Wishful thinking. The Bushites derailed McCain in S. Carolina using the dirty tactics of Southern Strategy-style politicking and the Far Right freakazoids who are speed diddling themselves over the prospect of electing The Huckster to the Oval Office are already loading up for bear. Plus, if Obama gets a head of steam up coming out of NH (he could easily win there if he can stay gaffe-free) you're very likely to see a really desperate Clinton (k)lan come out of the (k)loset and go stealth Willie Horton on his ass in their own version of the Southern Strategy. The Clenis wasn't floating that "rollin' the dice" trope out there for nothing.
What is interesting is that the Democrats should have abandoned the South long ago, ever since the Johnson administration and his signing of the Civil Rights Act. It took a great deal of political courage for Johnson to sign the bill with the knowledge that it would wreck his party's influence in the South. Ever since then, the inflence of the Democratic party has weakened, a lesson they finally learned in 2004, when John Edwards was tapped as Kerry's running mate, and failed to carry a single southern state. If Democrats are to win in 2008, they should look west, instead of south, and find that they could win states like Colorado, which elected a Democratic governor in 2006, Montana, who elected Democrat John Tester for Senate, also in 2006, and Nevada, which I must give credit to the Democrats for looking at.
Read my blog:
http://www.offthewalling.blogspot.com
I think the truth is somewhere between the worrying and the rosenberg piece. I don't think we are there yet, but I can see a light on the horizon. I am still scared... for him, and us. But I am hopeful as well, which is really what the obama message is all about.
They only hung nooses from those trees in Jena. 30 years ago, they would have hung black people from the nooses. Simiarly, the week after they arrested those kids in Jena some 50,000 black people travelled there and protested. Can you imagine that sort of show of strength 30 years ago?
well, actually it was months after... but the point is the same. there was big action! and a great outpouring of outrage.
A note from the trenches: My parents are concerned that Obama might be assasinsated, returning the country to the grim days they remember in 1968.
30 years ago? In 1978, I don't think there would have been a for-real mass lynching. Probably not even in '68.
But as far as the 50,000 protesters part of that, you're right of course, Hubris. I think it'll be considered a major milestone in the long fight to pry this country's destiny from the withered death-grips of Jim Crow and Jefferson Davis.
Don't count the Southern Strategy out yet, though. It may not guarantee the White House now, but I think we've all learned to appreciate the GOP's ability to throw sand in the works.
Steve had a post about the inclusivity or lack thereof of the blogger meeting convened by Bill Clinton in September 2006. (Here is the link: http://stevegilliard.blogspot.co...ng-
clinton.html. There were lively and lengthy comments, but I don’t know if they are still accessible.)
My take, and that of many (not all) of the commenters, was that it’s not enough for white progressives to be to be non-racist, or color-blind. They must be anti-racist, and ‘embrace diversity and difference’, to use Rosenberg’s words. In organizing political actions and events, it’s important to prioritize diversity as a goal, to be mindful of ‘comfort level’ issues for minority participants, and to accept leadership from people of color. The fact that so many whites voted for Obama is what I find most encouraging about Iowa.
UPDATE: In his argument Rosenberg points out that this is a very different America than the one Malcom and Martin died in. A 90% white, 9% black America. Very different than our America today. We can't help but think about the danger Obama faces, but we can help worrying about it.
UPDATE: Bullshit.
What drbopperthp said. The day after Iowa, as we were watching a live Obama event on CSPAN, my husband commented, "they better have doubled up the amount of Secret Service on him". I am hopeful but I do worry. It's human.
I doubt that the southern strategy is going to die. After all before the civil war many northerners felt that congress & the presidency paid more attention to preserving southern interests in slavery & agrarian economy versus free soil & increased industrialization. Furthermore the majority of presidents have been from the south, besides racism is not just confined to the south, there is just as much of it in the north.
Thank you for this UPDATE: "In his argument Rosenberg points out that this is a very different America than the one Malcom and Martin died in. A 90% white, 9% black America. Very different than our America today. We can't help but think about the danger Obama faces, but we can help worrying about it."
I was very distressed by an earlier post here which this references. Yes, black Americans lost Malcom and Martin. But white Americans lost Abraham and John and Bobby. For that matter, conservatives almost lost Ronald. The world almost lost John Paul.
Now we are challenged by a man who our old culture says is black, but who the facts say is the child of a black man from Africa and a white woman from Kansas. And what is our reaction?
George W. Bush and the Republicans want us to be afraid. Romney, I believe, even went so far as to say that the most basic civil right was the right to be kept alive. They want to turn us into a nation of Terry Schiavos, a nation of brain-dead subjects. They want us to be afraid of everything.
What I have been thinking of since your earlier post, however, is courage.
The courage of Crispus Attucks, the Swamp Angels of the Civil War, the Buffalo Soldiers of the West, the Smoked Yankees of the Spanish-American War, the Harlem-Hellfighters of World War I, and the Tuskeegee Airmen of WWII.
The courage of James Farmer, who's on my mind because I recently discovered that I know a relative of his (and who was one of "The Debaters"). For every Martin, there were dozens of other leaders and followers who put their lives on the line time after time. Some died, but most lived to see a different America. Martin told a congregation in Birmingham that they had the capacity to die. And hundreds of them, instead of cowering in their pews, marched out of that church to confront men with dogs, fire hoses, and guns. And this was in a time and place where churches were bombed and 4 little girls were killed.
The courage of a lot of white people. Like Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, who were travelling with their colleague James Chaney down a dark road one night in Mississippi in 1964. Like Lyndon Johnson, from Texas lest we forget, who put the full power of the Presidency behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (saying, "and we shall overcome"), even though he was told by his fellow Southern Democrats that it would cost the Democratic Party the South (which it did, but I think it saved our nation).
The courage of women such as Ida B. Wells, who kept track of and wrote about lynching when being "uppity" and forgetting your "place" could get you killed, and Rosa Parks, who risked being taken into a place where bad things often happened.
The courage of Jack Johnson, who alone boxed against and defeated white men in a time when America was in the depths of Jim Crow segregation. Of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens, who represented their segregated nation against a nation heading into even more genocidal racism. Of Jackie Robinson, who alone faced his team-mates and an entire league, who looked up day after day into stadiums filled mostly with white people -- and who won over more and more and more of them. Of Hank Aaron, who assaulted the record of the beloved Babe Ruth from a launching pad in the heart of the Old South. Of Cassius Clay, who became a Muslim and resisted the draft. And in a better America, became a champion again and this nation's and the world's most beloved sportsman.
The courage of James Meredith, who alone went to the University of Mississippi. Of 9 even younger students who went to Central High School in Little Rock.
But what I can't get out of my mind right now is the courage of a little girl. Really, an image of her. An elementary child. A really little person. Perfectly dressed. Standing alone at some school. Not Linda Brown, but like her -- and more alone.
Oh, and almost as a footnote to history, the courage of the Lovings of Virginia, one black and one white, who wanted to get married when the law said they couldn't, who got the Supreme Court to overturn such laws.
Courage. So many people. Alone, in small groups, in large marches. Let's remember their courage.
And now we, all of us, have a chance to take one of the great next steps in history. Let us summon again the courage of those brave souls who have gone before us.
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