In November voters will face a choice. It is not a Republican vs Democratic choice or even a liberal vs conservative choice.
Nope.
It is a bit more primal than that.
In November we face a choice between the Confederate Party and modernity.
All around the globe we face a battle with reactionary forces that seek to pull society back to some imagined fantasy time that they define as “better”. Most of the time these Dark Ages Disciples wrap their lunacy in some cultish religious rhetoric that Jesus, Allah, Yahweh, Zoroaster, Indra or whoever blesses and mandates their insanity. But religious ideology is not the only meme these wackos embrace. Nationalism and political myths also motivate. And often the Nationalist myths are woven tightly with the religious myth into one big twisted blob of hate and madness. This fantasy world view animates and drive al-Qaeda and here in America it animates the Confederate Party.
The Confederate Party grew out of the Confederacy and their defeat in the Civil War. It is easier to split an atom with a butter knife than it is to separate the Confederacy from racism. Reconstruction almost killed the Confederacy, but it found a host in the Democratic Party. For decades, it was the Democrats–especially those from the South–who kept the goals of the Confederacy alive. Over time the Confederacy lost their grip on the Democratic Party and when LBJ passed Civil Rights and Voting Rights Legislation, the spirit of the Confederacy went looking for a new political host. For a time this racist ideology found a home with the third party efforts of George Wallace, but it was Richard Nixon who thought he could invite this ideology of hate into the Republican Party and control it. He was wrong.
Now the Confederacy controls Nixon’s Party so completely that they would kick Dick out for being a squish. Reagan would get the boot as well.
Today the Confederacy Party wears different Party labels like finely embroidered sheets that glide in the moonlight. The Republican Party is a brand they control, but in the wake of George W. Bush it was a damaged brand. So the Confederate Party did some marketing and came up with yet another name and yet another mask: The Tea Party.
Racism and xenophobia are the core organizing tools, along with old chestnuts like ‘states rights’ and fear of ‘big government’. Appeals to selfishness are also key, but it is quiet racism and fear that holds the blob of hate together. Without racism and fear they have nothing.
That is why the a simple call from the NAACP to condemn racist behavior sent the movement into fits of hysterics. And it is why their almost universal response was to attack the NAACP for pointing out the movement’s tolerance for racism. And that is why the Confederate Party and their leaders responded with fresh examples of racism.
Some were skilled in their response like TeaBagger/Republican movement leader Sarah Palin who used racist dogwhistles to mock the NAACP, others like Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams decided it was just fine to go all in. He published a imagined letter from the NAACP to President Lincoln that was take-your-breath-away blatantly racist. As the heat began to build Williams responded by calling the NAACP a racist organization and then he took down his letter and pretended like it was all good.
It is not.
Mark Williams is a racist and he is a leader of the Tea Party movement. If that movement continues to tolerate him, then it is more than fair to call the Tea Party movement what it is: an organization that embraces racism to achieve their political goals. This is not really a surprise as the Tea Party is just another iteration of the Confederate Party.
Color of Change is an organization that is working to increase the voice of African Americans in American Politics. They are a relatively new group on the scene, but like the 101 year-old NAACP they know racism when they see it. And the blatant racism of Mark Williams has made them shrill. They are asking folks to sign a petition demanding that the Tea Party movement cut all ties with Williams. Here is the text:
Dear Tea Party leaders,
This week, the NAACP called on the Tea Party movement to reject the racist elements that exist among its ranks. Sadly, instead of taking any responsibility for putting a stop to the bigoted, hateful rhetoric and imagery that has repeatedly surfaced in the Tea Party movement, one of your movement’s most prominent leaders responded by attacking the NAACP with a barrage of offensive racial stereotypes.
This week, Mark Williams, the public face of Tea Party Express, called the NAACP a racist organization and said “They make more money off of race than any slave trader, ever.” He went on to publish a blog post which implied that Black people don’t like to work or think for themselves, that they depend on welfare, and that they want to benefit from White peoples’ tax dollars so they can have a widescreen TV in every room.
If as Tea Party leaders you wish to have any credibility when you claim that racism is not a welcome, integral part of your movement, you must act decisively to reject people like Mark Williams. I’m calling on you to denounce Williams’ bigoted rhetoric about the NAACP, and to demand he resign from his position at Tea Party Express and stop representing himself as a spokesman for the Tea Party movement.
Like the NAACP the young folks at Color of Change are also shrill. I feel like being shrill with them so I’ve signed their petition. You can too if you wish.
Mark Williams is a slicker racist than David Duke–who was pretty slick. The only difference between the two is that Duke has always been honest about his views while Willaims is not.
