CAUTION: Silverfiddle Guest Post
Nation: A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory. (Oxford Dictionary)
What binds us together as a nation?
Are we still a nation, or are we a competing collection of identity tribes sharing the unhappy circumstance of all squatting on the same piece of global real estate?
Are we more fractured now than...
... during the revolutionary war?
... during the civil war?
... Vietnam era?
... Civil rights movement?
... "the sixties?"
What bound us together then? Do those ties still exist today?
What values do we all share?
What does it mean to be an American?
What does America represent?
What distinguishes the United States of America from other nations?
Are we still a nation?
Are we more fractured now than...
... during the revolutionary war?
... during the civil war?
... Vietnam era?
... Civil rights movement?
... "the sixties?"
What bound us together then? Do those ties still exist today?
What values do we all share?
What does it mean to be an American?
What does America represent?
What distinguishes the United States of America from other nations?
Are we still a nation?
something something at least Hillary lost.
ReplyDelete" Nation... A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory."
ReplyDeleteSilver, the bigger question might be if we ever met this definition.
Apart from inhabiting a common territory, nothing else seems common.
We destroyed an entire culture to make our home. Throughout our early history we had regiments fighting for us that did not speak English. Our ancestors were from widely disparate backgrounds, hardly a "common descent".
For me, for better or worse, America represents a reasonable chance to follow your calling or your dreams and be successful. For me. For others? Maybe not.
And no, America ain't perfect, never was and never will be... but it's the best we got.
Yes, Arco, but it was people of decidedly ENGLISH descent, writing in ENGLISH who crafted our Founding Documents, won our Independence from Mother England –– and rid us of any further attempt at dominance from other parts of the Old World.
DeleteThe Dutch, Swedish, German, Spanish and French elements left significant marks to be sure, but it was STRICTLY White MEN of PROTESANT CHRISTIAN background and ANGLO-CELTIC descent who created what was to became our identity as a nation, UNTIL Lincoln defied the Constitution, ignored the dictates of the Supreme Court, suspended Habeas Corpus, jailed dissidents, and imposed HIS will on the nation without legal sanction.
The hatchet-job Mass Murderer Lincoln began so ably was finished by the Laborites and Marx-inspired Progressives working conjointly or in tendem with the bastard minions of Cultural Marxism who began their Low Slow March through OUR Culture determined to subvert, upend, trample, and DESTROY what our FOUNDERS intended us to be.
I completely agree with your last sentence by the way:
'The History of mankind is one of cultures "destroying" other cultures.'
Regrettable but true. As I have put it many times, "The history of the human race is steeped and written in blood.
Mr. Miller, "we" did not destroy "A" particular culture.
DeleteThere were literally dozens, –– possibly hundreds –– of Indian Tribes before the Italian "Columbus," an incredibly brave man of uncommon vision, sponsored by Queen Isabella of Spain, –– who was seeking a westward passage to INDIA, please remember, –– arrived after a long perilous voyage at the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea.
These various Indian tribes all of whom had emigrated from ASIA to the Western Hemisphere via what-was-once The Aleutian Land Bridge (now the Aleutian Islands) may have shared common blood lines, but did NOT share a common LANGUAGE, a common CUTURE, or anything remotely resembling a common stage of DEVELOPMENT. Neither did they get along particularly well with each other. Like almost all human tribes they were often at war trying to enslave each other and steal each others possessions.
There was NO SUCH THING as a Common Native American Culture TO "destroy,"
Our nation was not built on tribe, land or religious doctrine.
ReplyDeleteIt was built on the Constitution of these states hand in hand with the principles of the Declaration of Independence.
We are fractured because we have alienated ourselves from those principles. By design.
You're right, Ed, but we ought to acnowledge that our Founding Fathers, who were entirely of BRITISH antecedents, got many of their ideas from The Enlightenment which included English thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, Isaac Newton, and John Locke to be sure, but also the Frenchmen Voltaire and Rousseau, and the Swiss Emmerich Vatel among others.
DeleteThomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben Franklin and the other Founders were brilliant guys, but they were hardly original thinkers. It's more hinest to say they were uniquely creative in adapting selected pearls of wisdom tand creative thoughts that came from late-seventh and early eighteenth-century England, France and Switzerland.
As Ecclesiastes said, "There is nothng new under the sun."
I would add it's what we choose to make of the elements that have always been in play since The Beginning that determines our value and our rates of success and failure as individuals.
And as Noel Coward reportedly said to this effect, "Anyone can come up with a bright idea every nw and then, but takes a REALLY bright man to remember it, and use it at times and in situations where it's apr to do the most good."
That where the positive GENIUS of our Founding Fathers comes in.
Perhaps the wisest and truest comment of this thread.
DeleteWell done FreeThinke!
It occurred to me this morning that the NFL should change it's name. There is nothing National about it anymore given it's succumbing to the display of anti-American sentiments it could easily control.
ReplyDeleteNasty Foolish Louts!
DeleteNot a knock, those are good questions.
ReplyDeleteI believe a better question is what is an American, essentially, what quality(s) should we share that would fulfill the dreams of our founders.
I believe the answer to that question can be found in our founding documents. I know of only one other country that shares those qualities and their Constitution is loosely based on our own.
Perhaps Warren there are few countries like ours because we are one of the few that is a modern country of conquerors, as opposed to the conquered.
DeleteThat fact alone will produce a certain level of triumphalism unseen in many other countries.
Dave, I'm trying really hard to answer your post but you seem to have such a low opinion of this country that I believe it would be an exercise in futility.
DeleteThe other country I was talking about was Switzerland. Hardly a nation of "conquerors" or "conquered" either.
The leftists in this country have no hesitation in reminding us what a failed nation the United States is, what scalawags the founding fathers were, how our history is an affront to the quest for global human rights —and yet they have no cogent ideas whatsoever about how to heal her. The things that are wrong with America have been created and perpetuated by the progressive left ... there is nothing about the leftist dream of collectivization that is able to unite us because for most of us, collective thinking, behavior, obedience is anathema to Americanism.
DeleteIrrational Nation causes me to laugh. Can you even imagine voting twice for Barack Obama and then complaining about Trump? It is imbecilic on the grandest of scales.
Admittedly, however, our nation’s title is the mother of all lies: United States. Our people have never been united except in times of great crisis; even then, it was only their obedience to the law that caused them to accept conscription in two world wars and a number of smaller ones ... most of which were the result of democrat administrations. No, the fact is that even before independence, Americans had significant differences.
Our country is divided into thirds ... and always has been. One-third opposed the Revolutionary War; one-third supported it; one-third didn’t care one way or the other. Then, given such massive differences of opinion at the Constitutional Convention, I’m surprised we even have a Constitution today. I suppose a good case in point would be the comments which appear in this thread ... the lines are clearly drawn. We are not a united nation, and even if you never imagined it, it is getting worse ... every single day.
Mustang,
Deletethe fact is that even before independence, Americans had significant differences
If we consider the history of each colony -- and, later, the history of each territory -- how could it be otherwise?
We also have the factor of the size of our republic. It is unreasonable to expect full unity in a country of our size.
Now, however, many are at each other's throat. I myself have never seen such open discord.
We're a nation divided by a common Government.
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteAmerica... The Great Melting Pot.
ReplyDeleteAmerica... The nation of opportunity.
America... The nation of laws.
America... The nation of great and proper ideals.
America... A nation that refuses to acknowledge the hypocrisy evident throughout its history.
And now? The nation of Truumpism. The ultimate hypocrisy.
Crying 'Wolf' in a crowded theatre again, RN?
DeleteHas anyone ever observed a tangible difference between the alt-right and the anti-miscegenationist progressive left of the 1920s? I'm stumped.
DeleteCan we define alt-right -- with examples?
DeleteWhile we're at it, let's also define alt-left?
Deletearen't the definitions given by self identifying alt-rightists unambiguous? They're basically Madison Grant with a Twitter feed.
