Statues, Protests, and Firings

Another busy week and to help us parse it, we enlist Ricochet Editor @jongabriel (not a member? Join Ricochet using the new ExJon leve1!) and guests Victor Davis Hanson and The Federalist’s  Ben Domenech. We cover everything: the protests, the statues, and the firings. Listen!

Music from this week’s podcast: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band (from The Last Waltz)

The all new opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.

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There are 20 comments.

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  1. Eustace C. Scrubb Member
    Eustace C. Scrubb
    @EustaceCScrubb

    Lots of Lileks in the podcast, I likie.

    • #1
  2. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Don’t fret, Peter. James slipped that segueway by me too. Without Rob’s interruptions, it’s hypnotic.

    We should get him a Golden Segway (made of cheese or something). Then his children can tear it down.

    • #2
  3. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Gentlemen,

    I’m a bluebelly but sometimes I get this strange feeling.

    https://youtu.be/VB5_FScm41Q

    Then the feeling passes.

    Good Shabbos,

    Jim

    • #3
  4. BD1 Member
    BD1
    @

    Jon Gabriel, 3/5/16: “To regain momentum, Trump will hold a torchlight parade.”

    • #4
  5. Basil Fawlty Member
    Basil Fawlty
    @BasilFawlty

    Not flies. Meuths.

    • #5
  6. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    VDH is the smartest of smartest men. How I wish his way of thinking ruled this country. Thank you for having him on.

    • #6
  7. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    If the Republican Party and Donald Trump (and even the libertarians) can’t agree on anything, why can’t they agree to stop funding NPR and PBS with taxpayer money?

    It would at least help Peter Robinson’s blood pressure, if nothing else.

    The Republicans and Trump, whether you consider them to be one party or two, need to get rid of programs which they agree should be abolished.

     

    • #7
  8. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    As @peterrobinson was noting with Ben Domemec the concept of being dignified in defeat, I remembered one of the features of the surrender at Appomattox Court House that ended the war was that the Union soldiers were to allow the Confederate soldiers to leave and go home in dignity and with their horses (needed for farming). The Union even provided food to the Confederate soldiers.

    Would today’s Progressives and their culture wars of total annihilation have allowed that? Or would today’s Progressives have insisted on humiliation and maybe even summary execution for treason?

    • #8
  9. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    I really appreciated VDH’s honesty about his problems with Trump rather than what sometimes feels to me like an endless series of excuses for Trump from Trump apologists.  I also have the same feelings about Mattis, et al. that were expressed in this podcast, and I truly applauded when VDH brought up Rommel in the context of the statue kerfuffle, as I’ve used this myself.

    There is nothing more odious than Hitler’s regime, but Rommel was a great general and a great man who was ultimately forced to commit suicide to save his family.  It’s too bad there isn’t a statue to him in Berlin that would further force the issue of how good men can become complicit in very evil things.

    I felt the same desire to clap when VDH made references to Longstreet as different from Forrest.  I appreciated his going through (a very truncated) laundry list of progressive sins and the danger of the road that so many seem to want to travel.

    I will also say I grew up in the South.  I am of the South.  I understand that the South cannot be divested of certain figures from the past without grave psychological injury.  When talking about the Confederacy, there are men who are worthy of admiration despite also deserving condemnation.  (The same can be said of Sherman.)

    We are a thoughtless people when we do not look at the nuances.  We blind ourselves when we do not think about the most important war in our history… when we simply erase figures from the past.

    Contextualize statues.  Fine.  Treat individual monuments in individual ways with a considered evaluation of whether or not it serves a good purpose in that community at this time.  Better.  Teach American citizens to engage in critical thinking.  Best.  

    After all, there is one thing of which I’m absolutely certain:  Setting fire to all vestiges of honor associated with Southern history would not destroy hate.  It would create it.

    And this is the truth even though I find the neo-nazi/neo-confederate movement absolutely, stomach-churningly, no “good people” associated, disgustingly repugnant.

    • #9
  10. Gaius Inactive
    Gaius
    @Gaius

    I’m surprised VDH didn’t refer to his colleagues as Romanovs given his embrace of Bolshevist class hatred.

