Donald Trump

1876 Contested Presidential Election: Precedent for January 6th Elector Scheme?
Civil Rights

1876 Contested Presidential Election: Precedent for January 6th Fake Elector Scheme?

Bruce Strom 0

Rehnquist notes that during the campaign, Hayes released a statement “recognizing the need for Southerners to control their own affairs but calling for respect for the constitutional rights of all citizens,” a promise made by Southerners that they never intended to keep. Hayes tried waving the bloody shirt during the campaign, but not only was Tilden a New York Democrat, he was over the mandatory draft age, as he was in his mid-forties during the Civil War. Everyone expected that the vote would be close in this Presidential election. […]

Civil War and Reconstruction

Why Were Union Soldiers in the Civil War Willing to Fight to Preserve the Union?

Bruce Strom 1

Professor Gallagher opens his book on the Union War, “The loyal American citizenry fought a war that also killed slavery. In a conflict that stretched across four years and claimed more than 800,000 US casualties, the nation experienced huge swings of civilian and military morale before crushing Confederate resistance. Union always remained the paramount goal, a fact clearly expressed by Abraham Lincoln in speeches and other statements designed to garner the widest popular support for the war effort.” […]

Five Minute History

How Did Confessing Christians Tolerate Hitler? Excerpts From Post-War Interviews

Bruce Strom 0

The war softened the hearts of many Germans. One German remembers shopping during the time of the brutal Allied bombing of Berlin, the “shopkeeper was talking to another customer whom she knew and said, ‘This is the punishment for what we’ve done to the Jews.’ And she dared to say that much, although I was a stranger in her shop.” […]

Five Minute History

WWII Lessons: What Happens When Politicians Promote Violence? Comparing Mussolini and Hitler to Trump

Bruce Strom 0

The Fascist movements in Italy and Germany came to power with assistance by large gangs of fascist thugs who bullied, beat up, and sometimes murdered their opponents. These fascist thugs were drawn from the millions of veterans of the bloody fighting in the tranches of World War I. After assuming dictatorial powers Mussolini promised the Pope that he would reign in his thugs, but this was a promise he never fully kept, in part because these fascist gangs were hard to control, in part because he wanted to remind the Pope who was really in charge, who alone could rein in the gangs. […]

Philosophy

Why This Old White Christian Abandoned the Republican Party

Bruce Strom 0

The absolute disrespect shown to our President Barack Obama by many Republican Congressmen, Fox News, and the Tea Party movement was both deeply offensive and also reminded me of similar insults thrown about during the Jim Crow lynching years of our ugly history. It was the rise of the Tea Party movement that meant I now had an ugly choice, I could either support the party of morals, or I could support the party of compassion, but the choice was not really that ugly, because if you are not compassionate, than any morals you wear on your sleeve for show are fake morals, because compassion and morals go together. […]