Sometimes I wish that the south had succeeded in breaking away. The rest of the states would be so much better off. And the confederacy would be a third world country.
9
No one is going to "save" us, but if D's take the House, maybe "honest Adam" (Schiff) can help, as new chair of the HPSCI.
2
Lincoln did not save us. We went to war. Hundreds of thousands of mostly young men died. We ended slavery through war. Democracy is supposed to mean we don't solve our problems with violence.
I used to show my students a picture of Obama in the White House with Clinton, two Bushes and Carter. The most powerful leaders in the world, transitioning peacefully from one to the next. Not perfect, but getting better, year by year.
Now what? I guess you can't fight a Civil War over a company's 'right' to pollute my water supply, but it feels like we're close to it.
Seems like a timely book. God save us.
8
This should be a comforting read. We aren't the first, and probably won't be the last, to live in such uncivil times. At least in the past, they were fortunate not to have had social media.
4
Thank you, Dr. Freeman. I can't wait to add it to my Kindle reader. I have to finish Alexander Hamilton first. Our recent demonstration in Charlottesville was mild in comparison to the violence leading up to the Civil War. We have been kicking the can of slavery down the road since the Constitutional Convention. And, we aren't even talking about what we did to the Native American Indians. Make America Great Again? If we are honest with ourselves, we have never been that great.
13
This cycle of political discord feels less civil than that of the Vietnam War. The incivility of the personalities involved and the debilitating decision to view all issues through partisan prisms reminds one of the ‘characters’ in Freeman’s book.
Let’s hope the outcome is not the same.
3