Monday, April 19, 2010
Completing the Circle
A few years ago, maybe less, the second worst American President of the last 50 years voiced the already existing Democratic opinion that Israel practiced apartheid vis a vis the Arabs who lived in Israel and in the area captured in the 1967 war from the Hashemite Kingdom of Trans-Jordan. I doubt that characterization a lot. The Arab citizens of Israel have identical civil rights--with the exception of mandatory service in the IDF-- with Jewish citizens (of the Jewish state of Israel). The people in former Jordan are not citizens of Israel, so of course they have different (less) civil rights than citizens do. It is an absurd calumny to accuse Israel of apartheid.
But let's complete the circle. If the Democrats look to a former political practice of the Union of South Africa to describe what they mis-perceive as the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, where should we look for a nation whose former practice was most like the modern Palestinian political demands, namely, that the West Bank (and indeed the whole of Israel) must be Judenrein and, even better, all the Jews should be destroyed? Well, wouldn't the obvious choice be Nazi Germany? (Sorry to fulfill Godwin's Law). Of course that is the logical choice.
Here's another. The prevailing misinformation is that while, yes, the Democrats indeed were the party of Slavery (at least, after 1820, the Southern Democrats were) and yes, the perfidious 'Jim Crow' laws after the Civil War were passed in the South and Mid-West by Democrats, and yes, perhaps all or almost all of the members of the KKK during its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th Century were Democrats, but, the misinformed lefty of today says-- it was the Northern Democrats who spearheaded the Civil Rights Movement and after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, inter alia, all the racists in the Democrat party became Republicans and it is that party which is the locus of modern racism in America. Well, except for the Tea Party.
Let's complete the circle. The Republican Party was abolitionist from its inception and freeing the slaves was its raison d'etra. After the success of the North in the Civil War and the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments by Republicans, which amendments indeed freed the slaves and gave them equal civil rights (on paper), the racist Democrats continued to hate the Republicans and thought of them perpetually as n-word lovers. They were. There were, in fact, very few white southern Republicans (my family excepted) and nearly all the blacks who joined a political party after emancipation joined the Republicans, for almost a full Century. So those ignorant citizens today, who believe the racist Democrats magically became racist Republicans after 1964, and talk about 'code' and the Southern Strategy, they must actually believe that racist Southern Democrats who opposed equal civil rights for blacks decided that the best and most hospitable political place to keep on being a racist was with the party that historically had the most black members and whose white members, they firmly believed, were all n-word loving jerks who venerated Lincoln for freeing the slaves and saving the Union.
Now, really, how likely was that?
The Southern Strategy was really to woo the big government hating, traditional value loving Democrats (only some of whom were racist) into the party where hating an ever bigger government and loving traditional values (Guns, God, Law and Order, etc.) had a natural home. You could look it up, if you doubt me.
But let's complete the circle. If the Democrats look to a former political practice of the Union of South Africa to describe what they mis-perceive as the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, where should we look for a nation whose former practice was most like the modern Palestinian political demands, namely, that the West Bank (and indeed the whole of Israel) must be Judenrein and, even better, all the Jews should be destroyed? Well, wouldn't the obvious choice be Nazi Germany? (Sorry to fulfill Godwin's Law). Of course that is the logical choice.
Here's another. The prevailing misinformation is that while, yes, the Democrats indeed were the party of Slavery (at least, after 1820, the Southern Democrats were) and yes, the perfidious 'Jim Crow' laws after the Civil War were passed in the South and Mid-West by Democrats, and yes, perhaps all or almost all of the members of the KKK during its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th Century were Democrats, but, the misinformed lefty of today says-- it was the Northern Democrats who spearheaded the Civil Rights Movement and after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, inter alia, all the racists in the Democrat party became Republicans and it is that party which is the locus of modern racism in America. Well, except for the Tea Party.
Let's complete the circle. The Republican Party was abolitionist from its inception and freeing the slaves was its raison d'etra. After the success of the North in the Civil War and the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments by Republicans, which amendments indeed freed the slaves and gave them equal civil rights (on paper), the racist Democrats continued to hate the Republicans and thought of them perpetually as n-word lovers. They were. There were, in fact, very few white southern Republicans (my family excepted) and nearly all the blacks who joined a political party after emancipation joined the Republicans, for almost a full Century. So those ignorant citizens today, who believe the racist Democrats magically became racist Republicans after 1964, and talk about 'code' and the Southern Strategy, they must actually believe that racist Southern Democrats who opposed equal civil rights for blacks decided that the best and most hospitable political place to keep on being a racist was with the party that historically had the most black members and whose white members, they firmly believed, were all n-word loving jerks who venerated Lincoln for freeing the slaves and saving the Union.
Now, really, how likely was that?
The Southern Strategy was really to woo the big government hating, traditional value loving Democrats (only some of whom were racist) into the party where hating an ever bigger government and loving traditional values (Guns, God, Law and Order, etc.) had a natural home. You could look it up, if you doubt me.
Labels: Israel; Palestine; Democrats; Republicans; Racism
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 4:14 PM 
