What Grant started on this date in 1862 we should finish this November and in 2024

A lot to learn from Ulysses S. Grant

On this date in history, 1862, the Union Army led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant forced the surrender of a key Confederate Fort Donelson on the Kentucky-Tennessee border opening up the Cumberland River. Asked for his surrender terms, Grant famously replied “Unconditional Surrender,” earning him the nickname of Unconditional Surrender Grant.

It was the first major Union victory other than naval actions in just under a year and marked the appearance on the scene of a man who would eventually head the Union war effort.

Grant was not a Radical Republican, meaning he did not see the war as about freeing slaves. Some biographers question whether he was a Republican at all when the war started. He was an excellent horseman, and had a place in the Army, except for his drinking. After he resigned following the Mexican War over a promise to resign or reform from his drinking, he began farming. He inherited a slave from his father-in-law, and while not an “abolitionist,” he couldn’t tolerate forcing another man to work, and freed him. That meant releasing a slave valued at $1,000 when Grand and his wife Julia desperately needed the money.

Grant’s military talent was that, with a single exception, he never made the same mistake twice. Although surprised at Shiloh—-and was not drunk, contrary to some stories—-Grant quickly recovered and drove the attacking Confederates back to Mississippi.

Then he embarked on one of the most amazing military campaigns anywhere when he sought to capture Vicksburg. The remarkable and unique geographic position of the city in an "elbow” of the Mississippi River, covered on its northern flank by swamp land and protected to the west by the River, made Grant’s job enormously challenging. He tried re-directing the Mississippi, and, predictably, failed. Finally, he concluded the only possible approach was from the east—-which, if you don’t know your geography, was in the middle of Confederate Mississippi!

In one of the most audacious marches ever, Grant pushed his men down the western side of the Mississippi, through its own share of swamps. But key to the operation was the courageous dash of Admiral David Porter’s ships, heavily padded with cotton bales to buffer against shells, past the crook in the River and then south of Vicksburg. There, the Union Navy ferried across Grant’s men. After defeating one Rebel army at Champion Hill, Grant surrounded Vicksburg and forced its surrender—-unconditional, of course—-on the Fourth of July 1863 . . . just a day after the massive Union victory at Gettysburg over Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

Fast forward to the present. Steve Bannon has claimed we have a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to politically eradicate the DemoKKKrat Party Grant defeated in 1862. The changes portend to be more than merely mid-term elections. They are nothing less than heralding the potential end to the terrorist organization that has come close to destroying America . . . but failed.

The warning signs are all around (and these stories are all from my Today's News from today and yesterday which was the one-year anniversary of the great Rush Limbaugh’s death. You have the DemoKKKrat Congressional Campaign Committee warning that DemoKKKrats are viewed as “preachy” and “judgmental” on issues related to the China Virus. You have Bergen County, New Jersey which the Rutabaga won by 21 seeing a council race flip R. You have The Hill positively screaming that DemoKKKrat China Virus policies endanger their support in the suburbs. You have a key writer for the Washington Compost, Karen Tumulty saying that Kollyfornia is a warning sign. You have The Hill, a second day in a row, concerned about the “Sour public mood” that, nevertheless, The Hill won’t admit the Rutabaga created. You have Biteme now in two separate polls in the mid-30s and his overall polling average is under 40. And finally you have the National Republican Congressional Committee with a poll showing that in 47 battleground congressional districts DemoKKKrats are down to a 6% edge with Hispanics . . . having plummeted from a 27 point lead just a year ago. And the creme de la creme was an article earlier this week was an article arguing that the DemoKKKrats are already extinct in rural America.

Patriots like Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stephens wanted to outright ban the DemoKKKrat Party as a terrorist organization after the Civil War. Maybe they were right. Maybe now’s our chance. Just look at these guys! Do they seem like they would tolerate a Minion Romney for one second?

Do the DemoKKKrats know they are at ELE levels? Yes and no. Clearly leadership and former influencers such as James Carville know the party is teetering on an abyss, though I doubt many of them appreciate the seriousness of it. But the Rutabaga’s inner goblin clan, Ron Klain, Susan Rice, the Ghost of Zero, and whomever else is advising the Swiss-cheesed-brain Biteme are so all-consumed with power that they have literally created their own reality where there is no inflation and families can easily adjust to the stress of a 20% increase in food and staples by going to the spa. (Maybe a gun range would be a better idea).

Nevertheless, Pootie-poot owns Biteme. I won’t tell you there won’t be a war of some sort. Clearly the demonic elements in the Rutabaga’s garden believe that somehow a Russo-Ukrainian war would benefit Biteme, and they are doing all they can to bring that about. But would it?

I think just the opposite. You’ve already seen the MAGA/Trump Republican Party become the anti-war/isolationist party. Most of the DemoKKKrats really don’t want a war sucking off money from their precious Global Warming or Communist Racist Theory crackpot programs. Biteme will find that just as with Veetnam, DemoKKKrats will lose a significant share of their base in the event of a foreign war. Meanwhile, whatever suburban Karens think about Mr. Mean Tweets, you can bet they will vote for him if it means getting their kids back in school and getting prices in their kitchen down by 20%.

Again, Biteme is utterly oblivious to the damages inflation is already doing to the suburbs and working-class Americans. Just wait til the Fed starts raising rates, as they must. Stagflation Round II. Jesus Carter will look like something of an economic genius compared to Biteme when this is over.

So, no, regardless of “most” scenarios, the Republicans won’t get more than 2-3 flips in the Senate. I think right now, today, they are sitting on at least 30 House flips, but a continuation of the catastrophic Biteme policies for eight more months could increase that to 40, or even, at the outside, 50. More important, the majority of these Republicans will be Trumpers, MAGA people who have that Sumner/Stevens look in their eye. They won’t be little Ru Pauls, content to pass a tax cut and push all serious issues off the table. No, my friends, they will be Reconstruction Republicans. Will there be enough? I don’t know, because sheer numbers are far less important than zeal and dedication. Remember, Lenin took over Russia, a nation of about 160 million people, with a core of only about 20,000 committed commies.

Two things are clear: the Empire will strike back and despite that, we have never had the kind of opportunity as we have today to put an end to the demonic party of rebellion and slavery

Larry Schweikart

Rock drummer

Film maker

NYTimes #1 bestselling author

Political pundit

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(President Trump in Florida with my book How Trump Won co-authored with Joel Pollak).