On April 1, 2015, I wrote the words italicized
below. The post was about George Corley Wallace and the people that voted for,
supported, followed, and idolized him. The post was about why they identified
with what he espoused, and why that group of people now comprise the base of
the Republican Party.
Today, the "problem" is the Muslims,
Mexicans, Syrians, Blacks, gays, and Islamic terrorists that are determined to kill us
all and destroy western civilization.
Wallace would use his unique form of
demagoguery and scare tactics to become Governor of Alabama. He would run for
President and carry five southern states, winning 46 electoral votes, using the
same racist messages on the nation at large.
The Republican Party has continued to use
racial politics since 1968 to flip the former confederate states from a
Democratic stronghold to their own impregnable base of operations. However,
what was once accomplished with coded words, a wink, a nod, and the power of
the local purse, has been laid bare by the brash, egomaniacal, billionaire
bigot from New York.
The old white people, the white people that did
not finish high school, and the white people that did not go to college, are
the base of the Republican Party. They are the Tea Party Patriots. The
Republicans cannot win the presidency without them, and the base is pissed.
They are supporting Donald Trump because he fearlessly, clearly expresses their
fears and frustrations, their prejudices and bigotry.
That’s what George Wallace did. Wallace was too
extreme for the Democratic Party, so he ran for President as an independent.
His believers voted for him anyway.
Recent polling suggests that more than 65% of
the Republican base will do the same for Trump.
There is no way out for the Republicans. They
created this monster. The apocalypse is upon them.
April 1, 2015
The date was January
14, 1963. Fifty two years ago. The streets of Montgomery were packed with
visitors from all over the state. Many others were there from other states. The
local, state, and national media were there as well. The occasion was the
inaugural address of the newly elected governor. The speech had been written by
Asa Carter, founder of the local Ku Klux Klan. The editors of the local daily
newspaper, the Montgomery Advertiser, had urged the fiery young governor-elect
to remove the fateful passage from the speech, but their request was denied. He
stood on the portico of the Capitol building, looking down on the mass of
people stretching down the boulevard known as Dexter Avenue. Surely, he was
aware of the symbolism. This was the same place that Jefferson Davis had stood
as he was sworn in as the first (and only) President of the Confederacy.
And then, he said it.
“Today I have stood, where once Jefferson Davis
stood, and took an oath to my people. It is very appropriate then that from
this Cradle of the Confederacy, this very heart of the great Anglo-Saxon
Southland, that today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of
forebears before us have done, time and again through history. Let us rise to
the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the
tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest
people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the
gauntlet before the feet of tyranny….and I say….Segregation today….Segregation
tomorrow….Segregation forever!”
Five years later, the
man that said these words would run for President as an Independent. He would carry
5 states, including Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and
Alabama. He would garner 46
Electoral votes, 13.5% of the total vote, and 9.9 Million votes. In
other words, he was not alone in his sentiments or his vision for the future of
America.
It would be foolish to
think that this point of view on diversity, that was so demonstrably prevalent
50 years ago no longer exists.
Xenophobia, homophobia,
and racism are all fueled by fear. So what are so many people in America afraid
of? Why the intolerance? Why so many voter suppression efforts? Why so many reactionary laws targeting the LGBT
community? Why so much animosity toward immigration reform efforts?
According to the US
Census Bureau, the percentage of the American population classified as white
was 75.1% in 2000. In 2010 it had decreased to 63.7%. At the current rate, it
is estimated that in less than
thirty years America will no longer be a country where white people are in the
majority. In 2005, only 28% of the American public supported
same-sex marriage. Today, more than 50% of the public supports it, thirty seven states have
legalized it, and a conservative Supreme Court seems primed to make it the law
of the land.
America is changing.
Rapidly. And “Change”, is
scary.
The number of Americans
that are 65 years or older is larger than it has been at any time in the
country’s history. According to the 2010 census, more than 40 million Americans are 65 or
older. They make up 13% of the total population. They also make up the base of
the Republican Party. They grew up in the sixties. Many of them did not go to
integrated schools, do not socialize with minorities, and did not compete
against them in the workforce. They are very resistant to the change that is
occurring in America today.
The firestorm generated
by Indiana’s religious freedom
law is the latest example of the conflict between competing
views of America’s future, the old and the new, “segregation forever” or “I
have a dream”.
The differences are
real, deeply ingrained in the fabric of our nation’s culture. They will not go
away easily, if ever. It is a cultural divide that was settled, but not
forgotten, by civil war. Economic forces have forced the Indiana legislature to
reconsider its effort to clothe its bigotry in subtle legislation. The same
forces have prompted the governor of Arkansas to reconsider his legislature’s
similar effort. Nevertheless, every Republican
presidential candidate did not hesitate to weigh in on the side that the Republican
base demands. They know that they cannot win a Republican primary without
pleasing the base.
I am reminded of the
first shots fired at Fort Sumter.
Once, George Wallace
was asked why he started using racist messages. He is quoted as having said, “I
tried to talk about good roads and good schools, and all these things that have
been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about
n*****s, and they stomped the floor.”
They stomped the floor. They stomped the steps. They stomped the street and they stomped the grass in Montgomery….On January 14, 1963.
The minorities are
coming. Will the older, white Americans allow it to happen? Or will they take
America with them, to their graves?
