Writes Sarah Vowell in "Civil War: I’m Against It!" (NYT).
August 28, 2022
"My nephew used to play a video game in which he gave digital haircuts to bears. That is less absurd than..."
"... founding two new separate 'blue' and 'red' countries. The party leanings of states can be fluid. Colorado, for instance — it’s almost as if a secret cabal of tech millionaires shoveled a mountain of cash into turning a Republican state into a Democratic one. The federal government owns almost 50 percent of the land out West, so how to divvy it up without antagonizing thrifty New Englanders? What would happen to swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania? Do they form a third Republic of Wishy-Washy?
Somewhere around 40 percent of us do not live in the state where we were born.... How much of Florida’s economy is New Yorkers and Midwesterners waiting around to die?... Here in Montana, a state as deep red as a Flathead cherry, I’m a Democrat living in a blue county bigger than Delaware. Still, Republicans live among us and they look just like people. (Hi, Larry.) It’s hard to pick them out unless they step in front of the C-SPAN camera to fist-bump Ted Cruz.
Mid-pandemic I stood in line for hamburgers between a snarling blonde who chewed me out for wearing a face mask and a high school classmate’s brother keen to talk about the Times linguistics newsletter writer John McWhorter. Both of my neighbors ordered French fries cooked in the same vat of oil. Where is the demarcation line in that scenario — the milkshake machine?"
Writes Sarah Vowell in "Civil War: I’m Against It!" (NYT).
Writes Sarah Vowell in "Civil War: I’m Against It!" (NYT).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
77 comments:
“ Still, Republicans live among us and they look just like people.”
Nice.
I have a bizarre set of ideas. I know some of you will laugh me out of the room here, but bear with me.
What if...we let states mostly govern themselves, subject to some very broad constraints that could be written out in just a few pages. Now, because we share a great big chunk of the North American landmass, it might be worth having a government above the states that provides for the common defense. A single currency would sure help. Free trade compacts across the lot of us.
Also, because making societal decisions politically means that up to half the electorate is going to be disappointed or pissed at any given time, let's try to handle our arrangements privately, and government only if necessary, and at the lowest level of government that can handle whatever it is.
You may say I'm a dreamer....
Blogger Bobber Fleck said...
I found this in the morning news:
Kathy Hochul delivered a message to the state’s more than five million registered Republicans. Get out. She literally said that all New York Republicans should “jump on a bus” and move to Florida “where you belong.” She topped that demand off with a claim that Republicans “are not New Yorkers.
but you're not the only one,
This hate speech should get Joe Biden banned from Twitter
https://mobile.twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1563625148418236416
It’s incitement to violence.
Well, no one said the divorce would be easy.
You won't see the Times calling the children who stomped a cab driver's brains out on the pavement inhumane or animalistic, but their op-ed writers are permitted to joke about all Republicans not being human or capable of civility or intelligence.
And this is her idea of not starting a civil war? Sounds more like a justification for a final solution. Vowell has always been a half-wit. The gibberish about vats of oil and ice cream machines drives that point home.
One way to avoid civil is to quit spreading the lie that Trump called Nazi and White Supremacist fine people. He explicitly excluded them while noting both sides (Republican and Democrat) are fine people. Instead, we now have Biden calling Republicans "semi-fascist", which is in line with Hillary's "basket of deplorables". And "Still, Republicans live among us and they look just like people. " isn't helping. When you treat half the country as the enemy, eventually they will be.
There is also the recent comments by NY Governor Kathy Hochul as mentioned earlier.
Great Sarah.
But the road away from war begins with acknowledging which side is the bad actor. Which side is using government to punish its political enemies? Which side is being protected and supported by government cabals and the media? The civil war is coming because the Democrats love power more than they love our country.
She may not be interested in civil war, but civil war is interested in her. That's why they call it war.
There are no breaks on the pain train, and little mizz Vowell is on somebody's list for her eventual dehumanizing op-ed of her opposition at some point in the near future.