And because of all of that Mark Williams is on a fast track to a sweet gig as a paid teevee commentator on FOX, CNN and MSNBC. Hell, CNN may already be in negotiations with him for their troubled 8pm slot. And I know asking the TeaBaggers to kick him out is like asking processed rice to kick out white.
Still, it is worth the effort. When the Tea Party, the Republican Party and the conservative movement continues to embrace Williams then we will all know that it is the Confederate Party that call the shots in these groups and the face of hate behind the mask will get a small flash of sunlight. That will be a good thing and it will help to make the stakes at the ballot box clear.
We have a choice in November between moving forward or moving back to 1852. And while that is not as far back as the Middle Ages it was and is a Dark Age as far as justice in America is concerned.
I think the lesson of the NAACP action is that more of us need to be shrill.
Cheers
dengre
SiubhanDuinne
*It is easier to split an adam with a butter knife than it is to separate the Confederacy from racism.*
Probably because they’re trying to return to Eden.
Mary
I agree. I signed.
asdf
This may turn out to be a good thing. Let’s put racism on the table and talk about it. It is disappointing that we have come to this, but if it’s time, it’s time.
It could have been Bill and Hillary and Mena, Arkansas again; the way she murdered Vince Foster again, we could have talked over all that crap again, but I prefer this. It’s a more honest discussion.
The racists are bound to lose. Bring it on.
SiubhanDuinne
Dengre, I am so glad to see you back on the front pages. After your extraordinary posts throughout Confederate History Month you kind of disappeared, and I doubt I was the only one who missed you. But you’ve had a couple of terrific posts in the last few days — this one included — and I hope we’ll be seeing much more of you.
I’ve been impressed with what I know about Color of Change, especially their pressure on Fox/Glenn Beck advertisers. I will gladly sign their petition.
Thank you again for your thoughtful posts. I love Balloon Juice, and you only enhance it.
Cheers.
Mark S.
God I hate this woman:
Wait for it . . .
Stillwater
an organization that embraces racism
to achieveas one of their political goals.That’s better.
Dennis G.
@SiubhanDuinne:
Would that be the Eden subdivision outside of San Antonio, TX?
Or is it a house on Eden Street in Columbia, South Carolina?
I’ll buy ’em a map to help them get home and they won’t even have to sing Dixie–as long as they swear off politics.
Cheers
Yutsano
Complete heresy, at least as far as the wingnuts are concerned. Reagan was the best President evah, and they have all the factoids to prove it. He cut taxes! (and then raised them, but that’s because the evil libruls forced him to) He defeated Communism! (even though the Soviet Union was already rapidly decaying due to both internal and external problems) He oversaw the greatest economic expansion evah! (never mind the increasing presence of women in the workforce also increasing the economic output and the massive military spending lifting the contractors’ boats). They are not dealing with the same set of facts we are. How do you get around that? I don’t have a solution per se, I’m just wondering where in the hell we go from here.
We really need to get you wider exposure dengre. Your work is always nothing short of fantastic.
Mark S.
@Yutsano:
He also didn’t negotiate with terrorists! (except to fund wars in Central America)
Yutsano
@Mark S.: Oh we can keep destroying the Reagan myth for ages. That’s not the issue. The real problem is that the wingnuts are so convinced of their certitude regarding the Reagan presidency it doesn’t matter if you smack them over the head with the truth or not. They KNOW what they know, and your damn librul
slandersfacts will not change that no matter what you say. Mark Williams will be the next teabagger hero (if he’s not already) which means he’ll exploit this for his own gain until the Next Big White Thing comes along.Dennis G.
@Mark S.:
Matlin is a beltway harpy. She is a professional grifter who lives off the destruction of our political system. This is the common bound that she shares with her grifter husband and explains what some might mistakenly think was a marriage of opposites.
Of course she has a snappy line about Wright. How could she not go there. It is her life. It is all she knows.
Mr. Wonderful
@ Dennis G.
Well said. “mistakenly think was a marriage of opposites” is me, until I read this.
General Stuck
As pessimistic as I am about the fate and survival of this country, the tactic of retrograding to our slave holding and deeply racist past will not work. Not only will it not work, using it as a political weapon for another ascendancy to power will backfire on the wingnuts big time.
Outside of the deep south, and even a degree within, the country proper will not go there, and will recoil, even given the fact that milder forms of racism still exists in every state. So this blatant and desperate tack is actually an antidote to divisiveness the GOP has used in other areas of playing to remnants of fear based social wedging out of largely one issue voters to keep them viable electorally. Such as abortion, gay marriage, as well as populist anti tax/government plays to the exaggerated myth of individual ruggedness and independence that has been woven into the fabric of our evolution as a people. But even those bigoted and outdated mindsets are slowly fading away with each new generation of Americans.
