Thursday, May 27, 2021

Correcting A History Lesson

        

On Monday, the chairman of Snohomish County Republicans treated us to a letter to the editor, in which he unburdened himself of some deprecatory opinions, along with selected facts well-known to everyone with knowledge of American history. The Democratic Party, he reminded us, once included a bunch of Southern racists. Which, until several decades ago, it most surely did. 

Reaching back almost two hundred years, he wrote of times when his party didn’t. Name-checking Abraham Lincoln, he expressed pride in his party’s “rich history,” as he put it, “of supporting African-Americans.” Other than the current, dominant, southern faction of the chairman’s party, who doesn’t like what Abe did? Since then, though, along with science, equal access to voting, and preference for leaders who don’t lie about elections and pandemics, his party’s support stopped cold as a polar vortex.

The chairman’s lesson took a recess somewhere around 1965; which all but begs us to provide proper, less-selective updating. Key terms to keep in mind as we try: Southern strategy; “welfare queens”; LBJ; Voting Rights Act; Civil Rights Act; Shelby County vs. Holder.

Our lesson could be condensed, simply by pointing out it’s to the Republican Party those racist Democrats fled after LBJ powered the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts into existence; and that they were welcomed the way Democrats (not Republicans, weirdly) are welcoming vaccines. Understanding he’d be causing Democrats to lose the South, LBJ did it anyway. That kind of doing right for Americans, no matter the impact on party, has gone sadly missing from Republican leaders; especially in, but not limited to, the past thirteen years. 

After offering that Democrats should apologize for slavery, Jim Crow, and the KKK, the chairman finished with a familiar flourish of bravado, proclaiming “I will not be bullied by someone who calls me a racist.” Good. If he isn’t, he shouldn’t be. (If, in fact, he’s been called one, it’s fair to wonder why, though.) But – and this is important – one can rationalize racist policies without being racist. 

Moreover, he holds office in Trump’s party, which now considers racists part of the base it must indulge. Bullied or not, he should consider owning up. Rather than employing ancient history to distract from the present, he should be calling it out. Apologizing, even. Because, unlike current Democrats with regard to past racism, many in today’s Republican Party are active practitioners.

Nor would it hurt if the chairman were to apologize for a party trying to erase what happened on 1/6 while blocking meaningful investigation into it. And for the majority of its members who still believe the “presidential” and party-promoted lies that incited it.

White supremacists, who idolize Trump and Tucker Carlson. Proud Boys. Neo-Nazis. Oath Keepers. QAnon. “Fine people on both sides.” Calling Black Lives Matter a terrorist organization. Removing polling locations and drop-boxes in primarily Black precincts. Requiring photo ID, while closing places to obtain them, in those same precincts. Troglodyte racist Stephen Miller, centrally located in Trump’s White House. Idaho. Might the chairman address those issues? They didn’t just appear, after all, but descended naturally from the devolution of his party over the last sixty years.

Recognizing to which party the racists had decamped, Richard Nixon deployed the “Southern Strategy,” whose purpose was to make sure they’d never leave. Later, Ronald Reagan reemployed it, rather unsubtly launching his “states’ rights” presidential campaign near where three freedom riders had been murdered. Nor was there anything subtle about his well-received attacks on welfare recipients, or to whom he was referring. 

Long before he became Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts was on a mission to cripple the Voting Rights Act, which undoubtedly factored into his appointment. Once on the Court, he greeted the lawsuit known as Shelby County v. Holder like a long-lost child. Declaring racism over, he and his Republican majority bled out requirements for federal approval of voting-related legislation in southern states.

The blood hadn’t dried when those states began the disenfranchising of Democratic constituencies – mainly the African Americans for whom Mr. Chairman professes party support – which continues, exponentially, today. A loyal Republican, Roberts pretended it wouldn’t happen. If it did, it wasn’t the courts’ business.

As policy, racism in our major political parties did a complete and lasting reversal in the century past. Confirming their abandonment of “supporting African-Americans,” sounding dishonest alarms about Project 1691, making false claims about Critical Race Theory, and legislating against teaching anything similarly related to slavery, the chairman’s party is trying hard to keep that fact hidden. 

Knowledge threatens their power, making public schools and universities only their latest scapegoat. 


32 comments:

  1. Oh, that one's going to leave a mark! Well done, Doctor.

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    Replies
    1. Here's an air tight argument from Chris Hayes

      "They had one chance"

      He ties it up nicely at the end and you'll see why I say it's one for all the line item veto Drumpfkins. "I'm not a racist" "I don't think it's stolen" " Drumpf isn't a tax cheat" or whatever it is. You must buy into it all if you are an alt righty. It's not just Drumpf, it's the whole party that's corrupt to the point of overthrowing Democracy.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELwSu_6yYd8

      Delete
    2. ...and the second half of the argument. The 2nd amendment...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3bepxuCsso

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    3. and the clean up hitter...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpIBmhqDf5Q

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    4. Chris Hayes is "must watch" for me every day. His opening monologue/ setup and his run-up to his final segment are always instructive and inciteful. Smart guy.

