Dear Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass,
You are reading this in 1860, and I’m writing from over a century into the future. Just wanted to let you know that there is a run-off election for US Senate in Georgia (we now elect our Senators with a popular vote in the state). One of the Candidates is a Democrat (he is the incumbent) and the other is a Republican. Both are Americans of African descent. The Republican stands with all of the values of his Republican party, and that is how we know he favors White Supremacy, anti-Semitism, limiting the right to vote, and the destruction of Democracy in America. The incumbent (the Democrat) strongly favors democracy, equity, and wide spread voting rights.
As it stands, the chance of either of these men winning this election is best estimate as 50%-50%.
Sincerely,
Person from the Future
Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:
or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
Yes – Walker is a white supremacist. Good luck selling that. I don’t think Walker supports white supremacy – but you do you.
The republican part is the part of white supremacy. Walker is supporting that even if he (and apparently you ricka) is too stupid to know that. They’ve been moving that way since Reagan started them on that path.
Regan didn’t start the path. He just put the finishing touches on it.
The south had a longstanding bitterness toward the republican party due to the civil war. With the civil rights movement in the 60s the republicans sought to use racial divisions to change the power balance in the south.
It is ironic that the party that was born to fight slavery became possessed by the undead spirit of the old confederacy. But that began long before Regan.
@ppnl:
Yes, I see I didn’t make my point well. Let me try this: Reagan was the first real driver to show the right that repeating lies often enough (all types: racist, misogynist, anti-gay, political) while embracing the worst of society could be a very effective tool. As you say, those things had been in the Republican Party for a long time, but they tried to hide them. He showed having them in the open didn’t result in any penalty and actually attracted support
https://twitter.com/jonathanweisman/status/1527600993193558017
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/liberal-media-scream-nyts-mara-gay-calls-hershel-walker-insult-to-black-americans
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1128694481/with-two-black-men-running-for-senate-in-georgia-race-takes-center-stage
It’s all ironic, isn’t it? First the GOP changed (briefly) from the party of big business and no-slavery-expansion into the party of civil rights. Then it became the party of big business and nativism (which I guess it had been all along since lots of former Know Nothings joined the GOP at its founding). Then when the Dems switched from anti-central-government to pro and then from pro-racism to anit, GOP picked up all of the “Southron” Lost-Causers, and they’ve just grown more MAGA ever since. Lincoln would be soooo disappointed, and Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass would say, “I knew we shouldn’t get into bed with the party of compensated emancipation and “back to Africa!”
Longer than many today realise. Goes right back to before the start of the Naval War of 1812 with the likes of Jefferson, Monroe and Madison employing filibustering (in the sense of making unauthorised war) techniques to acquire new territory.
The republicans ended slavery. A larger percentage of republicans voted for the 1964 civil rights bill than did the democrats (78% versus 60% – based on vote in the house). See https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/12/17/fact-check-more-republicans-voted-for-the-civil-rights-act-as-a-percentage-than-democrats-did/
Whoever wins this race in Georgia – it does not support or demonstrate white supremacy (in my opinion of course). You would think that two black men running for the Senate in any state would be celebrated as an example of how far we have come on race in the USA. Things are definitely better today than they were during Jim Crow and certainly better now than before the civil war.
Nobody should forget what was required of the people who voted in favor of the 1964 Civil Rights Act: they risked ending their political career by doing so, regardless of their party affiliation.
However, blindly saying “more Republicans than Democrats[sic] voted for it” is committing two things:
A) Overlooking the fact that neither of today’s parties is what they were in 1964. Both have moved significantly to the right, with the republicans now essentially authoritarian
B) It ignores the interaction between party and region. If you break things down by “South” meaning the 11 states that were the traitors in the Civil war, and “North” the other states, the final voting numbers look like this.
House By region and party (yea-nay)
Southern Democrats: 8 to 83
Southern Republicans: 0-11
Northern Democrats: 145-8
Northern Republicans: 136-24
Senate by region and party (yea-nay)
Southern Democrats: 1-20
Southern Republicans: 0-1
Northern Democrats: 45-1
Northern Republicans: 27-5
Simpson’s Paradox anyone?
It also overlooks the fact that the racists flooded to the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party (for the most part: there were, no doubt, some of the racist goons in the non-politician population who stayed with the Democratic Party b/c they realized that was the better place for working people: dirtbag Byrd was an odd case the Democratic group would have better kicked out than kept).
It would be nice if we could, but it’s obvious that the Walker candidacy was a cynical ploy to just put up any black person in hopes of peeling off black voters just because of his race. He was clearly not qualified, and his 100% refusal to accept abortion for any reason even though he had benefited personally for him showed that pro-life voters don’t really care about abortion as much as they think women are just baby holders for a few months.
I hope this ends his career. He can go join the same speaker circuit that Sister Sara Palin is on and run around the country fleecing the rubes for $100 a ticket while he talks about werewolves, vampires, and his days on the police force.