The internet is forever biatch.
You may say I'm a dreamer....
When did lefties, anywhere in the world, ever leave anyone alone? The whole point of being a lefty is power, whether it's a President issuing edicts or wannabe block commissar who would trade her first-born child for an armband and a whistle.
The fact that so many of their adversaries have a fruit-loop-crazy worldview should be a great advantage for Republicans.
Should be, anyway. Why isn’t it?
My favorite “fine people” nonsense came from the Bulwark, the writer both claimed to have been there in opposition to tearing down the monument, and declared that Trump could not have been talking about him, clearly Trump was only talking about nazis; logic was just broken.
Meanwhile these guys are giving heavy weapons to nazis with burning race hatred overseas. it’s more confession by projection from our ruling class.
civil wars are entirely uncivil, the American one certainly was among the least divisive, the Spanish Mexican Russian were savage in the last 50 years lebanon, bosnia, most recently syria,
So what she's saying is that in a civil war, there will be a lot of population displacement? It'll be hard for Democrats who control state legislatures to push through a secession act like they did in 1860 in places like Tennessee. Or I read once, but didn't confirm that they'd found the act of secession in Georgia had been to not really have been approved. In any case, Georgia immediately had to send militia to occupy several northern counties to prevent their secession back to the Union. And Gen. Grant considered the Battle of Chattanooga to be the first step in liberating East Tennessee and ending the occupation of the Tennessee Valley by Confederacy.
When she speaks of a large Blue county, is it really just a large county with a lot of concentrated Blue voters in the urban area? I was recently looking at a map with dots of color in a sea of grey. The color was on the urban counties, which were a fair number if tiny in area, with the image showing that half the population lived in those urban counties and the other have lived in the much more expansive grey areas.
A civil war would not have well defined boundaries and wouldn't be the much taught eastern campaigns, but much more like Bloody Kansas before the war. Few seem to consider that a war would be more insurgency with populations mixed. Or that regardless of which side won, the winner could never let the losing side vote again, or be equal citizens. As such, America would be gone, even if the United States was held intact.
I have a bizarre set of ideas. I know some of you will laugh me out of the room here, but bear with me.
What if...we let states mostly govern themselves, subject to some very broad constraints that could be written out in just a few pages. Now, because we share a great big chunk of the North American landmass, it might be worth having a government above the states that provides for the common defense. A single currency would sure help. Free trade compacts across the lot of us.
You're an idiot. We already tried that, and it failed.
She's an annoying person, but she's right about the difficulty of dividing up the country. If you go abroad, you realize how much Americans have in common, how much there is still a common culture or lifestyle, and if you actually talk to people here, you realize how fed up most of the country is with politics and politicians.
Someone had a "United Counties of America" idea. It's madness. Do you really want to go through four border crossings to get to work or to visit relatives or check out colleges or go up to the lake house? "Population exchange" didn't work out very well in India, either. I disagree with the prevailing political opinions in my state, but I don't feel like moving to a place where I would feel less at home for other reasons.
We can't really devolve power to the states either. We gave the federal government an unlimited power to tax, and print money, and go into debt, so the states are dependent on Washington DC. Maybe overtaxation, inflation, indebtedness, and the collapse of the federal credit rating will bring the whole edifice down, but in that case we may all just be struggling to get by.
The fact that so many of their adversaries have a fruit-loop-crazy worldview should be a great advantage for Republicans.
Should be, anyway. Why isn’t it?
Because the media treats that crazy worldview like it was sane and the only one decent people could hold, and because there's always some Republican who says something stupid that the Democrats can make fun of.
I used to love her essays on this American Life. Her essay about going to one of George W Bush’s inaugurals was a delight. She is one of those rare liberals I’ve heard profess love for our country without sounding jingoistic. There’s a way of expressing love of country without having to resort to an inauthentic rhetoric that turns me off. I found that voice, if you will, when I joined tea party rallies in New Jersey. That voice is there in what Nixon referred to as the silent majority.
