Subscribe to the IHARE Blog

Woke

Why Should Someone Vote for Kamala Harris?

November 3, 2024
by Peter Feinman
Kamala Harris (Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO)

Why should someone vote for Kamala Harris (to be followed by “Why Should Vote for Donald Trump)?

The main reasons are:

1. She is a Democrat.
2. She is a woman.
3. She is Black.
4. She is South Asian.
5. Her abortion position.
6. She is not Trump.
7. Joy.

Why one should not vote for Harris:

1. She is a Democrat.
2. She is a woman.
3. She is Black.
4. She is South Asian.
5. Her abortion position.
6. She is not Trump.
7. Joy.

All the reasons for voting for her also can be used to explain why one should not vote for her.

Notice what is missing from these lists:

New Deal
New Frontier
Great Society
Morning in America
“It’s the economy, stupid.”
Make America Great Again

What phrase would you use to encapsulate the Harris message … or for that matter, the Biden message. Bidenomics?

Everyone knows the MAGA mantra. You can even purchase it on various paraphernalia. By contrast, no phrase or logo comes to mind on behalf of Harris. With but two days to go, there is no chance that there will be one. One has to wonder why even given such supposedly short campaign season and the tons of money from creative type people, nothing has emerged as a defining phrase. “White Dudes for Harris” comes the closet to a catchy phrase that can be on t-shirts, hats, and other items, but obviously is has a very restricted audience. It also suggests that white dudes for Harris represents a minority position as based on all the polls, the majority of white dudes are for Trump.

THE DEMOCRATIC QUANDRY

Given the above, one can witness the Democratic quandary. According to the received wisdom at the dawn of the current century, a demographic tidal wave was supposed to sweep Democrats into power for the foreseeable future. The vaunted “people of color” would propel Democrats to electoral victory.

Obviously that is not what has happened as even the most vigorous proponents of this doctrine now realize and openly admit. “People of color” turns out to be one of the Woke Industrial Complex phrases of limited value in the real world. True, Woke cable TV announcers and their guests, at least on some networks, love to bandy about the phrase as if it has substance on Earth 1 while MAGAs live on Earth 2. The fear of the loss of power by racist white dudes to people of color supposedly will provide the margin of victory for the Black/South Asian female candidate.

And they blithely keep saying this despite the close margin in the polls suggesting otherwise. The slight differences in the polls a mere two days before the general election suggests there is more going on than the Democrats are prepared to admit.

FLYOVER PEOPLE

Perhaps the best way to think of these people of color is to recognize their compatibility with the traditional white flyover people. These are the people the coastal elites in academia, business, and government ignore as they make their decisions about what is best for the country. Of course, what is best for them is that they remain in power and reap the goodies.

Immigrants to this country frequently share the same pitfalls that have befallen the white dudes already in the country. The elitists who take their support for granted are gradually learning the folly of such a delusion. Outside the United States, people of color is a term of no meaning. On a more peaceful note simply think of the rivalries in the World Cup. By comparison our sports rivalries are tame. Then keep in mind that sometimes these rivalries spill over into violence.

People of color also is a racist term that defines people in absolute categories based on some supposed color that can’t even be identified. Is every person of color from a third world country united as one based on American Woke classification values? Are the people from a single country also from a single race? Do other countries have multiple races and ethnicities? Do all these often bloody and violent differences from the home country suddenly vanish when they arrive in the United States into one big people of color race?

Actually, they can. They can because these immigrants of color want to be Americans. They don’t want to be told that their new country was born in sin or maybe two sins. They don’t want to see the founders of their new country be toppled. They want to wave the American flag in pride because now they are part of We the People. The naturalization ceremony is one of deeply felt emotions shared with family as they celebrate their becoming American. The Ellis Island dream still lives even though the actual island is a tourist site and the countries of the arriving people has changed.

In short, the Democratic Party has missed the boat.

For that matter, these people of color often have what is characterized as traditional family values. They are not Woke. They do not self-identify using woke terms. Not so much for the people who are pontificating on cable news or charting the school curriculum who love to banter about these woke terms as if they have substantive value outside their self-contained bubble. People of color are some of the biggest advocates of charter schools and they do not want to defund the police.

Finally, it turns out that American sports-watching male people of color like strong male leaders. Even though bone-spear boy is faking it, the image of him as a strong leader resonates with males of all races. Just look at the music lists of the two candidates and try to guess which one is from the male candidate and which is from the female candidate. Which is the one more selections played at male sports events.

CONCLUSION   

If the Republicans had nominated an adult without the criminal record, bigotry, incompetence, and immaturity of the actual nominee, the Democrats would be in serious trouble right now and not simply hoping to eke a victory out.

The 1824 Bicentennial and the 1774 Semiquincentennial: History is Happening Now

May 22, 2024
by Peter Feinman
1824 Elections (Wikipedia)

We live in historic times. I am not saying that because all times are part of history. We are at the confluence of multiple anniversaries both of which are being ignored. As reported on in previous blogs, this year marks the 250th anniversary of 1774. It is the anniversary of what became the First Continental Congress. It also was the beginning of what became America’s First Civil War. It was a time when Americans were asked to choose between Patriots and Loyalists. Families were divided.

Flash forward 50 years and the year is 1824. We were now approaching the 50th anniversary of the experiment. Would the large republic of multiple ethnicities and religions survive to reach our 50th birthday in 1826? Thomas Jefferson and John Adams still lived but barely. Founding Fathers, generals, and veterans were dying off. Think of how few people today from World War II still live to get some idea of what the country was experiencing then.

To top it off, in this time of uncertainty and fear of the looming chaos to come, we were having a presidential election with multiple sectional candidates that reflected how divided we were as a country. The two-party system was in a state of collapse. Would the country follow?

The Presidential Election of 1824: Lessons for Today

September 9, 2016

I first raised the issue of the 1824 bicentennial in a blog from 2016. I was writing about the annual SHEAR conference (Society for the Historians of the Early American Republic), July 21-24, 2016, in New Haven. The specific reason was a session on the book 1824 RECONSIDERED: A ROUNDTABLE ON DONALD RATCLIFFE, THE ONE-PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST: ADAMS, JACKSON AND 1824’S FIVE-HORSE RACE. Depending on how you count the candidates this time around, we have exceeded that number although of the candidates may be considered minor.

In the Q&A period, I asked what SHEAR’s plans were to commemorate the bi-centennial of the election of 1824 given the disarray/collapse of the current two-party system. I ended the blog with:

Maybe for the bicentennial of 1824 we should have a presidential election where candidates are entitled to their own facts and a public that doesn’t know better or how to think. Come to think of it, why wait?

At that time, I had not anticipated COVID, the COVID vaccine, or the attempt to steal the election. Nor did I realize that the 2024 election would be part of our Third Civil War and battle to determine whether we continued our journey/experiment to the 250th anniversary of the birth of the country. Still, all in all, I correctly anticipated what now defines the House of Representatives and the declaration by one candidate that if he loses again there will be another insurrection….and if he wins there will be divine retribution.

THREE-PARTY SYSTEM (Is America Ready for a Three Party System?)

December 5, 2022

The unsung 1824 Bicentennial is fast upon us. Soon it will be only a year away. The year has been a personal favorite of mine. It has been the subject of blogs since 2016.

