Over the past months the Romney campaign and the GOP campaign and their "allies" in big money have run out the post '64 GOPer rhetoric. You might remember '64 or you might have read about it and the little matter of the Civil Rights Movement and the Dixiecrat exodus. The GOP, the "Party of Lincoln," took the South and they took it in the ugly way you'd have to - pounding race. After awhile they realized they'd have to pull a white sheet over their racism and use dog-whistles. "Don't say nigger, put that thin cloth over it and use welfare or..." It didn't quite play to use the "N" word with people who'd watched, live, fire hoses, German Shepards, and kids dug out of dike and couldn't quite get along with it.
Some of us were young and didn't know; our hearts were broken and a fierce rage was lit. No, the "N" word wasn't going to work and a hell of a lot of us got the tune played on the whistles. In our country the issue of where to eat and sleep, of going to school, and trying to vote ended in being buried in a goddam dike. That dike was the end point of the "discussion." That is what they mean, that is the level of resentment that got the GOP the goddam South.
A couple of pundits are starting to get actually angry, Chris Matthews is having trouble being polite and some are surprised - forgetting where, when, and how he was raised. Some people seem to forget or not know that a large chunk of the Civil Rights Movement was white and that those people were deeply hurt by what our nation was doing and tolerating. One of the results was that a lot of white people who are not (words fail) race conscious are not pleased when the whistles are exposed for what they are. Their racism is primarily ignorance and avoidance - different is unsettling, but buried in fucking dike - uh... no. They'd be really pleased if, "nobody asked for my birth certificate," could be passed off as a bit of awkward moment of humor. "It's just a joke, fer pete's sake." Yeah, and a burial in a dike is pretty goddam funny, also.
Those black people are soooo sensitive... Cripes on a crutch - I sit here white and far from my dotage and I can remember how and what got us here and feel that rage at what is done in my country being fanned into white hot flames. I have not had my daily existence shaped by what these cretins espouse so I'm less sensitive, but I'm not deaf, blind, and stupid; and neither are a lot of people if someone jumps up and down and yells. Hey, you - I'm yelling. I'm so goddam mad my eyes start leaking when I reflect on what got us here.
Nineteen Sixty goddam Four was 48 years ago, almost a half century, and here we are. A candidate for the Presidency and his allies are playing at race hate. That seems like piss poor improvement over that length of time from dead in a dike. Yes, you cretins, the end point of your shit is dead in a dike. That is what you goddam mean. Yeah, I do judge you on that basis. I'd throw away a pair of shoes I got you on.
If you're white working class you might want to ask yourself why this is what Mitt has got for you... if you don't wonder - you could point it out to your friends.
5 comments:
Thank you for articulating what I am feeling about the ugly racism on top of condescending disrespect the GOP party is. When the full understanding of the economic mess that the GOP party led by Bush and Cheney was exposed, I knew seriously hard times were ahead and that if not put into check quickly covert racism would become overt. People would look for someone to blame and it would be the weakest neighbor (or so they thought). Romney is just an musty suit whose only desire is to occupy the White House but the people who are propping him up have seriously evil intent. The lies and disrespect being perpetrated against the POTUS from day one is almost unbearable to watch. Most of the people who will vote for Romney is so blinded by hate of Blacks in this country that they cannot see the Repubs think they are dog poop under the bottom of their shoes also.
yes, punching down is usually the result of economic dislocations.
A word from across the pond: I feel your pain and I am galled by the conduct of your enemies (let's call them what they are). I wish it were possible for people to see the past more clearly, to see that the hate that is thrown in the face of progress is timeless and never prevails (I'm thinking in particular of the opposition to civil rights). It won't prevail now.
I don't know of any nation that is blameless in xenophobia, but this incites me to something well past mockery and creates a shame in me for my nation.
History repeats it's self over and over again! After living 85+ years one becomes cynical but I have to hope that maybe sometime man kind will finally get it right. I am sad for my country and for all my lost expectations. Mammy
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