one example out of hundreds.
The phrase I'm increasingly sick of is "world class". Talk about overuse....
Yes!
of course they don't want to give up any of that stuff, but I think a lot of them don't quite make that connection.
you're completely correct about this. but since you're acknowledging that we're separate nations, I refer you a book called "American Nations" by Colin Woodard. he's writing about different stuff from what you're talking about (much more cultural than political), and he includes the rest of North America, but he isolates (or maybe 12...it's been a while). I think you'll like it; at least you'll think it's interesting, if you haven't already read it.
having accomplished my usual bibliographical thing, I find the story you tell a very depressing one. on the most basic emotional level, it's been feeling like most of us have to watch helplessly while the scumbags take over with these sick laws. you mentioned Pompeo, and the short excerpts I've read from his book are very scary. he's a fucking lunatic, and he's not a moron. "not a moron" makes him very dangerous. and he's much subtler than DeSantis, who's already a self-caricature.
when you mentioned Calhoun, I immediately flashed on Hofstadter's famous characterization of him as "the Marx of the Overclass."
Are there any who are more dangerous than the power freaks who hijack “Christianity” for their climb to the top. History says no.
As the history of the "State Church of the Roman Empire" proves.
This is terrifying.
you really can't make this shit up.
No need, it’s not fiction.
That's why it's terrifying.
Quite a thoughtful piece. I’ll re-read with coffee in the morning. One point not mentioned is the lack of representation by population in the house. It too has a disproportionate bias.
dontcha think "gerrymandering" covers the House?
of course, the Senate's been an obscenity since Day One, and I don't see it changing. ever.
Want to see a real modern day Jim Crow? Check out what the governor
and red legislature in Mississippi
pulled this 3 days ago on Jackson.
Predominantly Black with the terrible water problem? If this doesn't wake up Mr. Garland, I
don't know what will.
I read about that.
??? Do you have a link?
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/09/1155827686/why-a-majority-black-city-could-wind-up-with-a-new-white-appointed-court-system
This is excellent, one of the best "how the hell did we get here" essays I have aver read. We are in a heap of trouble. The only hope I have that we can survive this is the disparity in Covid deaths and the apparent realization among the young that if they vote, they can actually make a difference. The Democrats HAVE to sell their programs in terms of what they will do for average Americans, the way Smokin' Joe did in his State of the Union speech this week.....wish us luck.
OMG, wish your voice had the power of Rupert. Did you cover all bases, or what. On first reading at 3am, I am gobsmacked at the depth and breadth of what you write. And I feel the knife’s edge sharpen as I reach the point when I am less able to be an activist, physically and financially. I will pass this on, hopefully, younger voters will care about this more than the Super Bowl.
Okay, on third coffee. Lots of food for thought here. Many national elections certainly, and I wonder if Biden’s sowing of seeds, I.e. broadband vs. TVA, will be allowed to flourish. In Virginia Youngkin dumped a battery plant designed to supply Ford ostensibly because of involvement by the Chinese. Performative for sure. The area is an extremely poor outskirt of Appalachia. The plant is now going to Detroit as I understand it. I need to do more research on this. I hope the very Red area understands their loss.
More progress regarding healthcare I see also as seed sowing. Florida comprised 20% of new enrollment in ACA, where the State has refused Medicaid expansion. With the sundowning of Covid Medicaid relief the result could be calamitous. This aside from the Florida legislature giving the guv $10 million to fly migrants from anywhere, to anywhere.
Maybe I’m overly optimistic this morning but perhaps these “seeds” will begin to accomplish what FDR’s policies did in bringing together the two nations.
Thanks for a great article.
Yes, it will take time.
Best historical analysis ever. I must reread.
Thanks…I think.
In my opinion, this is your best essay yet. Thank you
Excellent analysis. We should consider this thesis. The implications are serious. The conclusions offered need heeding. Good paper.
Need some edits here: No Red State has increased the minimum age past the federal minimum of &.25, while all Blue States have increased the minimum afe.
@#$$##@!! automistake. Editing done - thanks.
Just one small quibble. Arkansas is a very red state but the minimum wage here is now $11 per hour for businesses that have 4 or more employees. In 2018 a citizens group collected enough signatures to put a minimum wage increase on the ballot and 68% of the voters approved it. The wage floor increased from $8.50 in 2018 to $11.00 in 2021.
It wasn't done by the legislature - I would bet this would happen in any of the Red States if the people had the chance to vote on it.
Tom, you are 100% correct. Same thing happened in Missouri in 2018 with that minimum wage going from $7.85 in 2018 to $12.00 in 2023. Ordinary voters like the increases even if the legislators and business owners do not!
likely $7.25.
I believe the Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25. That is the Minimum Wage here in Kentucky.
Bliss, I wonder how many minimum wage jobs someone with a family had work in order to at the very least, put food on the table. And I guess in too many states thats exactly how they do it.
That is how a lot of folks made ends meet. Most of the college students I worked with were working two jobs and finishing their degree. These part time Pre-School were making more than minimum wage, but the cost of an apartments, food, heating, just wasn't enough. I hope the law suits against Biden's loan debt forgiveness, will be settled soon. That will go a long way, for these young people.