Racial fear and rage will work to a significant degree in the south however, and that is where the real divide in this country is. But it is only one of many historic rebellions that started with the adoption of a yankee inspired liberal constitution that flew in the face of aristocratic impulses that defined the southern way of life it imho.
I am feeling so much better about liberal ideology taking more hold of our future when these hateful asshats overplay their hand. Even though some sort of reckoning with general southern rebellions will come to head sooner or later. How and when I don’t know, but there is no way around.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano #8:
I was behind the world’s hugest SUV today that had a bumper sticker “I Miss Reagan.” Seriously, has any other president enjoyed such undeserved, unquestioned worship?
Agree with you that dengre ought to be far better known and more widely read. During CHM, a few of us (maybe including you, can’t remember, sorry) were pondering how neat it would be if he and TNC could team up and write a book on the Confederate Party, based on their excellent columns on the subject. I still think it’s a fine idea.
kommrade reproductive vigor
This is excellent but I must disagree with the call to kick Williams out. I want that fucker, draped in in a Don’t Tread on Me flag, wearing a hat of Lipton teabags and wielding the biggest megaphone available.
Lynn Dee
Great post.
But please — it’s “whoever blesses and mandates their insanity” not “whomever.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Lynn Dee #16: He can fix that at the same time he changes “adam” to “atom.”
:-)
Short Bus Bully
Thanks for this great post. Keep these coming please, more people need to read this stuff. I know I do.
Lynn Dee
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oops! Another good choice. If nothing else, Adam might object to being split with a butter knife. :)
Meanwhile, I think I’ll go check out that petition.
Yutsano
@Lynn Dee: @SiubhanDuinne: Oh you two crazy kids. Can’t you just accept a blog posting as it is typos and all? Plus to be honest I know it wasn’t intentional but the adam typo is pretty damn funny.
Dennis G.
@Lynn Dee: @SiubhanDuinne:
To you and you: thanks.
Working without an editor is like working without a net, but then again we have the fun of correcting typos in real time.
And yet, it always makes me feel a bit foolish.
Cheers
Ecks
I twenty-third the motion that this stuff be more widely read, although I add this tiny caveat:
If this is brought to a wider audience, the repeated use of the word “shrill” is going to have to be explained to them. Right now it’s our equivalent of “Acorn”… i.e., instantly meaningful to us insiders, but likely baffling to outsiders.
Mark S.
@SiubhanDuinne:
He was obviously making a reference to BioShock.
Anya
@Mark S.: I loathe her and her husband. I don’t think those two have any values or idiology. They only believe in what works for them. I cannot stand their smugness.
Lynn Dee
@Dennis G.:
The post is terrific. The connection with reactionary forces around the world is fascinating and thought provoking. And don’t feel foolish — the adam/atom in particular is the kind of typo that a writer makes — it means you hear what you write, which is just the skill needed for good writing that connects with the reader. :)
Yutsano
@Anya: What really goads me about Matalin is she really isn’t that smart. Has she ever said anything that would lead anyone with half a brain to a different conclusion? All I have ever hear her do is rehash talking points, she’s never suggested an original idea in her career AFAIK.
srv
dengre,
What Siubahandu-whatever said. Someone had said you’d left after your series, and I thought that was an awful loss, and I hate all the new people.
jaquestraw
Y’all need to wake up and get a little Alex Jones in your life.
infowars.com,prisonplanet.com
Evolved Deep Southerner
Dennis, it’s funny you should post this tonight, as I was just talking to a friend this morning about Mark Williams “imaginary letter.”
I’m always amused when shit like that happens and the posters here are always “SHOCKED … SHOCKED, I say” that things like Williams’ screed are still said and believed.
Folks, y’all obviously ain’t from around here. I hear worse than Williams’ letter almost daily. Those attitudes are not only alive “down here,” they’re damn widespread among white society. The friend I was talking to about it this morning laughed and said “Hell, that’s the kind of thing you’d hear in a conversation in church around here.” And he was right. Williams’ response to the NAACP may elicit gasps from the people who comment here, but to many of my unreconstructed fellow Southerners, it would bring only nods of sage agreement. “Shoot, the man’s just telling it like it is,” they’ll say. I know many of you will be SHOCKED … SHOCKED, I say, but I’m telling you that his letter bought him cachet among the Southern Teabaggers – and I have no doubt that the Teabagger (Bowel) Movement will linger down here long after it’s been laughed out of every other region of the country.
