The party of Lincoln narrowly supports Abe over treasonous slave owner

It’s half past 1971 Mississippi-time, but don’t tell that to the state’s Republican voters who, recent poll results show, are still fairly divided on whether Tom and Helen Willis should be allowed to marry.

[In] a hypothetical match up between Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, Lincoln would win out 55-28.  That’s largely because of Lincoln’s overwhelming support from Democrats, 76-10. He only narrowly edges Davis with Republicans, 45-36, and the match up is actually a tie with independents at 44%. …

Earlier this year we found that only 40% of Republican voters in Mississippi thought inter racial marriage should be legal but we asked it again on this poll and found 52% support for it with GOP voters- still a surprisingly low number but progress.  Overall 60% of voters in the state support inter racial marriage to 23% who think it should be illegal.

Not surprisingly, an overwhelming majority of white Mississippians support a constitutional amendment that would designate Colonel Reb as Ole Miss’ official mascot.

Among other findings, Mississippians named Pat Boone their favorite entertainer, “Donny and Marie” their favorite TV show and “Birth of a Nation” their favorite flick.

Needless to say Jim DeMint wasn’t in the military

The veterans bill, passed by the Senate 94-1, would provide tax credits for firms that hire unemployed or disabled vets. But DeMint opposed the legislation, arguing that the tax breaks won’t encourage hiring, would complicate the tax code and amount to the government picking winners and losers.

At one point, he said, “We’re pandering to different political groups with programs that have proven to be ineffective.”

So veterans are just another special interest group?

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Just a reminder: Not all Southerners think alike

The Southern battle colors are flying again, this time as part of an effort to unfurl huge Confederate flags along Georgia’s interstates. …

“We want to remind people of who they are and where they came from,” said Jack Bridwell, the division commander of state chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which is paying for the flags. “Being Southern is nothing to be ashamed of.”

He’s half-right. Being Southern is nothing to be ashamed of, but our past is shameful. I say this as a scion of the Confederacy whose regional pride derives from those who brought us kicking and screaming to modernity, not those who sought to keep us mired in the past.

More whistling Dixie w/ Stonewell Perry

From Perry’s cleverly titled book, “Fed Up!”

Rather than simply citing chattel slavery as an exemption to his “states’ rights are good” principle, Perry argues that slaveholder activism in the 1850s was an example of big government federal overreach. “In many ways it was was the northern states whose sovereignty was violated in the run-up to the Civil War,” he argues, citing the Fugitive Slave Act and completely ignoring the human rights of the enslaved African-Americans of the south. He says “we can never know what would have happened in the absence of federal involvement,” ignoring again the fact that federalism would have bought peace at the price of continued slavery.

If the Republicans nominate this guy they should be prevented from ever again referring to themselves as the party of Lincoln.

The backwards march continues

From my inbox:

CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG MAKING A COMEBACK  IN GEORGIA

Does Univ. of South Carolina breed assholes?

An incredibly arrogant international business major from USC responds after learning he would not be rehired as a lifeguard (via Deadspin):

I have been offered a second internship with BMW, a profoundly respected world leader in luxury automobile manufacturing, for this upcoming summer and fall semesters. Obviously, looking to significantly enhance my resume to a level enabling me to one day run corporate America, I will be returning to this prestigious multinational corporation. Therefore, returning to the pool for another summer would be like Apple CEO Steve Jobs returning to Foot Locker for summer employment, especially seeing as that returning to the pool would mean being a subordinate to a woman of below average intelligence with the responsibility of teaching “ghetto” school children various topics and subjects that they couldn’t care less about. This would be the equivalent of Bill Gates (Microsoft CEO, in case you were unaware) applying to work as a personal computer salesperson in a local Best Buy retail store.

You may recall the scene from “Borat” in which the Kazakhstani journalist gets drunk with three racist USC frat boys. They later sued the filmmakers, claiming emotional distress but were rebuffed in their attempt to have the scene removed from the DVD.

Only 34 percent of Mississippians glad Union prevailed

Fergit, hell.

Except in Mississippi, most voters in these states are glad the Union won the “War Between the States” instead of the South. 53% say that in Georgia, 48% in North Carolina, and 34% in Mississippi. But still fewer in Mississippi (27%) would prefer that General Lee’s troops had prevailed; a 39% plurality are not sure. Similarly, only 21% in North Carolina and 23% in Georgia wish the South had won.

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Remember, don’t romanticize

Though my Southern roots go way back, I’m glad “we” lost the war that started 150 years ago today. Anyone with a conscience should feel the same way. Are Germans wistful about WWII?

