Posted on 03/09/2008 1:30:02 PM PDT by neverdem
What do Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Barack Obama have in common, besides wanting to be the next commander in chief?
They are all of Scots-Irish descent, an ethnic and cultural lineage that has produced more presidents and military leaders than any other.
"Fascinating, but not surprising," says U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. The former naval secretary and decorated Marine should know: He catalogued the migration and cultural influence of the Scots-Irish in America in his book "Born Fighting."
They have "always had the tradition of being in leadership positions, whether it is the military or in politics," Webb says. In fact, 17 of America's 43 presidents are confirmed Scots-Irish.
They also comprise the largest swing-voting bloc in the country; you cannot win a presidential election without them. In a 2004 newspaper column, Webb suggested that by ignoring Scots-Irish voters in places such as West Virginia and Tennessee, Al Gore probably lost the 2000 presidential election.
"Senator Webb, a heroic, literary figure himself, is correct," says GOP political strategist John Weaver, who never ignores the Scots-Irish voter.
Weaver is a rarity, however; a call to more than a half-dozen academic political specialists and pollsters found none who recognized the Scots-Irish impact on elections.
That lack of knowledge is a social and political curiosity. How can there be such scant understanding of a 30 million-strong ethnic group that has produced so many leaders and swung most elections?
Perhaps because political academics and pollsters parse the Scottish half off with the WASP vote and define the Irish-Catholic half as blue-collar Democrats. They are neither.
So, who are...
--snip--
As a voting bloc, the Scots-Irish respond passionately to five things: the right to bear arms, the preservation of family, a love of country, a respect for life and success in war...
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
The neoCOMs have a tall order:
They deplore the Second Amendment.
They want to wreck traditional families.
They accuse America for all the evil in the world and worship the United Nations.
They want unrestricted access to abortions.
They want a repeat in Iraq of the disaster they enabled in Vietnam and its neighbors.
BTTT!
The Mark of the Scots: Their Astonishing Contributions...
by Duncan A. Bruce
A very enjoyable book; especially if you’re Scottish!
I thought Hillary was Welsh.
Will Hillary change her accent to give a speach?
speech
SHeesh!
I am Stots Irish and I never knew we were a political force. Why was I never invited to the meetings?
Also “The Scottish Empire”. I forget the author. Got it from a remainder bin a few years ago, so it may be a “used-book-seller” item now, but worth seeking out.
If The Hildabeast were Welsh, she could sing, and wouldn’t screech the way she does.
ancestral ping
She couldn't be Welsh. I'm 1/4 Welsh, and I'm sure that the Welsh would never have allowed a witch to live if she had been born into a Welsh family. We do have standards you know.
McCain certainly.
Hillary Clinton, not much if at all. She's Welsh and English with a dash of Scots and French Canadian.
Obama not so much either. Maybe a little.
Huckabee maybe as well. Not everyone in the Southern Highlands was Scots-Irish but after a few generations, you get a lot of people who are at least a little English and a little Irish, Scots, and Scots-Irish.
I have to wonder if the target group is Scots-Irish or actually just Middle Americans or Midlanders or Heartlanders.
FWIW Huckabee's wife was born Janet McCain. Maybe she and McCain are related ...
Oh, and by the way, anybody who writes half the Scots-Irish vote off as Catholic doesn’t have a clue.
The Scots-Irish were Protestant to a man.
The Catholic Irish arrived much later.
The Scots are deficient on the tennis court only when faced with three foot high extragalactic Blancmange puddings.
Apart from that, we are invincible!!!
LOL...........
Probably because you spelled it wrong on the application. LOL
Lay off the Glenlivet. :)
Actually I believe the preferred term now is Ulster Scots.
“Rudy” is on the Country Music Channel tonight. :)
The native Catholic Irish and Protestant Scots-Irish were also mortal enemies both in Northern Ireland and the American colonies, and many of those two warlike breeds of Celts are still mortal enemies in Northern Ireland. After the rebellious lowland Scots were disastrously defeated by a numerically superior English army at the battle of Culloden, the English forced many of the defeated Scots to give up their land and homes and settle in Northern Ireland as a counter balance to the native Irish who hated their English overlords and posed a constant threat of armed rebellion. The fact that the English gentry wanted the Scots' land for grazing sheep was another primary factor in that forced exile.
Of course the Catholic native Irish of that northern region deeply resented the new Protestant settlers taking their land and farms by force of English bayonets, and the resulting bitterly fought battles have gone on sporadically between the two sides ever since. Whenever you have Celts fighting Celts there will invariably be extremely bitter emotional issues on both sides.
According to my extensive research into my family's genealogy going back to 13th century British and Scottish church and public records, I have quite a few ancestors on the Scots side of the fight and at least one on the Irish side. Somehow a few individuals on opposing sides managed to get along well enough to bear children together, and that requires some very serious getting along.
