Those who do not remember history are Tea Partiers...

[elfs]

William Tecumseh Sherman on the Tea Party:

The smaller farmers, mechanics, merchants, and laborers. This class will probably number three-quarters of the whole; have, in fact, no real interest in the establishment of a Southern Confederacy, and have been led or driven into war on the false theory that they were to be benefited somehow—they knew not how.

They are essentially tired of the war, and would slink back home if they could. These are the real tiers etat of the South, and are hardly worthy a thought; for they swerve to and fro according to events which they do not comprehend or attempt to shape.

When the time for reconstruction comes, they will want the old political system of caucuses, Legislatures, etc., to amuse them and make them believe they are real sovereigns; but in all things they will follow blindly the lead of the planters. The Southern politicians, who understand this class, use them as the French do their masses- seemingly consult their prejudices, while they make their orders and enforce them.

The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman. Letter to Secretary of War Henry Halleck, September 17th, 1863.

Comments

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking something like that when I read that letter.

Sherman's correspondence with Hood about the evacuation of Atlanta, on the other hand, also reminds us that the art of the distracting flamewar is also one with a long history in this country.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Heh. Funny. I realized this point about the Civil War decades ago. It was the neon-pink elephant-in-the-room anytime anyone I knew in grad school started talking about the Civil War.

I never knew that anyone back then realized it, too.

And I made the connection between the modern Teabaggers and the Confederacy a few months back.