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    5. We are lucky to have such people everyday on TV.

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  2. Setting the record straight — well done, Sid.

    Just FYI, the (not Republicans, weirdly) link is blocked for non-subscribers, including the article's headline, so I doubt that any of the SnoCo GOP Chairman's folks will see it. Our online WP access ended a couple of weeks ago and we haven't yet decided to renew.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I do use WaPo links too often. I'll look for a non-WaPo for this one. It was referring, among other things, to the lady who drove full speed into a vaccination tent.

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    2. Changed it. Not as dramatic, tho.

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    3. Hey brother..have you tried incognito mode?

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    4. Thanks, Smooth. I just opened a Firefox private window and discovered that it works!

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  3. Thanks for the 'trying hard' Charles Pierce link. I've missed reading him after deciding not to subscribe to Esquire.

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    Replies
    1. I read him daily. Don't subscribe to Esquire; I think the blog is free, although I have chipped in fifty bucks a year, via the blog.

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    2. I try to vary my suggestions with paywalls and use incognito as much as possible so anyone can see what I am pointing to.

      It takes some doing sometimes but you can get most of the news and quiet a bit of opinion and the rest as well.

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  4. Hey dude...are you allowed to put your blog link in the paper? I mean attached to the weekly column

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    Replies
    1. I guess I could, but it'd just be repeating the column, which is all I've been posting on the blog for a while.

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    2. More for a passive invite to the conversation is what I was thinking.

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    3. True, it might bring others into the conversation. Plus, I have the power of rejecting them.

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  5. Clearly, Sid, you are not the only one to not want this screed by Roulstone stand. Today, a letter from State Dem chair, Podlowski and SnoCo Dem chair, Chilton are quite scathing in their response to Roulstone.

    I especially like their last paragraph, in which they correctly state that Republicans are hoping citizens and voters will associate themselves with Abraham Lincoln instead of Donald Trump. It's a very succinct zinger, IMHO.

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    1. Yes. There were a couple yesterday, too. Jon Bauer, editor, says he's received lots of similar letters, and only one in support, which, he said, seemed to suggest slavery never happened.

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  6. Re: Roulstone's spin-doctoring ...

    The last time I saw such blatant whitewashing was the last time I read Tom Sawyer. For someone who worships an elephant, Roulstone sure comes off as a jackass.

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    1. I was in your neighborhood yesterday. If I'd known which house was yours, I'd have stopped for a quick howdy-do! I have a friend with a beach house about a block from the Center. Apparently, she's going to lose occupancy in 6 years, as happened at the other end of Mission.

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    2. Only my workplace is next to the Bay. I live on the north end of Marysville.

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  7. So, who's going to pardon Drumpf? The money man never goes under. It's always the ring leader. Everyone else cooperates...lmao!

    I said it as soon as Drumpf didn't want his taxes to be public 5 years ago that he was going to jail like Al Capone and any other two bit mobster. RICO

    The reckoning is here

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSSKnfBOd0Q

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    Replies
    1. I just hope there are enough of his toadies willing to admit the error of their ways and convince the toadettes in 'Murica-land/ FoxNation that he is really corrupt and they have been lied to repeatedly.

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    2. When lying is the only way out and it becomes the lesser of all crimes committed, it becomes everyone's story in court.

      It's not the evidence, it's the judge and jury.

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  8. This is an amazing piece on the Tulsa Masacre.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2021/tulsa-race-massacre-centennial-greenwood/?wpmk=1&wpisrc=al_special_report__alert-national&utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere_special_report&location=alert&pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.idZxQ67bQbumKNIeeUOQLYQBQTRlAH4E4J4aTw88hLw

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    1. If can, pull up the NY Times story about Greenwood. It's a "walk-through", with the buildings in 2-D, labeled with the businesses they housed. I'll tell you, it really brought it to my heart--so easy to imagine what it really was.

      Last week, I caught a few minutes of JoyAnn Reid talking about how many more of these kinds of incidents there were throughout the country. She quickly listed 6 or 7, and said there were more. Communities of Black Americans destroyed by White Americans. It makes me heartsick and ashamed.

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    2. It continues because "those people, not us" is also a call to condone and turn a blind eye.

      It is them and they are those people. Like the cop standing there silent as a black man is beat to death.

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  9. Another article on that dudes letter..."I'd be a Republican if it weren't for the Republicans"

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/30/id-be-republican-if-it-werent-republicans-so-might-many-other-african-americans/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_opinions&utm_campaign=wp_opinions

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