DeleteTC,
DeleteHere, let me help you out:
An Establishment Conservative’s Guide To The Alt-Right
Isn't Milo Yiannopawhatever writing for the establishment conservative a bit like shopping at Auto Zone for pasta?
DeleteYou asked for it, chum, so here's one answer. Whatchoo got?
DeleteMe? I got no freakin idea what alt-right is. Some of it looks like hardcore racism and some of it looks like smartass trolls.
Pepe,
DeleteMe? I got no freakin idea what alt-right is
That's because there is so much shape shifting going on!
TC,
DeleteIsn't Milo Yiannopawhatever writing for the establishment conservative a bit like shopping at Auto Zone for pasta?
Hasn't Breitbart been declared alt-right?
Breitbart and Bannon. LMAO!!!
DeleteThe best of the best of the alt right's alternative reality gang.
Les,
DeleteFunny enough comment to amuse your fellow leftwing progs, but the real question is, is Bannon, Breitbart et al racist? What evidence do you have?
Listen, Nursie Poo-Poo.
DeleteYou have NOTHING to OFFER, but sniping, sneering derision, baseless, affected condescension, and relentless negativity.
You don't ARGUE. You don't offer any creative ideas or theoretical solutions to any problems. You don't even SCOLD, though many might argue that.
You simply take pride in being a CREEP and an UTTERLY CONTEMPTIBLE NUISANCE.
That is not a wellness by any stretch of the imagination. I am not alone in thinking you could benefit from a prolonged course of psychiatric treatment –– preferable conducted at a secured asylum locagted at a safe distance from sane society .
Why ANY decent person would bother to respond to anything you might have to say is beyond my avility to compretend.
You –– and CANARDO too –– were effectively BANNED from my blog long ago, because of your infinite capacity to waste precious time with ninsensical taunts, jibes, sneering accusations and a plethora of stupid questions only a fool would try to answer.
Ratturd Nation is auditioning to be Ducky Jr.
DeleteI imagine Andrew Breitbart is spinning in his grave.
DeleteMe? I got no freakin idea what alt-right is. Some of it looks like hardcore racism and some of it looks like smartass trolls.
DeleteHence my assessment that the alt-right is merely Madison Grant with a Twitter feed.
Dig up some old anti-miscegenation political cartoons from the early 20th Century, photoshop in a frog somewhere, and tweet the image to Tiger Woods and bam you're alt-right for the day.
More sowing of the seeds of division:
ReplyDeleteDaily Kos Declares Hurricane Harvey To Be Racist.
It will be interesting to watch what happens are Hurricane Harvey blows out (or apart). Will we see our nation pulling together to help the victims and the storm-affected areas?
Just when you think we've reached the threshold of stupidity, something else comes along ... As for pulling together, nah. Do you hear much at all in the eastern press about significant radioactive contamination of seafood along the CA coast from Japan's tsunami incident? Is America pulling together to address these concerns? Is it even realistic to expect that Americans along the east coast should care about the left coast?
DeleteWhy not give us the details, mustang.
DeleteWoods Hole (in communist Massachusetts) studied the issue and reported the radiation level in fish and shellfish was not a danger.
Other studies have been in agreement and there have been no indication of danger.
Is there any reason the press should report your non-story?
You have plenty of outlets from Breitfart to Infowars keeping your conspiracy theories alive. Which is a good palce to start investigating why the citizens of the U.S. are at each others throat.
Duck,
DeleteI haven't seen Mustang cite Breitbart or Infowars. Did I miss his citings thereof?
@ Ducky
DeleteI did read a report from Woods Hole written by a scientist, offering an opinion about low risk, a man who was never affiliated with any studies on this issue. He may have also offered an opinion about climate change phenomenon, as well. However, what other scientists are telling us (December 2016) is that there has been the discovery of Cesium 123 in salmon and other seafood products along the California coast and that, contrary to the view of most ignoramuses (which I assume includes you), there is no safe limit to this radioactive contamination. More than this, radioactive iodine 131 was found in municipal water supplies as far away as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts shortly after the initial Fukushima accident. In spite of “low level” pronouncements by governments and fishing industry officials (seeking to lower their legal liability and unquestionably published in national newspapers), medical scientists and epidemiological studies have demonstrated an increased risk of cancer from consuming these contaminated species. Nevertheless, I encourage you to believe what you wish. More than this, I encourage you to increase your diet of Pacific Coast salmon.
