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Nov. 25, 2021 - Bannon's War Room

48:49

Episode 1,440 – Lincoln, Gettysburg, ThanksgivingEpisode 1,440 – Lincoln, Gettysburg, Thanksgiving

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patrick k odonnel

16:01

steve bannon

16:21

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johnny cash

04:49

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		Okay, welcome back.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Thanksgiving 2021.
		It's Thursday, the 25th of November for our Thanksgiving special.
		I want to thank Roger Kimball for changing his day around to join us.
		He's the author of a great book, The Long March Through the Institutions, also one of the top public intellectuals in our country.
		By the way, you mentioned the We're going to have Patrick O'Donnell here a little later talk about Lincoln, Gettysburg, and the Proclamation.
		You know, one thing that people talk about Genocide, they don't realize, or they never admit, the sophistication, like the Huron Confederacy, The sophistication of some of the Native American tribes as far as foreign policy goes, warcraft, all of that.
		They were an ally of the French and some were allies of the British, but they were equal allies in many regards in highly sophisticated ways of warfare, statecraft, and the economy as they knew it.
		But what is it, Roger, this book you wrote was about how they're trying to attack the This kind of cultural Marxists are basic institutions and flip them.
		It looks like they've done that to universities.
		It looks like they've done that to the study of history.
		What say you?
unidentified		Yeah, big time.
		Well, you know that the phrase the Long March, a lot of people, a lot of people associated with Mao Tse Tung.
		But in the context of my book, it's really it's really the the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci.
		His idea was that really to take over, to make the Marxist revolution a success, you had to take over the cultural institution.
		It was a long march through the institutions.
		You didn't attack them from outside.
		You got to them on the inside and perverted them.
		And that's what has happened.
		You mentioned the education.
		Well, certainly the universities, with a tiny handful of exceptions, are gone.
		They have nothing to do with perpetuating and transmitting the highest values of our civilization.
		They are now essentially laboratories to destroy our civilization, to hollow it out from inside.
		The idea that somehow the past of Western civilization is one long litany of Exploitation and oppression is something that could occur to somebody who was fueled almost exclusively by hatred, you know, abetted by ignorance.
		So it certainly has happened to higher education.
		It has now happened in secondary and primary education too, where students know more and more about Marxist theory or Transgenderism, but very little about the the the fundaments of their own heritage.
		And I'm afraid that it's also happened to many of our government institutions.
		You see them hollowed out and perverted from within.
		People talk.
		You've talked a lot on this show about the deep state, the administrative state.
		These are not abstractions.
		These are institutions whose fundamental purpose has been turned on its head.
		And we see it again and again and again.
		Fortunately, you were mentioning a few moments ago that people do fight back when things go too far.
		And I believe we're seeing that right now.
		We saw it in Virginia with the election of Glenn Youngkin.
		And we see it throughout the country.
		America's parents are Taking back their local school boards, for example.
		That may seem like a small thing, but it's not.
		They're taking back their school board, which means they're taking back their schools from an insidious left-wing assault on the fundamental values of this country.
		And you see it also in initiatives like the 1776 project that that President Trump inaugurated shortly before leaving office.
		And that's been perpetuated. We at Encounter Books have published the report that was issued on the basis of that committee. I'm happy to say that it's selling very well. A lot of schools are using it to introduce their students to what the actual texture and principles of the American founding are all about. It's not something you will hear from the teachers' unions.
		It is certainly not something you're going to hear from the people who are running the school boards, but it is something you can hear if you have the wit and the patience to look a little bit behind the mainstream news, behind the CNNs and the NPRs and the New York Times, behind all of those Mouthpieces for the regime.
		There are a growing chorus of voices that are attempting to tell the truth about this country and about the principles that made it.
		Let's face it.
		It's it is the sign ashore of the world and has been for decades and decades.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		By the way, so we had Dr. Carol Swain on from the 1776 Project to start the show, and we want to make sure everybody gets access to that book of encounter books.