I think what makes Dennis’s voice on these matters so believable to me – and apparently to many of you – is that he’s lived here, he’s worked here, and he’s been immersed in it just as I have my whole life. He knows what he’s talking about. I admired his work at Flagpole in Athens, Ga., and by a bit of serendipity I can continue to admire it here at my favorite place on the Internets.
Cheers back atcha, Dennis. Keep up the good work.
Jules
Great post.
and yeah, Evolved Deep Southerner speaks the truth…
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@Mark S.: Don’t forget he sold arms to both Iran(for hostages) and Iraq.
The Truffle
@Yutsano: Movement conservatism is, IMO, like Scientology: it attracts people who really aren’t very bright and makes them feel like geniuses.
ellaesther
@Mark S.: First, entirely OT, but – I FOUND YOU.
Thank you for your kind words about my post re: Israel and the Diaspora Jews. You know, back in a thread from, like, a day and a half ago. I just saw it. Thank you!
ellaesther
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow. What you did there, I see it, and I love you for it. Oak Parkers, unite!
I’m kind of sorry he fixed the typo.
slag
Thanks, dengre. Color of Change is an awesome organization! I appreciate you bringing this petition to my attention.
Anya
@Yutsano: She’s the same as Darth Vader junior, they are both experts at lying and making the same idiotic talking points over and over. In their defense, though, it’s hard to sound smart when your ideas are bankrupt and you’re defending the indefensible.
Viva BrisVegas
@SiubhanDuinne:
Isn’t the obvious rejoinder to this “but Hinkley didn’t”.
Mitch
@SiubhanDuinne:
What about an Eve?
Josh
I’d like to see every mention of Mark Williams in the broadcast media include the “Indonesian Muslim welfare thug” line, so that people know whom they’re dealing with. Or rather, what kind of person is being taken seriously by the MSM.
ellaesther
I don’t really have anything to add to the conversation — dengre said it all, and even employed the awesome image of “one big twisted blob of hate and madness” — but I will say that conversations like this make me think of this Agnes:
http://comics.com/agnes/?DateAfter=2009-10-27&DateBefore=2009-10-27&Order=&PerPage=1&x=15&y=7&Search=
Mark S.
@SiubhanDuinne:
Wow, I completely missed your comment and ended up making the same exact joke. [head smack]
@ellaesther:
You’re welcome! Out of curiosity, what do they do for a Jewish conversion? Are there different rites for Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed?
cat48
“painted Williams to be a fringe character who’s not in a position to influence anyone…”
This is obviously not true as he has had a huge influence on my actions already.
MattR
@Anya: I don’t think it got enough attention the first time you posted this comment on the Open Thread and this is really a perfect place for it.
I urge everyone to take the time to watch the video. I’ll add the chorus to give you a taste.
burnspbesq
Dude, your grasp of mid-20th Century American politics is way off. You reaaaaalllllyyy need to spend some time with Rick Perlstein’s “Before the Storm.” No excuses, it’s now available for Kindle.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
@Evolved Deep Southerner: Yeah, we’re shocked, but that’s not the same thing as saying we’re surprised. You can know damned well that sticking your finger in the electrical outlet is going to hurt, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a shock.
Fortunately, the weather alone keeps me from moving to any state that was a part of the Confederacy. I think Minnesota is too hot.
Allan
Here’s an excellent summary and link-rich resource on Williams by blogger Joy Reid. It brings together some of his worst stuff and points you to Media Matters, who have been tracking him for some time.
Williams is a stone-cold, straight-up fascist. And he is part of a campaign in Sacramento to recall city council members who voted to boycott Arizona, and to run for office himself. This must not happen.
Here’s how he described some people who pissed him off in 2008 for passing a resolution calling for the arrest of Bush and Cheney:
gbear
@Dennis G.:
They’re probably trying to get to Eden Prairie, ‘Money’ magazine’s best place to live in America.
It’s actually a mall and townhouse infested white-flight suburb of Minneapolis, but that’s a big plus for teabaggers.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN):
“Yeah, we’re shocked, but that’s not the same thing as saying we’re surprised.”
Um, what’s the difference?
Allan
I think all of us expected that eventually Fox News would become a 24/7/365 loop of a blond with luscious cleavage licking her lips and saying the “N” word over and over.
I thought it would come before the election. When it didn’t, I wondered how long it would take to erupt.
It’s here.
