"Energized by His Bombast and His Animus More Than Any Actual Accomplishments"

"All this, perhaps, is not so surprising, considering polling continues to show that—in spite of unprecedented unpopularity—nearly all people who voted for Trump would do it again. But as I compared this year's answers to last year's responses it seemed clear that the basis of people's support had morphed. Johnstown voters do not intend to hold the president accountable for the nonnegotiable pledges he made to them. It's not that the people who made Trump president have generously moved the goalposts for him. It's that they have eliminated the goalposts altogether."

Michael Kruse at Poltico Magazine checks in with Donald Trump supporters in Pennsylvania one year after the 2016 election.

"This Is the Type of Speech and Exhortation to Bridge Divides"

"'We must continue to hold out to them the invitation to work with us for the common good,' he said, in contrast to Trumps rambling tale of cocktail parties, yachts and the evils of Obamacare and the media.
"'I hope that you young men in the Boy Scout movement, in this country and other countries, will take home from this Jamboree a clearer understanding of the meaning of human brotherhood. I hope that you will work for freedom and peace with the same burning faith that inspired the men of George Washington’s army here at Valley Forge,' Truman concluded in his 1950 speech."

The Bangor Daily News compares Donald Trump's speech to the Boy Scouts to Harry Truman's speech in sixty-seven years ago.

Seven Score and Ten Years Ago

"On Nov. 19, 1863, Everett stepped forward and began to speak. He went on and on—for two hours and eight minutes. The crowd grew restless.
"Lincoln rose, adjusted his spectacles, and began: 'Four score and seven years ago.' The first two words rhyme, setting in motion a symphony of sounds. The biblical ring of his opening was rooted in lines from Psalm 90. Lincoln never mentioned the Bible, but the whole of his speech was suffused with both biblical content and cadence.
"He first placed the dedication of the battlefield in the larger context of American history. In appealing to 'our fathers,' Lincoln invoked a common heritage. The trajectory of that sentence underscored the American ideal that 'all men are created equal.' Lincoln at Gettysburg asserted that the meaning of the Civil War was about both liberty and union."

Ronald C. White in the Los Angeles Times marks the sesquicentennial of the Gettysburg Address.

Slate publishes an excerpt from The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation by Jonathan Hennessey and Aaron McConnell.

And The Onion provides a word cloud.

"So Perfect Is the Illusion"

"The cyclorama re-created the Battle of Gettysburg in stunning realism, with impeccable attention to the smallest minutiae. Yet it offered not a single clue as to why the battle had been fought. No matter how hard they looked, or how long they stared, no visitor would find in the painting any trace of the cause of the war. There was carnage. There was valor. But there was no purpose."

Yoni Applebaum at The Atlantic depicts the history of the Gettysburg Cyclorama.

"Rust Belt Stories"

"The author is fully present in these scenes, though the tales are predominantly those of others: Steelworkers laid off in their 50s, never to work again; autoworkers in their 40s moving into service jobs at a fraction of their former pay; chronically poor urban scavengers; young men who will never have a shot at a factory job rolling drugs in urban underground economies. Or economies in which nothing is produced."

Scott Martelle in the Los Angeles Times reviews Edward McClelland's Nothin' but Blues Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times, and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland.