I've long been convinced that one way the corporate plutocrats stay in power is by exploiting cultural differences among the various groups that make up the American people. Racial discord between black and white, for instance, contributed to Ronald Reagan's election in 1980. Here in my home state of Massachusetts, the turmoil over forced busing in the Boston public schools drove a lot of white working class voters into the Republican camp, and I believe that single issue was enough to make the state that chose McGovern over Nixon in 1972 go for Reagan in 1980 and in 1984.
Today, the bete noire seems to be the Confederate flag (actually, it is the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia). It is racist; it is treasonous; it inspires crazy men with guns to shoot up African American churches. While weeks ago it seemed that every other post on Daily Kos focused on police brutality and the disproportionate targeting of black youth, now suddenly everyone is up in arms about a piece of cloth carried by an army that surrendered, stacked its arms, and dissolved a century and a half ago.
The conservative media here in town (yes, we have them even in Massachusetts) are playing up the hypocrisy of prominent Democrats who assert that the Tsarnayev brothers must not be taken to represent all Muslims, but Dylann Roof, the admitted perpetrator of the Charleston church massacre, is but the tip of an immense racist iceberg extending throughout the white South. And, in fact, the conservatives have a point.
The Confederate flag cannot simply be equated with the Nazi swastika and banished, because unlike the Hakenkreuzfahne the former rebel banner is not just the symbol of a regime long overthrown and a cause long abandoned; there are a lot of southern whites for whom it is a symbol of their cultural identity, as the shamrock is for many Irish-Americans. The danger in attacking the cherished symbol of any group is that the group may take offense. Does that matter to us?
Southern whites have long voted overwhelmingly for Republicans; it is therefore tempting to write them off and use the flag controversy as an opportunity to demonstrate support for African-Americans, who are as overwhelmingly Democratic. I believe, however, that to do so is to play into the hands of our enemies, the corporate kingpins who hold our political institutions hostage to their agenda. Most Southern whites are no better off than the average American; they are just as victimized by corporate capitalism's excesses as we are. Should we not be encouraging them to make common cause with us against those who exploit us all?
When the Teamsters and other union workers supported Reagan in 1980, they made a mistake. Many blue-collar workers across the country continue to vote Republican, even after thirty-five years of layoffs, stagnant wages, and shrinking opportunities, because of cultural matters such as abortion or gun rights. The Republicans have got a lot of mileage out of "religious freedom", immigration, and other such issues by which they convince voters that the reason they languish in debt and can't make ends meet is that people with different accents or different colored skin are ripping them off, cheating on welfare, stealing their jobs, or plotting or committing acts of violence.
My question is this: to what extent are we, by our actions and expressed opinions, helping the Republicans in their game of divide and rule?
Can we ever win the long struggle for social justice and equal opportunity when so many who should be with us are backing our common enemy?
Karl Marx once wrote: "workers of all nations, unite!" I believe he was right. Let us begin with the "nations" within our own nation.