She is not against a civil war.
The regime she supports is burning down cities.
The regime she supports is looting businesses.
The regime she supports is committing blood libels and using a state media to lie incessantly.
The regime she supports is is using the FBI to persecute her political opponents.
The regime she supports is murdering police officers, defunding their departments.
The regime she supports is forcing companies to fire people who do not go along with illegal federal mandates.
The regime she supports has been violently assaulting conservatives on college campuses for years.
The regime she supports is forcing companies to censor their political opponents.
The regime she supports is opening our borders to anyone who wants to come in.
The regime she supports is openly discriminating based on race and is segregating institutions installing Jim Crow 2.0.
The democrat party is already engaged in a civil war. She absolutely supports all of the above.
What she is really against her political opponents fighting back against her Regime's violence and persecution and censorship.
What really upsets her is she is a fascist shithead and she can't look in the mirror.
When did lefties, anywhere in the world, ever leave anyone alone?
Exactly. We moved from CA to AZ 5 years ago. Most of the kids and grand kids are still there and were unhappy that we left. I have watched the deterioration of Los Angeles and even Orange County from afar and that's how I want it. My wife is a 4th generation native of CA and she gets the twitch from LA traffic now.
JPS said...
What if...we let states mostly govern themselves, subject to some very broad constraints that could be written out in just a few pages. Now, because we share a great big chunk of the North American landmass, it might be worth having a government above the states that provides for the common defense. A single currency would sure help. Free trade compacts across the lot of us.
THAT is The Most Blatantly Unconstitutional thing, i've EVER read!!
What's Next? Letting States act like laboratories ?
I'm pretty sure the FBI (Shield and Sword of the Democrat Party) will be looking to talk to YOU!
’Where is the demarcation line in that scenario…’
Your side of the line will have drag queen seminars and pronoun drills. Moose out front should have told you.
Why is she so convinced that the McWhorter fan is a Democrat?
Dave Begley said...
[“ Still, Republicans live among us and they look just like people.”]
"Nice."
I don't think she really believes that.
Gosh. I hope the FBI has an R Files office.
"Should be, anyway. Why isn’t it?"
Passionate intensity wins wars of all kinds. I despise today's Democrat Party, but I admire their willingness to do whatever is necessary to win, and I despise the Republican Party's willingness to lay down and take it. We are probably going to see the same result in November that we saw in November 2020- an avalanche of last minute mail-in-votes that changes the outcomes of every important race being run, and the passel of possums that make up the Republican Party leadership will roll over and play dead as usual.
"Civil War: I’m Against It!"
Then tell the NYT to stop fighting. And the FBI and the MSM generally and the universities and the trans activists and the renamers and the BLM rioters and the defunders and the CRT promoters and the cakeshop attackers and the pregnancy center arsonists and Joe "they're semi-fascist" Biden.
A Civil Cold War has been going on for a long time. The only question remaining is which side you are on. Being "against it" is not a side but just a form of denial.
That war is interested in you even if you are a nice woman who is "against it."
Both of my neighbors ordered French fries cooked in the same vat of oil.
==========
which eatery offers customers their selection of vats of oil for fries cookery?
"Civil War: I’m Against It!"
============
what does this even mean? pacifism or fence-sitting like carrion birds
[“ Still, Republicans live among us and they look just like people.”]
=========
but how do they present olfactorily?
A civil war would not have well defined boundaries and wouldn't be the much taught eastern campaigns, but much more like Bloody Kansas before the war. Few seem to consider that a war would be more insurgency with populations mixed. Or that regardless of which side won, the winner could never let the losing side vote again, or be equal citizens. As such, America would be gone, even if the United States was held intact.
===========
if only there was stream video from Ukraine reality war show to enlighten us
Very cute writing.
Narayanan said...
Both of my neighbors ordered French fries cooked in the same vat of oil.
==========
which eatery offers customers their selection of vats of oil for fries cookery?
