Obama likes to talk about how he never gets his way and how the GOP always stops him. Well, today, they folded again. If this kind of attitude had persisted at Gettysburg, the United States might actually be two countries today, one a tyranny and the other an agrarian democracy.
I am a fascinated buff of Gettysburg. When I was 14, my father acquiesced to my request and took a detour during our family vacation to visit the battlefield. Although I don't remember much of the visit, I have learned and read about it since then.
Forty two days prior to Gettysburg, Colonel Strong Vincent took command of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps. When Major General Sickles, Division commander of the III Corps, moved down into the peach field to counter Hood's assault, he left the Union left flank exposed. Brigadier General Warren, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, pointed this out to Vincent, who of his own volition moved his brigade up to Little Round Top to protect the flank. The 16th Michigan, 44th New York, 83rd Pennsylvania, and 20th Maine regiments took positions.
The rebels came in force, moving against the left of the Union line. When the 16th Michigan began to buckle, Colonel Vincent went to rally them and took a fatal shot to his groin. Colonel Chamberlain of the 20th Maine stretched his troops out to twice their normal distance and sent the brigade's detachment of sharpshooters out into the woods on Big Round Top. When they ran out of ammunition, the regiment fixed bayonets, and charged down the hill. In Michael Shaara's novel The Killer Angels Chamberlain points out "We can't retreat. If we stay here we can't shoot. We'll have the advantage moving downhill, so fix bayonets."
As Chamberlain charged, General Weed, commander of 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, V Corps, arrived to plug the hole where the 16th Michigan married up against the other Union regiments. His men were able to repel a Confederate breech in the line and restore order, but Weed was killed by a bullet to the chest, probably by a sharpshooter, while moving the 3/1/V's artillery into a better position.
If Vincent Strong had not acted of his own volition, the battle of Gettysburg might have ended as a stunning defeat for the Union army. Hood's division of Longstreet's Corps had cleared the rocks and come up the hill, twice almost severing the line as they tried to flank the Union army. If Strong hadn't been there, they would have swept over the hill unopposed and taken the Union army from behind.
Every time the GOP holds its ground, they are either flanked or cave. The irony is that they don't even take the opportunity to point out the obvious. If, as Obama claims, the Payroll Tax will help people who are $80 short every month for the next two months, MAKE THE RASSAFRASSIN CUT PERMANENT. If it works today, it will be helpful tomorrow. Yet, they miss that, and Obama runs roughshod over them again. I see very little point in occupying the high ground and digging in if you don't actually intend to hold your ground to the last. What did the GOP get? A promise to look into things. It will never materialize, and the GOP will get blamed for everything anyway.
Unlike Vincent, Chamberlain, Weed, and Hazlett, nobody will remember these GOP nobodies who folded on the left. They weren't willing to stand their ground and defend the high ground in favor of what they ought to do. The Democrats are always looking for leverage, always looking for a way around, and they are probably not going to be stupid enough to mount a Pickett's charge against the center. If they do, will the GOP cave like the Irish Brigade almost did at Gettysburg? Obama has the lowest rating of any president in modern time. He is inviting us to defeat him. We must oblige.
It is always the right time to do the right thing. Who cares about politics? Just do the right thing.
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