It is election season and once again the minions of Wingnutopia are getting their old Red Shirts out of the closet to go once more into the fray to see how many voters they can intimidated, how many voters they can block from the polls and how they can continue the voter suppression effort they've embraced for almost 150 years.
to the jump...
Actively working to prevent folks from voting is a keystone to every election victory strategy of these weasels from Mississippi in 1875 to Florida in 2000 to many states across the Nation this year. This is an election strategy rooted in white supremacy and hate that grew straight out of the Confederacy. The Confederate Party took over the Democratic Party for a hundred years until they lost their grip in the wake of FDR and Truman. Once LBJ passed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, this movement of hate went looking for a new home. They found it, ironically, in the Republican Party (one could probably power Chicago from the energy of Lincoln spinning in his grave).
And so here we are on the eve of another election and once again these neo-Confederates (or TeaBaggers, or 'Conservatives' or 'Republicans' or 'Concern Citizen Councils" or whatever mask of a name they ride into battle under this time) are up to the same old game of intimidation, dirty tricks, law breaking, threats and real violence.
Now some think this movement is new. It is not. Or that these tactics are are new. They are not. Others think they go back a few years or a few decades. Truth is, these voter suppression tactics were developed and written in blood over 140 years ago and that there are direct links between the TeaBaggers of the 1870s and the TeaBaggers of today.
The main link is the idea of white supremacy, although your modern TeaBagger has learn to discuss that only in code. That is a trick that they learned from their Confederate Founding Fathers of their movement. After the Civil War they learned that they could no longer openly support slavery, so they learned how to talk about their that issue in code. Using white supremacy as the glue, they created myths to excuse their treason and they developed a plan to retake control and institutionalize a system of racism that functioned as slavery by another name.
The key to these Confederates re-taking power was voter suppression--and they used any means necessary to suppress the Black vote and intimate white voters into letting them get away with it.
The Mississippi State elections of 1875 were the laboratory of intimidation where these tactics were developed into a model other states could follow. By the end of the year, organized violence had over turned results of the ballot box and created a political climate that would disenfranchise African American voters for a Century.
By the beginning of 1876, these TeaBagger founding fathers were spreading a step by step action guides--know as The Mississippi Plan--to other states. As recorded in Stephen Budiansky's recent book, The bloody shirt: terror after Appomattox--a former Confederate General, Samuel W. Ferguson, wrote a letter detailing how to get it done back in the day (emphasis added):
Greenville Jany 7, 1876
Dear T.
I cannot tell you exactly how they did in other parts of the State, but will give you a sketch of the modus in Washington County, where the odds were the most terrible and where success has been the most complete.
First, look at our geographical position and political situation, consider the odds against which we had to contend, and in contemplating the result of a determined effort, you will feel that it is entirely practicable to redeem So. Ca. if the people choose so to do. Our registered vote shows 6390 voters; of this number not over 1200 at the outside are white. The only town in the county Greenville with a population of 2000—the whites slightly outnumbering the blacks.
Still, we determined to carry the election at all hazard, and, in the event of any blood being shed in the campaign, to kill every white Radical in the county; we made no threats, but we let this be known as a fixed and settled thing; the white leaders knew that we meant it. So, instead of fomenting strife, they counseled peace. When they had a political meeting, and we could find it out in time, we sent speakers to meet them and denounce their rascality. They, afraid to provoke a contest, which, end as it might, would be the signal of instant death to them, replied to specific personal charges, only by vague generalities-and the moral effect on the negro was to our advantage; he saw his leaders cower and finally retire from the contest, and this prepared him to submit to what was to follow.
To such an extent was this intimidation, not of the negroes, but of the white aspirants for office, that, when the election day came, none of them even came to the poll to vote. All that is necessary is to obtain the result, no matter how, and Mister Nigger accepts it as satisfactory.
The success of our plan depended, at last, upon our being in condition to make a fight if necessary, and to impress on the leaders, the individual danger each of them ran if ~ disturbance took place. To accomplish this, a thorough organization and arming were essential. Winchester Rifles and Colt's peace-makers kept the peace. Money freely contributed, and freely used accomplished much, not by buying votes, but in carrying out well devised plans, such as sending competent speakers stumping the county, attending all the meetings called by the other side, and abusing the candidates to their faces when they put in an appearance. Then, the day of the election, the white men went to the polls when they were opened at eight o'clock, and remained until they closed.
Be assured that if you determine to strike one good honest earnest blow to free the State, I will be with you, and I think that thousands from all the Southern States will be ready and willing to quietly take their arms and come, if needed—to judge from the feelings and expressions I have heard in this section.