The year marks the transition from the First Party System to the Second Party System. It was the end of the Virginian-dominated American Revolution era and start of the Jacksonian dominated one. The Federalists and the Republicans were out and the Whigs and Democrats would be in. The new system would last until the demise of the Whigs and the emergence of the Republicans under Lincoln. It also was a time of Senate giants like Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster.

Putting aside all the talk about the Civil War today, the squabbling over the Speaker position in the House of Representatives suggests we may be in for a de facto three party system in the next session of Congress.

America is not designed for a three-party system. In Europe and Israel, multiple parties are par for the course. After every election, the jockeying for power begins by the various parties. Which one can form majority? That is not the American way where the two-party system is sacred.

Until now. Right now the House of Representatives beginning in January [2023] is divided into three groups:

213 Democrats
182 Republicans
40  Freedom Party.

No one of the groups has the magic 218 votes needed to form a majority and elect a speaker. There has been talk of multiple ballots in an unprecedented situation. Perhaps Kevin McCarthy will deal for the position he has coveted. Perhaps he will drop out when he realizes he cannot win and a host of new candidates will emerge. Perhaps cross-party deals will be made. We are in uncharted waters.

Voters are concerned about jobs, inflation, the economy and the threat to democracy. By contrast the Freedom Party agenda consists of:

Relitigating the 2020 election
Investigating Hunter Biden
Investigating the House Select Committee
Impeaching Joe Biden.

None of these issues are on the radar of the Real Republicans.

In other words, even if McCarthy wins the battle to become Speaker, his problems are only just beginning.

All in all, this blog from 2022 has proved to be quite accurate. McCarthy did win the battle but his problems were just beginning. Soon he would be out not only as Speaker in the House of Representatives but out of the House all together.

The MAGAs would vigorously pursue their investigation agenda. So far they have nothing to show for it. But never say never, they keep trying and will continue to do so.

Now the governing of the House has become one where Democrats and Real Republicans have joined together to get things done. Through various mechanisms and procedural tricks of the trade, they have banded together to pass legislation. They even saved the position of the current House speaker to the chagrin of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Her attempt to chastise the wayward Republicans and remove Mike Johnson only revealed the limitation of power of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party. Each time Real Republicans and Democrats band together it becomes easier for the next time. The Democratic Minority leader is being hailed as the most powerful person ever to hold that position

The net result is the remainder of this Congressional term should be smooth sailing except perhaps in some committees/subcommittees.

THE FOUR PARTY SYSTEM   

The current three party system obscures the existence of a four party system. I live in the 16th Congressional District of New York, ground zero for the war between Regular Democrats and Woke or Progressive Democrats.

Full Disclosure: I have known George Latimer for many years. He has helped arranged funding for the education programs in IHARE. Most recently he declared August 18, 2024, Lafayette Day in Westchester County at my request for the bicentennial of Lafayette’s return visit to the United States in 1824-1825. It included one day in Westchester.

The primary battle between the incumbent Representative and the incumbent County Executive who seeks the position of the former has been hot and heavy. I am not going to cite chapter and verse of the positions of the two candidates on October 7 and the war against Hamas. I do, however, note, its importance to the primary confrontation. It is expressed in the language of political discourse, the funding for the two candidates, and the switch of voters from independent and Republican status to Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary.

Latimer is a traditional Democrat who rose up through the ranks in local, county, and state positions before assuming an executive position instead of a legislative one. During these times he has been practically everywhere at events and meetings and touts his personal experience as an Irish-Italian kid in a Black neighborhood in Mount Vernon where he grew up.

Bowman, by contrast, was a middle school principal from the Bronx who had no previous political experience before defeating a Democratic incumbent himself. He is a frequent guest on MSNBC which also differentiates him from his opponent.

This battle between the Regular Democrat and the Woke Democrat should not be viewed as the one and only battle between the Progressives and the Real Democrats. Given the time and money being spent to defeat Bowman in the primary, a victory by him would signify that the times they are a changing in this reliable Democratic district. And even if Bowman loses, one may anticipate more and more fissures in the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives if the Democrats prevail in the November elections.

In November, it will not only matter which party wins, but which wing wins: Regular Democrats, Regular Republicans, Woke, or MAGA. Even if there is no formal separation, the days of the two-party system in the House may be over.

THE COLLAPSE OF 1824

Given this context, we can start to better understand some of the developments in politics and the arts occurring at the same time two hundred years ago.

The 1824-1825 tour of the Marquis de Lafayette provided a living link to the American Revolution for people in all 24 states.

The 1825 View from Fort Putnam painting by Thomas Cole provided hope that the forces of darkness (Benedict Arnold) surrounding West Point would be overcome and the journey would continue.

The writings of James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving extended the story of the country back to the colonial times of the French and the Dutch.

These national events in art, literature, and politics helped to develop a national sense of identity related to but in addition to the American Revolution.

In hindsight, we know, of course, that the country did not collapse following the 1824 election. That day of reckoning was delayed to the collapse of the Second Party system and the leadership of Abraham Lincoln who became the Republican President. We did divide into the Union and the Confederacy, a division which continues to divide us to this very day … without the large battlefield encounters on lands that became National Park Service sites.

At this point, it is too early to tell what will happen after this presidential election. Perhaps all one can say is that it will be ugly and plans for the 250th may need to be changed assuming you even have any.

The 1824 Bicentennial: The Four Party System

May 21, 2024
by Peter Feinman
1824 Elections (Wikipedia)

I first raised the issue of the 1824 bicentennial in a blog from 2016:

The Presidential Election of 1824: Lessons for Today September 9, 2016

I was writing about the annual SHEAR conference (Society for the Historians of the Early American Republic), July 21-24, 2016, in New Haven. The specific reason was a session on the book 1824 RECONSIDERED: A ROUNDTABLE ON DONALD RATCLIFFE, THE ONE-PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST: ADAMS, JACKSON AND 1824’S FIVE-HORSE RACE. Depending on how you count the candidates this time around, we have exceeded that number although of the candidates may be considered minor.

In the Q&A period, I asked what SHEAR’s plans were to commemorate the bi-centennial of the election of 1824 given the disarray/collapse of the current two-party system. I ended the blog with:

Maybe for the bicentennial of 1824 we should have a presidential election where candidates are entitled to their own facts and a public that doesn’t know better or how to think. Come to think of it, why wait?

At that time, I had not anticipated COVID, the COVID vaccine, or the stolen election. Nor did I realize that the 2024 election would be part of our Third Civil War and battle to determine whether we continued our journey/experiment to the 250th anniversary of the birth of the country. Still, all in all, I correctly anticipated that now defines the House of Representatives and the declaration by one candidate that if he loses again there will be another insurrection….and if he wins there will be divine retribution.

THREE-PARTY SYSTEM (Is America Ready for a Three Party System?)
December 5, 2022

The unsung 1824 Bicentennial is fast upon us. Soon it will be only a year away. The year has been a personal favorite of mine. It has been the subject of blogs since 2016.

The year marks the transition from the First Party System to the Second Party System. It was the end of the Virginian-dominated American Revolution era and start of the Jacksonian dominated one. The Federalists and the Republicans were out and the Whigs and Democrats would be in. The new system would last until the demise of the Whigs and the emergence of the Republicans under Lincoln. It also was a time of Senate giants like Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster.

