Today, open opposition to Trump’s return to power spread as another prominent Republican rejected him as the apparent Republican presidential nominee. Trump’s vice president Mike Pence said he would not endorse Trump for president. Three years ago, I wrote about a similar effort in the 1850s that brought a coalition together to stop a small group of men from taking over the country.
And in July 1863, it was the men of the 20th Maine who held Little Round Top and by so doing made certain the North's victory at Gettysburg, which meant that the South would never win, never become independent.
And that today the Republican Party my great-great-great-grandfather was a founding member of in Pennsylvania as a Quaker Abolitionist, has become the vehicle of the unreconstructed Southern Enemy is one of the great ironies of history, with the traitors claiming they are patriots by claiming the work of these men who would be as opposed to them today as they were back then.
It may be reposting on Heather's part today -- but one part is fresh, still vital.
This is where Heather summarizes Lincoln at his most salient -- on "ordinary Americans standing together against the oligarchs of slavery."
Those oligarchs never went away (thus Heather's great "How the South Won the Civil War"). And they've gotten more powerful because, with the Powell memo of 1971, they finally did what the vulgar most needed to do. Killed off, stripped away humanities from schools.
America's greatest boon to having and keeping its democracy lay in a people with literacy that often and highly included reference to its best artists best in touch with working people and their communities. So many fine novels, memoirs, films, photographs, murals, music, live theater, and -- until the M.F.A. programs -- even poetry.
The commercial classes got rid of all that, marginalized it, got it set to neutered silos in higher ed, got it replaced by standardized testing perversions suffocating all K-12. And our most vulgar were finally perched as the new-style oligarchs they became. Not of slavery again, but of millions sunk in deadly minimum wage ghettoes. Outside decent health care. Reliant on tentacle car culture. Newly illiterate. Slaves to social media hate algorithms. For higher ed, obscenely reliant on predator banks and state legislatures who together abandoned the great legacy of the Justin Morrill land grant system of publicly well-financed, excellent public colleges and universities.
Or, do I err? Isn't it indeed oligarch slavery again?
I've just been writing about the battle of Shiloh. It took place in an area about one mile to one mile and a half in diameter. Between the two armies, in forty-eight hours, there were 23,841 casualties.
General Ulysses S. Grant described the horror of the scene in his Memoirs:
"I could've walked across that field as far as the eye could see and never touched the ground, by walking on the bodies. It was at that moment I realized that this war could never—that the Union could never be preserved— without complete conquest of the South."
And this is the core problem of US democracy. The "South"—meaning the slave power that controlled and controls it to this day— was never crushed. The people we're fighting today are the (im)moral descendents of the slave power. And they're trying to make it illegal to even talk about slavery.
Virtually every Letter from Ms. Richardson warrants praise, because they are invariably instructive , usually of what history may teach us , and for other reasons.. But this letter, the one for March 15 and in large part a repost from a Letter published three years ago, is noteworthy for Ms. Richardson identifying the historical lesson expressly (which she does not usually do), removing any possibility that even a few of her readers would fail to pick up on it, the lesson being "[how] a group of ordinary people from country towns who shared a fear that they were losing their democracy could figure out how to work together to reclaim it."
Jamie Raskin, in an interview Friday evening at the 10:00 hour on MSNBC, said: "the Republicans are sleepwalking into fascism". He was referring to the ones who don't have the guts or the decency to put an end to Trump and his henchmen.
As a fellow Mainer, I really appreciated this post the first time around, and equally so this time around. The lessons of history come alive in your "Letters." As a retired academic, I am so deeply appreciative of your work. -- Although.... I find it hard to imagine that you really had a "... tongue-tied first date"
Dr. Richardson this was a perfect posting for tonight. I remember reading it the first time you posted it and thought it was great how you had made such an important piece of history so interesting. Tonight I read it and realized the gift you gave me, hope. I am almost 82 and have seen our country come through many terrible situations but today feels different. I am scared. Your understanding of the past and the present of our country is remarkable and your ability to share your knowledge and wisdom in a manner that it can help me renew my faith in our country is so needed and so appreciated. That being said, please take time for yourself so you can find peace and good health in your life.
Thank you Professor for today’s history lesson, giving meaning to the moral and political differences between slaveholders and the anti-slavers. You tell us about Representative Edward Dickinson working to “stop the Slave Power that was turning the government into an oligarchy.”
Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers” is more than a poem for children. It is a metaphor for the times of change and hope and possibility. Don’t we all need Hope?
From the Poetry Foundation, form changed to save space, this timeless poem:
Hope” is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson
According to Lincoln, "two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings."
Absolute monarchs, any sort of autocrats, and those who aim to be them.
