Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Custer was *not* a Republican
CORRECTED.Carry on.
Discuss.
(Photo by Dr. ER, at an out-of-the-way intersection on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, summer 2004).
--ER
Comments:
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Gawd ER, that has to be the best line of the day ... really broke me up.
Then I started to think of the implications … George A Custer and George W Bush ... and other feelings crept in.
My grandmother was born in the early 1880's, a couple of year after Battle of Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876. I often think in terms of the people I can physically touch and the proximity that connection places me in to history ... a very enriching thing for me.
I thought about ideological zeal for economic and territorial expansion, of senseless murders as a means of implementing it ... And how I used to believe that this sorta history was behind us, that we had learned if not from the Indian Wars as perpetrators, then from WWII as liberators, but it appears we have not ...
Although it was Custer's last stand, since the Sioux Nation was broken within the year, it was also their last stand too. I am struck by the nobility of the stand by the Sioux at Little Big Horn, against the inevitable and against genocide. I am struck by the feeling that the Sioux Nation's act that day, did honour to all human beings ...
Snerd
Then I started to think of the implications … George A Custer and George W Bush ... and other feelings crept in.
My grandmother was born in the early 1880's, a couple of year after Battle of Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876. I often think in terms of the people I can physically touch and the proximity that connection places me in to history ... a very enriching thing for me.
I thought about ideological zeal for economic and territorial expansion, of senseless murders as a means of implementing it ... And how I used to believe that this sorta history was behind us, that we had learned if not from the Indian Wars as perpetrators, then from WWII as liberators, but it appears we have not ...
Although it was Custer's last stand, since the Sioux Nation was broken within the year, it was also their last stand too. I am struck by the nobility of the stand by the Sioux at Little Big Horn, against the inevitable and against genocide. I am struck by the feeling that the Sioux Nation's act that day, did honour to all human beings ...
Snerd
Actually right up the compleation of his sensitivity training session at the Little Big Horn Custer was an ardent Democrat.
# posted by 
: 2:54 PM
: 2:54 PM
Snerd, I have hugged my mama, who was born in 1922, she remembers her grandpa, who died in 1930 and was an infantryman out of Arkansas for the Confederacy; I'm sure they touched. That is damn close.
Drlobo, what are you talkin' about?
Drlobo, what are you talkin' about?
Whoat. OK. What am I confusing? Custer *was* a Dem. What? A Bourbon, or was that later ...? Custer served under a Republican. But so what? ... Hmmm. I know there were shenanigans involving Belknap and Grant's brother, and high-level intrigue and such. ...
If he was never even wooed by the GOP, I need to change the headline here to reflect history. But the pic's still a hoot. ...
If he was never even wooed by the GOP, I need to change the headline here to reflect history. But the pic's still a hoot. ...
Well, dip me in redeye gravy and call me a biscuit. Danged if I didn't unlearn something today.
I think I assumed that because the cussed Custer was a Yankee that he was a Repub.
Libbie forgive me -- and every author of every book I've ever read about the man, and they are legion!
(hangs head in scholarly shame ... hide's M.A. in utter embarassment ...)
I think I assumed that because the cussed Custer was a Yankee that he was a Repub.
Libbie forgive me -- and every author of every book I've ever read about the man, and they are legion!
(hangs head in scholarly shame ... hide's M.A. in utter embarassment ...)
Picture's a hoot, but George Armstrong Custer of the Little Big Horn fame was a Democrat by party affiliation. After his death the Republican papers excoriated him as an unprofessional comander and a fool and the Democratic papers pointed to him as a patriot and a victim of Republican incompetence.
Hell ER, I always have to look it up too. Grant was a republican so I figure all of his boys were too, except that Custer really wasn't "one of His boys".
Hell ER, I always have to look it up too. Grant was a republican so I figure all of his boys were too, except that Custer really wasn't "one of His boys".
# posted by : 3:48 PM
: 3:48 PM
E.R., you crazy.
Of course my rabbit chasing this afternoon hasn't been much more useful and certainly not as scholarly. Just interesting.
Of course my rabbit chasing this afternoon hasn't been much more useful and certainly not as scholarly. Just interesting.
Oh, I am painfully aware of the shifts in party positions on the basic lib-con scale over time.
But holy Lakota flute tunage! I've read and studied on something like 30 books and half again as many journal articles on Custer -- and still let my eyes deceive me with that sign on the Rez. It made sense the summer of ought-4, when the GOP was gunnin' for Daschle, whom the tribes' generally supported.
Custer would definitely have been a Repub today. No doubt.
-- " "
But holy Lakota flute tunage! I've read and studied on something like 30 books and half again as many journal articles on Custer -- and still let my eyes deceive me with that sign on the Rez. It made sense the summer of ought-4, when the GOP was gunnin' for Daschle, whom the tribes' generally supported.
Custer would definitely have been a Repub today. No doubt.
-- " "
Okay, can someone help out the dumbass and tell me whether the sign is trying to insult him or praise him? Danged if I can figure it out. Maybe I'm the brain-dead one today.
Not really sure what to say about the sign, but the town of Centralia, Washington was founded by a black man (and freed slave, I imagine) named George Washington Bush.
And, by my own observation, may very well have been the last black person to live there.
The historic overview of what constituted liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican has changed so many times, it makes little sense to talk about it in today's terms (though it hasn't stopped the Lone Ranger, you'll note).
And, by my own observation, may very well have been the last black person to live there.
The historic overview of what constituted liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican has changed so many times, it makes little sense to talk about it in today's terms (though it hasn't stopped the Lone Ranger, you'll note).
RSB, the sign was seen on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the Sioux wound up after their encounter with Custer and some other tragedies. No mention of Custer would ever be seen as praise there.
Ergo, assuming the sign poster made the same mistake I did -- assuming that Custer was a Repub because he was a Union hero in the Civil War and during the Republican U.S. Grant's presidency -- it looks like the person was trying to make a connection between the Indian killer Custer and Indian-"killing" conservatives who would rip away what little resources Rez Indians have remaining to them. Especially poignant in summer '04 with the GOP gunning for Tom Daschle.
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Ergo, assuming the sign poster made the same mistake I did -- assuming that Custer was a Repub because he was a Union hero in the Civil War and during the Republican U.S. Grant's presidency -- it looks like the person was trying to make a connection between the Indian killer Custer and Indian-"killing" conservatives who would rip away what little resources Rez Indians have remaining to them. Especially poignant in summer '04 with the GOP gunning for Tom Daschle.
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