Will 2026 finally be the year when a critical mass of Americans wakes up and realizes that Republicans always screw up the economy?
Donald Trump inherited an economy from Joe Biden that was perhaps not firing on all cylinders but was in pretty good shape all the same.
For the third straight time, a Democratic president handed a Republican president an economy that was at the least pretty good, and at most (Bill Clinton) really humming along very nicely. And, for the third straight time, the Republican has made things worse. Which also means that Democratic presidents have to clean up messes left by their GOP predecessors.
If anyone out there has any good recommendations for books about what happened after the war and why the losers just got to walk off the field, I’d appreciate ‘em!
It’s not about the confederacy itself but look up the book “Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth” to learn how a relatively unimportant location in Texas has become an international symbol of defiance and American spirit… when it was a bunch of slave owners invading Mexico, ignoring the laws, then stealing the land.
The book covers the history of Alamo, and the battle of the Alamo is only in the first quarter, it goes all the way to modern era. It helps show how that group twists myths to their advantage.
The people in charge of surrendering didn’t want to die, and wanted to continue to live cushy lives. Most of the Union didn’t want to march all the way to the gulf killing every confederate on the way there. Even today, a good chunk of the south holds resentment for losing the war as badly as they did. When faced between allowing some shit bags to get off with a slap on the wrist, or murdering half the country and drawing out the war, the choice was pretty obvious.
Long story short the Union was worried splitting the country or hamstringing the southern economy would weaken the US and make it vulnerable to other world powers (we weren’t one yet). Much like Ukraine now, we were a former colony fighting a brutal war with the newest tech (which later revolutionized warfare eg trench warfare a la Longstreet) and there were military observers, advisers, and adventurers from many other countries here watching everything go down. Also they were sniffing around for weakness.