		When Roger Kimball says we're in 1857, people pay attention.
		You're not somebody that runs around with their hair on fire.
		What do you mean, explain to our audience, what do you mean you think we're in 1857?
unidentified		Well, the 1850s was a very Tabasco decade in American history.
		The country was divided as it probably had never been to that point.
		There was a real chance of secession.
		There was incredible dissension, hatred.
		I think that we are at a moment now, although there's no one single issue as there was in the 1850s, that issue was slavery.
		But it's it's it's well, maybe there is a kind it's a kind of slavery.
		It's a slavery to an ideology.
		That is to say, there is there is one part of the population that wants to read to reduce the American investment in individual liberty.
		To a sort of collectivist group identity.
		And that the insistence with which these people are ramming that that ideology down the throats of the people is pushing us more and more, I think, to what you might call a pre-revolutionary situation.
		That's why I mean, I was astonished to read the memorandum of the attorney general of the United States in October instructing the FBI All the other coercive powers of the state to mobilize to investigate parents who he described as domestic terrorists.
		Why?
		Because they had the temerity to go to their local school boards and complain about the insinuation of critical race theory, which is to say Marxism, you know, very lightly done over and injected with a with a toxic dose of advanced sexual politics.
		They were objecting to the insinuation of this into the curricula of their schools, as they should.
		But the Attorney General of the United States calling on the FBI to actually investigate people who went to their local school boards to complain about this stuff, I found that one of the most extraordinary things of the last couple of years.
		I mean, there's been a lot of extraordinary things, a lot of things to be upset about, but that the that the chief law enforcement officer of this country should be willing to use the police power of the state
		To harass and intimidate ordinary people in that way is absolutely, it's on the one hand terrifying, and on the other hand, on the other side, it's something that I think will galvanize the people to stand up and push back.
		Because it doesn't matter how many dawn raids they conduct with battering rams, you know, going into the home of James O'Keefe, for example, the person who started Project Veritas.
		Tossing him out into his hallway in his underwear and in handcuffs in order to ransack his residence to look for the diary of the daughter of the President of the United States.
		Why?
		Not because it was a national secret, but because it might be embarrassing to the President.
		I mean, that's just not on.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Roger, later today when you're at the table leading your family in prayer, what is it most that you're showing gratitude for, that you're grateful for?
unidentified		Well, I'm extremely grateful to have been born in the United States when I was born.
		I mean, in the lottery of life, you've already picked a winning hand.
		How great is it to be, you know, to be born in America in the in the 20th century?
		We just, you know, all you have to do is look back over over the centuries.
		And, you know, we are so prosperous.
		We are so fortunate.
		You know, everything from medicine to communications to just we are at the kind of the the tip Of of history in many ways, that brings with it its own challenges, to be sure.
		But I am I am deeply grateful for that.
		And I'm I'm deeply grateful for the friends who will be in my family joining me around the table.
		I'm grateful that, you know, we can presumably do it unharassed.
		But I would not be telling the truth if I didn't say that I was worried about the state of the country.
		My own feeling at the moment is one of gratitude intermixed with a certain element of anxiety about what the future will bring.
		I don't know.
		I hope for the best, but I plan for the worst.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		How do people follow you on social media?
		How do they get to New Criterion?
		How do they get to Encounter Books?
unidentified		Right.
		Well, the New Criterion is pretty simple.
		It's newcriterion.com.
		Encounter Books is encounterbooks.com.
		I gave up on Facebook a while ago.
		I still use Twitter.
		It's just at Roger Kimball.
		I also have a Parlay account, which is also at Roger Kimball.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Roger, thank you very much for taking time away from your Thanksgiving to join us.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Have a good Thanksgiving.
		Bye.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, sir.