Putting aside all the talk about the Civil War today, the squabbling over the Speaker position in the House of Representatives suggests we may be in for a de facto three party system in the next session of Congress.

America is not designed for a three-party system. In Europe and Israel, multiple parties are par for the course. After every election, the jockeying for power begins by the various parties. Which one can form majority? That is not the American way where the two-party system is sacred.

Until now. Right now the House of Representatives beginning in January is divided into three groups:

213 Democrats
182 Republicans
40 Freedom Party.

No one of the groups has the magic 218 votes needed to form a majority and elect a speaker. There has been talk of multiple ballots in an unprecedented situation. Perhaps Kevin McCarthy will deal for the position he has coveted. Perhaps he will drop out when he realizes he cannot win and a host of new candidates will emerge. Perhaps cross-party deals will be made. We are in uncharted waters.

Voters are concerned about jobs, inflation, the economy and the threat to democracy. By contrast the Freedom Party agenda consists of:

Relitigating the 2020 election
Investigating Hunter Biden
Investigating the House Select Committee
Impeaching Joe Biden.

None of these issues are on the radar of the Real Republicans.

In other words, even if McCarthy wins the battle to become Speaker, his problems are only just beginning.

All in all, this blog from 2022 has proved to be quite accurate. McCarthy did win the battle but his problems were just beginning. Soon he would be out not only as Speaker in the House of Representatives but out of the House all together.

The MAGAs would vigorously pursue their investigation agenda. So far they have nothing to show for it except looking like idiots. But never say never, they keep trying and will continue to do so since they have no sense of shame.

Now the governing of the House has become one where Democrats and Real Republicans have joined together to get things done. Through various mechanisms and procedural tricks of the trade, they have banded together to pass legislation. They even saved the position of the current House speaker to the chagrin of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Her attempt to chastise the wayward Republicans and remove Mike Johnson only revealed the limitation of power of the crazy wing of the Republican Party. Each time Real Republicans and Democrats band together it becomes easier for the next time.

The next result, the remainder of this Congressional term should be smooth sailing except perhaps in some committees/subcommittees.

THE FOUR PARTY SYSTEM

The current three party system obscures the existence of a four party system. I live in the 16th Congressional District of New York, ground zero for the war between Regular Democrats and Woke or Progressive Democrats.

Full Disclosure: I have known George Latimer for many years. He has helped arranged funding for the education programs in IHARE. Most recently he declared August 18, 2024, Lafayette Day in Westchester County at my request for the bicentennial of Lafayette’s return visit to the United States in 1824-1825 which included one day in Westchester.

The primary battle between the incumbent Representative and the incumbent County Executive who seeks the position of the former has been hot and heavy. I am not going to cite chapter and verse of the positions of the two candidates on October 7 and the war against Hamas. I do, however, note, its importance to the primary confrontation. It is expressed in the language of political discourse, the funding for the two candidates, and the switch of voters from independent and Republican status to Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary.

Latimer is a traditional Democrat who rose up through the ranks in local, county, and state positions before assuming an executive position instead of a legislative one. During these times he has been practically everywhere at events and meetings and touts his personal experience as an Irish-Italian kid in a Black neighborhood in Mount Vernon where he grew up.

Bowman, by contrast, was a middle school principal from the Bronx who had no previous political experience before defeating a Democratic incumbent himself. He is a frequent guest on MSNBC which also differentiates him from his opponent.

This battle between the Regular Democrat and the Woke Democrat should not be viewed as the one and only battle between the Progressives and the Real Democrats. Given the time and money being spent to defeat Bowman in the primary, a victory by him would signify that the times they are a changing in this reliable Democratic district. And even if Bowman loses, one may anticipate more and more fissures in the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives if the Democrats prevail in the November elections.

In November, it will not only matter which party wins, but which wing wins: Regular Democrats, Regular Republicans, Woke, or MAGA. Even if there is no formal separation, the days of the two-party system in the House may be over.

Should America’s Allies Be Held to Woke Standards?

July 6, 2023
by Peter Feinman
A crew from John Mullins Rigging and Hauling loads the Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler statue onto a truck after removing it from its pedestal in the front of City Hall on Saturday in Albany. Jim Franco/Times Union

A previously below-the-radar person recently made the news when his statue was removed. The headline on the front page of the Arts section of The New York Times (June 26 print) was:

“In Albany a Statue Comes Down: The bronze of Philip Schuyler, a Colonial-era patriarch who owned slaves was removed.”

The almost full page continuation on page 5 had the headline “Albany Removes a Bronze Statue of a Slave Owner.”

The statue was of someone who was not well known. People passed it without thinking twice about who he was. He was a general during the American Revolution, but as the article begins:

There was a time when one probably had to be a committed Revolutionary War buff or an aficionado of early Albany aristocracy to know the name Philip J. Schuyler.
            But that was before “Hamilton.”

The musical put Schuyler on the map.

In real life, Hamilton did marry a daughter of Philip Schuyler. The sudden musical prominence of the marriage drew attention to Hamilton’s father in-law. Schuyler owned a home in Albany now operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. In addition he had a home north of the city in present day Schuylerville operated by the National Park Service. He also owned people and their burial site has been discovered at Schuyler’s Flats in-between those two locations. It has been excavated by the New York State Museum with appropriate rituals being conducted.

Finally, three years after the Albany mayor issued an executive order in 2020 to remove the statue it was. Naturally there had been a flurry of debate in local political circles about whether the statue should be removed and what should be done with it once it was. Those “discussions” have been dutifully reported in the local media and history outlets like New York State Almanack. Now that the statue has been removed, it has been featured in The New York Times. It made the big time. At no point during this period has there been any change in the scholarship about who Schuyler was and what is role had been in the American Revolution.

In the meantime, I just received this notification from the National Park Service:

Virtual Tours of Schuyler House

Experience a virtual tour of the Schuyler House. This estate was the northern plantation and country home of General Philip Schuyler both before and after the Battles of Saratoga. The British burned the original house and its outbuildings during their retreat. The present house, erected in 1777 shortly after Burgoyne’s surrender, was the center of Schuyler’s extensive farming and milling operations. Access the tour here.

And as far as I know it is business as usual as the state owned house in Albany which had doubled its attendance between Hamilton and Covid.

SHOULD OUR ALLIES BE HELD TO THE SCHUYLER STANDARD?

Schuyler’s treatment raises issues about how we should choose our allies. Should our allies also be held to woke standards like our statues and heroes? It used be that allies could be criticized for not being a Jeffersonian democracy, but now that standard itself is disputed. It turns out that being a Jeffersonian democracy in the real world may mean not being a “Jeffersonian democracy” in the idealized world.

So what should the United States of America do? Should the same care now applied to choosing our heroes also be applied to choosing our allies? Which of our allies would pass the woke test?

Which ally, if any, never had slavery?

Which ally, if any, never participated in the slave trade?

Which ally, if any, never derived any benefits from the slave trade?

The answer may be few and far between. In fact, during the Second World War, the United States allied with Joseph Stalin, one of the greatest mass murderers in the twentieth century. For Ukrainians today, Putin is repeating the horrors from a century ago.