DPirate
The tea party thing could have been something else. It should have been something else, and at it’s core it IS something else. It was a movement from the left, hijacked by the right. People like you and me allowed it to happen.
ellaesther
@Mark S.: I really don’t know what happens in anything but Israeli Orthodox! But I can tell you about that.
I went through an excruciating series of religious court appearances, at least two of which lasted for more than an hour, peppered with questions about why and wherefore and so on and so forth, and after all of that, and some classes that they usually send the newly-Orthodox to (rather than the conversion-seeking — it was code for: “Dude, this chick’s serious!”), they set me a date for the mikve (ritual bath), and said (and I quote) “Until now, we pushed you away and pushed you away. But from hereon out, we say: You are our sister.”
At the mikve, I got dunked twice (once in clothes, so that the rabbis could be there, once without clothes so that it would be in accordance with religious law) and emerged a Jew! ETA The dunkings involved a series of blessings/prayers, too.
If I’d been a man, there would have been the little matter of a circumcision to consider, too….
ellaesther
@ellaesther: Wow. That’s really OT, isn’t it?
mclaren
@General Stuck:
Spoken like the fools who rejoiced in the supposedly “unelectable” Ronald Reagan’s decision to start his run for the presidency in 1980 with a states’ right speech in Neshoba County where civil rights workers were murdered on 21 June 1964.
Mark S.
I like that.
flukebucket
A kick ass post. I agree with others who say that this should be spread far and wide.
And I am telling you man, the ConfederateGOP Logo would sell like hotcakes down here below the Mason-Dixon. Tee shirts, tattoos and bumper stickers. That thing would sell quicker than survival seeds and ammunition down here in the land of cotton.
Really? Tell me more.
ellaesther
@Mark S.: I did too!
And man alive, but did they try to push me away. It was not pleasant. My teacher was a good guy, but the judges in the court? *Shudder* They really tried to push me away! There’s this theory that you have make sure that the potential convert reallyreally wants it — my teacher understood that that could be accomplished without making the potential convert miserable!
asiangrrlMN
First of all, I am firmly on Team dengre. I always come away from one of his posts with so much more knowledge than I had before reading it. So, how about a BJ t-shirt with Team dengre and pics of his pooches on it?
I signed the petition, too. I don’t think it’ll actually spur the Tea Party to dump Williams, but it may put them in an uncomfortable spot.
@Evolved Deep Southerner: Oh, hell. I am not shocked or surprised by this shit. I’m just fucking pissed off by how much coverage the jackasses of the Tea Party get. And, I will admit to being a bit surprised that he felt that comfortable being so blatant about his racism. Other than that, though, no. The Tea Party is what it is–which is pretty fucking racist to its core.
@MattR: Ditto this a hundred times. I really dug the video, and I agree with the message.
ellaesther
@asiangrrlMN: Hey! I’m working on that order of Rickman + chocolate + pizza even as we speak.
/furiously dials phone
asiangrrlMN
@ellaesther: Well, my birthday is in April, so you have some time!
ellaesther
@asiangrrlMN: /slows pace of dialing considerably
General Stuck
@mclaren:
That was then, this is now. We are not free of racism in this country, but we are far ahead of 1980. Reagan wasn’t a racist and compared to Bush/Cheney who also aren’t racist, he wasn’t a bad president imo. The white racist vote is still there, but largely confined to the deep south. Obama got elected POTUS and even won VA and NC, not to mention the northern confederate state of IN. I seriously doubt he could have won in 1980, and probably wouldn’t have survived a campaign. Reagan won twice because of his genial hopeful personality, something the country was in need of at that time. Not because he spoke in darkest MS
Before the mother ship comes for you Mclaren, leave us a phone number so we can keep in touch.
General Crackpot Fake Name
General Stuck
And i would add that currently, despite the media and the wingnuts best efforts, and an economy worse than Reagan had in 1982, with the backdrop of Reagan winning by an epic landslide in 1980, Obama has at least a 10 point better approval rating than St. Ronnie at the same time in their respective presidencies.
The racism we see today, the kind with violent overtones, does not exist nationwide. It is a relatively small percentage of Americans at large. It is worrisome for it’s portent of violence, but is largely confined to the south. Most white Americans have issues of mistrust with blacks, and racial anxieties in milder than tea bag form, but will not tolerate much the kind of shit talking coming from the Mark Williams of the world.
And Obama polling at the level he is, shows that most of his supporters, most of them white, are still with him.
roshan
So what would have happened if the tea party movement was black?
Look to the civil rights movement for the answers. Of course the goals of that movement were different and I would say more human than any but look at the push back they received, even the National Guard was involved in it. Many politicians ran for office based on their opposition to the civil rights movement and many did get elected. So I think I know what would have happened if the tea party movement was black.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
@Evolved Deep Southerner: You’re not good with analogies, are you?
Short Bus Bully
For those of you saying that this kind of racism is only a “southern thang” you couldn’t be more wrong. Head out to eastern Washingon state or Idaho or eastern Oregon to some rural areas and open up a conversation at local post office about Obama and see what happens. Or for those of you in fear of Deliverance just drive through and check out the bumper stickers.
That hate is everywhere.
burnspbesq
@General Stuck:
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Large parts of southern California are indistinguishable, politically and socially, from east Texas. Tancredo speaks for an awful lot of people in Denver. And it’s no accident that Peter King gets re-elected over and over again by working-class and middle-class ethnics on Long Island.
General Stuck
@burnspbesq: There are pockets of tea baggers everywhere, I know. But they are not concentrated statewide, and region wide like the deep south. Where those kinds of sentiments tend to create state governments that often reflect the same atavistic mindset. I consider NM a deep blue state, but the SE corner we call little Texas because the ideology is hard right, and there are pockets of anti government enclaves elsewhere here, that may or may not have racist sentiment as a primary motivator. But they do not have much sway on the overall culture of this state that is solidly dem. The south is not only concentrated with racism, it has a history and legacy of an entire way of life based on such attitudes, that goes back centuries.
CarolDuhart
That is why the racists are coming out with such force. They know that they have lost the future and Obama smacks with that reality. Back in 1980 Obama would not even have been a candidate-no chance to raise money or get the support of party delegates. Yes, he could have run, but only would have gotten a few delegates.
Now Obama is President.
Jason Bylinowski
What ticks me off about all this is that there is no real dialogue going on, on the part of any of these groups. Everyone just rolls out their talking points. And yeah, sure I’m on the side of the NAACP and this new group at least in principle. And I don’t have any doubt at all that the Tea Party has within it nuggets of racist belief and all kinds of lazy thinking besides. But read the Color of Change’s response and all you see is a monolithic response to Mark Williams similarly monilithic retort to the NAACP, which was itself damnably simplistic.
Anybody else just tired of this?
Remember Obama’s race speech? That was really something, an intelligent entry into a discussion which didn’t rely on stock answers or binary thinking, and everyone just loved it but it led absolutely to nowhere worth mentioning that I ever heard about.
I hate to dog my own side, but all these groups just need to grow up a bit and realize that maturity may not consistently make the evening news or blaze its way through memeorandum but some of us serious people out there would actually start to pay attention if we thought something else was going on besides posturing.
Damn I’m sorry I missed when this post was hot, always late to the party, I guess.
Jason Bylinowski
@General Stuck:
Unfortunately correct, as I know all too well because I live in Augusta GA, the only city that has among its historical markers the slave trading post where people were physically chained up as they waited to be sold off. There’s a plaque or something to make it relevant but you hear jokes all the time about how, well, once the “south rahses agin, that there post might come in real handy-like.” And yeah, these people aren’t dumb enough to think that will actually happen but that is one of the many thousands of rotten ways that racist people in Augusta blow off steam. Gotta love this town.
TuiMel
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
For example:
When my father died after years of steadily declining health, I was not surprised. But, man, was I ever shocked by his passing.
asiangrrlMN
@Jason Bylinowski: I think you are making a false equivalence. Williams pretty much represents the standard thinking within the Tea Party. You cannot convince me that the movement, as it were, is not racist in nature (or the very least biased against liberals with a healthy dose of racism thrown in) because otherwise, they would have been protesting the last eight years.
As TNC said (and I’m paraphrasing), if Williams is not a racist, then there is no racist in America. If the Tea Party wants to stand by him, fine. However, to me, they are clearly making a statement about how comfortable they are with racism (very).
The Tea Party and their twenty-seven percent is a write-off for the Democratic Party much as the African American vote (and soon the Latino and every other minority vote) is a write-off for the Republicans. Nothing will change their minds that they are not being frog-marched steadily into the death grips of sockulism by an Isofascist Kenyan usurper. I have no desire to have a dialogue with a group of people that will never change its mind. It’s way too damn frustrating.
Americanadian
@asiangrrlMN: On the bright side, the increasing number of Latinos in this country will eventually put paid to all these bastards. In ten or fifteen years, demographics will do what 150 years of the South having lost have failed to do – put paid to the heirs of Nathaniel Bedford Forrest &c.
asiangrrlMN
@Americanadian: Yes, true. I think that’s actually why the racists are going crazy right now. This is their last gasp, so to speak. They are taking as many people down with them as they can.
