Joe's Grand Old Party
[link:http://democraticprinciples.blogspot.com/2019/08/joes-grand-old-party.html|
Joe’s Grand Old Party
Joe Scarborough Tweeted on 08/25/2019.
“We are at an acute hinge point in history. The days are grave. The need for serious, focused, wise, creative conservative leadership is something close to an emergency. And who, in this time of peril, is the champion of the Right? A clown. What a waste.”
My wife and I watch Morning Joe every morning. Joe and I have a lot in common. I am older, but we are both from the South. White. Grew up middle class and now are privileged. We are products of public education, went to college. And have been politically active. Parents were Southern Republicans. Here we differ. Joe made a decision as a young man to become a Republican. I made the decision to become a Democrat.
When we were both young. We knew the difference between being a Republican and a Democrat. Joe and the Republican Party will tell you it is about being conservative or not. But we all knew. We all knew that it was not. We all knew, and we all know today, that the word conservative was then and is now a mask for the true philosophy.
What is this conservative thing anyway? It sounds warm and righteous. Bush W. even added “compassionate” to the name conservative. It is like you cannot make a mistake if you do nothing. So that is being conservative. Right? And smaller is better. Right? It is always good for government to spend less. Right? Fiscally responsible. Right?
Well Joe you know since your hero Ronald Reagan became President, there has not been any fiscal conservative anything going on. Reduce taxes for the rich and cut spending for the poor and needy. Bust the budget. Increase the deficit. Destroy the economy with the Reagan and Bush W. recessions and still claim that you are fiscally conservative. So, you know it has nothing to do with being fiscally or in any other way conservative. What is it then? Well Joe you know what it is.
Even today, go to the WikiPedia link for the South Carolina Republican Party as they proudly recall the history the modern South Carolina (and all other Republican Parties in the South). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina_Republican_Party
“ On September 16, 1964, Senator Strom Thurmond announced to a statewide television audience that he had switched parties from the Democrats to the Republicans, saying the Democratic "party of our fathers is dead."[7] He said it had "forsaken the people to become the party of minority groups, power-hungry union leaders, political bosses, and businessmen looking for government contracts and favors".[8] The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed the following year, restoring the ability of minorities to vote through federal oversight of registration and electoral processes. Most African Americans affiliated with the national Democratic Party, which had supported their struggle. While __________________________ South Carolina and other southern states gradually shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party.”
Notice I left words blank. Based on the proud pronouncement of this group of citizens who were in opposition to, of all things, the Voting Rights Act, and who became the modern day SC Republican Party - what could those words be? Is it, good people of? loving citizens of? constitutionalists of? Liberals in? state’s rights advocates of? No. You guessed it. “conservatives in.” Of course, the words should have been “racists in”. But they could not use those words. You know, cannot tell the truth here. So, use the word that has before, was then and is today the mask word for RACISTS. CONSERVATIVES.
I am from South Carolina, was a teenager in the 60’s. Witnessed the vial hatred of white southerners to the Civil Rights movement and Dr. King, and how the racist Wallace Democratic Presidential campaign fought for the soul of the Democratic Party. How the leaders of the Democratic Party in South Carolina had to choose. How the racists lead by Thurmond, Albert Watson, Harry Dent and others left the Democratic Party, and how the good South Carolina white Democratic leaders such as Robert McNair, Olin Johnson, Bryan Dorn and John West stood up for decency and the values of America. How they defeated Wallace in 1964, vanquished evil racists from the South Carolina Democratic Party and embraced, to their political peril, South Carolina minorities, led by I. DeQuincey Newman, C,J Whitaker, and Modjeska Simpkins.
There was no ambiguity about what the Republican Party and Democratic Party stood for in the South when one chose which Party to join. Even the Grand Old Party of Everett Dirksen, John D. Rockefeller, Barry Goldwater and Dwight Eisenhower, knew who these evil people were. In 1964, during the national Republican Party platform debates, efforts by these neo-Republican racists to amend the Civil Rights section of the Republican Party, were rebuked.
But Nixon. Nixon knew he could win in 1968, using these new Republicans. His “Southern Strategy” was a deal with the devil. He could use them, and he thought they could be controlled. And so, did Ronald Reagan, who added white evangelical Southern “Christians” to the fold. No Republican President since Nixon would win the White House without the support of white, southern, racists Republicans.
Joe Scarborough and others would like to make you think that there was this great conservative movement in the South. That he was innocent in joining a political Party that embraced conservative truth, justice and the American way. He acts surprised to learn, only now, that it was all about racism. But he knew, I knew, everyone in the South, when making a political decision about which Party to join, which philosophy of government to embrace in the South, knew. It was then, and is now, a decision to support Republican racism or not.
Ask Joe, how many times, when hearing the racial jokes, criticisms of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Acts, food stamp programs and other welfare programs, did he stand up and say no. Your opposition my fellow Republican’s is just racism. Did he protest against, what I as a Southern heard, then and hear today? No. He knew he could not get elected unless he went along.
I (and yes there are Southern white men who today stand up and do) protest racism in the South. And by not standing up, Joe Scarborough and others permitted the evil cancer or racism, spawned by the Republican racists of the South, to capture the soul of the Grand Old Party.
By 2016, “conservative” Republicans, recharged by the election of a black man as President, vanquished the moderates in the Grand Old Party. The cancer had spread from white racists in the South, to white racists throughout the country. A Republican parade had formed, marching to the beat of the white racists. It was looking for a leader. It did not matter if that leader shot someone on 5th Avenue. They wanted a leader that would vanquish minorities. They were in ecstatic when he jumped in front of their parade and proclaimed.
“When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.”
They were sold.
It was a Republican parade of racists. Racists and those who do not believe in government, because government since LBJ, helped minorities and those that need help. If you listen to Joe, you would think the conservative Grand Ole Party was hijacked by Donald Trump. The beautiful pristine, virtuous and “conservative” Republican Party was duped by a monster. Here is the thing. Donald Trump is a Republican. Over 85% of Republican’s today APPROVE of the job he is doing. Sorry Joe. Trump is a Republican. The Republicans are Trump. And there never was a “conservative” Republican Party.
And do you really think we would have not had the tax cut for the rich, Charlottesville, El Paso, destruction of the EPA and the Affordable Care Act, the future ban on abortions if Cruz was elected President?
So, let’s be frank. the problem here is not Trump. It is the Republican Party. The only way to make America - America again is to vanquish Joe’s Grand Ole Party from power at every level of government.
And Joe, the Democratic Party welcomes you and others who believe in good government. And bring your conservative ideas. The Democratic Party is the party of all ideas. Get in there. Your conservative ideas will be challenged but the give and take on ideas is . . . . . a Democratic Principle.
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