THE REAL WORLD

The reality that many of America’s allies have not been democracies or champions of freedom is hardly a secret. The alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany has been justified as a political necessity. We cannot chose the world we live in so we have choices to make in that real world. Sometimes those choices are not very pleasant but that is the real world.

During the Cold War (World War III), the United States allied with many countries who were not even remotely free. We did so because they were not Communist, a plausible reason for doing so. Sometimes we did for less respectable reasons – like American big business had a lot invested in the current order and did not want to jeopardize its holdings. Think of how different things would have been and how many lives would have saved if only we had recognized that Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro were nationalists and not Communists.

Even today while we are working with Vietnam we still cling to the old paradigm of Cuba probably due to the large Cuban voting contingent in Florida. The Vietnamese voting bloc in the United States is much smaller and less influential. But thanks to the concentrated Cuban voting bloc and the Senators it helps elect, instead of Cuba becoming more allied with the United States, it is becoming more allied with China. This is how power politics works in the real world where being woke is irrelevant.

LESSONS FOR THE UNITED STATES   

Our Puritan heritage leaves no room for slack. We are a judgmental people. You are pure or you are toast. Think of the reaction Lindsay Graham recently received from a MAGA audience. He was not sufficiently loyal and he paid the price. That is what happens in the Revolutions British, French, and Russian to say nothing of the fate of people on the wrong side of their local history power shifts in their own countries. Then the price is not simple political death but biological death as well.

Part of what made and, hopefully, still makes, the United States exceptional is that retribution has not been the dominant ideology within our country. Except for the elections of Lincoln and Biden, we have had peaceful transfers of power. We have not demonized political opponents as minions of Satan worthy of toppling or death. Our motto has been more of the Brooklyn Dodgers “wait ‘til next year” then it has been to take no prisoners.

We paid a big price because we demanded countries live up to what we claimed our standards were. We have and still are struggling to deal with the reality that other countries don’t exist to fulfill American fantasies. The removal of the statue of Philip Schuyler is a reminder that we have a long way to go here in this country if We the People are going to be able to live together, a goal that will be severely challenged in the 2024 election and the 2026 celebration or commemoration. In the meantime, the countries in the real world could not care less about our woke conflicts.

The Five Levels of Columbus

October 26, 2022
by Peter Feinman
Peruvian Mayor and Italian-Americans at Columbus Day ceremony at Columbus Park, Port Chester, NY (https://westmorenews.com)

Another Columbus Day has come and gone. This latest one was quieter than some previous ones. It is as if each side in the culture wars has staked out its turf and for the moment is content to let things ride.

Columbus may be considered a five-stratum tel. Tell is an archaeological term. It refers to a human-built mound over time mainly from debris by inhabitants living at the same site. Archaeologists excavate such tells until they reach bedrock. Each stratum or layer is carefully marked. One of the most famous tells is located at Megiddo, the mound that gave us the word mount Megiddo equals Armageddon. It is a mound of over 25 levels and served as the source for the book The Source by James Michener.

Normally, the layers are counted from top down since that is the sequence in which they are uncovered. In this blog on Columbus, I will start from the bottom up.

LEVEL 1 HISTORIC COLUMBUS 

Historic Columbus refers to Columbus in his own time frame – Who was he? What did he do? Why did he do what he did?  Although the ancient Greek Herodotus is generally referred to as the father of history from nearly 2500 years ago, the academic concept of history is more recent. The first graduate school in the United States was at The Johns Hopkins in 1876 following its post-Napoleon development in Germany. Many history organizations here were founded in the immediate aftermath of this new way of pursuing knowledge. One key element of the methodology was the search for and use of sources to shed light on what actually had occurred.

This layer is primarily the realm of scholars. Archaeology can contribute as excavations reveal artifacts and texts from the period under review. Sometimes archives in churches and libraries provide previously unknown or unexamined materials which can be woven into the narrative. Even when the subject is a single individual like Columbus, scholars need to broaden their horizons both geographically and chronologically to situate the figure in his time and space. What was he thinking when he was planning his voyage west? What did he know? What did he hope to achieve. Here is where letters, diaries, and journals from the time period and in his own hand become important.

Sometimes people or events studied within the academic arena break out into the public arena, for example, Hamilton, the musical.

LEVEL 2 AMERICAN HERO COLUMBUS  

Columbus, of course, never reached what became the United States. Why then did the Founding Fathers make such a big deal about including naming the capital of the country after him?

At the birth of the United States, we were a young country. Obviously. But we were also young in time. We had severed our ties to England. That meant we could not draw on English history as our own. The events and people in English history well-known to the Founding Fathers were now off limits. Our historical memory as Americans began on July 4, 1776. So while England, France, Spain, and later Germany and Italy could boast of their ancient and long-lived cultures, we could not. Instead, we had to create a past for ourselves so we, too, could be proud of our heritage.

One obvious example was through the (Protestant) Bible. We were God’s New Israel. Suddenly we had a heritage that was thousands of years old, even older than England!

Another way was through Christopher Columbus. His stature in 1792 made his tricentennial a significant event to people seeking to create a heritage for the country. For the next century through the quadricentennial belatedly celebrated in 1893, Columbus became a national icon. The female version Columbia became a symbol of the country before Lady Liberty was erected in New York.

This Columbus had a national impact. Many streets, parks, rivers, and cities are named after him as a national hero.

LEVEL 3 ITALIAN-AMERICAN COLUMBUS DAY

When Italians began migrating to the United States in great numbers, they followed the example of the Founding Fathers. The new immigrants were not biological sons or daughters of the American Revolution. The Irish and the Germans had been here longer. So the Italians fastened their attention to Columbus, just as the Founding Fathers had. Suddenly the Italian immigrants had a more than 400-year tradition of being in the New World; they were part of the American national narrative.

For the next century following the Columbus quadricentennial, the Columbus Day celebration shifted from being a national event, to one more closely identified with Italian Americans. In communities with a significant Italian immigrant population, Columbus Day became an even important holiday. Finally it became a legally recognized national holiday. Of course, if you live in a community without a significant Italian presence, then Columbus Day was a vestige of the time when it was a national holiday.

LEVEL 4 HISPANIC-AMERICAN COLUMBUS DAY   

There has been another wave of immigrants to the United States since the Italians arrived in force. For Hispanic-Americans, Columbus Day provided a ready-made opportunity to connect to their new country. Part of the reason was that Columbus was not an unknown figure to immigrants from Latin America. It was easy for them to join the parade, quite literally.

Consider my own village in the suburbs of New York. Earlier in the 20th century, it had experienced a wave of Italian immigration. There are few families or businesses dating to prior to World War I here. The next wave was from Central America and other Latin American countries. The mayor has changed from being Italian to being Peruvian.

Here is where the stratum begin to merge. For decades, the Italians had taken the lead in organizing the parade and arranging for the funding. This year the Peruvian Mayor joined with them in laying a wreath in front of the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Park. The Mayor also was the grand marshal of the parade. All the school bands from elementary school to high school participated in the parade. There were other bands as well from a variety of organizations, ethnic, social, cultural.  Elected officials were there including the County Executive, the State Senator, and the State Legislator. The parade truly was a community event.