***********
Which vats filled with boiling frying oil retain live viruses?
This isn't the same as finding traces of covid or polio in waste water.
But I don't think the writer knows the difference.
In Colorado during the pandemic a snarling blonde screamed at me for not wearing a face mask while we passed each other on our bicycles 25 feet apart on an otherwise empty street.
Good call. In a civil war a leftie in Montana doesn’t stand a chance…
@Narayanan
"Bleeding Kansas"
A guy I served with and stay in pretty close contact, who is also not 'entirely there' but still a cool dude, told me he'd started recording addresses and license plate numbers of people he saw with opposing political yads signs and bumper stickers, right around the time the 'fascist' rhetoric heated up post-2016.
I'd like to think he's a 'one-off', but I'm pretty sure he's not. You're right to mention the border war. It would look very very much like exactly that.
“When she speaks of a large Blue county, is it really just a large county with a lot of concentrated Blue voters in the urban area? I was recently looking at a map with dots of color in a sea of grey. The color was on the urban counties, which were a fair number if tiny in area, with the image showing that half the population lived in those urban counties and the other have lived in the much more expansive grey areas.”
My memory is that Flathead County isn’t that overwhelmingly Democratic. That’s only Missoula, and maybe Helena. Randy Weaver lived there, I believe, until his death earlier this year, having escaped from N ID after his wife and son were executed by the Feds. Where we live is deep Red, and telling party affiliation is typically very easy - Republican candidate signs have elephants on them, while the signs for Dems have no party affiliation. Every time I think about moving to somewhere like Missoula or Kallispell for the shopping and airport, something comes up to remind me of the idiocy that inevitably ensues when you get enough Democrats together. For example - the screaming match I got into last year in the Albertsons by campus in Missoula about masking. The new Republican Governor had just waived masking, but Missoula was trying to soldier on alone, secure in their moral superiority.
Nasty people. And that is the problem. My partner was telling someone earlier today that Montanans don’t care about the color of your skin, your religion, etc. If you are broken down on the side of the road, they will stop and help. Well, maybe unless you have CA or NY plates. We go out of town to see her doctors, and I reward one neighbor for watching our house with a six pack of beer. I got the 78 year old behind us to help put the rocket box back on my Audi last week. I am supposed to get some noxious weed stuff for the road sides from the county. Everyone is really civil to each other, even my political opponent in the neighborhood, whose wife wants to tear down my new ultra-garage for violating her sacred HOA covenants. He is a retired Navy captain/commodore, used to ordering people around, and I am a retired attorney who reads legal documents better than he can. Everyone goes along to get along, and helps everyone else when it is needed. Biggest problem this year is the scarcity of good tradesmen. If you do good work, you are booked six months out. And it is inevitably really good work. Last summer it was the fire. What we call Good People. And that is what is behind Yancey’s dilemma.
One thing about civil war is that one's opinion of whether it is a good idea or a bad idea matters less, a lot less, than the war going on around you. Sure, one could safely be for or against the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine, and so on. Those weren't being performed here. But a civil war in the US eliminates the option of your opinion counting for anything at all.
Hope the war never happens, but the surprised faces of those involved shouldn't be a surprise to anyone else.
narciso said...
civil wars are entirely uncivil, the American one certainly was among the least divisive, the Spanish Mexican Russian were savage in the last 50 years lebanon, bosnia, most recently syria,
The American Civil War was divisive at the time. Unlike most civil wars, the split wasn't among sectarian or language or ancestry lines. The split was strictly- did you want a slave nation or not? (And now come all the people to say BUT THE WAR WASN'T ABOUT SLAVERY!) All those stories about father against son, brother against brother, cousin against cousin? Every one of them is present in my family tree. My Southern ancestors were very split- my Northern ones weren't. Southern family members rained artillery down on a set of my 3rd and 4th great-grandparents durng the 2nd Battle of Drewrey's Bluff.