		Roger Kimball, one of our top public intellectuals, I want to bring in now someone that always is our wingman during these holidays, always our Christmas special and 4th of July, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, top combat historian, Patrick K. O'Donnell.
		Patrick, a couple minutes here, we're going to get into, you're going to walk us through Washington's Thanksgiving, when he asked for his proclamation, when he asked for God's blessing, Lincoln's, we're going to talk all about that, but we've got a couple minutes.
		When a guy like Roger Kimball, and I understand you don't get involved in the politics of it if you're a historian, but when a guy like Roger Kimball says we're in 1857, for a historian like Patrick K. O'Donnell, what does that mean?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Well, I think he's got a lot.
		There's a lot of truth to it, Steve.
		You know, history is about, you know, studying the past and in some ways to have a feel for what may happen in the future or to get an idea of it.
		And, you know, studying our past is important.
		And I think that Roger made some excellent points.
		America has been divided before, deeply divided.
		In fact, that's kind of the jumping off point in one way of One of our first Thanksgiving that really not many people have heard of, and that was on May 17, 1776, Steve.
		And Congress, two days earlier, asked Americans who were deeply divided in America at that time, there was a civil war raging during the revolution, and they asked Americans for a day of prayer and Thanksgiving.
		And they did that.
		And on May 17th, their prayers were They came true.
		And what I mean by that is, we were deeply short of gunpowder during the American Revolution.
		And this is one aspect of the Indispensables we've never really talked about.
		And the origins of the U.S.
		Navy are pretty humble during the American Revolution.
		It begins with a single rowboat that John, or not rowboat, but a fishing boat that John Glover repurposed and converted into a vessel of war that went after British transports The Continental Army had hardly any power, and it was the British that tried to cut off that source of power at every turn.
unidentified		It's really what turns a political revolution into a military revolution.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Hang on one second.
		We're taking a short commercial break.
		We're going to come back with the Civil War that was upon us in May of 1776, and how we worked our way through it.
johnny cash ▲ ● ▼		This is the story of Patrick O'Donnell, the great combat historian, joins us.
		I'm grateful for the laughter of children, the sun and the wind and the rain, the colors.
		We've come to the time in the season when family and friends gather near to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for blessings we've known through the years, to join hands and thank the Creator.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Okay, the great Johnny Cash and the Thanksgiving song.
		It is Thursday, the 25th of November, the year of our Lord 2021.
		It's Thanksgiving Day.
		I want to thank you for making time as you travel around today to make War Room part of your Thanksgiving.
		We always share these holidays with, Patrick K. O'Donnell tells us what America was doing, how America worked through these different holidays with certain crises, but always having to get through.
		Patrick, by the way, I want to thank our sponsors, MyPillow.com, Promo Code War Room.
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		The book is indispensable.
		He's got a couple of great books out there about the Revolution.
		But in May, people forget, Patrick, that in 1776 there was a Civil War at the same time, internally, at the same time there was a Revolution.
		And we also had a pandemic that was raging.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		There was a smallpox pandemic that hit North America at the time and divided us politically as well.
		It was devastating.
		But going back to May 17th, Steve, it's really an amazing story.
		We have these small cruisers, Washington's cruisers, which are initially fishing boats and merchant boats, and these marble headers really form the origins of the U.S.
unidentified		Navy.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		And it's not necessarily a... The story of the early Navy is a little bit on the rough side.
		I mean, these guys, there's initially a mutiny.
		They invade Canada without authorization.
		But on May 17th, they did something that was absolutely extraordinary.
		They captured the greatest transport that was laden with powder of a war.
		At this time, Washington's army, many of the men only had about 10 cartridges in their cartridge boxes.
		They could hardly even launch an offensive against the British, or even defend themselves.
		And all of a sudden, this ship shows up that they seize, on the high seas, with this small transport that goes up against the Royal Navy, and they capture the Hope.
		And the Hope contains 1,500 barrels of powder, enough to supply either army for several months.
