IN HIS 1969 book, political analyst Kevin Phillips envisioned Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy becoming an "Emerging Republican Majority.’’ A New York Times review said, "Full racial polarization is an essential ingredient of Phillips’ political pragmatism. He wants to seek a black Democratic party, particularly in the South, because this will drive into the Republican party precisely the kind of anti-Negro whites who will help constitute the emerging majority.’’
So begins Derrick Jackson's column today, with the title The polarization card
I am well aware that Kevin Phillips has changed his political views over the years, having become quite critical of the Bush family in particular. But his analysis did foretell much of what would happen with the modern Republican party.
And in this column Jackson pointedly notes a number of clear illustrations of what has been happening, concluding his 2nd paragraph
Today the Republicans are the shrinking minority, who, with no strategy to improve the country, have only the polarization card to play.
Of course Jackson addresses Joe Wilson, calling his remarks "a double-barreled blast" because it was both a shout-out to whites who might not accept the legitimacy of Obama as President and an invocation of the fear of immigrants, whom as Jackson notes, are perceived to mainly come from our South and are brown.
He takes McConnell's remark that Charles Boustany was the perfect person to respond to Obama's speech (because he is a doctor) and gives us a different way of examining the choice of Boustany, who
... comes from a state where 84% of the Whites voted for McCain
... is a birther
... is from the state rated dead last in public health by the United Health Foundation, with an infant mortality rate more than 3 times that of Slovenia and the Czech Republic
Of course there is also Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer with his rhetoric about Obama as a socialist in the same state where, as Jackson reminds us, Sarah Palin worked a crowd into such a frenzy that there were shouts directed at Obama of "kill him."
Let me offer the next sentence, and then the concluding paragraph from Jackson, before I offer some remarks of my own.
Palin said about Obama, "I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America.’’
The danger in this is obvious. It is one thing to disagree with the president. It is another to disrespect the office and delegitimize his citizenship. America still has too many gun-toting crazies for the Republicans to yell "You lie!’’ in a crowded theater. Despite all of the actual falsehoods that got us into Iraq and cost us thousands of lives of American soldiers, President Bush did not endure in his entire eight years what Obama is undergoing in his first eight months. Too many Republicans are still trying to drive anti-Negro whites into the fold. The question is whether America can fold this chapter of politics for good.
We believe in robust political speech. Thus even though some of the rhetoric we are hearing may be repulsive, such as seen o n signs at the teabagger event in DC this weekend, I do not seek to suppress that speech, and trust the Secret Service to be professional enough to follow up on anything that might represent a threat.
I do however think that those who would seek to lead the nation have a responsibility in the examples they set. Thus it is unacceptable that some notable Republicans have watered down their criticism of Joe Wilson's outburst by saying they agree with its substance - that is, that the President was lying about health care for undocumented aliens. Calling someone a liar is one way of delegitimizing them. It is of a piece with questioning his citizenship, introducing bills requiring proof of natural born birth, saying that he is "not like us" or who does not see America "the way that you and I see America."
The threats of violence and disorder are very real right now. Politicians who seek to rile up those with perceived grievances for political advantage run the risk of unleashing forces they will not be able to control.
As one who lived through the Civil Rights era, I remember all too well that the man who orated in his inaugural as Alabama's governor
and I say . . . segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever.
started his political career as a racial moderate, but when he lost an earlier election swore to never again be outniggered. And when George Corley Wallace sought to take his cause nationally for a 2nd time, the violence he inspired was turned on him only a few miles from where I teach high school.
Some hide behind supposedly religious rhetoric, although they seem ignorant of the Bible they claim as authority. Perhaps someone should remind them of the phrase from Hosea, "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" ... their rhetoric is in danger of releasing forces that could tear this nation apart.
Derrick Jackson is Black. But the observations he makes are not available only to those with a skin like Obama's. Many can see what is happening.
And if we are afraid to speak out on this issue, we thereby legitimize the use of the race-baiting by Republicans.
They may choose to accuse us of playing the race card. We need to remind ourselves, them, and anyone watching or listening that their use of dog whistle politics does not fool anyone. After all, the most recent Republican president never spoke to the NAACP convention in 8 years as president, and their sainted Reagan commenced his 1980 campaign at a county fair in Mississippi that would have no reason to draw that kind of political attention except for the three civil rights workers murdered and buried in a dam not far away.
I may have a white skin, but the fears and concerns expressed by Jackson are mine as well. It is not merely because my nephew has a Black wife and two daughters whose bi-racial background is identical to that of the President. Nor is it that because I am of Jewish background that I have some understanding of how discrimination and even hatred can be directed at me. It is because I have been taught - not just by family, but by my time in various branches of Christianity - that we are all bound together; that to seek to divide us up - by race, gender, sexual preference, national origin, religion, or any other category into which we can push someone as "other" - is to legitimize the dehumanization of others. If we have forgotten our own history with respect to Native Americans, to things German in WWI, to the Japanese in WWII, or to more recent hostility towards those perceived as Muslim or Arab, then perhaps we should pay attention to what has happened in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, or around the world in places as different as Africa, Asia and modern Europe: when political rhetoric is allowed to invoked fear and hatred, violence, death and destruction are an inevitable by-product.
Those who seek to gain advantage by playing a "polarization card" seek to destroy what potential can make this nation great - its ability to demonstrate how those of seemingly great external differences can come together in a way that benefits us all.
I do not like the term "un-American" for I saw how it was abused during the 1950s, but it may be the most apt term to describe what I see happening now. To seek to polarize is to deny the vision of what America is supposed to be. That rhetoric is not and never should be acceptable among those who seek our support for their political ambitions. And whenever we encounter it, whether it comes from White Republicans who seek to scare people against blacks or from a Black mayor of Memphis who wants to replace the white Jewish Congressman last elected with 79% of the vote in a Democratic primary, we need to challenge it for what it is - racism, unacceptable rhetoric, something we must challenge whenever we encounter it.
I will now leave for a day in a high school that is incredibly diverse. Perhaps each day in my school, with the multiple skin colors, different accents, various religions and no religions, and every imaginable sexual orientation of the students I encounter in my class and my hall, I am reminded in part of why I still teach. I want a world in which the students in my care can all perceive that they are welcomed, that their voice matters, that their participation politically will be welcomed.
If I am wrong about that, then I am wasting my time and tragically misleading them about what matters.
I still hope I am not wrong.
Which is why, like Derrick Jackson, I feel I must speak out.
Peace.