Mike and Bill duke it out

The title of this post isn't a reference to the multitalented Bill Duke.

Think back about a month to when everyone had their panties in a bunch about the Confederate flag, slavery, and the causes and effects of the Civil War (stubbornly referred to, by the losers, as "The War Between the States" or "The War of Northern Aggression"). In early July, my buddy Mike wrote a post in which he strongly claimed that, while there were several issues involved in the Civil War, the most fundamental one was slavery. Meanwhile, over at his own blog, and a couple days before Mike's post, my friend Bill Keezer had written two important posts about the Civil War: "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Again on the Confederacy."

The historical knowledge necessary even to participate in this discussion is far beyond me, but a quick summation of Bill's and Mike's positions might be that Mike boils the causes of the Civil War down to slavery (in his defense, I'll say that Mike is at pains not to oversimplify the problem, but he is clear on what he sees as the fundamental, overriding issue); Bill, meanwhile, espouses a more states'-rights view of what prompted the war. In a discussion of the causes of the Civil War, this is traditionally where the starkest lines of debate are drawn.

After Mike had written his July 12 post, linked above, Bill left a comment, as did several other right-leaning folks, almost all of whom disagreed with Mike's interpretation of the forces and circumstances that caused the country to plunge into the Civil War. Well, Mike has responded to these responses, and he's not budging from his original position. As I said, this debate has rapidly moved beyond the point where I can do anything other than observe, nod, and furrow my brow. I've always been terrible with history, and I simply don't possess the mental Rolodex that's necessary to marshal facts for an exchange like this. That said, I invite you to read all the posts I've linked to above, and if you feel moved to comment, then please do so.


_