		And it falls in the hands of Captain James Mugford, who's only about 27 years old at the time, from Marblehead, Massachusetts.
		And he brings in the ship on the exact day that this is a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving, and prayers are answered.
		The ship actually grounds itself in Boston Harbor, but small boats go out to bring out the powder, and it's then that the British launch a counterattack, and Captain Mugford has to fight for his life as five boats Five boats from the Royal Navy attacked his ship, which is known as the Franklin and the Lady Washington, these two ships.
		And they have to fend off boarders.
		And it's a really amazing story of ship-to-ship, hand-to-hand combat.
		And Mugford himself is dealing death with both hands.
		That's what one of the accounts reads.
		He has a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other.
		And it's at that point he's actually killed.
		And one of the first captains for the Marble Hunters that's killed in action.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		This is where we're going to get to next with Washington.
		It was really Lincoln that set up Thanksgiving as we know it today, the fourth Thursday in November.
		But who called for the Day of Thanksgiving and National Prayer in May of 1776?
		Who actually had authority to promulgate that?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		At this point, it was the Congress that actually has the authority to do it.
		And Washington also You know, further promulgates it, but it's Congress that actually suggests it and promulgates it.
		And it occurs again, but it's more under the auspices of General Washington.
		In 1777, there's a great victory at Saratoga.
		And it's a couple months later that Washington issues a National Day of Thanksgiving on December 18, 1777, to celebrate this victory at Saratoga, which changes the course of the war.
		I bring this out in The Inexpensive as well.
		It also brings in the crucial French alliance, the money that they provide the colonies, as well as gunpowder and other things.
		And then ultimately, there are men and ships that are involved.
		And I mean, there's the great victory, you know, many, many years later at Yorktown.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		But tell us, I want to go back, so Washington in mid-December says we're going to have a national day of thanksgiving and prayer.
		And remember, here's the power of it.
		From the pilgrims, to what you see in 1776, to Washington, to Lincoln, later, it's always, to Roosevelt when he tried to move it and then moved it back, it's always a day, a national day of prayer, gratitude, and thanksgiving.
		Why was it in those early days of the Revolution, right, that Saratoga was looked at as so important?
		Because you'd had the, you'd already had, I think in 1777, you'd already had that winter, the winter, you've already had, you know, the Christmas attack at Trenton.
		You'd had so much had taken place, the siege of Boston.
		Why was Saratoga considered so important to Washington that he would actually have the nation have a National Day of Thanksgiving to God for it?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		It's a demonstration that we can beat a full British Army in the field.
		And that's what happens at Saratoga.
		The British invade from Canada and move down towards Albany.
		And in the Saratoga area, they are defeated and massively defeated.
		Several thousand men go into captivity and are killed on the part of the British Army.
		So it's an amazing and full American victory, which then Allies around the world see this as the Americans can stand up for themselves.
		They demonstrated it at Trenton also, you know, nearly a year earlier.
		But it's here that they defeat a full British army and it changes the course of the war.
		The French come on board, followed by the Spanish.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Why are they so, you know, and Washington understood this because he had been really gotten the first command.
		He went up to Cambridge, the siege of Boston.
		Why?
		Why were the British so obsessed with cutting the colonies in two?
		They were obsessed with the Hudson River, the Hudson Valley, New York, as a way to cleave off.
		New England from everybody else.
		In fact, Washington being a Virginian, his first command was really, outside the Virginia militia, was to go up to New England and take command of the troops.
		They were trying to knit the colonies together, Virginia, Massachusetts, even at that time.
		Why were the British so obsessed with the Hudson Valley?
		Why were they so obsessed with New York City in trying to strategically cleave off New England?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		The plan was to actually capture the Hudson River and divide The northern colonies of Massachusetts and New Hampshire from the southern colonies.
		The problem was there wasn't good planning and execution.
		The British moved their army in Canada, which they didn't coordinate properly.
		It wasn't even technically under the command of Lord Howe.
