"The confederacy's last hurrah"

As we inch closer to a possible deal in Washington, (the wingnuts are still singing funeral songs) it is not a time for poli-tricksters to be patting themselves on the back.

I see dumbocratic senators stepping up to the microphone and thanking Mitch McConnell. I have to wonder why. He (McConnell)is a part of a wingnut cabal that is hell bent on destroying this republic. 

Anyway, it's not over yet. Let's hope that the members of the house come to their senses and vote to save the economic future of their country.

Anyway, there is no doubt that the country is more divided both racially and ideologically than ever. One party, to their detriment, has doubled down and embraced their Southern and homogeneous roots.

They have chosen the flag of the confederacy to represent their cause and to express their disgust with the Socialist in chief.

Now, of course, they are trying to spin their way out of facts. But they can't. Images don't lie.

"....Republicans forced a government shutdown in what many saw as an ill-fated final effort to delay the law. They would fail.

But in the process, many Democrats became utterly convinced that the evils of the Confederacy were again being visited upon Americans.

“Confederates are rejoicing,” Jackson proclaimed on October 9. “They’re winning.”

“It’s confederate. It’s states’ rights,” he continued. “It’s not just health care act, it’s anti-voting. It’s women’s right to self-determination. It’s a whole range of infrastructure issues that made America great the last 50 years.”

Jackson had many supporters but they kept silent at first, awaiting more evidence to confirm their conviction – that Republicans were, in fact, revolutionary and racist – to materialize. They would not have to wait long.

On the second weekend of the government shutdown, a conservative protest took place in front of the White House. Through the fog of that grey day emerged the unmistakable symbol of the Confederacy – the battle flag flown by Generals Lee, Jackson and Beauregard. One man, misguidedly embracing that dubious symbol unfurled in anger for the last time nearly 150 years ago, had provided Democrats with the evidence they needed to confirm their worst suspicions. The floodgates were opened.

“Ghosts of the Confederacy out in force as fringe rules GOP,” declared The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift.

“You reap what you sow, and Republicans are paying the price for elevating a minority within their party,” she continued. “The standoff coming to a head feels like an existential struggle, and that’s an invitation to the most aggrieved fringe of the GOP to come out in full force.”

Quoting a variety of Democratic sources, Clift confirms that that the Republicans have embraced the insurrectionists within their ranks. “Embracing the confederacy is bad history and bad politics,” one California university professor helpfully reminded Clift’s readers.

“That’s obviously going to undercut what they’re saying,” POLITICO’s Mike Allen observed of the lone protester’s ability to capture the media’s attention and, thus, detract from the Republican messaging. “And does reflect badly, even though there’s no reason it should.”

Some even heard the yips of the rebel yell echoing through history, bouncing faintly along the marbled walls of the Capitol Building. “This is all about a handful of people who got elected as Republicans that want to bring down our government,” insisted Congressman Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat serving in Congress since 1971.

“The same way they fought as Confederates, they want to bring down the government and reform it,” he added. “Well, I can tell you this, if you look at the states that they control, take a look at the Dixiecrats, see how they went over to the Republican Party.”

These are statements of faith, but the congregants who subscribe to this belief structure are numerous. Some would argue that it is theirs – a devotion to an ideal that delegitimizes their opponents and renders the internalization of their ideas and arguments unnecessary – that is the truly dangerous ideology.
Others would say that this effort on the part of Democrats is part of an elaborate effort to repent for past sins. The Republican Party having been historically the party of emancipation, suffragism, and civil rights.

But these are questions to be resolved another day. Today, the battle is again joined in the minds of many Democrats as they seek to relive the glorious and horrible War Between the States." (Source) 

Noah, it's not just in their minds. Pictures don't lie, and attitudes can't hide. Why do you think that "one man" felt emboldened to raise a contemptible symbol of hatred at that Tea Party protest? It's because he knew that he was among friends.

 "Democratic legislators and their ideological allies determined that attacking Republicans on the substance of their ideas was simply not enough. Some embraced the politically expedient tactic of suggesting, or outright insisting, that their Republican opponents were not legitimate governmental actors. They were insurrectionists, saboteurs, and — perhaps most damningly — racists."

The funeral song the republicans sang was Amazing Grace. How fitting. Since it is, after all, about a man seeking redemption from a wretched soul.