Nostradumbass said:
Delete"Why not give us the details, mustang."
Why don't you give us the detail, Nostradumbass? You can just pull them out of your butt or cite Al Gore.
To paraphrase, Mustang, there is no safe level of certain radioactive elements that form in nuclear reactions. What is known is that the higher the level the higher the statistical probability of Cancer.
You are dodging the issue. No study that I am aware of claims there isn't a presence of Cesium in marine life off the West Coast.
DeleteIt would take a significant of consuming large amounts of fish and shellfish to equal the radiation absorbed in one dental x-ray.
Since any study (and that is all of them) which does not corroborate your theories is collusion of some sort it seems you're stuck.
By the way, the iodine in the rainwater was also at a very low level and since the rainwater is significantly diluted in a body of water there has been no detectable amount discovered in reservoirs. I-131 has a half life of a couple days so I'm not going to worry.
Back at you.
No thanks, You're citing things you don't understand, again. Instead I'll say a prayer for you to St Jude.
DeleteBTW, you don't know what a half life is and you're conflating ionizing radiation and total body irradiation with elements that have an affinity for certain body parts and organs then concentrate there.
Like Mustang said, go ahead, eat the fish. If you like I'll see if I can find you some caviar from the Chernobyl cooling pond.
My older brother works for a nuclear power plant in Mississippi and even they have detected the radiation from Japan. It's "harmless" at the level of dispersion from there to Mississippi, but not "non-existent"
DeletePerhaps one ought to take a moment to read to understand the truth encased in the words of the linked article. Division, as well as unity, starts at the top and flows down.
ReplyDeleteThe Trump administration is far afield from unifying this nation. It is actively working to accomplish the exact opposite. Folks closing their ears and eyes to this fact does not make it not so.
A unicameral governments is so much more unified than a bicameral one! Divided government MUST go. We need a Uniparty dictator NOW!
DeleteThe Venezuelan people are united in the collectivo! Hasta Siempre Comandante Maduro!
DeleteWe must become the united STATE of America (Singular). Only THEN will we be truly UN-ITED (oned)!
DeleteNo differences amongst peoples. We must all eat breath and dream the SAME liberal dream!
DeleteThe dream of Rawlsian "justice"... is NOBODY's nightmare!
DeleteSure RNUSA, sure. The Democrats and the press were so gracious and friendly to President Trump, never saying anything hateful about him and his voters.
DeleteWhat a moroon you are. You've been locked in the outhouse too long.
" Division, as well as unity, starts at the top and flows down."
DeleteWitnessing Obama's actions, mierda de los flujos de descenso!
Please excuse me if I didn't conjugate that verb correctly.
;^)
@ Warren ... LOL
DeleteDamn, you folks are funny. Really funny. Keep us laughing, it's good for one's mental health to laugh.
DeleteNow, off to explore the caverns with the 8 year old grandson. Who, BTW, is developing an incredibly independent mind of his own. A beautiful thing to behold.
Enjoy your Tea Time all you patriots of The Great American Melting Pot!
Mental health? *taking off glasses* Are you serious?
DeleteI fear for the physical safety of you and your fellow far left travelers. You are hanging on the far left fringes, sweaty grip slowly losing purchase with sanity.
The violence from the left is frightening. I detect an unhealthy fixation on President Trump. It's all you talk about over there at that progressive blog. Well and good, but the election of President Trump has left you and your friends mentally unbalanced and teetering unsteadily on the edge of an abyss of insanity.
When the legal matters are announced and he is not impeached, I fear an explosion and a nuclear meltdown of insanity on the left.
This doctor's recommendation is that you drop this unhealthy fixation on President Trump, get outdoors and enjoy yourself.