Not that I’m comparing the Confederates to Nazis. But enslavement or extermination isn’t much of a choice, and celebrating any government or cause that would sanction either seems particularly cruel. That heritage is nothing to be proud of.

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Father of Bear and Crimson

Did Toomer’s oak killer Harvey Updyke name his daughter Crimson?!?

The story that just keeps on giving. I’m not sure about Crimson, but I can confirm there is a Bear Updyke.

Only in Mississippi. And maybe Alabama. Arkansas, perhaps …

When you can’t bring yourself to condemn efforts to recognize a founder of the Ku Klux Klan on Mississippi specialty license plates, you have no business being president.

This is the same Haley Barbour who, in a recent interview, defended the notorious Citizen Councils.

 

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Pointless year in review presents … 2010′s most unwelcome political comeback

I’d like to think the majority of white Southerners are embarrassed by the Confederacy, but 2010 made me wonder. Shame on those conservatives who’ve chosen to identify with/exploit the most lamentable period in U.S. history. (And yes, I’m aware Democrat Robert Byrd was in the Klan. But he’s dead.)

“It helps him with his base,” said Mark Rozell, a political scientist at George Mason University, after Virginia’s Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell declared April as Confederate History Month in Virginia.

That such a base exists, and is apparently catered to, is disturbing enough. Former state GOP chairman Patrick McSweeney was among those who applauded McDonnell’s declaration, saying “I think it takes a certain amount of courage.”

Even more appalling was the proclamation’s historical whitewash.

McDonnell said he did not include a reference to slavery because “there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.”

(Since I don’t do Nazi comparisons I’ll let you provide the analogy.)

Before you think I’m giving too much weight to a symbolic proclamation, consider that eight states passed “Tenther” — named after the 10th Amendment, which states that powers not explicitly given to the federal government are reserved to the states — resolutions during the first year of the Obama administration. And then there were the wannabe secessionists.

To them I say, fergit already!

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Noted & Quoted, Confederate dunce edition

“It’s a symbol of constitutional government. It’s a symbol of Jesus Christ above all else. It’s a symbol of Biblical government.” — newly elected state representative Loy Mauch (R-AK), responding to a question about what the Confederate flag symbolizes.

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Will Tennessee secede?

Republicans will pick a nominee for governor tonight, and one of the leading candidates is already talking secession.

Rep. Zach Wamp (R-03) suggested TN and other states may have to consider seceding from the union if the federal government does not change its ways regarding mandates.

“I hope that the American people will go to the ballot box in 2010 and 2012 so that states are not forced to consider separation from this government,” said Wamp during an interview with Hotline OnCall. [...]

“Patriots like Rick Perry have talked about these issues because the federal government is putting us in an untenable positionat the state level,” said Wamp, who is competing with Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam (R) and LG Ron Ramsey (R) for the GOP nod in the race to replace TN Gov. Phil Bredesen (D).

Wamp routinely flirts with crazy, boasting that he sleeps with his gun next to his head. One of Wamp’s GOP opponents, Rob Ramsey, recently fretted about the imposition of Sharia law in Tennessee.

Why not put all the fundamentalists, Christian and Muslim, in one state and be done with it. No gays, no feminists, no Hispanics — just self-righteous religious fanatics.

The (not-so) secret life and death of a white supremacist

I’ve covered my share of Klan rallies, most of which were organized by Richard Barrett, leader of the Mississippi-based Nationalist Movement. I first met Barrett, murdered last week by a day laborer, in January 1989 at a sparsely attended march through downtown Atlanta.

Hundreds of National Guard troops were dispatched to protect eight white supremacists, one of whom had a Kirstie Alley-sized goiter protruding from his neck. More than 1,000 counterdemonstrators also showed up, some with mischief in mind. I remember hiding under a car to duck cinder blocks that were being thrown from atop downtown parking decks. One of our photographers was plunked in the head by a rock, breaking his camera.

Barrett returned the next year, with even fewer protesters and more protection, for a rally across the street from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s tomb. He was a pathetic grandstander, disliked even by his fellow white Supremacists.

Perhaps this explains his unpopularity:

White supremacist Richard Barrett may have sexually propositioned the black convict accused of killing him, according to sources close to the investigation.

As the leader of the Mississippi-based Nationalist Movement, Barrett regularly railed against homosexuality, calling it “the most detestable crime against nature.” But in white supremacist circles, Barrett’s sexual orientation has been known by some. (His white supremacist publication, All the Way, regularly featured articles on young white men, including some photographed shirtless.)