Yup. Because I called him out on his support for white southern racists, John Edwards campaign consultant Mudcat Saunders didn’t just insult me... The SOB brought my mother into it.
Mr. Lukasiak...thanks for providing the perfect example of why Democrats lose national elections. Concerning your description of the south, that is "intolerance" personified, and since your Mama obviously forgot to tell you, I will. It is immoral to stereotype any group of people.
Now, the reason I accuse Saunders of supporting Southern white racists is this quote from an interview he gave to SouthNow magazine...
SouthNow: What’s the prescription for Democrats?
Mudcat: There’s only one prescription and that’s tolerance. I’m a white, southern male who hunts. I’m a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which has two black members, by the way. I don’t know how many northern Democrats who have tolerance for my kind.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans, we don’t say the wrong side won the [Civil] War. Everybody knows slavery was wrong. We say give us our culture.
Intolerance is becoming rampant. It’s culturally and socially unacceptable to be a white, southern male and a Democrat. If we can get past that, we can kick ass."
Now, I think we all know who Mudcat is not talking about when he talks about "tolerance for my kind" and says "give us our culture." He’s not talking about the tens of millions of African Americans who live in the South, whose distant ancestors were slaves in "his culture", and whose parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents suffered under Jim Crow laws, legal segregation, and lynchings under "his kind".
To Mudcat, these are invisible Americans – Americans whose legitimate loathing for "their culture" the Democrats should ignore if they want to win elections. The Democrats should "tolerate" the celebration of the ante-bellum South, should "tolerate" the proud display of the Confederate Flag—the symbol not just of slavery, but of resistance to any form of racial equality under the law, and should "tolerate" the continued social and economic discrimination meted out to Southern blacks by "his kind."
Mudcat claims to be "anti-racists" (he actually puts it in quotes!) – and his proof is that he’s a Christian. Of course, the most pernicious racists in the South have always made a show of the piety – and have used the Bible to justify the enslavement and discriminatory treated of anyone who wasn’t white.
Now, some folks may believe that just because Mudcat Saunders wants the national Democratic Party to employ its own version of the GOP’s "Southern Strategy" doesn’t mean he’s a racist.
Me, I call Bullshit. The simple fact is that Mudcat Saunders is concerned about "his kind" and "our culture", and doesn’t give a damn about Southern blacks. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to be silent and respectful to someone who thinks that tolerance of "nostalgia" for the most heinous stain on our history as a nation is somehow acceptable in the Democratic Party. I’ll vote Green before I vote for the kind of Party that Mudcat Saunders envisions.
Saunders understands one thing....that while Democrats can appeal to rural voters by talking about economic populism, that won’t work in the South with white voters unless you acquiesce to their celebration of slavery and racism. And Saunders believes that the Democrats should sell their souls – and sell out black Americans, so that we can gain the electoral college votes from Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, etc.
Its not worth it.
Nor should the Edwards campaign continue to allow Saunders to advise them --- and the letter below has been sent to the Edwards campaign...
It was my intention to vote for John Edwards in the Pennsylvania primary. However, it has come to my attention that your campaign has as one of its advisors one Mudcat Saunders -- someone who treats activist progressives from the Northeast with utter contempt. (see his guest posts at Time's Swampland) I'm sorry, but unless Mr. Saunders goes, you've lost my vote -- and I will be making sure that everyone I come across who indicates an interest in the Edwards campaign is well aware of the kind of "advisors" that you employ