@ Rationalizing Notion:
Delete"Damn, you folks are funny. Really funny. Keep us laughing, it's good for one's mental health to laugh."
I really need to point this out to you. If laughing at someone is good for their mental health, you should be all better now.
My dear Grandmother. who was born in 1894 and raised me until I was 10, taught me that "You shouldn't mock the afflicted!".
Grandmother, please forgive me. It was such low hanging fruit.
Warren,
DeletePlease excuse me if I didn't conjugate that verb correctly.
It's not the conjugation of a verb. You don't have a verb in there; instead, you have a noun ("flujos") trying to serve as a verb and an adjective ("de descenso") trying to serve as an adverb.
Let's see....Try this: La mierda fluye hacia abajo.
Get out plenty. Retired, still working at what I love, three to four days at the gym working out, great times with the grand children, and generally having a ball.
DeleteSo, I'll keep having a blast. You folks get back to your Trump worshipping.
@ AOW.
DeleteThat's what happens when you learn Spanish from drunken, stoned Puerto Ricans. ;^)
La mierda fluye hacia abajo, it is.
Ratturd Nation sounds awful defensive, like he's tryin to convince himself.
DeleteThe stench from his fellow progs he bellyaches with 24/7 over at progressive blogs is clouding his brain, where Donald Trump lives 24/7. Ratturd Nation is seized with Trump Rage. HA HA HA!
Unicameral and bicameral government are both too limiting with respect to bureaucratic dogmatism. Unicameral is dictatorial and bicameral results in precisely what the USA has become. Power switching between parties with the trend over time being towards the left.
DeleteWe need a vibrant multi party system with 3,4, even 5 parties. America is a slightly right of center nation. Not the extreme right the alt movement wishes it to be. Either right or left.
Reporter (Nathan from Lift the Veil Too) mugged and camera stolen by Antifa thugs in San Francisco. He's the "Nazi" in a blue polo.
ReplyDeleteWho the hell is Nathan Stolpman?
DeleteFormer used car salesman and internet actor start-up wannabe.
DeleteA few snippets from the weekend's Berkeley mayhem.
DeleteLooks as if anarchy won the day.
Hey, BAF.
DeleteTake a look at Heavens Part, Lions and Lambs Lie Down Together, Washington Post REPORTS THE TRUTH.
Anybody who witnessed Patriot Prayers press conference on Saturday had to admit there was no racist intent behind the cancelled demonstration. And then to see them get pummeled by Antifa the following Sunday HAD to have given a number of reporters cause to question the Pelosi narrative.
DeleteArpaio's biggest crime was enforcing the law, something the progressives hated
ReplyDeleteYou know what? I see on my TV screen and my computer screen all sorts of people out in the street and yelling at each other? But I have yet to see anything like that in person.
ReplyDeleteWhatever.
I do wonder this, though...
How can so many people be out in the streets? Don't they have JOBS? Classes to attend? Household chores and home maintenance to do?
ATTENTION, COMMENTERS!
ReplyDeleteDOES NOBODY WANT TO ADDRESS THE SPECIFIC QUESTIONS POSTED BY SILVERFIDDLE? SEE THE BODY OF THE BLOG POST.
In the hopes of getting this discussion thread back on track (as I mentioned in my comment of 8:50 AM today....
ReplyDeleteWhat binds us together as a nation?
It used to be that Americans were bound by adhering to the Bill of Rights -- albeit imperfectly. In fact, we fought a civil war over the parameters of the power of the individual states vs. the power of the central government -- and, in the latter years of the war, we fought over the matter of slavery, which had, indeed, a Constitutional basis. That Constitution was ratified by all of the 13 colonies.
I wonder if we became more divided as a result of the civil war -- even though the Union forces won.
I'll attempt to answer the questions seriously. Of course since these are my own opinions, I'm not going to preface every statement with, 'it is my opinion', 'I think' or other disclaimers.
DeleteMany of them were addressed in the comments abet, somewhat indirectly.
What binds us together as a nation?
Mustang addressed this question in the same fashion I would. i.e. "Our country is divided into thirds ... and always has been. One-third opposed the Revolutionary War; one-third supported it; one-third didn’t care one way or the other".
