It's an open secret that the founding member and individual most responsible for getting this blog going no longer lives in the Panhandle. Prodigal Son is a Texas expatriot currently residing in South Carolina, and he promises to soon launch the South Carolina Truth Squad. While we're eagerly awaiting that, here's a lovely little quote from a South Carolina Republican called Lindsey Graham:
"We don't do Lincoln Day dinners in South Carolina. It's nothing personal, but it takes awhile to get over things."Oh, my. I think that speaks for itself, don't you?
But, amazingly, some progressives are lining up to defend Senator Graham, most notably the formerly sane Steve Gilliard. Here's what Gilliard has to say about that ugliness:
Graham, who isn't known for playing the race card, is being unfairly attacked. He's not talking about slavery, but the burning of the state capital, Columbia, in 1865. Without context, it sounds horribly racist, but what people don't widely realize is that Sherman's march to the Sea didn't end at Savannah, but continued well into the Carolinas and ended at New Bern, NC in April, 1865. In fact, Sherman's Army of the Tennessee destroyed far more in South Carolina than Georgia. And this is what Graham is talking about. Not some longing for slaves.And, you know what? About being unfair to Republicans? Don't care. At all. Got bigger fish to fry.
Gilliard drools and scratches himself and tries to convince the orderly that it's time for his next dose of lithium; then he adds:
. . . Union troops were far from unhappy to see Columbia ablaze, since they blamed the state for starting the war. No one in my family was all that upset about it, but I do see Graham's point. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to apologize for, because every South Carolinian knows he's talking about Sherman's March and not slavery.Hmph. Now I know I ain't no Steve-Gilliard-Daily-Kos-alumnus-- but I am an alum of a graduate course in pre-Civil War history from the ivy-covered halls of West Texas A&M. Okay, them halls are covered with tumbleweeds, but I'm still pretty sure that I know this: South Carolina did start the Civil War.
Even while bending over backwards to kiss Republican hindquarters, Steve Gilliard ought to be able to see the obvious. Even if South Carolina had some legitimate grievance over having their slave-owning, war-mongering state burned to cinders, it wouldn't justify a modern Senator's treasonous comments about a venerated United States president who was tragically assassinated by a supporter of the South.
As I write the last sentence, my inner straw man leaps to his feet, outraged: Treason? he shrieks. Well, now you're being really unfair, Spacedark. You're calling Graham the same vile names you get mad about Republicans calling y'all.
Well, yeah, but I have truth on my side, dude. South Carolina belonged to a confederacy which was waging active war-- not to mention unleashing terrorism before, after, and during the "unpleasantness"-- to overthrow the United States government. The bottom line is that supporters of Civil War-era South Carolina sympathize with an enemy state. And (all together now) what's the definition of treason?
So, what you think, Prodigal? We still buds?
SPACEDARK
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