		And they didn't properly coordinate that army as it was moving down.
		And then Howe, Who should have reinforced them and converged upon the Northern Army that was coming down from Canada under Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne, instead decides to attack Philadelphia and not support that army.
		And what happens is when the British Army is divided, it gets defeated.
		And that's certainly the case throughout the course of the American Revolution in places like Cowpens and in other places, Kings Mountain.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		When Washington gives this proclamation for the first, for the, you know, I would say the first major national, maybe, Day of Thanksgiving from, really, the General-in-Chief, people have said a lot of the founders were not religious in the sense that we know religion, of being, you know, church-going Christians.
		They were deist or they had a different Well, you know, Washington recognized the importance of this event and wanted people to be thankful for it.
		And also, he understood the importance of prayer as well.
		How does that put to lie, you think, that concept that some of them were not particularly religious?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Well, you know, Washington recognized the importance of this event and wanted people to be thankful for it.
		And also he understood the importance of prayer as well.
		And I mean, this is imbued within the founders.
		Each one has a different sort of perspective on that faith.
		Some are more open than others about it.
		You know, Washington himself went to church all the time, but he was sort of more, kept his religion a little more closer to the vest, but he still was a fairly religious person.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		The book is The Indispensables.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It's the second, the first volume, it's really, it's not a sequel, but kind of a companion piece to your first volume, correct, about the elite guard, the Maryland regiment that was around General Washington?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		That would be Washington's Immortals, yes.
		The two stories, in some ways, intersect each other.
		It was The Indispensables that bring the army across The East River and save the Marylanders and the rest of the Army as well as across the Delaware River and the incredible counterattack, the Christmas Day counterattack or counteroffensive that changes the course of history at Trenton.
		And then it's followed by these 10 days that change the course of history, including the Second Battle of Trenton and Princeton.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		A revolution from a combat historian's perspective is quite amazing.
		Okay, we're going to take a break.
		When we return, we're going to talk about the establishment of Thanksgiving as we kind of know it today, at least on the fourth Thursday of every November.
		President Lincoln, the second big proclamation he gave in 1863, next in the war with Patrick A. O'Donnell.
johnny cash ▲ ● ▼		This year when I count my blessings, I'm thanking the Lord he made you. I'm grateful for the laughter of children.
		We've come to the time in the season when family and friends gather near to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for blessings we've known through the year to join hands and thank the Creator now when Thanksgiving is dear.
		Okay, welcome back.
		You're in the War Room.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		It is Thursday, the 25th of November, the year of our Lord 2021.
		We're always grateful for all of our blessings.
		One of those is that we get to do these shows with you, this audience.
		The others that we get to do them with guys like Patrick O'Donnell.
		Patrick, after General Washington, you had this in 1776.
		I think he did another one in 1789.
		But after that, It kind of fell out, and particularly one of the things is said that Jefferson and some of the other Madison and Monroe that followed him were more separation of church and state, didn't think it was appropriate, whatever.
		But Thanksgiving as a formal time of year kind of dropped out of official practice or observation until Lincoln.
		In 1863, and he had started 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation that came off the Great Victory, or at least the stopping of the northern invasion by the Army of Northern Virginia at the Antietam on the creek there in Maryland.
		And then had the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863.
		Then the massive battle at Chancellorsville, and then the massive battle at Gettysburg with the Union victory.
		And knowing he was going to go up and be invited up to the cemetery, I think on November 19th, on October 3rd, he put out a proclamation to set forth a day of thanksgiving.
		That henceforth it would be on the fourth Thursday of November every year.
		Tell us about that.
		Tell us about, you know, Lincoln, this whole concept that you have a great war leader like President and then General Washington, later President Washington, and you had somebody like Commander-in-Chief Lincoln, who was very engaged in all the major decisions, that think that after great victories, right, or in some sort of remembrance, that one has to give thanks to God.
