"Grandpa was a carpenter"
Larry__Weiss
Hal Heydt writes:
> Tim Snider writes:
> >John Prine's song "Grandpa was a Carpenter" (on the Circle II album) has an
> >interesting line:
> >"He voted for Eisenhower cause Lincoln won the war."
> >Could someone (or maybe everyone) explain this? It has me puzzled.
>
> The "Solid South" voted Democratic consistently for a century becuase
> Lincoln--a Republican--was president during the Civil War. . . .
>
Does Hal's comment make sense?
I still don't get it!
- LarryW
Dan Goodman
news:E051ED081687B1EB.84D4BC56...@lp.airnews.net:
Very, very simple: 1) Grandpa was loyal to the Republican Party because a
Republican President had been in charge of the US when it fought and won
against the rebelling slave states. Nothing in US history and politics
which had happened since then was as important, from his point of view.
Therefore, he voted for Eisenhower because Eisenhower was a Republican.
2) Conversely, very many white people in the South voted Democratic because
they hated the Republican Party for its role in that same conflict.
Larry__Weiss
> Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote in
> news:E051ED081687B1EB.84D4BC56...@lp.airnews.net:
> > (From a very old thread here in r.m.f about a subject I've wondered
> > about also) Hal Heydt writes:
> >> Tim Snider writes:
> >> >John Prine's song "Grandpa was a Carpenter" (on the Circle II album)
> >> >has an interesting line:
> >> >"He voted for Eisenhower cause Lincoln won the war."
> >> >Could someone (or maybe everyone) explain this? It has me puzzled.
> >>
> >> The "Solid South" voted Democratic consistently for a century becuase
> >> Lincoln--a Republican--was president during the Civil War. . . .
> >
> > Does Hal's comment make sense?
> > I still don't get it!
>
> Very, very simple: 1) Grandpa was loyal to the Republican Party because a
> Republican President had been in charge of the US when it fought and won
> against the rebelling slave states. Nothing in US history and politics
> which had happened since then was as important, from his point of view.
> Therefore, he voted for Eisenhower because Eisenhower was a Republican.
>
I had always imagined GrandPa as a Southerner from Kentucky (the "Bowling Green"
reference). But as Kentucky was a border state (with both a Union and Confederate
state government) during that conflict, GrandPa could certainly have had Union
sympathies without being a "contrarian".
Thanks!
- LarryW
Dan Goodman
kgold
Dan Goodman <dsg...@visi.com> writes:
>
> 2) Conversely, very many white people in the South voted Democratic because
> they hated the Republican Party for its role in that same conflict.
Sometimes known as "yellow dog Democrats", because they'd rather
vote for a yellow dog than a Republican.
--
--
Ken Goldman kg...@watson.ibm.com 914-784-7646
Hojo2x
>> Very, very simple: 1) Grandpa was loyal to the Republican Party because a
>> Republican President had been in charge of the US when it fought and won
>> against the rebelling slave states.
Many of us would phrase that as "the seceding slave states," but other than
that I have no quibbles.
It continues:
>>Nothing in US history and politics
>> which had happened since then was as important, from his point of view.
>> Therefore, he voted for Eisenhower because Eisenhower was a Republican.
Then Larry wrote:
>I had always imagined GrandPa as a Southerner from Kentucky (the "Bowling
>Green">reference).
Right. That's where Prine's family roots are.
> But as Kentucky was a border state (with both a Union and Confederate>state
government) during that conflict, GrandPa could certainly have had Union
>sympathies without being a "contrarian".
Exactly.
As the direct descendent of a Unionist Southerner, I instantly understood the
meaning of the line the first time I heard it. My father's family was
Unionist, and they vote Republican (even if I don't.) My mother's family were
Charlestonians, so of course they were hardcore Unreconstructed Confederates,
and they traditionally vote Democrat.
These party rivalries play a more important role in American history than most
people realize. In just one small example, Wyatt Earp and his brothers were a
Unionist family and staunch Republicans, while the Clantons were Confederate
veterans and Democrats. Their conflict in Tombstone, Arizona was as much about
unresolved hatreds from the War Between The States as it was about the
Clantons' alleged cattle rustling.
Wade Hampton Miller
Chugiak, Alaska