LEVEL 5 WOKE COLUMBUS DAY AKA INDIGENOUS PEOPLE DAY    

In the culture wars, Columbus has become a vilified figure of evil. He certainly should be toppled if not thoroughly erased from the American national narrative. Communities have had mixed reactions to the Woke admonition. Some have adhered to the Woke guidelines and cancelled Columbus.  Some have straddled the issue and sought to pay homage to both sides. Parades tend to be for Columbus while ceremonies at a fixed location are more likely to be Woke. Each community makes its own decision.

The number of Hispanic-Americans probably exceeds the number of Woke Americans. This means that just as Italians changed the way Columbus Day was celebrated in the United States, so Hispanic Americans are likely to impact the way Columbus Day is recognized. Hispanic-Americans do not necessarily subscribe to the view that Columbus Day should be a day of mourning for what Columbus did himself to indigenous people or what others later did. Certainly not the parade I watched in my own village. Like the Founding Fathers and Italians who sought to celebrate their American identity, the Hispanic are  bringing their own decidedly un-Woke fervor, enthusiasm, and energy to the event. It is the one national holiday, where they can most enthusiastically express their American identity that is directly based on their own heritage. We can witness a similar dynamic unfolding in voting. These people are proud to be American and want to celebrate it.

Putin Isn’t the Only Loser: Trump and the Woke Are Too

March 24, 2022
by Peter Feinman

If everything had gone according to the plan in Putin’s mind, he would be a big winner by now. His powerful and fearsome Russian military would have strolled into the fake country of Ukraine to reunite these Slavic brothers and sisters into the great and glorious Russian empire worthy of Peter the Great. The only loser would have been the United States (Joe Biden). It would have been exposed as weak, unreliable, and unworthy of a leadership position in the world compared to Russia and China.

Alas for Putin, the real world exposed his alternate world as a farce. The shock of the transition from his fantasy to reality is starting to sink in with the worse yet to come.

PUTIN THE LOSER

Putin is losing on all fronts.

In the Kremlin, his rats and vermin are beginning to leave the sinking ship. They are leaving the country and being imprisoned at least in their homes. Putin is starting to resemble the proverbial porters on the Titanic rearranging the chairs after the ship has hit the iceberg. His recourse is to blame others for causing the captain, himself, to steer the Russian ship of state into a collision which could have been avoided. Soon his very long table will be table of one. When he gives the order to use weapons of mass destruction, will there be anyone to listen to him? Will anyone other than himself want to compound the current war crimes with even more dastardly actions? While the neighboring countries are right to be on guard for what Putin might do if he decided to lash out, it is becoming Putin himself who has to constantly look over his shoulder and wonder who will be his Brutus.

In the country, his rats and vermin are leaving. Putin is losing the battle for minds of the people. True the Russian Foxhub continues to operate at full force but with cracks. One person runs on camera with a handmade sign denouncing not just the war but the very reign of Putin. Another leaks probably real casualty numbers before they can be removed. The people who are the future of the country are leaving the country where they have no future. Putin watched the Ukraine growing preference for the West; now he is accelerating the same process in Russia. Perhaps there will be two Russias: one part of the West and the other floating free belonging nowhere for now.

In the Ukraine, the battle is stalemated and in places it is the Ukraine that is advancing. The number killed would be unacceptable in America. They are unacceptable in Russia, too, which is why the numbers are not revealed and the bodies are not returned home for a proper burial. Instead they are left on the ground in the Ukraine or cremated so no one in Russia will know the truth.

If you want to know what it is like for the Russian ground troops in the Ukraine, try an experiment. Go out to your car and remain inside through the winter night. How long would you last in your own car parked in front of your own home with no supply of food or water and cramped sanitary conditions? And suppose, instead of being at home (a training exercise), you were actually God knows where in some kind of battle (invasion). One of the dangers facing Putin is not the casualties but the collapse of the army itself. Imagine the scenes of the Russian soldiers on camera speaking the truth to their families back in Russia. What a shock that will be!

TRUMP THE LOSER   

A second loser is this war is Putin’s Pence. As President of the United States he was submissive to Putin and praised him as a hero and role model. Putin was a much beloved and admired figure among Trumpicans. Now it turns out, Putin no more cares about the little people than does THE DONALD himself. Everybody is expendable as collateral damage.

The assertions of the savvy genius who gained a country in exchange for $2 in sanctions is more than wrong. They expose the would-be Commander in Chief as inadequate for his job. It turns out that Sleepy Joe Biden who is on death’s door if not already dead was able to organize an international coalition worthy of George Bush in the Persian Gulf War. Biden is providing a leadership that his predecessor never could have.

Remember how stopping one cruise ship from docking was going to save America from Covid?

Remember how stopping the testing would was going to save America from Covid?

Remember how full campaign-rally arenas were proof that he really had won the election?

The person who lacks the mental necessities to read a briefing book, understand the Constitution, and grasp the facts on the ground has exposed himself once again as being unfit for the job of President. You can get away with a simple-minded immature child with the emotional maturity of a three-year old as President during good times, but when there is a crisis like Covid or the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you need an adult in the White House. When his number one issue remains rescinding and relitigating the 2020 election and wreaking vengeance on those who did not help him violate the Constitution, you are dealing with someone trapped in the past. It is hard to imagine how 2020 will still be the primary issue in 2024. Putin is not the only one who has to be concerned about Brutus … or the Republicans taking back their party from the Trumpicans.

THE WOKE LOSER        

The Woke are not faring well in this war either. The mantra of the Woke is that the United States is an illegitimate country born in sin or two sins. It has not lived up to its supposed ideals. Quite the contrary, it is a country defined by systemic racism. It is imperialist. It should not be the leader of the free world.

For years the Woke have been bad-mouthing the United States. They are an equal opportunity hate monger who have not only alienated white Republicans but who are alienating Democrats as well. For some reason best known to them, they think the number one issue for Hispanics is 1619 and the number two issue is settler colonialism.

Then along comes Putin to expose what the real world is like outside the ivory tower.

Suddenly we can see part of what happened during World War II. The Europeans remember what happened on their own land and can point to where it happened. Now we can see what London went through with Hitler as the Ukrainians are experiencing with Putin. With the communication revolution we can see not only what happened during World War II, we can see it happening today.

Suddenly we can see part of what happened during the Cold War. We can experience some of what it was like not knowing if the world will blow up at any moment. A student in my local high school expressed interest into doing an exhibit for a proposed local history museum on the shelters which still can be seen in the high school if one looks hard enough for them.

Soon we will able to see what Herbert Hoover did after World War I with the European Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and what American did with the Marshall Plan after World War. Expect China and Saudi Arabia to be billed billions for standing on the sidelines and helping the destruction in the Ukraine to occur.

Suddenly once again, the United States is the city on a hill that eyes of the world are upon. Perhaps the greatest acknowledgement of American leadership has come from Volodymyr Zelensky. He looks to America as a savior in his country’s war against evil. When the war is over and Putin is defeated, Americans will be proud of its role in history. A Democratic campaign based on their inadequate understanding of 1619 will no more resonate with the voting public than the Trumpican fixation on 2020. The country will be ready to move forward. The candidate and party which best realizes that will be the winner.

Democrats Win Gold Medal for Skating on Thin Ice

August 13, 2021
by Peter Feinman
Parental Love in Trumpican America (Getty Images)

The Democratic Party has won the gold medal for skating on thin ice. This coveted medal is awarded to the political party that best jeopardizes its political opportunity through risky and dangerous actions. A review of recent elections and gauging the present temperature for future elections shows that the Democratic Party right now is nowhere near where it expected to be.