		Walk us through that from a combat historian's perspective.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Oh, indeed.
		I mean, Lincoln's hold on power was always tenuous.
		It was in many ways always dictated by the battlefield.
		And he was, you know, constantly battling.
		You know, there is a situation of the issue of commanders themselves and whether or not they were competent.
		And it's here we are after Gettysburg, arguably the greatest battle of the Civil War.
		One of the greatest battles in American history that, you know, he comes up to to Gettysburg to dedicate the cemetery on my birthday, which is November 19th.
		And then he delivers the greatest speech in American history, arguably the Gettysburg Address.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		What you say tenuous and hold, I don't think people understand how close the Civil War could have come out on either side of it.
		And one of the arguments was that, and one of the reasons he wanted to give thanks over that victory, and particularly over the dedication of the cemetery on the 19th, and actually have the whole nation To really pray to God.
		And that's, you know, Lincoln's also someone, they question his outward Christianity, right?
		That he was always criticized, particularly by a lot of people, that he didn't seem to be that churched.
		Although, obviously, deeply religious.
		With the military commanders, it was also, and you're, look, you're a combat historian, so you see this at really the deck plate level, but he often had to struggle with military commanders that he didn't, he never really, I think, felt some of these guys were really into the fight.
		They really weren't into the fight, not just for the preservation of the Union, but ultimately for the abolition of slavery and really the formation of essentially a new country.
		Patrick O'Donnell.
unidentified		Well, indeed.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		And then you have people that were, in some cases, on a different page politically, such as George McClellan, who was his commander at Antietam, but was in many ways undermining him.
		And he undermines the Union cause in various ways.
		The Second Battle of Bull Run, he doesn't provide crucial reinforcements when they're needed.
		Uh, this guy really, um, and then he later runs against the president as the Democrat nominee in 1864.
		Um, so he's constantly dealing with, um, you know, commanders in some cases that are undermining him.
		He's also dealing with a very deeply divided country, even in the North, uh, that is deeply divided.
		It's, um, shortly after Gettysburg or right around the same time that, There are massive riots in New York, and they have to pair off part of the Army to deal with that, because people don't want to be drafted into the Army.
		And there is a political shift that is going on constantly based on the ebb and flow of battles.
		And the Confederacy, you know, at least in the Army of Northern Virginia, is largely undefeated, especially when it comes up to Gettysburg.
		And it's, you know, they're winning one battle after another.
		And, you know, Lincoln has to contend with this.
		And the press, people don't know this, are not very favorable in many cases to President Lincoln.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Oh no, the press is all over him for his handling of the war.
		In fact, one of the reasons the proclamation came in October, the proclamation of Gettysburg was over July 4th, basically 2nd, 3rd of 1st, 2nd, 3rd of July.
		Then you have, you know, Vicksburg fell on the 4th.
		Then he puts the proclamation out October 3rd.
		He goes to speak or to give a few comments.
		I think the invitation is that you come and give a few remarks.
		He gives this amazing speech.
		I think it clocks in at 2 minutes and 30 seconds, which is still the most profound talk in American history.
		Maybe second to his second inaugural address.
		But part of the promulgation, Patrick, was really to still unite the country.
		Remember, General Meade had not gone, just like McClellan failed to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Antietam, so Meade failed to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia after Gettysburg, and Lincoln was very focused on not taking Richmond, but really destroying Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia that would end the rebellion, and failed to do it.
		This was looked at as one way to knit the country together, because politically you had the copperheads, you had all types of dissension in the country, even at that time, in fact, as you said, his general in chief was to run against him in 1864, and people forget Lincoln did not even run as a Republican, he ran on what's called the National Union Ticket with Andrew Johnson, who was a Southern Unionist Democrat.
		So the pressure on him was enormous.
		And he used the proclamation and the country to come together to give thanks to God, right, to give and to basically make that happen on an ongoing basis.