With all the other groups claiming to be the swing vote, or the bloc that decides this election or that election, I guess it’s about time some white folks decided that they are they bloc vote that decides elections, too: the Scots-Irish bloc vote.
I’m mostly English, so I guess it’s about time we recognized the English bloc vote, too.
It is a puzzle how the Scots-Irish could be so dominant, though, since I believe the English, German and Irish all have more descendants in the US than the Scots-Irish.
I’m Irish, but do we really need another group to pander to?
Me either.I've been robbed! LOL!
And, yes, he too is Scots-Irish.
Unfortunately. With Webb we also have to add lying, conniving, scheming and backstabbing.
Please.
In 1346, with his Army in France, and Scot Duffers on the march, English King Edward III was reduced to deploying the contents of the Auxiliary Crown Arsenal at Wimbledon in the path of the oncoming Scots, along with a Royal Herald who's only instructions were to shout: "I say, anyone for Tennis?" and then run like hell.
The subsequent slaughter*, more bloody than anything seen up to that time, so overwhelmed the ability of contemporary chroniclers to describe, much less comprehend, that, as a result, a fictitous English force was invented out of whole cloth whom to ascribe the victory to.
Granted, the young and inexperienced King David II should have known better than to allow his men to try and play tennis with their golf balls, but out of such mistakes is the rich tapestry of history woven, or not, as the case may be.
*Re-enacted here by the Royal Society for Creative Anachronism.
VIVA KING BILLY!!! ;-)
Oh yeah? Show me the O’Bama family crest and tartan.
Not a drop of Irish blood in the lot, I can tell ya.
Well, no, the “Catholic Irish” didn’t arrive at all.
The Irish were already there long before Catholicism arrived:)
The Scots Irish were imported by the British.
The original Scottish that arrived in this county prior to 1776 were mostly Catholic Scottish along with some old Pagan Scottish. The Catholic Scottish were eventually called Jacobites and they had been originally converted shortly after Ireland was converted from Paganism to Catholicism. Jacobites supported King James (Jacob in Latin). Probably who Jamestown was named after (King James was from the Stewart line of Kings). The English basically forced most of the Jacobites out of Scotland (at least the ones that were a threat). In the United States the Scottish became the number 2 ethnicity in the late 1700's after the United States was formed, according to the very first US census. Behind German and ahead of English. The Stewart line of Kings (apparently the last Celtic Kings to rule the entire United Kingdom) eventually turned Protestant as most of Scotland did. The traditionally accepted Scots-Irish appear to the the Scottish who came to America after the major English inspired conversion to the Protestant religion. They were also the Scottish who were resettled back into Northern Ireland. So they appears to be three different flavors of old school Scottish. The original Pagan Scottish, then the Catholic Scottish Jacobites then the Protestant Scottish. A subgroup of the Protestant Scottish appear to be referred to as the Scots-Irish. At any rate, when the Dal Riada tribe left Ireland a famous Irish King said, let them go but never refer to them as Gaelic again. So the Jacobite Scottish are not Scots-Irish. They are Scottish. They were the Dal Riada who merged with the Picts to form Scotland. Named after their historic queen Scoti, who oddly was an Egyptian Pharaohs daughter. They apparently also settled into Canada (Nova Scotia). Unfortunately, many no longer live in Scotland. They either left for America of their own free will or were sent on prison ships to America and later to Australia. My surname ancestors no longer live there, but some of the ruins of their old homes and keeps still exist. I might go visit em someday.
Oh, you meant arrived to America. Doh.
I thought you meant arrived to Ireland.
Never mind.......
most of these people have abandon us for “truth” of Liberalism:
-Self-Loathing
-blaming the Western Nations for it’s success in the world
-Hatred of the poor through abortion
-Give away the Money of hard workers to the lesser or non-workers
-Never willing to spend their money to help the needy (only taxes should be used)
-Gross Distrust of the people through their programs to take control of their lives and offer the easy way in exchange of our vote and liberties!
They are a piece of work and should never have been “servants” of the people!
Have you ever heard the Irish Rovers song "The Orange and the Green"?
It has some funny lyrics.
Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
My father, he was Orange and me mother, she was green.One day me Ma's relations came round to visit me.
Just as my father's kinfolk were all sitting down to tea.
We tried to smooth things over, but they all began to fight.
And me, being strictly neutral, I bashed everyone in sight.
Sounds like my ancestors: My father’s half Welsh Catholic and half Scots-Irish going back to the good ole William of Orange and they fought with Sherman in the Civil War; My mother’s one-quarter Highland Scot, one quarter Scots-Irish, and one half Jewish who fought for the Confederates under Lee. …SO, you see, I am of several minds and they all hate each other! By the way, I come from a long line of divorces too!
That sounds exactly like some people of my extended family. They fight among themselves like cats and dogs, but heaven help any outsider who goes against any of them.
When I say fight among themselves I mean verbally, and with very loud verbs. They seldom come to actual blows, although I think that has happened a few times as well when a wee drop of alcohol may have been involved.
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