Saturday, November 08, 2003
"I intend to talk about race during this election in the South because the Republicans have been talking about it since 1968 in order to divide us. . . . White folks in the South who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag decals in the back ought to be voting with us and not them, because their kids don't have health insurance either and their kids need better schools, too." Howard Dean to the Democratic National Committee
What could be more true? Dean just needs to drop the Confederate Flag reference.
Mainstream media have always jumped on public figures who recognized that the struggle is economic - accusing them of encouraging class warfare. Malcolm, Doctor King, Robert Kennedy were all killed after they became enlightened. & so was Lincoln, in my modest opinion - no dummy he - hundreds of thousands of poor whites from slave states (like himself) died defending what had impoverished them. Historian Page Smith points out that many white southern & midwestern farmers, inspired by the populist Social Gospel movement, were making alliances with black farmers over 100 years ago. This so frightened the Establishment that it reacted by fomenting the most virulent forms of racism, including a plague of lynchings. So it's a dangerous path. Nixon beat Humphrey & Reagan beat Carter with racist divide & conquer strategies. Bush The First used Willie Horton & Dukakis' own Greek ethnicity - his dark complexion. & Clinton's enemies seethed with rage & jealousy because Bill clearly enjoyed attending & was comfortable - & warmly welcomed - in black churches - whose morally conservative congregations actually believe in repentance & are able to distinguish between matters of personal indiscretion & National Security.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
What could be more true? Dean just needs to drop the Confederate Flag reference.
Mainstream media have always jumped on public figures who recognized that the struggle is economic - accusing them of encouraging class warfare. Malcolm, Doctor King, Robert Kennedy were all killed after they became enlightened. & so was Lincoln, in my modest opinion - no dummy he - hundreds of thousands of poor whites from slave states (like himself) died defending what had impoverished them. Historian Page Smith points out that many white southern & midwestern farmers, inspired by the populist Social Gospel movement, were making alliances with black farmers over 100 years ago. This so frightened the Establishment that it reacted by fomenting the most virulent forms of racism, including a plague of lynchings. So it's a dangerous path. Nixon beat Humphrey & Reagan beat Carter with racist divide & conquer strategies. Bush The First used Willie Horton & Dukakis' own Greek ethnicity - his dark complexion. & Clinton's enemies seethed with rage & jealousy because Bill clearly enjoyed attending & was comfortable - & warmly welcomed - in black churches - whose morally conservative congregations actually believe in repentance & are able to distinguish between matters of personal indiscretion & National Security.