And the officers directing the armies? Well, they had all trained together and were of the same social class. They all respected each other. No longstanding hatred or amniosity between them. Something that exists in almost every other civil war. And it wasn't an uprising of one class against another- like the French Revolution.
Hence at the end of the war, the one issue that caused the division between North and South, slavery, was eliminated. No longstanding grievances between groups existed, nothing that could rekindle a war again in the future. So basically both sides exhibited a forgive and forget attitude and went about America's business of business.
If-when we have the next one, it will be just a viscious as the first one. The end, as the last one, will depend on which sides wins.
"Civil War: I’m Against It!"
Said by someone who expects that her preferences will be forced on those who disagree.
Nice.
RideSpaceMountain said...
@Narayanan
"Bleeding Kansas"
A guy I served with and stay in pretty close contact, who is also not 'entirely there' but still a cool dude, told me he'd started recording addresses and license plate numbers of people he saw with opposing political yads signs and bumper stickers, right around the time the 'fascist' rhetoric heated up post-2016.
I'd like to think he's a 'one-off', but I'm pretty sure he's not. You're right to mention the border war. It would look very very much like exactly that.
Unless we know the same person- he's not a one off. And the people who do that- they only tell people they trust- so you're safe from him. The ones doing it who never tell anyone- they're the ones who'll trigger it when the line, wherever it is, is crossed. The ones who've told others- they're the second wave. Then, the rest of us will have to choose sides.
Cowardly bullies think compelling speech with threats of violence is a viable solution.
The truth is you people don't have the gumption the fitness the experience the intelligence to pull off a civil war. You keep threatening it because it is soothing to the Bone chilling pain of your own impotence.
Blogger Leland said...
One way to avoid civil is to quit spreading the lie that Trump called Nazi and White Supremacist fine people.
If a civil war does start, the first thing that happens in blue cities is that all citizens will be visited at home by “representatives” of the collective committee and be relieved of any property that can be used to “ support the revolution.”
If a civil war does start, the first thing that happens in blue cities is that all citizens will be visited at home by “representatives” of the collective committee and be relieved of any property that can be used to “ support the revolution.”
She's right. Dividing the country would be messy, destructive, solve almost nothing, and make everything worse. It's dumb to even talk about it as though it's something anybody should root for.
I may have mentioned that I divide my time between the reddest and bluest parts of this country, and in neither place have I ever heard a single person express the desire to murder their fellow citizens over political differences. But I’ve also spent significant time in places that are 53-47 Republican and 53-47 Democrat, and they are far more similar than they are different. The idea we would work all that up into a “Second Civil War” is so laughably, LARPishly juvenile — it’s the dopey kind of thing young men say online when they haven’t been out of their mother’s basement for five years.
@rehajm - no question. Our Republican Justice of the Peace teaches gun classes. When I got my concealed carry permit, and the woman who is in charge asked about training, I told her that I had just taken his Basic Handgun class (again) and he would attest to it. We then spent the next 10 minutes comparing notes on it (he teaches a very effective point and shoot method). Probably half the people working in the courthouse, any given day, are armed. And most have carry permits (no longer necessary in MT). Male bonding often takes the form of pulling our and comparing pocket guns, then proceeding to truck guns.
Almost everyone has at least one gun in the house, and many have many more. They are tools traded around, treated little different from trucks and chainsaws. Sold a Polaris several years ago, and probably half the offers for it included firearms as part of the deal on the other side. Eventually went for the one with a nice, overvalued, .40 H&K HSP. Gave it back when he lost his job and couldn’t finish paying it off. What’s going to be interesting is that our resident former FBI agent sold, with the reputed largest gun collection in the neighborhood, sold his house to an ER Doc with wife and kids. They are from the Seattle area, which is worrisome, but his father, another Doc, works in the same hospital. We shall see. When I met his wife, I warned her about the bears we had been seeing in the neighborhood, and to talk to the people across the street from her, who spend a lot of time on their back porch nature watching, and are usually the first to see bears. Of course, he is much more likely to see the aftermath of stupid pre-venisons jumping out in front of vehicles. Or probably even bear attacks. The girl who watches out cat works at the vet (who is married to the guy who built my garage), and was headed into work a month or two ago, and (of course) swerved to miss a deer, rolled her Jeep, and ended up in the hospital in Missoula, with a number of broken ribs, and minus a spleen. That meant a bunch of trips with the poor cat along. We think he used to enjoy flying. Not so much anymore. But she is back dropping by before and after work to see to his needs, while we are out of town.