PanurgeATL
@DPirate:
I guess, if you mean that it’s an anti-establishment, populist movement that seeks economic justice. But this sort of thing has been going on ever since (to put it in cultural terms) Rush’s 2112, a somewhat misunderstood album. (Maybe Mark Farner’s gun fixation had something to do with it, too.)
As for Reagan: Some Web essayist suggested that Reagan represents for conservatives the “rescue”, not just of America, but of reality itself in the wake of the Sixties.
Quiddity
@kommrade reproductive vigor: I agree. From a political angle, if the “Tea Party movement cut all ties with Williams” then they can reclaim their virginity. I’d rather see him stay with the outfit.
HeartlandLiberal
My shrill, posted via Colorofchange site:
Having come of age during Civil Rights movement of the 60’s, I know racism when I see it. And Mark Williams and people like him are as dyed in the wool racist as they come. Full of bigoted hatred and fantasized beliefs in the inferiority of anyone who is not a white male. Of course, why should I ask you to remove Williams? Leave him in place, as a shining example of the bitter, ignorant racism and bigotry that infest the so called Tea Party members. After all, it is nothing but an astroturfed organization, created and funded by the far right wing and its propaganda agency, Faux Noise Nutwork, anyway. Might as well just keep showing your true colors. Keep those racist dog whistles blowing. That is, after all, a key element in why you exist. Embrace your racism, like Mark Williams did in his pitiful letter.
Dennis G.
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
Thanks. It is always good to hear from the Classic City.
Appeals to racism have been the driving force of conservative politics in America for generations. It is where their energy comes from and they hate, hate, hate it if anybody is so rude, shrill or tactless to point it out.
Cheers
Hillary Rettig
this was a terrific summation. also digby’s discussion on southern “cavalier” culture is worth a reread:
Dennis G.
@MattR:
Nice clip. More folks should see it.
Cheers
Zuzu's Petals
Slightly OT, but geeze Louise are Malkin’s commenters knuckle-draggers or what?
(I linked to the cached page so as not to give her the hits.)
Dennis G.
@burnspbesq:
I don’t think my reading is at odds with his chronicle of the growth of the organizing efforts of the various strains of the conservative movement and the evolution of the Republican Party. Once there were many factions fighting, for control. That battle is over and the Confederate nostalgics won. They now control the Conservative movement in America regardless of which mask it uses (GOP, Tea Party, Fox News, etc.).
The story of Goldwater and Nixon is a story about how the Republican Party invited the Confederates in and their efforts to control them while riding their waves of hate to electoral victories. They won big with this strategy, but they also completely lost control of their Party and the conservative movement. It is now completely captured by the Confederate nostalgics. Goldwater and Nixon couldn’t survive a GOP primary these days. Both would be branded as the worst kind of RINOs.
I do not see how this view is at odds with the work you cite.
Cheers
Ash Can
@DPirate: Huh? The Tea Party was inspired by Rick Santelli, founded by Dick Armey, and promoted by Fox “News.” If you consider this the “left,” I’d hate to see what your idea of the “right” is.
iriedc
Dennis G (and BJ commenters) — Thanks again for another great post on the NCP (New Confederate Party) aka the GOP. And your description of Matlin as a “Beltway Harpy” will have me whistling happily through my Sunday grocery shopping.
Origuy
Dengre, you failed to mention the Northern branch of the Confederate Party that existed from the start of the Civil War. I’m talking about the Copperheads. They bear a lot of resemblance to today’s Tea Partiers. Much of their rhetoric was openly racist, they called for the ouster of the President, they even tried to get Union soldiers to desert.
Dennis G.
@Origuy:
It is always a mistake to use the terms Confederate and Southern as interchangeable. They are not. There have always been Confederate supporters in every state and today one can find Confederate nostalgics all over. The concentration in some Southern and Western states is greater than elsewhere but this may have to do with other factors beside geography. One is age. You will find more Confederate nostalgics among folks over 50. That is why it is not a surprise that the Conservative base and the Tea Party is also an aging movement.
Cheers
Leonard Gump
@SiubhanDuinne: Dude, once you can speak and spell English, you’ll be welcome back to this forum.
merrinc
@Jason Bylinowski:
Reading a dengre post late is so much better than not reading it at all.
