There are, certainly, exceptions: from Thomas Paine to Thomas Jefferson, from John Locke to John Kennedy.
In fact, there are many, there are multitudes down through history's march, of us Anglo-Saxons who have been, who are, or who try (Lord knows, we try) live up to the best in the Nature of Newton, of Wordsworth, of Madison, of Elizabeth (as in QE I), of Halley, of Shakespeare, of Elgar, of Irving, of Blake, of Drake, of Lincoln, of the Roosevelts, of all those Anglo-Saxon (and here I include Celts and variations on the bloodlines coming into and leaving the British Isles and Eire) philosophers, teachers, politicians, explorers, composers, scientists, artists, poets, architects, musicians, engineers, scholars, doctors, playwrights, and others who have contributed oh-so-much to the betterment Human Society and The Human Condition.
But, dayum, it seems like every day I grow more embarrassed by the public antics and dumbassery of those American Anglos who herd around Sarah Palin -- and to a lesser extent, John McCain -- and spout idiocies and display stupidities the likes of which would make Jefferson recoil in horror.
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NOTE: The "money quote" is at the end.
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Certainly, Stupid White People are no recent phenomenon. And, certainly, their proclivity to run wild when adequately stimulated, when the Darker Angels of Their Nature are goosed.
When the First Populist, Andrew Jackson, was elected our Nation's President in 1828, the Inaugural Party in March 1829 became legendary for Crackers Gone Wild in Washington:
"The crowd quickly took possession of the White House: So many people were squeezed inside that the building itself creaked and shuddered dangerously. A bodyguard of loyal friends had to form a ring around the scarecrow figure of Jackson so he wouldn’t be crushed to death or asphyxiated by well-wishers. The strangers behaved if they were in a Mississippi saloon, standing in mud-caked boots on the damask chairs for a better view."
Source
Mind you, it wasn't only WASPy good ol' boys:
"Everyone from the highest and most polished," marveled one attendee, Joseph Story, an associate judge of the Supreme Court, "down to the most vulgar and gross of the nation," wanted their slice of the action. There are numerous accounts from well-to-do white observers who were shocked to see free African-Americans in the throng, including bevies of children and one 'stout black wench' (noted Senator James Hamilton Jr. with disdain) who sat by herself in a back room, 'eating in this free country a jelley with a gold spoon in the President’s House.' Some compared the crowd to the barbarians in Rome."
Source
". . . in this free county..." Heh.
"Cut glass and china to the amount of several thousand dollars had been broken in the struggle to get the refreshments, punch and other articles had been carried out in tubs and buckets, but had it been in hogsheads it would have been insufficient, ice-creams, and cake and lemonade, for 20,000 people, for it is said that number were there, tho' I think the number exaggerated.
"Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe, - those who got in could not get out by the door again, but had to scramble out of windows. At one time, the President who had retreated and retreated until he was pressed against the wall, could only be secured by a number of gentleman forming around him and making a kind of barrier of their own bodies, and the pressure was so great that Col. Bomford who was one said that at one time he was afraid they should have been pushed down, or on the President. It was then the windows were thrown open, and the torrent found an outlet, which otherwise might have proved fatal.
"This concourse had not been anticipated and therefore not provided against. Ladies and gentlemen, only had been expected at this Levee, not the people en masse. But it was the People's day, and the People's President and the People would rule."
From the Letter of Margaret Bayard Smith, March 11, 1829.
At any rate, my point is that Sarah Palin didn't invent the Anglo proclivity to lose control. But the revelers in Washington in March 1829 seemed to be more or less good-natured.
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More recently we have the likes of Pat Buchanan and his infamous "Culture War Speech" at the 1992 Republican National Convention, the one that Molly Ivins described as probably reading "better in the original German".
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And then we have THESE guys, who all did their various things between the time Buchanan did his 1992 RNC Speech and this past week, when the videos below were shot:
Anglo terrorists . . .
Tim McVeigh
Would he support Obama/Biden, or Sarah Palin, and her sidekick?
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Eric Rudolph
Would he support Obama/Biden, or Sarah Palin, and her sidekick?
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One of the Proud Anglo Murderers of James Byrd, Jr.
Would this guy, John William King, and his buddies support Obama/Biden, or Sarah Palin, and her sidekick?
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And . . . sigh, there's this:
Hat-tip to Jed Report for this incredible vid.
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And, then, there are THESE, ahem, persons (h/t to all the Kosniacs who've put these up over the past few days):
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Gad.
Again, I'll leave you with this:
"The normal American of the 'pure-blooded' majority goes to rest every night with an uneasy feeling that there is a burglar under the bed, and he gets up every morning with a sickening fear that his underwear has been stolen.
"This Anglo-Saxon of the great herd is, in many important respects, the least civilized of white men and the least capable of true civilization. His political ideas are crude and shallow. His is almost wholly devoid of esthetic feeling. The most elementary facts about the visible universe alarm him, and incite him to put them down. Educate him, make a professor of him, teach him how to express his soul, and he still remains palpably third-rate. He fears ideas almost as much as he fears men. . . ."
H.L. Mencken
1923
So it seems.
I'm not trying to whip-up animosity, let alone hatred, against Anglos -- again, I'm one of 'em. I'm just scratching my head and wondering, "What's WITH these people?"
BenGoshi
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