Let your motto be Suavitur in modo, fortiter in re. ["an iron fist in a velvet glove"--dg] Never threaten a man individually; if he deserves to be threatened, the necessity of the times requires that he should die. A dead Radical is very harmless—A threatened Radical, or one driven off by threats from the scene of his operations, is often very troublesome, sometimes dangerous, always vindictive. Pray write to me again, for I am most deeply interested in all you may do in the coming campaign.
Yrs &c.
S. W. Ferguson
Copies were circulated far and wide and one made it into the hands of an to an old comrade of Ferguson, Martin Witherspoon Gary of South Carolina, who was yet another former CSA general and an unrepentant American traitor. He was deeply inspired and wrote down a list of action steps to replicate the Mississippi Plan in South Carolina (emphasis added):
"Plan of Campaign"
- 1st Determine if necessary to kill every White Radical in this county—
- 2nd Every mulatto Radical leader
- 3rd Every negro leader—make no individual threats but let this be known as a fixed settled thing—
- 4th We must send speakers to all of their political meetings, who must denounce the rascality of these leaders face to face. The moral effects of this denunciation will be of great effect—
- 5th Thorough military organization in order to intimidate the negro
- 6th Every white man must be at the polls by five 0 clock in the morning of the day of election, and must go prepared to remain there until the votes are counted
- 7th Make no threats — "Suave in modo fortite in re"
- 8th There is no use in arguments for the negro.
The forth item on Gary's list (and the similar advice in Ferguson's letter) was the exact strategy that the TeaBaggers used in their effort to try and kill HCR and undermine politicians they disagreed with in the summer of 2009. The 6th item on the list is the strategy of voter suppression that is underway now. It is a strategy that follows the advice written down and practiced by these and other Confederate terrorists for the last 150 years.
Ferguson and Gary were leaders of the Red Shirt movement that openly practiced terrorism across the old South after the first wave of the KKK had been suppressed. From 1865 through 1965 more than 6,000 people were recorded as killed by white supremacist violence and most of that violence was related to suppression of the right to vote (it is safe to bet that many thousands more deaths were never recorded). Since the 1970s it has been harder to get away with using outright violence as a tool in the voter suppression effort, but intimidation with the implied threat of violence is alive and well. Examples of this in 2010 are easy to find.
When Gary organized a meeting to implement the Mississippi plan in South Carolina he called it as a "tax union meeting" to rail against the taxes of the day, but that was just a dodge for their real goal which they announced in a local paper as organizing to be "ready to strike for white supremacy". (Using 'taxes' as a stalking horse for your real goal seems to be yet another tactic our current crop of TeaBaggers have learned and embraced from their founding Confederate TeaBaggers, but I digress).
Attending Gary's meeting, and helping to carry out the campaign of voter intimitation--including the Hamburg Massacre was a young man named Ben Tillman. On election day in 1876, Tillman and his gun stood guard at a polling location to ensure that only white folks voted. He learned well from his Confederate mentors and became a violent and active leader in the Red Shirt movement. In the 1890s when populism swept the land, Tillman made sure that it had a white supremacist tilt and rode that wave to become South Carolina's Governor and later its Senator for almost 25 years. Tillman pioneered the racist/populist politician that one could find in every election cycle ever since, including many a TeaBagger candidate in 2010.
As an old man, Senator Tillman befriended and mentored a young Strom Thurmond, the son of a close advisor and fellow Red Shirt terrorist. Thurmond would grow up to follow in Tillman's footsteps and carry the racism and voter suppression efforts of his mentor into the Confederate Party's transition from control of the Democratic party to control of the Republican Party. Many a TeaBagger and professional Wingnut operative in DC can trace the roots of their activism directly through Strom Thurmond to their Confederate founding fathers.
And key to it all--in election after election--is suppressing the right of people to vote. Especially people of color and people who do not share their white supremacist world view. They are at it again this year.
We must stand up to these asshats and bullies.
VOTE.
And protect the right to vote.
Early voting is now active in 29 States (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming), while another state, Virginia allows early absentee voting under under certain circumstances (follow the link if you live in the Old Dominion to see if you can make the cut).
There are lots of ways to get involved in getting voters to the polls. You can sign up to GOTV here, or here or here or just your contact a local GOTV effort and join in the fray.
On Election day keep an eye out for folks at the polls intimidating voters and call these weasels out.
It is action time.
The right to vote is sacred. There can be no higher duty as an American to protect this right form those who would take it away from our us and our fellow citizens. These neo-Confederate Teabaggers working the same old plan to suppress the vote are traitors and should be called out as such.
Cheers
dengre
[cross posted from Balloon-Juice]