Maureen Dowd pines for the "good old days"

[sheshe2]

So Maureen Dowd is depressed and cynical. What's new? You can read BooMan's total take-down of her cynicism here. But he skipped over something she said that made me literally do a double-take.

We’re a little bit scared of our own shadow. And, sadly, we see ourselves as a people who can never understand one another. We’ve given up on the notion that we can cohere, even though the founders forged America by holding together people with deep differences.

What in holy hell is she talking about? Those "deep differences" our founders held together were the ones between white land-owning males. Meanwhile, our black and brown neighbors were subjected to slavery and genocide while we claimed Manifest Destiny over the continent. Our founders showed precious little interest in cohering with folks who weren't just like them.

I'm pretty sure Maureen Dowd knows this history. But it is so typical of the role white privilege plays in our minds that a knowing of facts is not enough to challenge the conclusions we reach based on the myths we've come to believe.

Read More: http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/07/maureen-dowd-pines-for-good-old-days.html

I have read that the teaparty wishes to take this country back, now we know where they want to take us.

[BeyondGeography]

1. O'Bambi the diffident debutante and Earth-Tone Al...yeah, MoDud, a real team player

Does she even read the shit she has written? There can not be enough contempt for her.

[sheshe2]

2. MoDud, that's perfect, BG.

No I don't think she has a clue what she writes, it just dribbles out her brain one painful drop at a time.

[William769]

3. Agreed.

[sheshe2]

4. Yes indeed.

William~

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

5. You said it; she's disgusting.

[Cha]

11. Yes, "MoDud" is a perfect shortening of her name.. mahalo, BG.. from now on she shall heretofore

be referred to as "MoDud".

[Tom Ripley]

6. Dorothy Pucker

[DonCoquixote]

7. this is from the woman

who, despite attending a class made for the press, still ate 16 times the dose of a Cannabis bar, drank wine, and had the nerve to blame the pot sellers.

[FreedRadical]

8. I just love my mental image

of her stuck on the bed too freaked out to move.

Wait. Don't eat those man.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Ooooooooooooooh Shit

"....sometimes that helps"

[Cha]

12. Excellent reminder, DonCoquixote! It's MoDud for ya.

[hfojvt]

10. deep differences

such as between slave holders and abolitionists.

Adams said this about slavery "I have, through my whole life, held the practice of slavery in such abhorrence, that I have never owned a negro or any other slave;..."

Franklin said this "Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evil."

Sure they were all white males, but the country was not just vanilla pudding. There were Germans, Dutch, French and English, etc. There were deep religious differences, between protestant and catholic and especially quakers. As Bernard Bailyn writes

"Finally, with Boston patrolled by a special guard of thirty-six soldiers, four of the proselytizing Quakers, defiantly testifying to the Truth in Boston and passionate for martyrdom, were taken from jail and hanged - among them Mary Dyer, after she had deliberately rejected a 'benevolent' reprieve and had defiantly appeared in Boston a fourth time." (hanged 1 June 1660) The Barbarous Years p. 463

Right, so all white people were just alike.

And how did the settlers feel about the natives?

"For the settlers, who suffered less in terms of fatalities, the constant violence, the unpredictability of sudden attacks, and the sight of atrocities reminiscent of the worst excesses of European wars bred an ever-present anxiety, a sense of dread and apprehension that permeated everyday existence." op cit p. 501

And here they were, trading with each other and being trusted and "well known"

"The English commonly visited Indian settlements, and the natives wandered among the scattered plantations, where they were welcomed for trade. In many settlements they were fed at the settlers' tables, and they were even reported to be 'commonly lodged in [the colonists'] bed-chambers." op cit p 99

until 22 March 1622

"The warriors would wander, casually and unarmed, with provisions to sell, into English settlements where they were well known, and then at a given time they would grab any object they could find - spade, ax, gun, knife, rock, log, tong - and murder every person they could reach, man, woman, or child, and they would burn all the buildings and crops." op cit p. 101

Only killed 370 though, thanks to some warning, 3/4 of Jamestown area survived.

[RobinA]

15. Thank You

You beat me to this comment. The way decision makers of very different interests were brought together to ratify the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should be studied by our current Congress, who refuse to agree on much of anything simply because someone on the other side of the aisle said it. And there were plenty of pontificating firebrands in those days.

I believe that was the point to which Dowd was referring. Not that I got much else about the point of her editorial, which I found a bit rambling. Maybe she brought some of that candy back with her from Denver.

[1StrongBlackMan]

21. Really ...

You really wish to argue "NotAllWhiteGuys"? Really?

But more, you really wish to argue the savagery visited upon the "settlers", by Native Americans ... after the "settlers" allowed them to "wander among the scattered plantations" and "welcomed for trade" and even fed them at the settlers' tables ... why the benevolent settlers even, reportedly welcomed them into their bedrooms?

Really?

[Cha]

13. "The Founders".. wahwahwah.. She needs to study up more on what went on back in those

days and then come back and look at what a Whiny sweeping error she made.

Thanks she and smartypants. Smh.

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. I didn't read the whole piece (at the link); but ...

DAMN ,,,How do I subscribe to Smartypants' sh!t!.

[sheshe2]

17. Hi!

I don't know, I just have her in my favorites list and check in daily.

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. Great Idea ...

This is the 3rd time in 2 weeks, I've given her public praise ... thought it time I give her support in another way.

[sheshe2]

20. I just love what she has to say and how she says it!

As you well know, I post her things a lot and she has a new awesome one up today!

Have a great day 1SBM!

[tanyev]

16. Oh, dear. Is she having bad flashbacks to that Colorado hotel room?

[1StrongBlackMan]

19. Colorado hotel room? eom.

[tanyev]

23. The scene of her bad pot trip back in January?

[Paladin]

22. If the time she devotes to pining takes away from her "writing" time, I'm all for it. (nt)