BACKGROUND

For what seems like decades now, the Politically Corrected People (PCPs) have been touting the coming demographic deluge. This change in the composition of the American people would overwhelm the existing voting patterns. It would create a large Democratic voting bloc for perpetuity. The Democrats would own the Presidency and the Congress. The language and laws of the PCPs would dominate the land.

The PCPs ignored that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In practice what this meant was that the PCPs totally terrorized the weeny party of stupid. Republicans became the party of people scared for themselves, their family, their communities, and the country they patriotically claim they love. LBJ is remembered among other things for having lost the Confederacy to the Republicans in the 1960s with his civil rights legislation. Similarly the PCPs will be remembered among other things for having lost the northern white ethnics without college to the Republicans.

The Republican Party itself is not the party the PCPs confronted when they first launched their campaign to remake America according to their values. In 2008, Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate represented the transition in process to the new party. The 2016 election sealed the deal. In American political history, the Access Hollywood tape will mark the official death of the Republican Party and the birth of the Trumpican Party. The battle lines for America’s Third Civil War had been drawn.

Now it is only a question of which side will win. Will victory be Taliban-style where one side controls the entire country and the losers pay the price? Will victory be Israeli-style where one side dominates but the other side retains some modicum of control in designated areas? Or will the victory be like the longtime-proposed but never realized Two-State vision where each side independently governs its own half? At this point in time, there is no way to know for sure what will happen. I reiterate my long-standing contention the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States may not be for the country as we know it today.

2016 ELECTION

The 2016 presidential election was the first time when the PCPs made a difference. In that election the famous Democratic Blue Wall cracked. The Democrats lost in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. That was not supposed to happen.

For Democrats, it was easy to find scapegoats. Putin had interfered. The Democratic candidate was fundamentally flawed though well-qualified and the winner of the popular vote. The traditional Democratic voters who abandoned ship just as Confederates started to do post-LBJ were racist. No need to worry, the expected demographic deluge would sweep the Democrats to victory in the elections to come without them. Cooler heads recognized the impact the PCPs were having on the Democratic vote. Still overall, the Democrats saw the election as the last gasp of a fading former majority who soon would be confined the dustbin of political history. After all, in the era of Baby Boomer presidencies, the Republican Party only won the popular vote once in 2004. Sooner rather the later, the Republican ability to draw an inside straight in the Electoral College would cease and the demographic deluge would prevail.

2018 ELECTION

The mid-term election favored the out-of-power party. Democrats did well in the 2018 elections. The PCP impact seemed muted. Democrats focused on moderate candidates often with military or intelligence service background. They won in districts they had not won before or had not won recently. The trend seemed to be going their way. Democrats had great expectations for the 2020 elections not just for the presidency but in the House and the Senate.

Meanwhile the PCPs had mutated into a more virulent strain. A new word had entered the American political vocabulary – Woke. This strain of PCP has proved extraordinarily effective in alienating white people and, even worse for Democrats, other people as well. The Democrats had counted on the demographic deluge sweeping them to power. However, the taken-for-granted unity of all the new immigrants to the United States and all the colors of people included in the mushrooming of Woke acronyms can no longer be taken for granted.

The first crack in the Woke unity occurred with The New York Times 1619 Project. For the Woke, the casting of July 4, 1776, as a day of infamy and not celebration which should be replaced by 1619 was a dream come true. Perhaps the reaction was not quite as stark as I am depicting it here, but the groundwork had been laid. The problem was that many of the people in the demographic deluge actually were proud to be Americans, wanted to live the American Dream, and could not have cared less about 1619 which often was meaningless to them. If the weeny party of stupid ever caught on to these developments, the Democrats would be in big trouble. Meantime, it was becoming the Diversity Party of “all race, all the time,” and “you are your hyphen.”

2020 ELECTION

With the 2020 election, all did not work out as the Democrats had hoped for. Yes, Democrats won back Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Yes, they won Arizona and Georgia. Joe Biden not only won the popular vote, he won the Electoral College vote and by the same “landslide” as in 2016. Actually, he did even better since he did not lose any defector votes when the Electors voted.

However, elsewhere the Democrats did not fare as well. Particularly in the House. Where the Democrats expected to increase the margin, instead they barely held on. Democrats did regain the Senate. But it was real touch-and-go with some nail-biting squeakers weeks after Election Day that pushed them to a tie.

So where was the demographic deluge? We are now entering the decade which Democrats expected to own. Perhaps the Census results will force a shift that even gerrymandering cannot overcome. In the meantime, they are fighting for their lives even excluding the voter suppression and rigged counting that will transfer the attempted steal of the election by the incumbent loser in 2020 into a guaranteed victory in battleground states in 2024.

What happened?

“Defund the police.”

If there had been no coronavirus, the odds are that Donald Trump would have been re-elected. How is that possible?

Even with the coronavirus, if he had worn a mask, faked compassion, and followed Fauci instead of attacking him, the odds are he would have been re-elected. How is that possible?

Joe Biden is the only Democrat who could have defeated him in 2020. How is that possible?

Joe Biden probably is the only Democrat who could defeat him in 2024. How is that possible?

Meanwhile the Woke continue unabated in their quest to alienate white voters and elect Donald Trump. With 1619, critical race theory, systematic white racism, and white privilege, the Woke have perfected the ability to maximize the people who will turn away from the Democratic Party. Veteran Democratic operatives have caught on to the damage the Woke are doing to the Democratic brand, but they are powerless to stop it. Foxhub will make sure that the Woke and not Joe Biden is the face of the Democratic Party and in the culture wars that is a powerful weapon.

LOOKING AHEAD

The demographic deluge may take some odd twists. At some point even Trumpicans may realize that Hispanic white are white and that the term non-Hispanic white is a con to limit the number of white people in America. If the same standards were applied to non-German white, non-Celtic white, non-Latin white, and non-Slavic white, then the number of white people in the United States would be very few indeed. If that is what the Democrats are counting on, they are skating on thin ice.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill may be the last of its kind. The Republicans who have posed as TRINOs (Trumpicans in name only) are retiring. The Trumpicans who enter Congress do not know how to legislate or care to. They are performers who count their victories in Foxhub appearances and not legislation passed. They are not even interested in bringing home the bacon and do not know how the sausage is made.

Joe Biden is governing and running on obsolete models. “It’s the economy stupid” is dead. In the culture wars, bipartisan legislation is meaningless. Did anyone seriously think that masks would be weaponized when the coronavirus hoax first occurred? Did anyone seriously think that the vaccine would be weaponized and people would demand the right to die? (They are lucky the coronavirus is not small pox or the bubonic plaque.) Did anyone seriously think that masks would be weaponized again and even more virulently after the vaccine was distributed?

Even death cannot change the minds of Trumpicans, not even the death of their children. This reaction shows that “It’s the culture wars, stupid” trumps all other considerations. If the Woke define the Democratic Party, then the Party is in deep trouble even if the demographic deluge does occur.

Ameristan: Did He Bring the War Home?

