Charles talks about the South today in the NYT
It's basically segregation all over again.
I’m reminded of the story that one of my brothers told about being transferred along with a white co-worker to Mississippi. He and the co-worker were shopping for homes at the same time. The co-worker was aghast at what he saw as redlining on the part of the real estate agent, who never explicitly mentioned race. When the coworker had inquired about a neighborhood that included black homeowners, the agent responded, “You don’t want to live there. That’s where the Democrats live.” The co-worker was convinced that “Democrats” was code for “black.”
Pat Buchanan has echoed The Associated Press in his assessment of the near complete political and racial divide in the South, writing last week, “South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas will not send a single white Democrat to Congress, if Mary Landrieu loses her runoff. The only Democrats in the House from Deep South states will be African-Americans.”
This regional hyper-racialization of our politics has many origins, some historical and some current, but it does not bode well for the future of the country as a whole.
We are self-sorting ourselves into hardened, impenetrable citadels of ideological sameness that harks back to the nation’s darker days.
Perhaps I was naive, stupid or both, but I had no inkling of the racism that became so evident once Obama was elected. I never would have imagined anyone questioning a President's nationality, it was just absurd. The fact that SCOTUS pretended to be blind to this problem when they
struck down section 4 of the voting rights act was truly appalling.
This is the ultimate goal of the Republican's Southern strategy and it's divisions based on racial lines expanded across the country. I have heard democrats claim the changing racial demographics are to their advantage in the long term. This thinking actually makes me sad because it reinforces the idea of politics based on race, surely it should be about actual policy?
The real divides in this country of ours is via income inequality and opportunity and the simple fact that minorities have less opportunity due to inherent racism which also inevitably leads to a greater economic division.
The game being played with voter suppression is based both on race, income and to some extent age drives this wedge deeper into our society.
This is Molotov Cocktail throwing politics designed to exacerbate divisions and hatred for short term gain. Divide the population to enable a deeper and darker control. We see the result of this when crimes are committed and the judicial outcome benefits one race over another as seen in stand your ground laws and the differences permitted when police intervene and the culpability is based on the race of the assumed perpetrator.
If both parties base their strategies based on race and changes in the racial make up of our country I believe we are indeed headed towards darker times.
There are many issues fundamental to our country that have nothing to do with race but have wide appeal. Rather than waiting for the racial make-up of the United States to shift to a more advantageous level how about concentrating upon unifying issues rather than divisive ones. We end up playing the Republican Game on their own playing field with a hostile crowd. As long as we allow these artificial divisions to define us the worse it will get. In the upcoming Presidential election I am dreading the misogyny to come after the racism shown over the last six years, I believe that I have good reason to be alarmed.
Populism has some dangers as has been seen in the past when hatreds are inflamed however when it is inclusive it can redefine the political boundaries. However it is harder to be inclusive when faced with divisiveness based of fear and loathing, but a positive message is our only real hope to overcome and end this vicious dead end cycle.
I could go on, but I hope you got the point.
Just a thought and a hope or two