The other thing though is that there are an awful lot of retired combat troops living in rural America. Blacks, in the military, tend to have gone in to gain marketable skills, while rural whites often go in to fight for their country. Which is why the argument that Red America couldn’t fight the attack planes and tanks controlled by the Blue political elites - current serving combat troops are greatly outnumbered by their retired brethren in Red America, and the latter often have much more combat experience. The two sons of our JP, mentioned above, served as Air Force embeds in Special Forces teams - their job was calling down close air support, when needed (but were shooters the rest of the time, until they had the rank to command their teams). Having been at the tip of spear for so many years in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, can anyone believe that they don’t know more about close air support than those still in the military? One story about them - when they were growing up, their father was an MT game warden (before he was the JP). Much of his job was bear control. So, he would dart the bears, and more often than not, they would fall out of the tree on their own. But when they didn’t, one of the boys would go up the tree and engage in what they called “bear tipping”, which meant pushing the now asleep bear out of the tree.
Perhaps we could start by teaching everyone the meaning of the word "state". Especially as understood up to the 20th century.
It is not synonymous with province, county, shire, metropolis or or other political subdivision.
It is not a sub-division at all.
It is synonymous with country or nation. A "state" is sovereign and independent. It may enter into compacts with other states as in the case of the United States of America or the European Union.
It may delegate some of its powers to the union, such as the power to coin (though not print) money, raise a navy and other common interests.
It does not give up its sovereignty by doing to.
Our constitution is very clear throughout. The individual states, not the United States of America, retain their sovereignty except as specifically delegated (not given or ceded).
Inspired by JPS first comment.
John LGBTQ+ Henry
Kurt Schlichter has written a series of future histories on what an actual Civil War might look like. 5 books so far. All good reads whatever you might feel about the politics.
Another good series that I have read 8 of so far is Behind Every Blade of Grass by Ira Tarbanken. Sort of a Civil war. China invades the US, some of the states are on China's side, some aren't. I've blown through the books at about 1 every 2-3 days and they are excellent. Again, as Clancyesque techno thrillers regardless of political views.
John LGBTQ+ Henry
"Thrifty New Englanders"?
That's joke, right??
Michael K said...
"Exactly. We moved from CA to AZ 5 years ago. Most of the kids and grand kids are still there and were unhappy that we left. I have watched the deterioration of Los Angeles and even Orange County from afar and that's how I want it. My wife is a 4th generation native of CA and she gets the twitch from LA traffic now."
We just finished a road trip through Canada, down the West Coast to Southern California, then through the Midwest and back to PA where we live now. Had to go through Ohio twice. I wish we could bypass Columbus. Our family left Southern California in 1991 so I was used to traffic there, and it's worse now than it was then, but it's nothing compared to the inconsiderate drivers in greater Columbus. Between that, and the suicidal unmuffled motorcycle riders that cruise by at 100mph+ at full rev, I'll take CA.
Last time I checked there were about 3,600 US counties, and more than 3,100 went for Trump in2016.
Check out election maps by county — a sea of red. In a real civil war, where would battle lines be drawn?
This Lily livered libtard who wants all of you people to move out of New York State sounds as ridiculous as you people complaining about californicators.
The funny thing is is that when you go into upstate New York it definitely has the same flavor of central Pennsylvania North Central Florida and the Alabama Mississippi Louisiana gray matter free zone.
Everyone should experience that by driving through beautiful well maintained rural Vermont for a while and then transition into dirty sloppy New York.