What came to unite us was the overreaching of the British Empire and a disinterested ruler in the person of King George III who refused to hear or address our grievances.
"Are we more fractured now than...
... during the revolutionary war?
... during the civil war?
... Vietnam era?
... Civil rights movement?
... "the sixties?"
"
No.
But we do have an organized left wing, complete with a state of the art agitprop machine, the MSM, who have infiltrated academia and the so-called social sciences. It relentlessly bombards our airways, print media and Internet 24/7. That tends to make us seem to be outnumbered. We also have a Republican "elite", always willing to "compromise" and push the Overton Window farther to the left.
Let me add, a historian once said, (to paraphrase), the greatest change the Civil War brought about was that prior to the war the US was thought of as 'the United States are now we say, the United States is.'(separate, united as a confederation of states, as opposed to, thought of as single entity). I'm not saying that's a good thing but it's definitely a sign that people, at some level, believe us more United on the whole than prior to the Civil War.
"What bound us together then? Do those ties still exist today?
Heeding Mustang's comment, (3rds), we need to carve out a plurality from the middle or fight for common goals and I hate chasing the left for a common anything as they constantly run the goal posts up and down the field.
What values do we all share?
Dealing with those that would literally kill the figurative goose that laid the golden egg, what values could we possibly share. How can you even know what their values are when they believe that the ends justify the means and everything thing is relative or a tool of "oppression"?
"What does it mean to be an American?"
I can tell you what I believe it should mean and why but according to the left it doesn't mean anything.
"What does America represent?"
See above replacing mean with represent(s).
"What distinguishes the United States of America from other nations?"
Our Constitution which acknowledges the Rights granted by natures God that none may take away.
"Are we still a nation?"
Technically, yes. Factually, we are a house divided against itself.
My own opinion: Historically, people here in the US felt more allegiance to their clan, town, region or state. Much of the flag-waving patriotism was invented by Wilsonian progressives to march us to war.
ReplyDeleteNot that people did not love or appreciate the United States of America, but rather it was an overarching concept, a protection of each community, region and state's ability to set their course and live their lives.
Other than the periodic upheavals we read about in history books, the federal government played a minuscule to nonexistent role in the lives of most Americans.
People, communities, regions and states were largely free to form their own societies and usually didn't worry about what other societies over the mountains or on the other side of the nation were up to, unless some catastrophe happened and you suddenly had sad caravans of Okies flooding into your state.
Now, we are all up in each others grills 24/7, demanding conformance based upon national consensus as expressed by social media. It will never work.
SF,
DeleteHistorically, people here in the US felt more allegiance to their clan, town, region or state. Much of the flag-waving patriotism was invented by Wilsonian progressives to march us to war.
Wow! That took me back to what my father said about Wilson and flag waving so as to justify and cheer on "the war to end all wars" "to make the world safe for democracy."
But there was still patriotism, a sense of loving our republic. For example, all grammar school children (my grandmother's term) knew the words to our national anthem. Now? I find that few young people (ages 10 through 17) know the words -- much less their meaning.
Now, we are all up in each others grills 24/7, demanding conformance based upon national consensus as expressed by social media. It will never work.
We are a sad and angry people -- at least too many of us.
At the Atlantic:
ReplyDeleteHow America Lost Its Mind: The nation’s current post-truth moment is the ultimate expression of mind-sets that have made America exceptional throughout its history.
Agree or disagree, this essay is worth reading.
It's interesting, I'll give it that. I read that essay as rant against half of America dressed up in pseudointellectualism and throwing in a few concessions that, yeah this also can happen on the left.
DeleteWe are positively awash in hogwash, and its being slung at us from all sides. The left's remedy (unstated in this essay, but brazenly advocated in others) is less speech, conversational referees and government-curated news.
Sorry, lefties, Walter Cronkite has left the building.
Progressives love making too much of American "myths," with the ultimate aim of tearing them all down. First you must destroy before you can construct your correct vision of America.