		Patrick O'Donnell, thoughts?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Absolutely.
		And I, you know, this is really an extraordinary time where there is everything is the ebb and flow of battle and literally determine the next election.
		In the next election in 1864, which is coming up, Washington itself is threatened in the summer by Jubal Early.
unidentified		It's nearly burned to the ground.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		There are ebb and flows that take place constantly where the Army of Northern Virginia is winning battles.
		The North is exhausted politically in many ways.
		There is incredible war rareness.
		that is manifested in these riots and everything else.
		And it's on such a nice edge.
		And his platform in 1864 is exactly the polar opposite in many ways of President Lincoln.
		It's an appeasement strategy.
		It's potentially even allowing slavery to exist.
		I mean, there's, if you look at the Democrat platform in 1864, that's fascinating.
		These are all factors that are taking place that, you know, the ebb and flow of battle means everything to the political will, which is, you know, it's being exhausted and ignored.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		You talk about that in the Civil War.
		Here, you know, we have Roger Kimball on the show saying, hey, we're in 1857.
		You've probably done more than anybody in your generation to study small unit combat at the deck plate levels among Americans of all walks of life that are called to serve their country.
		Given where you've seen from, and you were an inbed in Iraq with a Marine rifle platoon, given your knowledge of history, of the revolution, of Korea, of World War II, World War I, you did the great book, we had you on our Veterans Day, The Tomb of the Unknown, where do you think the country stands today?
		What's your sense given all the struggles we've been through?
		Do we understand that history?
		Do we collectively, you think, still have, understand the great forces and the great valor that's been shown to get us here?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		I think we're in a very, arguably some of the most dangerous times in American history, Steve.
		There are massive threats worldwide.
		There's structural issues with the economy.
		I mean, If we go back to the American Revolution, for instance, one of my favorite scenes in that book, in The Indispensables, is when the British land in Long Island, and they see the farms of the colonists, and they see that this is the most wealthy, it has the greatest standard of living at the time in 1776, and some of the most educated people at the time as well.
		It was an American Engine of growth has always been our greatest asset.
		I think that, you know, that things are being chipped away in a very dangerous way.
		The way that we've outsourced our core industry.
		The fact that we have massive threats around the world.
		And then there's also this incredible amount of division.
		However, I would say that the, you know, the green shoots are what happened in Virginia, where people are, I think that there is the potential for a power revolution in many ways to what's going on.
		But that will only be manifested through political victories, if you will, if that will continue, I believe.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Did you get it?
		We got about a minute in this segment.
		We'll hold you over through the next, but do you get a sense, particularly someone that writes real American history backed up by documents?
		I mean, you did thousands of interviews with WWII and Greatest Generation in Korea.
		You're sourcing on Washington's Immortals and the Indispensables, the second to none.
		Do you get a sense that that history is not the history that academia or even the modern book publishing companies want to come forward anymore?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Um, you know what I thought, what I found, I would thank the War Room Posse, too, for their support.
		The people want the truth, Steve.
		They don't want a biased history that is through the lens of what we see now of sort of the wokeness, if you will, whatever, however you want.
		It's a bias that is being kind of overlaid on history.
		And it's changing it.
		And I think people sense that.
		Look, I don't get political.
		I'm very neutral on things.
		My books are just the facts.
		I just present the original source documents and the people and what they say.
		And what we have here, I think, is an amazing story.
		America's got an amazing story.
johnny cash ▲ ● ▼		It's an exceptional nation.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Hang on for one second.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We're going to take a short commercial break.
johnny cash ▲ ● ▼		We'll be back on our Thanksgiving special with Patrick K. O'Donnell next.
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steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Tell you, the engagement over Gitter is just absolutely incredible.
		It's been tremendous for the show.
		Tremendous.
		I never had a Twitter account.
		I got a Gitter account.
		It's just incredible.
		I want everybody to go over there.
		Also, MyPillow.com, promo code War Room.
