Other Non-Fiction Porter, Henry: Taken in by America, v1, 1 April 2009

[HenryP]

Hello,
My April Fools' Day launch of the ebook 'Taken in by America' continues apace.
Thanks to all who sought to point me here, especially Patricia for persevering to the stage of my arrival.

'Taken in by America' is an outsider's view of how the USA came to be as it is, of what makes the American tick.

I will upload Part One, here. It is also available for download from the website 'www.takeninbyamerica.com'.

The .mobi version I'm uploading, here, works fine on my Mobipocket Reader and I hope it does on yours, too. If it doesn't, please contact me though this forum or via the website.

I hope those of you who start reading the story will enjoy it but if not I hope you'll tell me where the non-fiction work falls down.

Henry

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[Patricia]

Congratulations, Henry.

[HenryP]

Thanks Patrica,
And all within 45 minutes of the noon end to Trickster's annual 12 hour reign.

Henry

[Patricia]

I've moved the post to the upload section, rather than the mobi section, though.

[Madam Broshkina]

Well it fell down for me in the second and third paragraphs where you write:

It was February 11th 2007 and we had just left Philadelphia, Mississippi. Ronald Reagan delivered his first major campaign speech as the Republican Party’s 1980 presidential candidate in that town. He had gone there to court good ’ol white supremacist Dixiecrats. Meryn was responding to the news from Springfield, Illinois, that Barack Obama had just announced that he was running to be elected president of the United States of America in 2008.

Like Governor Reagan before him, Senator Obama had blown the dog whistle. Unlike Reagan, though, Obama was sending a message to educated Americans—by announcing his candidacy in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown—that they should help save the Union.

I guess the people who think that people from the south are a bunch of uneducated, racist, inbred freaks will enjoy your book. For one who knows better I will not waste my time reading anymore.

[HenryP]

Dear Madam,
Congratulations on your Frank Sinatra theme; it works, I reckon.
And thanks for commenting on the ebook, TibA.
I'm delighted that you were not so much bored as disgusted and grateful that you quoted the two paragraphs which led to your conclusion.
For the record, Governor Reagan did make that speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and Senator Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield, Illinois.
They're the facts of the matter.
I imagine that you do not dispute the suggestion that Senator Obama launched his campaign in Springfield because of its association with Abraham Lincoln.
Perhaps you question the belief that Reagan delivered that speech in Philadelphia in order to appeal to white supremacists?
Should you provide a more plausible explanation of Reagan's being there at that time I'll consider it just as I considered the evidence of a resident of Philadelphia, MS, in concluding that the Governor was there to get the message out to all of America's white supremacists that they could feel comfortable with him as their president.

Knowledge, is afterall, arrived at by a careful weighing of the available evidence.
I don't think the evidence you've put forward - the two paragraphs you've quoted from TibA - supports the conclusion that you've drawn.

I hope you'll read on and gather that evidence from the text. When you have it, please quote it, here, so that we can all see that you had not jumped to an erroneous conclusion.

Henry

[BenG]

Most of the southern Civil-Rights-era Democratic leaders that were still around switched over to the Republican party under Reagan including Strom Thurmond and Trent Lott(though they may have switched earlier).

[HenryP]

Lest there be confusion concerning the opening paragraphs of Chapter One of TibA, I should point out that Dixiecrats were Democratic Party folk who sought to protect what they saw as the Southern way of life. In particular, they could not abide the Democratic Party's shift toward the recognition of the African American's civil rights and maintained a doggedly white supremacist outlook.
As BenG notes, Trent Lott is a typical example of the type. Raised a Democrat while it was still a white supremacist party, he changed horse to the Republican Party during the Nixon era and was elected to Congress in 1972.
Thirty years on, with Karl Rove at the peak of his powers, Lott resigned as Senate Majority Leader after being challenged for his continued support of the good 'ol white supremacist point of view.

Karl Rove is not a fundamentalist Christian. But he pushed Christian fundamentalist buttons in order to get out the Republican vote.
As far as I know, Ronald Reagan was not a white supremacist. But read up on his record and you'll be in no doubt that he pushed white supremacist buttons in order to get out the vote. That's why he went to Philadelphia, MS.

The first few paragraphs of 'Taken in by America' contain two premises of an argument; they are (i) there are white supremacist Americans and (ii) in 1980, Ronald Reagan went to what had been a hotbed of white supremacist sentiment during the Civil Rights era.

It may plausibly be argued from these premises that in order to get out the vote of America's white supremacists, Reagan played their signature tune on the dog whistle.

It cannot be plausibly argued from these premises that therefore all Southerners are inbred racist freakjs. TibA mounts no such argument.

henry

[HenryP]

This overwrites the original file with corrections that have come to light. Further amendments will be made as they are detected.

Henry

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

To report a copyright violation you can contact us here.