Everyone has heard by now about Nikki Haley's New Hampshire gaffe. The question seemed to catch her off guard; she probably wasn't thinking she'd have to discuss the Civil War in a New Hampshire town hall. And then she hemmed and hawed around, and said "something something capitalism freedom". It was the next day before she said the "s" word, slavery.
The commentary everywhere wonders if that is enough to cook her goose, campaign-wise. I don't know, I guess we'll see. I think one comment that I read had it right, that it was a South Carolina answer in a New Hampshire context.
What I wish she had said, right off the bat, was that of course slavery was the proximate cause of the Civil War. But the Civil War was over a century and a half ago. Slavery was abolished. It cast a long shadow, and we still have problems and injustice that we need to work on. But we don't have to fight the Civil War again in the public square.
About proximate causes of wars, there's always something that is the big one. But there are also always the "minor key" causes, the resentments and grudges that aren't resolved, and build up over time. I don't think economics were the biggest secondary cause of the Civil War. It seem to me that it was that people had self-separated into "us" and "them", and were on the way to being two different countries. We are dealing with the same problem now (again? still?). Only now the separation isn't geographic as much as a state of mind.
I confess I didn't do much more than read the lede grafs of this news coverage because it sounded like a set up question that Democrats might use later to "prove" that the GOP is harboring racists. In my Yankee opinion, she and all Southern Republicans are twisting themselves into all sorts of uncomfortable positions trying not to make any little white Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy face up to the fact that they have been a pain in everybody's behind since 1865 by pushing their revisionist history that nobody but them believes. It was a stupid blunder on her part. She wants to lead the nation, not the Savannah Junior League.
ReplyDeleteBut the country has more pressing problems than trying to ferret out crypto-secessionists.
Happy New Year, everyone. For those of us for whom 2023 has been godawful, may God keep us mindful of our blessings and maybe the saints could ask him to ease up some in the next 12 months. For those who had a wonderful year, may your luck hold.
I echo Jean
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, everyone. For those of us for whom 2023 has been godawful, may God keep us mindful of our blessings and maybe the saints could ask him to ease up some in the next 12 months.
For those who had a wonderful year, may your luck hold
Happy New Year, everyone!
ReplyDeleteI have been largely out of touch with most of the world since mid-November due to surgery, followed less than a week later by seven days in the hospital for an infection, followed by a month in rehab. When I was released December 29, I was told that I had just tested positive for RSV, and later in the day they called my partner to say I was positive for Covid as well. If I hadn't been told the test results, I would think I have a cold. So far, anyway.
If there is an easy way to access this blog on a cellphone, I didn't figure it out, but I was anxious to know about Anne and her husband, and I did manage to follow the story. Trying to look on the bright side, I am so relieved they went as they did.
Many years (decades) ago I once had a "spiritual" experience during a few hours' stay in an emergency room. I had a distinct feeling that all was well in spite of the unfortunate circumstances. I had no similar feeling this entire five or six weeks. I remember waking up one night and thinking, "God is not here."
But anyway, Happy New Year!
David, so sorry re: your run of bad health luck. The infection sounds the scariest, glad you came through okay.
DeleteDavid, I am so sorry to hear of your surgery and illnesses. I'll pray for you at Mass this morning. I hope 2024 will be much better for you.
DeleteGeez, David, what a time! Rest up.
DeleteDavid, I’m so sorry. But very happy for you that you are home.
DeleteHappy New Year all. Sitting in a Laz E Boy with an afghan draped over me, half-watching Post Malone on ABC's version of New Years Eve hoopla. One glass of champagne. Will go to bed within the hour.
ReplyDeleteI crashed on the couch last night about 8:30 while my husband was watching tv. I never was a night owl!
DeleteTrying to get psyched up for going back to work for a couple of weeks. The young woman who took my place is going on
a honeymoon to Hawaii and I promised to fill in for her. Will try not to be envious while scraping frost off the windshield in the dark!
If not a Happy Clappy New Year, I hope everyone's new year is better than the last and that problems great and small resolve or at least smooth out as much as possible. As for myself, I've been a lucky guy and I hope I haven't used it all up. I made it from family Thanksgiving through exposure to wall-to-wall people in the Christmas markets, close quarters in planes, buses, trains, museums, salt mines, concentration camps, Schindler's factory, the Christmas family thing and, finally, a New Years Eve dinner dance. I thought for sure I'd catch something in the process but I made it through ok. Maybe, if you keep moving, the germs have a harder time landing on you. My smart watch says I walked around 60 miles (96 km) on stone sidewalks. I think I had shin splints for two days. Well, one thing is crossed off the bucket list.
ReplyDeleteNikki Haley certainly blew the answer. Presumably it was a malicious question, the equivalent of dropping a banana peel in front of a candidate on the chance she would slip on it - which she duly did. Malicious questions come with the territory in politics. I watched "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" yesterday, and one of the commentators in their reporter roundtable stated she thought Haley was being too cute by half: recognizing the malice in the question and trying to somehow to parry it while not offending some segment of the electorate that she thinks she's talking to.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, I don't think it's going to matter. Unless a flaming meteor or a grand piano falls on Donald Trump in the next few weeks, she has no chance of getting the nomination. Along with all the other Republican candidates, she'll get eviscerated by Trump in Iowa, NH and then in her home state. It will all be over very quickly.
I know it's a sin to hope or pray that harm happens to someone, so I don't. But I am praying that we don't have to endure another Trump presidency. (I can also imagine God thinking, "Well you people got yourselves into this situation, and you have the power to get yourselves out of it!)
DeleteBest wishes to everyone for the new year.
ReplyDeleteFor me the last year has been fine. Betty has had her usual health problems this past year but for someone who has had three near death experiences she does not rate as a bad year.
Since she spent 30 years as a medical technician, she has seen a lot of other people's bad years. She often has bad dreams in which she is overwhelmed with caring for patients. I've told her I think it is a form of post-traumatic stress syndrome. I wonder how many medical professionals have that.
I believe that I also have PTSD after three near death experiences of my husband in the last three months. I will pray that Betty’s nightmares end. I understand what she is dealing with.
DeleteMy most fervent prayer for 2024 is that somehow my husband and I will be able to go home. But that possibility is months away - if ever.
Judging by the quitrates, suicide rates, and drug addiction rates among medical professionals I imagine a whole lot of them suffer PTSD. Pray for them too.