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kate
Admin
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
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 Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:42 pm Post subject: Red-State Roar: Why Kerry Lost - By Bob McManus |
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here's an interesting take on the election --
article is Bob McManus's commentary of the impact of Scots-Irish heritage on the election, correlated to some points made in
James Webb's book about the Scots-Irish in America
| Quote: | http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/books/38049.htm
RED-STATE ROAR: WHY KERRY LOST
By BOB McMANUS January 9, 2005
(BORN FIGHTING: HOW THE SCOTS-IRISH SHAPED AMERICA BY JAMES WEBB)
TIS no doubt folly to ascribe John Kerry's November defeat to any one cause, but there's also little doubt that the ad campaign mounted late last summer by the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth put some heavy hurt on the Democrat's presidential ambitions.
How is that?
The Kerry campaign collided with traditions that inform the largest and most pugnaciously principled American ethnic group that you probably never heard much about: the Scots-Irish.
After that, the Massachusetts liberal never had a chance.
Or so suggests James Webb, himself a decorated Vietnam veteran, whose remarkable history of his own forebears explains a lot about America — not the least of which being the country's enduring resentment of folks who carry on as if they were born to rule.
The Scots-Irish, Protestant and proud, arrived in the New World in serious numbers in the mid-18th century; they went straight to the harsh living conditions and endless Indian wars of the mountain frontiers. They moved West with America for the next 250 years, adapting and evolving but essentially preserving an identity formed by 2,000 years of stiff-necked — usually violent — resistance to those who would make them something other than what they were, or are.
The original Scots battled Romans, Normans, Tudors, Stuarts, Roundheads and Royalists, and the Anglican aristocracy — and that was just in the auld countries.
In America, they fought the Indians (constantly); the British (twice) and each other, bitterly (enlisting in numbers for both the Union and the Confederacy, but mostly the latter).
Gen. George S. Patton was of Scots-Irish descent, as were Sgt. Alvin York, Lt. Audie Murphy and Col. David Hackworth — the most decorated American soldiers of World War I, World War II and Vietnam, respectively.
Small wonder, then, that a pronounced warrior ethos can be found wherever the Scots-Irish have settled in numbers — that is, in the so-called Red states, where they are a dominant ethnic presence.
Could it have been these voters that Kerry was hoping to reach with his Vietnam-themed campaign?
If so, it is just another measure of his cluelessness; that bloc had been lost to him forever when he went before Congress to condemn, not so much the war, but the soldiers and sailors who were still in the field fighting it.
His jaunty "reporting-for-duty" salute in Boston in July seemed to have reminded tens of thousands of Vietnam vets what it was that they despised about anti-war elitists like Kerry — and the Swift Boat ads strongly underscored the antipathy.
Kerry dropped like a rock in national polls; while the statisticians are still at work, post-Election Day analysis suggests that the ads were particularly damaging to Kerry in states where, perhaps not coincidentally, there is a strong Scots-Irish presence.
And how strong is that presence all across America?
Well, how popular is NASCAR, a sport that evolved from the Scots-Irish-American moonshine-whiskey heritage? In term of attendance, more popular than Major League Baseball.
And how popular is country-western music — a form rooted in ancient Celtic rhythms, but essentially invented by the Scots-Irish in America? There are more country-western radio stations in the United State than the next two most popular formats combined.
All this — and much more — is a secret because Scots-Irish-Americans tend to take issues seriously, but themselves not at all. They don't talk about it.
Now James Webb speaks for them, eloquently. |
Maith thu! James Webb
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one of..... We The People
Last edited by kate on Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:24 am; edited 1 time in total |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 3:20 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the post, Kate.
Excellent analysis of a proud and patriotic, no-nonsense people
who obviously do not appreciate 'nuance'. |
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coldwarvet
Admiral
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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Yes Mr. Webb,
I am about 1/4 Scot-Irish and John Kerry's sloppy salute as he reported himself for duty stirred up every last drop of the Scot-Irish blood that runs through me veins.
CWV
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