January 18, 2021
by Peter Feinman
He Built a Wall

America’s Third Civil War is not a new topic. Typically, people have spoken a “culture wars” which sounds less violent than “civil war.” But underneath the more refined talk of a difference in culture or values was the threat of violence. That violence spilled out into the open on January 6, 2021. Now people are wondering if that was a one-time event or whether it signaled the elevation of a verbal conflict to a physical one: are we at Defcon OMG!?

The Third Civil War: A Look Back

America’s Third Civil War (The Atlantic)

In December, 2019, The Atlantic magazine cover proclaimed the need to act to prevent the culture wars from becoming violent civil war. In December 2020, I decided to do an anniversary examination of the articles in that issue. The goal was to compare what the writers thought back then with what had actually happened since their articles were written.

I did manage to write a couple of blogs that did just that. The blogs were

America’s Third Civil War: An Update

 The Texas Secession: Legally Dividing America

I thought I would be able to proceed in a nice methodical and leisurely manner through the magazine reviewing what people had written. Little did I know that the President of the United States would launch a “Steal the Election” campaign to undermine American democracy. Little did I know how far he would go to prevent the country from being able to celebrate its 250th anniversary because it no longer existed as a constitutional republic. As a result, I had to recalibrate. Perhaps I will resume this retrospective after January 20, 2021, depending on what happens.

 

New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2019, by Paul Sahre

  AMERICA’S THIRD CIVIL WAR

My first foray into America’s Third Civil War occurred during a battle for a Supreme Court appointment

America’s Third Civil War: Kava-Noes versus Kava-Yeses (10/19/18)

After writing about the first civil war in the American Revolution and the second civil war in the Civil War, I turned to the third one.

The third civil is different from the previous two.

It may be said to have begun in the 1960s. At that time, baby boomer males could be drafted into a war they did not want to fight and baby boomer females could have babies they did not want to have.

It may be said to have begun on August 17, 1992, when Pat Buchanan delivered his “Culture War” speech to the Republican National Convention.

It may be said to have begun in 2008 with Sarah Palin’s rally cry “to take back the country.”

Regardless of the preliminaries, history may well record that with the contentious and close vote on October 6, 2018, of 50-48 between Kava-Yeses and Kava-Noes the battle was fully engaged. There is no turning back now. When Charles Blow writes an op-ed in the New York Times that “Liberals, This Is War,” he fails to recognize that for conservatives it has been war for decades and appointing a fifth Republican legislator to the Supreme Court is a long overdue victory.

As with America’s first civil war, America’s third civil war will be intensely divisive at the local level. People who have known each other for years as best friends for life suddenly will morph into combatants. The family Thanksgiving meal will become a battleground. While it will be illegal for Kava-Noes and Kava-Yeses to marry, there is always the possibility that some of the guests will be from opposite sides of the divide. Any social engagement will run the risk of degenerating into a brawl. Hosts and hostesses will be obligated to do due diligence to ensure a peaceful event. College admission officers will need to scrutinize applicants carefully to maintain the purity of the campus. God forbid people from different sides should be assigned as roommates!  In short, people will constantly have to be on guard to make sure they know when it is safe to speak….

[W]e have a president who feasts on divisiveness. There will be no “come let us reason together” in this administration. Far from it. Instead he will stoke the flames of hatred and rejoice in the dividing of America. Never have We the People had a president who is so antagonistic to the very idea of We the People. Never have We the People had a president who is so willing, eager, and ready to campaign on behalf of hatred. Never have We the People had a president who is so antagonistic to the very goal of e pluribus unum, a motto that has been abandoned by both national political parties and mocked by our president. But there should not be any surprise that our president promotes the division of the country. What else would you expect from Putin’s poodle?

The Third Civil War (New York Times Magazine)

In general terms, the preview has come true. The Senate vote on the judicial appointment did not prove to be the breaking point nor did the judicial appointment two years later just before the presidential election. I was still writing from a cultural wars perspective and not a physical war with deaths from violence. I expected the presidential election to be the point of no return.

In my second blog on America’s Third Civil War (7/23/19), I quoted Nancy Pelosi saying:

This coming election, it is really an election that the fate of this country is riding on. This presidency is an existential threat to our democracy and our country as we know it.

Turns out she was exactly right. During the second impeachment she almost said the same words only now the election was in the past tense. Still the conflict was verbal. Then it changed.

JANUARY 6, 2021

Now the war has turned violent. My two political thriller blogs Seven Days in January: This Time It Is Not a Movie and Seven Days in January: Impeached Again were written immediately before and after the failed insurrection attempt. What happens now?

For the domestic trumperists, there are consequences to their actions.

1. They face the prospect of prison time.
2. They face mounting and expensive legal bills.
3. They may have lost their job.
4. They may rethink what it means to assault the government in the real world as opposed to at a political rally or in online chatter.

On the other hand, for many who participated in the attack or watched it, it was victory that produced a natural high. That intoxication may embolden them to try again.

For the country, there are consequences just as there were after 9/11. The post-9/11 changes have mostly been confined to airports where people now take security inspections for granted. Otherwise, life pretty much has returned to normal. This time may be different.

1. The Capitol is now in the Green Zone – How long will that last? What will it mean to tourists and school trips to see the nation’s capital in a permanent shutdown due to terrorist threat?

2. How many more Green Zones will be needed? Will even Alabama and South Dakota need to protect themselves? A lot of the chatter may turn out to be hype. Think of the army of 50,000 poll watchers that was supposed to be raised on November 3. Maybe the expected assaults will fizzle out.

3. Will there be lone wolves and soft targets? – After 9/11 there was a lot of attention/discussion on soft targets. The veterans with Iraq and Afghanistan experiences are well-trained in such tactics. There is plenty of information on the web about how prepare a bomb and the tactics to be used to deploy it to maximize effect. Will mentally-ill young males switch from attacking schools to attacking other locations that provide more vulnerable targets?

4. Who can you trust? – The supporters of the insurrection can be in Congress, the Capitol Police, the National Guard, the local police, the military, and the Secret Service. They could be your neighbors, your co-workers, and even members of your friendly local historical society. How do you know?

At this point it is too early to tell what will happen. The people who participated in the insurrection and who have been arrested are claiming they were following orders, answering the call of their President, and requesting pardons. Such pardons would be an open admission that the President really is an “existential threat to our democracy and our country as we know it” just as Pelosi said and the second impeachment claims.

The next round in the war will be the pardons issued on the final full day of his presidency. The parting gesture of the Loser undoubtedly will unleash another round of at least verbal conflict. It also may be seen as throwing the insurrectionists under the bus if they are excluded.

January 6, 2021 transformed the culture war into a civil war. It’s become a double civil war. It is a war between the Trumpicans and the Woke for control of the country. But it also is a war between the Trumpicans and the Republicans for the control of a political party. No one knows how either war will turnout. What can be said, is that it won’t end on January 20, 2021 and it will prove more dangerous to the future of this country than COVID-19 has been.

Woke American Exceptionalism Is Still American Exceptionalism

July 23, 2020
by Peter Feinman
American Exceptionalism (“A Union in the Interest of Humanity – Civilization Freedom and Peace for all Time.” ca. 1898, Donaldson Litho Co.; Library of Congress)

Woke American exceptionalism is still American exceptionalism. This realization occurred to me last week when I was watching a Woke presentation online and the term flashed in my mind. It wasn’t exactly a “eureka” or OMG moment as the light bulb clicked on. But it was a coming together of thoughts that brought order to chaos and helped me make sense of what has been transpiring in the culture wars especially recently.

