Quote:
Originally Posted by monster
and Jill, sorry, I had not seen all the other shit going on and apologise if I made anything worse. I was truly just interested in it because you started the thread about it. I try to stay away from the politics threads for exactly this reason but you seemed like a rational person to discuss stuff with. I am ignorant about American politics -and a lot of Brit politics these days too- but I don't find it helpful to be told so and then given political labels when I question, so I stay away. yup chicken. I didn't mean to pile on in any way shape or form, and I am sorry for giving that impression.
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No worries, monster. I should have known that you didn't mean it personally, and I shouldn't have allowed the nonsense from the other thread to spill over into this one. It was really my bad for overreacting and not just taking your question at face value. FT
(not Congressional)R, I posted a reply to what went down in that thread,
here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanaC
It is just as important to a research historian to be able to get at the lies that were told as well as the facts. It is just as useful to know the rumours and the bluster as it is to know the votes and the results.
Not all history is about setting down the facts. Some of it is an attempt to get a grip on what people were thinking, talking about, preoccupied with and playing politics around. Political shennanigans tell us a great deal about the mentality of the time we're looking at.
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Politically speaking, a good example of why an official Congressional Record of votes on Resolutions can be important, is to look at the Resolution to institute Martin Luther King Day as a National Holiday.
"In 1983, CBC member Rep. Katie Hall (D-IN) re-introduced the King Holiday legislation, H.R. 3706. In the House of Representatives and in the Senate, the bill was hotly contested. The major issues raised in the House was that the passage of the bill would elevate Dr. King to the status of the founding father, George Washington and that it would be too costly to grant federal workers an additional holiday.
"The holiday bill passed the House on a vote of 338-90 in August 1983. Despite bi-partisan support and support from the Senate leadership, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) led a bitter opposition to the bill in the Senate. Calling Dr. King a Communist, Helms circulated negative material in an effort to defeat the bill. Nevertheless, the Senate approved the bill by a vote of 78-22 in October 1983."
http://www.avoiceonline.org/mlk/legislation.html
Why is the Congressional Record of the votes on that Resolution important
today (well, 3 years ago, actually)?
Then-Presidential candidate John McCain was one of the 22 Senators who voted against that Resolution.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanaC
This has been a really interesting discussion.
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I, for one, am very glad it has turned into that! Thank you for helping make it so!