    • #10
  11. JuliaBlaschke Lincoln
    JuliaBlaschke
    @JuliaBlaschke

    I don’t agree at all with Victor Davis Hanson’s analysis of Romney. In my opinion he is like a lot of Trump voters who feel the most important thing always is to defend their vote. It is disingenuous and very disappointing.

    • #11
  12. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):
    If the Republican Party and Donald Trump (and even the libertarians) can’t agree on anything, why can’t they agree to stop funding NPR and PBS with taxpayer money?

    It would at least help Peter Robinson’s blood pressure, if nothing else.

    The Republicans and Trump, whether you consider them to be one party or two, need to get rid of programs which they agree should be abolished.

    Hear, hear! (I’d write more, but I can already feel my blood pressure rising.)

    • #12
  13. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):
    As @peterrobinson was noting with Ben Domemec the concept of being dignified in defeat, I remembered one of the features of the surrender at Appomattox Court House that ended the war was that the Union soldiers were to allow the Confederate soldiers to leave and go home in dignity and with their horses (needed for farming). The Union even provided food to the Confederate soldiers.

    Would today’s Progressives and their culture wars of total annihilation have allowed that? Or would today’s Progressives have insisted on humiliation and maybe even summary execution for treason?

    You make a good and important point.

    • #13
  14. dborucke Lincoln
    dborucke
    @dborucke

    No need to speculate to whom Trump was referring at his press conference.  Here is the quote:

    “You have some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group — excuse me, excuse me — I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name . . .”

    • #14
  15. soccerlad14 Inactive
    soccerlad14
    @soccerlad14

    @13:56…I guess Korea, Vietnam, The Cold War and a dozen other counter-insurgencies don’t count as “war” to Peter Robinson.

    • #15
  16. Dr. C. Member
    Dr. C.
    @DrC

    soccerlad14 (View Comment):
    @13:56…I guess Korea, Vietnam, The Cold War and a dozen other counter-insurgencies don’t count as “war” to Peter Robinson.

    Well, the Cold War was, sort of by definition, not a shooting war. But I take your larger point. I was puzzled to hear Peter Robinson’s comment on not going to war against Communists. Perhaps @peterrobinson would like to rethink that remark?

    • #16
  17. DubyaC Inactive
    DubyaC
    @DubyaC

    Again, the link doesn’t work for me.  If I have to request a special link every time I want to listen to a Ricochet or GLOP Culture podcast, I might as well cancel.  It’s too much bother.

    What is the issue?

    • #17
  18. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    DubyaC (View Comment):
    Again, the link doesn’t work for me. If I have to request a special link every time I want to listen to a Ricochet or GLOP Culture podcast, I might as well cancel. It’s too much bother.

    What is the issue?

    Which link are you referring to?

    • #18
  19. DubyaC Inactive
    DubyaC
    @DubyaC

    I used “link” imprecisely. I mean when I click on the little triangle that is supposed to start the podcast, nothing happens – no podcast.

    Last month I had the same issue and you provided a link which worked – thank you – but this month -just like last month – I can’t get either Ricochet or GLOP Culture podcasts to work.

    The Commentary podcast works and other podcasts work but for some reason neither the normal Ricochet podcast nor the GLOP podcast work.

    It’s not convenient to have to ask for special assistance every time I want to listen to one of those podcasts.  Why do some podcasts work and others not?

    regards, Warren

     

    • #19
  20. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    DubyaC (View Comment):
    I used “link” imprecisely. I mean when I click on the little triangle that is supposed to start the podcast, nothing happens – no podcast.

    Last month I had the same issue and you provided a link which worked – thank you – but this month -just like last month – I can’t get either Ricochet or GLOP Culture podcasts to work.

    The Commentary podcast works and other podcasts work but for some reason neither the normal Ricochet podcast nor the GLOP podcast work.

    It’s not convenient to have to ask for special assistance every time I want to listen to one of those podcasts. Why do some podcasts work and others not?

    regards, Warren

    We’re going to need some more info from you in order to troubleshoot this as it is something specific to your setup (if it were happening to everyone or even a large number of people, we’d be hearing about it and we’re not). Can you PM me or write us at support at ricochet.com?

    One quick question: are you running an ad blocker or do you have some special security software running? If, so if you whitelist Ricochet.com, I bet everything will start working.

    • #20
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