Woke American exceptionalism is a derivative of standard American exceptionalism. America is still inherently different from all other countries but from a different perspective. It retains the Christian, Protestant basis. But it expresses not simply an “America First” value but an “America Alone.” In other words, it pronouncements often occur as if the rest of human history hadn’t occurred and that the only humanity that matters is the one here because we are exceptional.

Below are the examples that led me to this realization.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

The American Revolution looms large in traditional American exceptionalism. We were God’s New Israel fighting Pharaoh for freedom. We were led by people of Providential inspiration who brought us to victory. We were born and constituted by sacred documents.

Not quite with Woke American exceptionalism. If anything it was the reverse which happened. The people who led the so-called Revolution and the documents they created are to be condemned as the products of a racist, sexist, imperialist people. The country they created far from being an example for the world completely failed to meet Woke standards.

So where does the United States in 1787 rate on the Woke scale of judgement?

How many multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious countries were there in the world in 1787?

Of those countries, how many declared their basis on the principle of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” or something similar even if it was honored in the breach?

Of those countries, how many had never occupied the land of another people?

Was what was exceptional about the United States in 1787 was that it existed in a world of multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious  countries of no slavery and freedom for all that included no conquered land and were in compliance with Woke standards?

Perhaps instead of judging the United States of 1787 based on Woke values today, it also would be appropriate to examine the United States in comparison to where the rest of the world rates on the Woke scale. Instead of simply condemning the United States for failing to live up to the vision expressed in 1776 and 1787, how many multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious countries even had such a vision then in the first place that they could fail to observe?

TOPPLING STATUES OF SLAVE-OWNERS

In the last few weeks, the toppling of the statues of slave-owners has accelerated. Founding Fathers who also owned people have been particularly targeted. In a previous blog, I wrote about the competing views of two New York Times op-ed writers (To Topple or Not to Topple Statues: The Battle between “Come Let Us Reason Together” versus “Abso-fricking-lutely!”). One, Bret Stephens, called for determining whether the person in question had helped advance the country towards the goal of creating a more perfect union. The other, Charles Blow, drew a line in sand: if you own people, then you should be toppled.

At the very end, after I had written the blog, a thought occurred to me. I added this ending before I posted it:

P.S. The damnatio memoriae (or “condemnation of the memory”) was tried in ancient Egypt on Queen Hatshepsut and King Akhnaton. Will we now have to erase the names of Pharaohs who had slave labor including Nubians and demolish their buildings or is that up to Egypt? What should we teach about these “abhorrent and depraved” people like Tut?

It was this comment that started me towards Woke American Exceptionalism a week later, to thinking beyond America. How many Pharaohs, Caesars, kings, and emperors didn’t own people? If George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are to be toppled, what does that mean for the non-American slave-owners? What does it mean for the tourist sites of many countries once tourism begins again? What does it mean for the holdings of museums? Are all slave-owners from all places from all times to be toppled or just the white ones?

MOUNT RUSHMORE

The event that put the pieces together in my mind was a program “Whose Hero? New Perspectives on Monuments in Public Landscapes” by the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience on June 24 and 26. I was only able to watch part of the initial program and it was a few weeks before I could see the taped version of it. The specific presentation in question was by Sally Roesch Wagner, the Executive Director, Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation (whom I know). She is from South Dakota. Her topic was mostly about Mount Rushmore. It has been in the news lately and will be the subject of a future blog.

Much of Sally’s presentation was information about Mount Rushmore, its design, its purpose. Then she strayed into not history or politics but to psychology. I will not repeat or summarize what she had to say about the heterosexual white male except to note her enjoyment in denigrating them for these expressions of power like Mount Rushmore. It was at that moment when I had my moment of clarity.

What I thought of was Abu Simbel.

Ramses II at Abu Simbel (Wikepedia)

You are looking at four giant-sized statues of a male. Unlike Mount Rushmore, the four personages are the same person, Ramses II, Pharaoh of the Exodus. He is a slave-owner who needs to be toppled by Woke standards. The Founding Fathers identified with the Israelites “who were slaves in Egypt” and sought to escape the yoke of Pharaoh as they did of King George III. It was while listening to Sally about Mount Rushmore that I thought of Ramses at Abu Simbel. Then I thought of the other Egyptians male rulers who had built giant statues to themselves. Then I thought about rulers of other lands like Mesopotamia. Kings (and Queens) build things. They build cities, temples, forts, palaces, irrigation systems, roads, and victory monuments and statues in their own honor.

We used to build things in America. From the Erie Canal to the Apollo Moon Landing, we were a society that built things. Only lately, meaning in the 20th century, did we start building edifices for each and every President called Presidential Libraries. In human history, it is hardly unusual for rulers to shout their praises to the heavens. Typically rulers commemorate themselves. In any event, listening to Sally talk about Mount Rushmore led to think about Abu Simbel and then to all the ways rulers have for millennia throughout the world build in their own honor.  Part of what is unusual about Mount Rushmore is that none of the people on the mount commissioned the work. Mount Rushmore is part of a larger story of the human experience. But then again, Woke American Exceptionalism isn’t interested in what people elsewhere have done, only what evil Americans have done.

SAVAGES

Now that I was aware of Woke American Exceptionalism, I was prepared for it. I then watched an education program by the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). In that program, the presenter spoke about the use of the word “savages” to describe American Indians. He cited both primary sources and textbooks.

His references to “savages” immediately caused me to look beyond white Americans. Once again, Egypt was way ahead of us on describing people as subhumans who live like animals.

Lo, the miserable Asiatic,
He is wretched because of the place he’s in:
Short of water, bare of wood,
Its paths are many and painful because of mountains
He does not dwell in one place,
Food propels his legs,
He fights since the time of Horus,
Not conquering nor being conquered,
He does not announce the day of combat,
Like a thief who darts about a group.
(The Instruction to Merikare)

Just so you know I am not picking on the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians voiced similar views.

The Martu who know no grain
The Martu who know no house or town
The boors of the mountains…
Dresses in sheepskins,
Lives in a tent at the mercy of wind and rain
Does not offer sacrifice
He digs up truffles in steppe but does not know how to bend his knee
He eats raw meat. In life he has no house, in death he lies lot buried in a grave.
(The Marriage or Myth of Martu)

The uncivilized “other” has been around for a long time. Typically the “other” is portrayed in unflattering terms.

Here is an example from a World War I recruiting poster. Without the words, would it have occurred to you that Germans were the savage other?

The Hun versus Lady Liberty (Recruiting Poster https://en.wikipedia.org)

 

One of the lessons I was reminded of from Woke American Exceptionalism is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Science fictions fans are aware that First Contact and Close Encounters of the First, Second, and Third Kind can be fraught with danger (Columbus Day: Close Encounters of the Third Kind). Sooner or later, people with disproportionate power over another people tend to use it….and justify it on the basis that the foe aren’t real people as we are.

Finally, let’s not forget Christianity and Woke American Exceptionalism. Once upon a time, indigenous people throughout the world lived in peace and harmony with each other and nature. Then white people arrived and the Original Sin occurred. Now those people need to repent and restore the purity which once existed. It’s one of our oldest stories.