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		Absolutely incredible Go there today Patrick a O'Donnell Patrick What given that you've you've been embedded?
		overseas with the Marine rifle platoon that you've you've interviewed thousands of I'm just grateful to be alive.
		combat veterans, Vietnam veterans, Korean War veterans.
		You've, from Chosin Reservoir to the Battle of Fallujah, you've chronicled some of the toughest fights Americans ever had.
		On this Thanksgiving, when you sit down today, later in the day, what are you thankful for?
		What are you most grateful for?
unidentified		I'm just grateful to be alive.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		I'm also grateful to be an American.
		And, you know, live in this country where we still have freedom and liberty.
		And, you know, it's about, you know, it's about an idea still.
		And the revolutionary generation, the indispensables, they created the greatest idea in the world.
		And that is, you know, our version of liberty and freedom, which changed the world.
		And it's important then as it is now.
		Um, and I think that, you know, that's, I'm grateful for that.
		I'm grateful for, you know, freedom isn't free.
		That's the other thing that I, you know, underlined, underscored so many times after, after being there.
		It's hard work and, uh, it can be taken away very easily because with a shift of economic power is often a shift in hard power.
		And we have adversaries now that, that can, That are very dangerous.
		And I think those are the lessons of history.
		And it doesn't have to be that way.
		I mean, it doesn't.
		I mean, Americans can change the course of history.
		It's something that all the books that I've written have said that it's one of the central themes in all of them.
		How a small group of people, you know, through their agency can change the course of events and events that may not, you know, initially don't look Like, they're going in the right direction, but they can be bad, I appreciate it.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Patrick, how do people get to your writings?
		What's the author's page?
		I want to make sure they see, over this holiday, all of your writings.
		How do they get there?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		My website is patrickkodonald.com.
		I'm on Twitter at combathistorian and at getter, and at combathistorian as well.
		Books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and pretty much any independent bookstore out there.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Your writings are amazing, and we thank you once again for joining us on a major holiday to share with us what America's gone through.
unidentified		Happy Thanksgiving, Steve.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Happy Thanksgiving to you and happy Thanksgiving to our entire audience.
		We've all got so much to be grateful for.
		I think to summarize what all of our speakers have said, all of our guests, is that we should be thankful we're at this day and time, right here, fighting for our country, right?
		Fighting for our nation.
		As Patrick said, a small group of people can change the course of American history.
		He's done that from historians.
		He's documented that from historians.
		Point of view.
		Okay, immediately after the show, over on FrankTV, you're going to have Mike Lindell.
		He's going to go through his entire start, his 96-hour, I think, thanks-a-thon.
		So make sure you go there and check it out.
		I want to thank Real America's Voice, John Fredericks Radio Network, everybody.
		I want to thank everybody out there for really being part of this special.
		And thank you.
		We're going to leave you now with Johnny Cash's Thanksgiving song.
johnny cash ▲ ● ▼		Come to the time in the season When family and friends gather near To offer a prayer of thanksgiving For blessings we've known through the years To join hands and thank the Creator Now when thanksgiving is dear
		This year, when I count my blessings, I'm thanking the Lord He made you.
		This year, when I count my blessings, I'm thanking the Lord He made you.
		I'm grateful for the laughter of children, the sun and the wind and the rain.
		The color of blue in your sweet eyes, the sight of a high ballin' train.
		The moonrise over a prairie, an old love that you've made new.
		And this year when I count my blessings, I'm thankin' the Lord He made you.
		And this year when I count my blessings, I'm thanking the Lord He made you.
		And when the time comes to be going, it won't be in sorrow and tears.
		I'll kiss you goodbye, and I'll go on my way.
		I'm grateful for all of the years.
		I'm thankful for all that you gave me, for teaching me what love can do.
		And Thanksgiving Day, for the rest of my life, I'm thanking the Lord He made you.
		Thanksgiving Day, for the rest of my life,

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