Civil War records, WW-II German uniforms, and the 1st Ladies' speech
About ten years ago I became interested in a Civil War battle that was fought in a town I sometimes visit. In searching around for information about the battle I found a web-site at which the entire surviving records of individual battles were compiled. The battle that interested me was reported on by 5 Officers between the two sides and gave a very revealing picture of both the battle itself and the war in general. After reading those accounts it seemed to me that it was clear that the South would not and could not win that war. They were unprepared, under trained, disorderly, and most important is that they were willing to compromise their reporting to minimize their own failed involvement. The same could not be said for the North, they reported the good with the bad, were clearly well trained, and did not suffer so badly from lack of men and materials.
Sometime later, while out on a weekend motorcycle ride, I stopped at a local "museum" that had put together an amazing display of World War II equipment and particularly uniforms. The display probably had upwards of 50 different uniformed mannequins set up in archetypical scenes from the war. While it was clear not to touch the fabric it was still possible to get up close and see exactly how the things were made. Here is what amazed me about the uniforms; the German uniforms were hand-stiched. All of the uniforms from the allied forces, British, Australian, US Army, Marines, and Navy were machine stitched. When I first noticed this it occurred to me that I was most likely looking at stich-work done by hand by slave labor. As vile as that thought was it revealed something else, that Germany didn't have the industrial might to produce the uniforms and if they were lacking mechanization in one place they would be missing it elsewhere. It was a tell, Germany could not win that war.
The last two weeks have given us two conventions on television. The Republicans had their's, we are now having ours, and the differences between the two come close to mirroring the war reporting and the museum pieces above. No one could help but notice the disarray of the Republican Convention, they were poorly prepared, refused to discuss matters of policy, had plenty of blame to spread around but none to confess to; just look at the debacle that was their thursday-night set of headline addresses. From Clint to Mitt himself they were just self-deluding nonsense. So far the Democratic Convention has been just the opposite; well choreographed, well executed, orderly, and honest in its commentary. These things matter.
And while I know the connection is both personal and even trivial, but it seems clear to me, the Republican Party, at least the GOP that I have known for well over half a century, is dead and gone and the thing that has replaced it, what I like to think of as a school of fish, simply has no ability or capability to manage our country. They have already failed, they just don't see it yet.
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