Vowell is a hate filled Leftist and like most leftist doens't want the USA to breakout NOW. The Left thinks they can get a 50.1 percent majority in DC, control all three branches and then ram through lots of radical legislation and most importantly:
Rig the rules, so the Republicans never retake power again.
That's why vowel thinks a breakup, "absurd". HOwever, common deceny says we must break up the USA now. We cannot live with hatefilled power mad Liberal/leftist who want imprison any Ex-Presideent or any Republican leader who challenges their power. Or "Cancel" any center-right voice that violates their every changing "rules" about what can be discussed or said.
The liberal/left isn't going to change. Conservatives have been playing this, "Gosh, we'll just appeal to their reason, and point out their errors, and they'll stop being crazy and go back to being normal Americans". Hasn't happened in 20 years. Instead, they liberal/left has gotten more batshit crazy. And more authoritarian and full of hate.
WE need to breakup the USA now. We cannot leave in peace in one country.
Vowell is a hate filled Leftist and like most leftist doens't want the USA to breakout NOW. The Left thinks they can get a 50.1 percent majority in DC, control all three branches and then ram through lots of radical legislation and most importantly:
Rig the rules, so the Republicans never retake power again.
That's why vowel thinks a breakup, Absurd. HOwever, common deceny says we must break up the USA now. We cannot live with hatefilled power mad Liberal/leftist who want imprison any Ex-Presideent or any Republican leader who challenges their power. Or "Cancel" any center-right voice that violates their every changing "rules" about what can be discussed or said.
The liberal/left isn't going to change. Conservatives have been playing this, "Gosh, we'll just appeal to their reason, and point out their errors, and they'll stop being crazy and go back to being normal Americans". Hasn't happened in 20 years. Instead, they liberal/left has gotten more batshit crazy. And more authoritarian and full of hate.
WE need to breakup the USA now. We cannot leave in peace in one country.
“If a civil war does start, the first thing that happens in blue cities is that all citizens will be visited at home by “representatives” of the collective committee and be relieved of any property that can be used to “ support the revolution.”
That’s the problem when your ideology is an Affluent Whitey and Underclass coalition. In an extreme situation (and extreme situations arrive very quickly in cities), the latter is going to eat the former first. It’s been demonstrated time without number. And the cops and the firemen and the soldiers and the utility workers aren’t going to the mat for Affluent Whitey.
And let’s face it, Affluent Whitey isn’t really down for a fight. You could besiege most major cities with a handful of armored vehicles parked on the freeway.
So she’s making a virtue of necessity.
Biggest problem this year is the scarcity of good tradesmen. If you do good work, you are booked six months out. And it is inevitably really good work
If you’re a good tradesman in Montana you’re driving a brand new tricked out truck and commuting to Big Sky where houses are being built for $4-5k a square foot- a good chunk of which is ending up on your balance sheet…
Almost no one wants a civil war. Even the winners tend to be losers.
However, there is a point when one side is pushed so far that the negatives of the civil war are better than the alternative. For some reason, the current leftist attitude is we all should get along as we punish anyone and everyone who slightly objects to what we currently believe, which was different than yesterday and will be different tomorrow.
Yet, they keep pushing.
Almost no one wants a civil war. Even the winners tend to be losers.
However, there is a point when one side is pushed so far that the negatives of the civil war are better than the alternative. For some reason, the current leftist attitude is we all should get along as we punish anyone and everyone who slightly objects to what we currently believe, which was different than yesterday and will be different tomorrow.
Yet, they keep pushing.
The other thing though is that there are an awful lot of retired combat troops living in rural America.
…I’m all in with Warriors and Quiet Waters in Bozeman. The guy who takes me fishing on the Madison rode horseback with the locals in Afghanistan. They’re elite but not really unique for that part of the world. I reckon their side will be just fine…
If she's talking about Missoula, it's Democrat because it's a college town, and as in some other college towns, there was some talk there last time about election fraud.