Well, every nation, peoples, families, even individuals have their own myths, defined as a collection of beliefs and stories ranging from cold reality, to events embroidered and embellished, to outright apocrypha, but all serving to transmit fundamental truths and explain the otherwise unexplainable.
Such myths serve to bind people together and they form the basis of societal norms and shared mores. Think of the virtues taught by ancient Greek philosophers.
When the crowd gets too big, it's damn near impossible to order a pizza we can all agree on.
Try to gather all the disparate tribes together, a clash of cultures is inevitable.
I can't decide if this too shall pass, or if we are experiencing an apocalyptic weltanschauungkrieg.
SF,
DeleteI can't decide if this too shall pass, or if we are experiencing an apocalyptic weltanschauungkrieg.
I think that we're going to find out!
SF,
DeleteI think that some of the essay is accurate. Remember, I was on a college campus from 1968-1972.
AOW, I was not dismissing it, and the section where he discussed the 60's was the most solidly-grounded, imo.
DeleteIndeed it was an interesting essay. Something for everyone to agree or disagree with. Being published in the Atlantic the tendency would be for liberals to generally embrace and conservatives to generally dismiss. At least IMO and I believe this is unfortunate.
DeleteFor me the central theme was to seek reality as supported by known provable facts, not the unprovable; ie fiction or fantasy.
But I suppose being neither a conventional conservative or conventional liberal makes one a questioning contraction. Actual a comfortable place to be.
RN: You are a conventional squish, and yeah, you are a questionable contraction.
DeleteWhat arrogance to hold yourself up as a morally-superior person who questions both sides, etc.
Do you read the other comments here? More importantly, can you comprehend them, or are they above your reading comprehension, you sanctimonious boob?
Well Patsy, could you define what exactly you mean by conventional squish. As well as how you arrive at your determination as it relates to those who might disagree with current trends in conservative thought.
DeleteYou are the one who chooses to use morally-superior person to describe me. I do not hold myself as being in that position.
Yes I do read other comments, I read yours. And yes, I compressed them without difficulty. Reading and comprehension has nothing to do with agreeing. Which you apparently believe must be the end result.
What binds us together as a nation?
ReplyDeleteFor Progressives, it's belief in the KKK and NAZI's (fascists). Without the KKK, the work of the Civil Rights movement would be complete and all their identity politics unnecessary. Without the NAZI's, our post-WWII globalist economics policies would be unnecessary and we'd have to get back to Trump nationalism.
Let's face it, the only reason for Democrats to exist today is to oppose the new-Klan and punch Neo-Nazis.
Time to tone down the fear-mongering, reduce the size and scope of Government, bring the "trusts" (including corporations) under the too-big-to-fail monstrosities they've become, and get back to mom and pop petty bourgeois capitalism, raising families, and the pursuit of local sovereignty (state's rights, county, rights, city rights, parish rights).
DeleteIf the myth of the racist-fascist American were to disappear for 99% of grass-root Americans, the Democratic Party would disappear overnight. It would have no raison d'etre
DeleteAs our old friend the ever-delightful Right Wing Anger Maven MICHAEL SAVAGE has said time and time again with admirable succinctness.
ReplyDeleteA nation is basucally defined by three things, and three things only "BORDERS –– LANGUAGE –– CULTURE."
This may be categorized as IRRELEVANT to this particularTOPIC, but given the immediate 'fallout" from President Trump's welcome pardoning of Arizona's beloved Sheridff, Joe Arpai, now 85 years old, I feel co pelled to share this piece of new0 unted verse:
ReplyDeleteVery frankly I'm just DYIN'
To see Paul RYAN
KICKED OUT CRYIN.'
I am hopin' and not LYIN'
To see who gets the first kick VYIN.'
In case you haven't hearfd, Ryan came out firsquare against Pfresident Trump's Pardon of Sheriff Joe.
That makes Ryan a stinkin' rotten quas -lefitist CREEP in my book.
I hope the lousy bastard gets kicked out with with HOB-NAILED BOOTS.
I agree, and nice poetry, btw.
