I don't think community blogs should be judged by picking out one comment or one diary that is just scrolling by. I know I don't like when it is done to Daily Kos. With that caveat, you probably are guessing that I'm about to do just that. There is currently a diary sitting on Macon, Georgia City Councilman Erick Erickson's blog redstate.com simply titled White Pride. I think it is a diary that deserves some outside attention.
I have some experience with the white power mindset, from some people I knew years ago in high school. I know that white pride and white power go hand in hand. I've heard the justifications for white power straight from the mouths of skinheads. It sounds something like this:
I'm a proud White-Irish-American and I'd like to celebrate my unique culture and heritage. Though I personally had no part in it, my white European ancestors were the ones who founded the greatest country the world has ever known.
and this:
People like myself whose ancestors were white Europeans used to take pride in the accomplishments of fellow whites. That pride was acceptable and celebrated. The tremendous influence and contributions made by white Europeans has, alas, been lumped into the discredited category of 'colonization,' which we all know is bad.
and this:
The fact that many of the countries that were once colonized by Britain are now worse off than when Britain was calling the shots is an inconvenient historical fact. After all, white people of European descent represent a, gasp, superior culture, and that's not allowed to be discussed or studied.
those are quotes straight from the diary.
What seems to have sparked off this diary is a Tennessee state trooper spamming a racist email out to his co-workers. I can't see that email, and neither can the redstate diarist. But I can go to the link provided in the diary -- the same link I just provided. Here's what Morgan's diary says:
I’m proud to be white. There, I’ve said it. But I’m getting confused.... A Tennessee state trooper who sent an e-mail proclaiming white pride, has just been suspended for 15 days without pay and will have to attend diversity training. Does this mean white people can’t celebrate their own culture?
Here's what the link she provides says:
It also includes a list of racist epithets.
The whole news story at the link is about 7 sentences. Did Morgan miss this one sentence? Why is it that conservative bloggers so often link to articles that directly contradict what they are writing about? The state trooper got one week unpaid suspension and sensitivity training for sending a spam email full of racist epithets to 787 Tennessee state employees.
Townhall thinks that is wrong.
The thing is, this wasn't written by some random nut. The byline on the diary is this:
Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina
Sure enough, if you go to rightbias.com you can find the same article, plus Nancy Morgan's archive. She seems to have been writing there for a while now. Rightbias.com is a blog of Townhall.com, as is Redstate.com
Townhall is owned by Salem Communications, which is one of the largest radio station owners in the country. Salem was founded by Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger III. They are both elbow deep in the right-wing movement. Epperson is a Bob Jones graduate and was on the Time Magazine list of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in the country. They have both served on the Council for National Policy, which was:
described by the The New York Times as a "little-known group of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Just after a few minutes of clicking around the web brought up all of this information. All of these people and groups are interconnected and when articles like this on by Nancy Morgan pop up on the network it pulls aside the thin veil movement conservatism keeps over its white power belief structure.