 |
| Grant at Cold Harbor, June 1864 (Library of Congress). |
With a father from southern Alabama and a mother from northern New York State, I think I naturally took an interest in the centennial of the Civil War, which occurred when I was in my mid-teens. After all, who was I?
I read quite a lot, and took a particular interest in General Stonewall Jackson. I got a full dose of "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall!" And Jackson's final sentence, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."
I won't bore you with my odyssey. I eventually came out on the Union side. But I had a lingering disdain for U.S. Grant, who was willing to tolerate some pretty amazing casualty numbers.
Frankly, I still don't like Grant. And I don't think he was a great president, either.
But, on May 11, 1864, during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, he sent a message back to Washington that resonates with me today:
"I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."
Grant's casualty numbers at Spotsylvania Courthouse, and before that in the Wilderness, were truly eye-popping. And yet he, and the army, and the Union, fought on. And not just to the turning of the leaves in the fall of 1864.
Robert E. Lee didn't surrender at Appomattox Courthouse until April 1865.
Which brings me to our present situation. If you're feeling tired, if you're dismayed by all the things that are going wrong, if you think the Democratic party needs to dump its consultants, if you don't like the fact that ICE troopers are shooting people whenever they feel like it, I'm with you.
This slug fest is no fun, and we're still just holding the line. Our victories are defensive. We'll continue to win a lot in the courts, and we'll also see more slaughter in the streets by government agents who belong in prison. The real counter-offensive is still in the future.
You need to decide whether you're in this for the duration of hostilities. And one place to start is to ask yourself, can you say, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."
And then don't think the war will be over right after Labor Day.
See also Politics on a Very Hot Day, Unleashing the Oligarchs.