DeleteRyan will not be primaried, but he could get taken out in November 2018 by The Iron Stache
I predict he wins reelection. He may be the biggest overhyped failure since New Coke, but he knows how to take care of his district.
In my recent dealings with the VA, I noticed the mailing address for the VA Processing Center had changed to... Jaynesville WI.
SF,
DeleteIn my recent dealings with the VA, I noticed the mailing address for the VA Processing Center had changed to... Jaynesville WI.
Clever move, huh?
Today at Infidel Bloggers Alliance, my friend and radio show co-host posted this:
ReplyDeleteE Pluribus ….. Exitium? Worth reading, IMO.
Two years of national service would be a great idea.
DeleteThe Rand Paul crew would go bonkers and the limousine liberals would be looking for deferments but you could probably get a bipartisan movement.
The two-years national service should be in a greatly-expanded Peace Corps, helping people in impoverished lands.
DeleteMost high schools in this area require x-number of volunteer service hours as one of the requirements of a high school diploma. Problem: the students very rarely venture out of their own zip codes (or, as is the case here in Northern Virginia, nearby Super Zip Codes, a term mentioned by Charles Murray in Coming Apart).
DeleteBut within a short distance from our local high-end public schools system, we have impoverished areas (Route 1, parts of D.C. and Baltimore). How many high school students do their volunteer service in those location? None as far as I know. I suppose that the issue of safety is that which prevents volunteer service in those areas.
So, SF, these high school volunteers don't have to travel to impoverished lands. Service can be started earlier than age 18.
This is not to say that I oppose the kind of national service you mentioned. On the contrary, I support the idea. But I can, as Duck mentioned, foresee many deferments. Many parents are adamantly opposed to any path other than graduate-in-June-then-go-to-college-three-months-later.
I harbor the dangerously-liberal notion that our nation--and other nations--would have benefited greatly from more Peace Corps interventions and less military ones. Not in all cases, but in most.
DeleteI also believe that the sanctimonious lecturers on the left would enhance their credibility--and maybe even learn something--by getting some firsthand experience.
The Latino activists are the worst. Because they have a Hispanic last name and majored in Chicano studies (while never leaving the US), they get to use CNN and other global platforms to lecture the rest of us.
My other Latin American veterans and I liked to say they got their degrees from Taco Bell U. If you've actually lived and worked south of the border, you realize how totally full of $#*t they are, and saddest of all, they don't even realize it. They really think they know what they are talking about.
I also think it would be a healthy thing for our society if we had millions of people who had lived and worked in other nations (not vacationed there) and seen real poverty up close.
SF,
DeleteI also think it would be a healthy thing for our society if we had millions of people who had lived and worked in other nations (not vacationed there) and seen real poverty up close.
Sure, but those living in the Super Zips will never comply.
Right, Left, and Center, they remain in their locked ivory towers of cognitive bias. In my view, this is a major problem playing into America's division today.
Again, Charles Murray's Coming Apart.
There will always be a country between Canada and Mexico, but not the nation to which we've given our love and allegiance.
ReplyDeleteEgg-ZACK-Lee!!!
DeleteFrom This is What Has Always Made America Great:
ReplyDeleteI don’t know his name. I don’t need to know his name. He represents everything I’ve always believed America is about. Despite our tenuous grip on a once pronounced national moral fiber, despite our contentious politics and divided loyalties, there remains an inherent goodness and self-sacrificial strain in the hearts of Americans that emerges in times of trouble.
It was evident when people from the Midwest drove through the night to New York City the day the towers fell, armed with shovels, flashlights, and water, just in case they could get through to help.
And it was evident when a reporter approached an unknown man and his friend who had pulled their boat behind the back of a pick-up truck onto the flooded streets of Texas. The two men, one white, one black, began preparing the boat for launch when the news crew approached them.
If you haven’t seen the stirringly simple exchange it went like this:...
Read the rest at the link.
More Kumbaya moments from the peach-loving Left.
ReplyDeleteTo this outsider, America is defined by her optimism.
ReplyDeleteJez,
DeleteThank you for that.