Friends, you might be forgiven for assuming that we'd nipped the idea of secessionism in the bud way back in 1865, when the Confederate States of America went down to defeat in the Civil War. Not so! As this article shows, ideas for redrawing the borders of our states and/or separating some of those states from the Union, are proliferating. What's more, as you'll see in the second article, it isn't always right-wingers who are proposing secession. Some black -- sorry, Black -- activists also like the idea of creating "autonomous zones" in which they would hold sway. We conservatives might like to have an "autonomous zone" or two of our own! Imagine what we could achieve if the lefties would just leave us alone...
In other news, as you may have heard, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has effectively purified the Dems' new Jan. 6th committee of troublesome Republicans. Good for her! Now the Dems can spin their insurrection fairy tales without any grumbling from us. More power to them! What I find funny in this article is Pelosi's stated reason for refusing to allow two Republicans to sit on the committee: it's their "statements made and actions taken", you see. Very illuminating! Thanks, Nancy, for elaborating such a clear standard for when we Republicans aren't worthy of participating in the democratic process...
That Gavin Newsom is a real piece of work. Having already flooded his state with belligerent homeless people, now California's Governor is issuing an open invitation to all the homeless people of the world to come live in the Golden State. Wow! What could possibly go wrong???
https://news.yahoo.com/gavin-newsom-invites-worlds-homeless-110000209.html
In COVID news, Sweden appears to be sitting pretty. Congrats to the Swedes! Meanwhile, U.S. life expectancy fell notably in 2020, due mainly to the dreaded virus. Interestingly, though, it fell more for men than for women. In fact, there's a huge and growing gap between male and female life expectancy. You might almost be tempted to conclude that this is a society that practices systemic sexism -- against men! But that would be crazy, right? Lastly, based on the fact that only half of one percent of all COVID deaths in Texas now involve vaccinated people, you'd have to conclude that these vaccines work pretty darn well. I support the right of all Americans to decide for themselves whether they get vaccinated, but the numbers don't lie: if you get "the jab", your COVID worries are more or less over.
Finally, given that we've almost completely abolished all those ridiculous interstate travel restrictions that so bedeviled us last year, it's more than a little incongruous that the U.S.-Canada border remains closed. Hey, Biden and Trudeau -- maybe it's time to get a clue? It makes very little sense to wall off two countries from each other when their vaccine and virus metrics are so similar. I'd say it's time to LET THOSE CANUCKS ROAM FREE!
Dr.Waddy from Jack: I think it well to consider that the post war appellation of the "lost cause" would have had no purchase with those waiting on Seminary Ridge on July 3, 1863, to do the consummately dangerous charge on Union fortified Cemetary Ridge at Gettysburg, a moment said by Faulkner to be present in the hearts of every Southern boy thereafter. NOT, for sure, paramount in their minds was" I won't let them darkies go free, no I won't! " Rather it was , for Tidewater planter or mountain ridge runner "you damned interfering Yankees stay out of our lands. We will settle our own affairs, in the ways we know best. You don't know us, you can't know us, you are foreigners! " I'm glad the Union won; the Union had to be preserved; it proved to be the hope of the world in the 20th century and slavery had to be destroyed. But given the history of the Reconstruction Era and resultant Jim Crow, is it possible that a triumphant Confederacy might have done its black population better by the 1960s? Today, intense outrage, analogous to Confederate outrage , at perceived ignorant Federal, Yankee dominated overeach, resonates today and generates conviction that our nation may be of irreconcilable factions which would best go their own ways.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: In short; yes ,Civil War 2.0 does obtain now and has been building since the '60s. This time the Rebs don't have the albotross of slavery around their necks.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting question: could black Americans have been better off if the outcome of the Civil War had been more favorable to the South? I haven't a clue, since the variables are more or less imponderable, but that Union victory did not automatically benefit blacks is obvious enough. The Union wasted little time in turning its back on the very people it "liberated".
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree: the South played on an "insurrectionist" heritage that is an important pillar of America's founding myth. That myth can always be reactivated when history calls for it. As you suggest, the moment we begin to think of our fellow Americans as "foreigners" (or as inhuman monsters), our destinies start to diverge...