I’ve always loved this story. I’ve read it more than once every time we come upon March 15th … maybe missing a year I don’t
recall… what I always feel is my first understanding of what and how you are gluing together “real time” stories from very long ago and making the moment I’m living in here & now, come to life, and hence “understandable” … Magic for me.!
As always I am one of many educated (BA, MSW, LCSW) folks who have very little understanding of how we ‘got here’ and your gifts bring ‘here’ to life with historical substance that I can remember and ponder over w pleasure.
Forever your student and admirer. Gratefully and joyously!
The horrendous murder of Elijah Lovejoy led to one of the first speeches by the man from the State that bears his name in its motto today, as he so eloquently decried the murder, and in so doing became nationally prominent.
A slight correction---while the Kansas/Nebraska Act of 1854 sent an uppercut across the jaw of the Missouri Compromise, it did not render it invalid. Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser, supported both. The first firmly, and the latter less so. It was the dreaded 1857 Dred Scott decision that rendered the death knell to the Missouri Compromise, and virtually armed the cannons that would later fire upon Fort Sumter.
Finally, I love the "Cedar, beware the Adze of March!" quote from Heather that I had never heard before. That is so cool.
Not nearly as cool, but as kids learning famous Shakespearean lines, we learned why Julius Caesar died on March 15th. Whenever someone was asked to read the passage in "Julius Caesar" when Caesar is killed, instead of declaiming "Et tu Brute", some wise ass kid, myself included, would mouth off with "Ate two burritos"!
Thank you so much Heather. First, I’m tearing up reading this story in a lovely breakfast room in Porto, Portugal. People here remember dictatorship … Salazar … and they take the politics of the former Prez very seriously indeed.
Which brings me to a comment on the putrid swamp that the GOP’s become: look at their ages. Not a one remembers what it means to be a nation at war, none remember (or know or care to know) what life was like before Social Security (only 10% of the population “retired” 90% worked till they dropped dead), clearly they don’t remember what is was like to have widespread child labor, no minimum wage laws, no 40 hour work week … I could go on.
The dirtydiaperssmallhands party is enthralled with the past because they have No F***ing Idea what they are talking about.
They might as well be the party of Plague, Pestilence & Poverty.
And in July 1863, it was the men of the 20th Maine who held Little Round Top and by so doing made certain the North's victory at Gettysburg, which meant that the South would never win, never become independent.
And that today the Republican Party my great-great-great-grandfather was a founding member of in Pennsylvania as a Quaker Abolitionist, has become the vehicle of the unreconstructed Southern Enemy is one of the great ironies of history, with the traitors claiming they are patriots by claiming the work of these men who would be as opposed to them today as they were back then.
A shining light showing the way in these very dark times, all by illuminating the past. We all needed this tonight. Thank you.
It may be reposting on Heather's part today -- but one part is fresh, still vital.
This is where Heather summarizes Lincoln at his most salient -- on "ordinary Americans standing together against the oligarchs of slavery."
Those oligarchs never went away (thus Heather's great "How the South Won the Civil War"). And they've gotten more powerful because, with the Powell memo of 1971, they finally did what the vulgar most needed to do. Killed off, stripped away humanities from schools.
America's greatest boon to having and keeping its democracy lay in a people with literacy that often and highly included reference to its best artists best in touch with working people and their communities. So many fine novels, memoirs, films, photographs, murals, music, live theater, and -- until the M.F.A. programs -- even poetry.
The commercial classes got rid of all that, marginalized it, got it set to neutered silos in higher ed, got it replaced by standardized testing perversions suffocating all K-12. And our most vulgar were finally perched as the new-style oligarchs they became. Not of slavery again, but of millions sunk in deadly minimum wage ghettoes. Outside decent health care. Reliant on tentacle car culture. Newly illiterate. Slaves to social media hate algorithms. For higher ed, obscenely reliant on predator banks and state legislatures who together abandoned the great legacy of the Justin Morrill land grant system of publicly well-financed, excellent public colleges and universities.
Or, do I err? Isn't it indeed oligarch slavery again?
I've just been writing about the battle of Shiloh. It took place in an area about one mile to one mile and a half in diameter. Between the two armies, in forty-eight hours, there were 23,841 casualties.
General Ulysses S. Grant described the horror of the scene in his Memoirs:
"I could've walked across that field as far as the eye could see and never touched the ground, by walking on the bodies. It was at that moment I realized that this war could never—that the Union could never be preserved— without complete conquest of the South."
And this is the core problem of US democracy. The "South"—meaning the slave power that controlled and controls it to this day— was never crushed. The people we're fighting today are the (im)moral descendents of the slave power. And they're trying to make it illegal to even talk about slavery.