@Rehajm
Probably should move there. Nevertheless, we have construction people moving in. General contractor building 2 houses in front of the subdivision moved here from Kalispell, and they are now splitting his business with his partner back there. His two guys pounding nails are brothers from Salmon, ID, and I believe Hamilton - maybe 150 miles, at least.
Finally, I think, I got my mega-garage plumbed. Supposedly I am on the electrician’s list for late September. Maybe. Probably won’t get either hooked up before we leave in October. Better than 2 years, and the drywallers are hopefully going to finish it over the winter.
Civil wars, like almost all wars, are the first choice of few, but the second choice of many more. And they begin as differing perceptions of relative power.
But I don't think we're there yet. I don't rule it out entirely but you never know.
I only read the Vowell excerpt, and didn't really find it that triggering.
Meanwhile these guys are giving heavy weapons to nazis with burning race hatred overseas. it’s more confession by projection from our ruling class."
Who be that?
Center Mass is thick with Marines. The Eagle Globe and Anchor is the second most popular flag after Old Glory round these parts. I gar un tee we have more Vets than sparsely populated Montana.
Do you people seriously think veterans want civil war now that they have a new truck an old house and a young family?
The only thing you people can take over is a Waffle House.
I like to talk about space and rocks with my progressive neighbors. Anyone who thinks we're willing to fight each other over politics is mistaken.
Civil war talk is nonsense. What could happen is that a number of States petition Congress to separate their counties into separate states. Imagine most of the Democrat Progressive states fracturing with conservative counties leaving the state and forming their own state. Then there is the possibility of Congress undoing several Supreme Court decisions regarding how state legislatures can be elected which NYC much less important in Albany and Chicago in Illinois and Detroit in Michigan.
"The only thing you people can take over is a Waffle House."
Those people don't need to take up arms to win a civil war, all they have to do is stop going to work for about two weeks. Let's call it Riot Quitting.
No one who lives in the real world buys that going Galt flap trip, RowdyRebel8675309
No. The Left are control freaks. They will never leave us alone, anymore than an abusive husband would let his wife divorce him. The only solution, as Julia Roberts demonstrated in Sleeping With The Enemy, is to call 911 to tell them you have just shot and killed an intruder.
Howard: "Cowardly bullies think compelling speech with threats of violence is a viable solution."
Why are you complaining about trans?
And does anyone think people like Howard are going to leave them alone?
Freeman Hunt said..."I like to talk about space and rocks with my progressive neighbors. Anyone who thinks we're willing to fight each other over politics is mistaken."
Ah I've always found you to be intelligent and firmly grounded in reality but this is naive.
Your progressive neighbors will turn on you in a heartbeat the moment you are declared to be a witch. Some of them will even gather wood for your burning at the stake.
Don't take my word for it. Dig into accounts by Jews of 1930s Germany. You will find case after case of Jewish victims astonished that the people they once talked about "rocks" with are now trying to stone them to death.
They will demonize you into something subhuman that justifies treating you inhumanely.
mikee @12:33pm, meet Earnest Prole.
Josephbleau, the second thing to happen will be those blue cities losing their electric and water supplies.
John Henry,
Let me offer a dissenting review. Schlichter's novels are excellent. Behind Every Blade of Grass is anything but. The writing is lame, the editing non-existent (and it needs a *lot*). Even though coherence of the storyline suffers after the first volume or two, perhaps not coincidentally at the point where the storyline starts to be poorly thought out.
One of my few Kindle purchases I regret making; I bought the series and schlogged through quite a bit, but momentum only lasts so long and I finally quit without finishing, which is unheard of me..
Kirk, even the author agrees, in the intro, that the editing sucks so no disagreement there.
I don't understand why you regret your "purchase". They are free. Kindle unlimited.
John LGBTQ+ Henry
No scare-quotes needed around the word purchase.
I dumped Kindle Unlimited after the trial period -- for me it was like free drinks at the local bar for an alcoholic. Way too much of a good thing...
Post a Comment