The wrong side of history.

Today is the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and white Americans like Tom Brokaw are still trying to figure out "how far we have come" on matters of race in this country.


Most Americans will tell you that we have come a long way, and that the country is nothing like it was 50 years ago. Most Americans.


I am sure that quite a few Americans wish that it could go back to the way it was. All this civil rights and political correctness talk is making hard for some people to cope. (BTW, it's called political correctness for a reason: because it's the correct thing to do.) The Civil Rights Act changed the laws, but sadly, it did not change the attitudes of many in the majority population, particularly conservatives who want to conserve this particular part of America's history.


Let's not forget that conservatives were against the Civil Rights movement (even though they will try very hard to rewrite history since they were on the wrong side of it) and their leaders at the time, like Barry Goldwater, spoke out strongly against the passing of the Civil Rights Act. They are still trying to twist historical truths today, and every time you see an article written about the republican party and Civil Rights, you will find a   conservative writing about the democratic party of old before white Southerners bolted for the other major political party.


 “It so happens that I am in agreement with the [anti-racial segregation] objectives of the Supreme Court as stated in the Brown decision,” writes Goldwater.  “I am not prepared, however, to impose that judgment of mine on the people of Mississippi or South Carolina. . . . That is their business, not mine.  I believe that the problem of race relations, like all social and cultural problems, is best handled by the people directly concerned . . . [and] should not be effected by engines of national power.” 


That is a stunning quote from the hero of the conservative movement.  But not surprising.


Ironically, the leaders of that movement are just as backwards on matters of race and civil rights in 2014. And a quote such as that from a current conservative member of congress, or tea party representative, would not even cause us to raise an eyebrow.


Finally, since we are speaking about conservatives, I want to talk about the black conservative sister who had her face painted white on a billboard, recently.


This was not cool. The sister should have a right to declare her political allegiance to whatever party she chooses.


"Glo Smith, an African-American Republican challenger for the House of Representatives, has been subjected to the unfortunate trend in which there are racist attacks on African-American Republicans. The Florida Republican candidate has had her campaign sign vandalized with white paint over her face. The incident occurred last week in her district. 


Her district is overwhelmingly comprised of Democratic voters via details of the area’s voter registration. According to the National Review publication on Monday, this vandalistic attack on Smith is the latest in a long line of incredibly racist attacks on African-American Republicans.


Beyond the whitewashed campaign sign, Smith – whose full name is Gloreatha Scurry-Smith - has said that many of her campaign signs have also been stolen. Last Tuesday, she was told of the racist defacement of her campaign sign. The costly signage to promote her candidacy for congress stands eight feet tall and four feet wide. The sign that was destroyed was placed in a very visible location for maximum exposure. The sign was on private property along Interstate 10 in Jacksonville, Florida. In the vandalism, it is apparent that the criminal vandalized the campaign property by spray painting white over Smith’s face. The work of the vandal was carefully calculated."


What a shame. I would like to personally contribute to help get a new billboard up as soon as possible for this poor conservative black sister.


If anyone reading this knows the aforementioned Ms. Smith or anyone in her campaign, please have them reach out to me.


I will send them a check in the mail as soon as possible.   











 


 

It has served them well.

"For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South.” ~ Michael Steele~

I am not an educator, and I do not have a degree in history. But every now and then when I post I feel that I have to give my friends in A-merry-ca a history lesson. Why? Because some folks just never seem to learn. Or, it's just really convenient for them to forget. I was inspired to give tonight's lecture because of the following tidbit from an oped by a wingnut named Billy Hallowell writing for some website called The Blaze.

"..Then, last night, Chris Matthews made a startling association — that Rick Perry is like “Bull Connor with a smile.”

For those who don’t know, Connor was a Democrat and the Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights era. He infamously directed the use of fire hoses and attack dogs against peaceful, African American protestors — extreme brutality that was rooted in sheer racism.
This bizarre statement came after Matthews’ guest, Wayne Slater of The Dallas Morning News, reacted to Perry’s criticisms of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Slater explained that entitlements are only the beginning in the push for “states rights.” According to The Daily Caller, he said:

“The question is the attack on Perry is ‘Social Security is a Ponzi scheme,’ ‘Medicare needs to be changed or potentially abolished,’ which is not precisely what he said. Raising questions about the Voting Rights Act saying it is just a tool for gerrymandering in the South and the Civil Rights Act — the terms under which we’ve established — this has the look of someone who when he talks about states’ rights, states’ rights, states’ rights could make some voters, again — very nervous.” [Source] 

OK, let's try this again for the...oh, I don't know...millionth time.

Yes, Bull Conner and others like him were dumbocrats. In fact, most of your white southern racist during the Jim Crow era were dumbocrats. That fact is undisputed. What is also undisputed is that most (if not all)of those racist southern whites, fled the dumbocratic party in droves and became....wait for it wait for it..... REPUBLICANS! And this was done, thanks in part, to a wonderfully crafted political ploy called "The Southern Strategy." It was where white politicians exploited the racism felt towards blacks by fellow whites to vote against the political party which had now become the party of African Americans.

"From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats."^]


That was Richard Nixon's version of David Axelrod giving us a little insight into the strategy that now works so well for the "party of Lincoln."

Of course it all started before that, when Southern dumbocrats like Richard Russell and Herman Talmadge boycotted the 1964 party convention in Atlantic City. All because Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Many of the southern delegates at that time refused to support the national ticket because of Johnson's actions. Throw in our boy, Barry Goldwater, --who joined the southern dumbocrats to filibuster the Act-- and the rest, as they say, is history.

That is your republican party today, the one that ran away from all things civil rights and never looked back. So no matter how much you hear wingnuts try to revise and revisit history, just remember who they were back then and why they switched. It's why every time ninety percent of the time you see something like this, and like this, taking place on the national landscape; it involves a republican.

“You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ ” said Atwater. “By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.” ~ reublican strategist, Lee Atwater~

Some things never change.