Virtually every Letter from Ms. Richardson warrants praise, because they are invariably instructive , usually of what history may teach us , and for other reasons.. But this letter, the one for March 15 and in large part a repost from a Letter published three years ago, is noteworthy for Ms. Richardson identifying the historical lesson expressly (which she does not usually do), removing any possibility that even a few of her readers would fail to pick up on it, the lesson being "[how] a group of ordinary people from country towns who shared a fear that they were losing their democracy could figure out how to work together to reclaim it."
Jamie Raskin, in an interview Friday evening at the 10:00 hour on MSNBC, said: "the Republicans are sleepwalking into fascism". He was referring to the ones who don't have the guts or the decency to put an end to Trump and his henchmen.
As a fellow Mainer, I really appreciated this post the first time around, and equally so this time around. The lessons of history come alive in your "Letters." As a retired academic, I am so deeply appreciative of your work. -- Although.... I find it hard to imagine that you really had a "... tongue-tied first date"
Dr. Richardson this was a perfect posting for tonight. I remember reading it the first time you posted it and thought it was great how you had made such an important piece of history so interesting. Tonight I read it and realized the gift you gave me, hope. I am almost 82 and have seen our country come through many terrible situations but today feels different. I am scared. Your understanding of the past and the present of our country is remarkable and your ability to share your knowledge and wisdom in a manner that it can help me renew my faith in our country is so needed and so appreciated. That being said, please take time for yourself so you can find peace and good health in your life.
Thank you Professor for today’s history lesson, giving meaning to the moral and political differences between slaveholders and the anti-slavers. You tell us about Representative Edward Dickinson working to “stop the Slave Power that was turning the government into an oligarchy.”
Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers” is more than a poem for children. It is a metaphor for the times of change and hope and possibility. Don’t we all need Hope?
From the Poetry Foundation, form changed to save space, this timeless poem:
Hope” is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
George Orwell, 1984
Great choice Love you sharing your Maine and US history hopefully as maine goes so goes our nation assuming you “ represent “ Maine😀
According to Lincoln, "two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings."
Absolute monarchs, any sort of autocrats, and those who aim to be them.
I’ve always loved this story. I’ve read it more than once every time we come upon March 15th … maybe missing a year I don’t
recall… what I always feel is my first understanding of what and how you are gluing together “real time” stories from very long ago and making the moment I’m living in here & now, come to life, and hence “understandable” … Magic for me.!
As always I am one of many educated (BA, MSW, LCSW) folks who have very little understanding of how we ‘got here’ and your gifts bring ‘here’ to life with historical substance that I can remember and ponder over w pleasure.
Forever your student and admirer. Gratefully and joyously!
Fabulous piece by Heather tonight.
I would toss in few bon mots---
The horrendous murder of Elijah Lovejoy led to one of the first speeches by the man from the State that bears his name in its motto today, as he so eloquently decried the murder, and in so doing became nationally prominent.
A slight correction---while the Kansas/Nebraska Act of 1854 sent an uppercut across the jaw of the Missouri Compromise, it did not render it invalid. Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser, supported both. The first firmly, and the latter less so. It was the dreaded 1857 Dred Scott decision that rendered the death knell to the Missouri Compromise, and virtually armed the cannons that would later fire upon Fort Sumter.
Finally, I love the "Cedar, beware the Adze of March!" quote from Heather that I had never heard before. That is so cool.
Not nearly as cool, but as kids learning famous Shakespearean lines, we learned why Julius Caesar died on March 15th. Whenever someone was asked to read the passage in "Julius Caesar" when Caesar is killed, instead of declaiming "Et tu Brute", some wise ass kid, myself included, would mouth off with "Ate two burritos"!
Thank you so much Heather. First, I’m tearing up reading this story in a lovely breakfast room in Porto, Portugal. People here remember dictatorship … Salazar … and they take the politics of the former Prez very seriously indeed.
Which brings me to a comment on the putrid swamp that the GOP’s become: look at their ages. Not a one remembers what it means to be a nation at war, none remember (or know or care to know) what life was like before Social Security (only 10% of the population “retired” 90% worked till they dropped dead), clearly they don’t remember what is was like to have widespread child labor, no minimum wage laws, no 40 hour work week … I could go on.
The dirtydiaperssmallhands party is enthralled with the past because they have No F***ing Idea what they are talking about.
They might as well be the party of Plague, Pestilence & Poverty.
Mike Pence, stating he won't endorse Trump, on the Ides of March.
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1768766962077741110?fbclid=IwAR1kq7t-OT-Q6FrViNeVaUrsMdt3Z-R-WTbkBeZBMuNh8D2Q_d6COxsxzMI