I’ve never been to Augusta, GA but I doubt it could suck more than Fayetteville, NC. In addition to having an historical marker referencing the slave trade, the city is home to Ft. Bragg and supports the troops and their families by offering them substandard housing at inordinate rents and a whole host of sleazy businesses happy to take their money: used car lots, strip joints, tattoo parlors. The entire city should be filed under Seedy.
b-psycho
@Allan: Depending on the context that’s actually not a bad thing…
Ed Drone
Democrats have loonies; Republicans have loonies, too.
The difference is the Democrats don’t elect theirs to office, nor embrace their lunacy.
Ed
Dave
The Tea Party is not a real party. It is a collection of VERY loosely connected (if at all) people who are into small government. The vast majority are well intentioned and are coming from sincerety although there are always those fringe elements of any group such as those older white Demoractic women who would not vote for Obama because he is black. The vast majority are not Confederates (we still bringing up that 19th Centuary achronism?) or racists. In fact, most of them strongly support the Constitution and that includes the Bill of Rights, still the greatest civil rights document of all times.
We would do well to actually speak with a number of them instead of listening to ourselves so much. Also, I have never seen much good come from calling people names such as Teabaggers, Confederates, etc. We may wish to reconsider this.
b-psycho
@Dave:
Fixed.
monkeyboy
A lot of racism is turned into code words like “welfare” where one can supposedly have an “honest” discussion about welfare without it being racist, even though the motivation to shift a discussion to “welfare” is to obscure the racism.
I think teabaggers can be divided into two types (though many combine both). Using “welfare for blacks” as an example to show the difference, we have:
True Racists: Those who oppose things like welfare because it aids blacks.
Motivated Racists: Those who wind up opposing blacks (and black supporting organizations) because they like things like welfare which is inherently bad.
Most teabagger arguments are couched as Motivated, and technically could apply to any group claimed to be promoting their self interests, but strangely only mention black groups.
Underlying all of this is the fear that when whites were in power they enslaved blacks, so that now that blacks are in power (with a black president) it is payback time and the blacks will want to enslave whites to make them toil for the blacks’ wealth and comfort.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Dennis G.: #78
Man, I wish I WAS still in the Classic City, bro. I visit as often as I can, but I haven’t lived there since the early 90s.
As you know, there aren’t many places in this country more culturally backwards and primitive than the little Georgia towns north of Atlanta, but I managed to find such a place and move to it when I went to work in another university town, the one a little up the road and just over the state line on I-85, the one where they wear all the orange overalls.
“Where the Blue Ridge yawns its greatness …?”
Bullshit. When I hear that noise, all I can hear in my head is “I wish I was in the land of cotton/Old times there are not forgotten …”
Bulworth
The teabaggers aren’t for small government. They’re enthusiastic about Arizona’s “show us your papers” immigration law, which isn’t small government at all. What they are is a motley group of conservative Republicans opposed to Democratic Party control of government. Once the Democrats lose Congress or the Presidency, they’ll disappear, and then reappear in another form after Democrats regain control of government in the future. Rinse and repeat.
PanurgeATL
It depends on what values of “small government.” What they mean is “low spending on social programs”. Some people take “small government” at its word; these would be the “true” libertarians. Of course, there’s a lot of overlap. And when you consider that lots of guys who call themselves “libertarians” really mean just “not the Religious Right”, there’s even more. A “libertarianism” which really just amounts to “you can have your sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll if you’ll accept a dog-eat-dog world as both a good thing and a permanent feature” isn’t really worth much.
Patrick
I’m not sure pressuring the Tea Party folks to give Williams the boot is an effective way of fighting Tea Party racism.
To my way of thinking, if you believe a movement like the Tea Party movement is racist, xenophobic, and hateful in a fundamental way (that is, rank and file folk are attracted to it in least in part because of a racist political perspective) then getting rid of a public figure won’t make the movement less racist. It will allow the leadership of the movement to argue: “That Williams guy? We got rid of him. He was a fringe part of the movement, and we kicked him about because we don’t believe in racism (like government programs that favor one race). We believe in secure borders, small government, and a free-market unencumbered by too much regulation that will help the economy grow.” To a casual observer, all of that seems very reasonable.
At this stage of the game, people hide their racism. Xenophobia turns into a discussion about “They don’t respect our laws,” anti-affirmative action rhetoric is couched in a “color-blind” perspective, and basic social services are actually government “handouts” that don’t teach people to work.
You want someone like Williams at the head of that movement, someone who will, at least on occasion, reveal his actual perspective. Then it’s easier to say “See? I wasn’t making this up – this is a racist movement.”
On the other hand, Color of Change might just be trying to draw attention to the issue with the petition, which makes sense. Also, I know I’m a bit behind on this story…
Best,
Patrick