Posted on 05/28/2004 7:59:25 PM PDT by GOPcapitalist
Did you know that several Republican leaders in Texas have been issuing apologies for slavery and bigotry on behalf of our party? They are and it includes our immediate former Republican Party of Texas Chairman Susan Weddington.
Democrat liberals do this sort of thing all the time when pandering and race hustling to Jesse Jackson and his following for votes, but to see this sort of stuff from Republican leaders seems unbelievable.Since this story is so far fetched many have experienced disbelief in it at first. But rest assured, it happened and here is the evidence that could be assembled from an extensive search via GOOGLE and from other FR discussions
The Evidence in Newspapers:
At the 1998 State GOP Convention Weddington hosted a "prayer breakfast at the state Republican convention by confessing to the sin of racism and urging others in the overwhelmingly white crowd to do the same." - The Houston Chronicle, June 14, 1998
"Instead of reviling their political opponents with every breath, Republicans at the convention confessed to their own racism in the aftermath of the brutal murder of a black man in Jasper. They mourned the racist sins long rampant in the white church throughout Texas and urged others to do the same. While a piano tinkled above the crack of gum on the jaw, they prayed to heaven to heal the land. This was not hypocrisy. This was heartfelt self-criticism, well-deserved."
- Editorial about Weddington's apologies from liberal columnist James Howard Gibbons, The Houston Chronicle, June 22, 1998
"For thousands of delegates, including Texas GOP Chairwoman Susan Weddington, the day began with a prayer service that ended with a call
for Jesus Christ to "rule over us again." The service offered a message of repentance for a variety of societal ills, including slavery and the misuse of religion." - Austin American Statesman, June 17, 2000
Documented Facts:
FACT 1: Susan Weddington has issued her repentance in her official capacity of Chairman of the Republican Party as our elected representative and leader. She stated so in her own words at a 2003 apology ceremony in Houston:
"I, in the authority I have as Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, Father, I repent. And I ask forgiveness and I further ask to be able to forgive the African American leaders who walked away from their party"
FACT 2: Susan Weddington has specifically said that "white Republicans" have "caused" racial wounds in our country. She stated so in her own words from a May 14, 2004 article that she wrote:
"People who were unjust like to hide their history. I knew David Barton and I said, ‘David, you’re a historian. You’ve got to hunt for this.’ I knew that God wanted me to do something with that knowledge, and I had the authority because I was in that position of power. I didn’t know all the wounds and all the breaches, but I knew that I could ask for forgiveness. And I said, ‘God, if you will forgive the injustices and the wounds caused by white Republicans in leadership rather than asking to serve along with the African leaders."
FACT 3: Susan Weddington thinks that the yankees were the "good guys" in the civil war and is embarrassed to learn that some of her ancestors were southerners. From the same May 14, 2004 article she wrote:
"A year ago I was in a car with my mother who is in her eighty’s...She said she was very moved by what she saw that day in David’s presentation of history in the church. She said to me in the car, “You do know that you’re great, great grandfather was a plantation owner in Jackson, Mississippi. He owned slaves.” I was devastated. The other part of my family that always gets talked about is from the North, so I thought we were part of the good guys."
FACT 4: RPT Vice Chairman David Barton has also participated in Weddington's apology ceremonies. Barton has attended several of the ceremonies referenced above with Weddington and stood at her side in approval as she issued her "repentance." Pictures from the 2003 ceremony in Houston show Barton standing next to a "slave kettle" when he is giving a presentation that is strongly biased against the south.
FACT 5: David Barton frequently cites the example of the notorious "Radical Republican" senator Charles Sumner as a hero for Republicans today. Barton praises Sumner at length in a presentation he does called "History in Black and White," even though most southerners to this day find Sumner to be a disreputable and repugnant figure in the history of our country. Historical Sidenote: Senator Sumner was well known as a crude, obnoxious, and foul mouthed politician whose verbal abuses contributed significantly to southern secession and the War Between the States. Many of the more mainstream Republicans even disliked him and a well known Abolitionist blamed the war on Sumner more than any other person. After the war Sumner notoriously preached an agenda of vengeance against the south in contrast to the message of the late Abraham Lincoln, who preached reconciliation. In the late 1860's he even tried to start a war with England over disputed payments from an English-built Confederate warship.
Pictures:
Let em know!
Susan Weddington & David Barton: Wall Builders -(817) 441-6044
info@wallbuilders.com
chairman@texasgop.org
Southern ping!
Spineless invertabrates! Oh, wait, that's redundant.
LOL! Both are accurate descriptions of these people though.
Recipient: Tu Quoque Boy
Address: The Vasty Deep
Purpose: To check out what adherents to the yankee view of history are doing on behalf of the Republican Party.
Aside from some historical inaccuracies, Barton's mission (www.wallbuilders.org) seems pretty mainstream. How did he get into this stuff?
He entered politics as an outsider and became part of the establishment over time. To quote the great Roger Daltry, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
The truly scary thing about it all is that Barton is on a textbook advisory panel in states all over the country. Normally when a conservative gets on one of these panels it's good. But Barton? Given his involvement in flaky racial pandering like this, I'm not too enthusiastic and in fact I'm not so sure of his conservatism.
I wondered why I was suddenly getting e-mail invites (from Binkhiser, by the way) to an African-American $25 dollar a head conference at the Marriot. Not part of the original convention agenda. Sadly, Thursday night will find me safely ensconced in the Rules Committee until midnight. Don't need the contact numbers, they will find out what I think when I swing every vote I can influence to Gina Parker. And, since he is threatening not to work with Gina if we elect her chair, all I can say, is David, much as I have admired you in the past, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.
Two years ago, Phil Gramm gave a great speech, pointing out that much as the Dems court the black vote, it is the REPUBLICAN Party that elects blacks to state offices, at least in Texas. Now in two years we have sunk to this level of pandering.
http://www.wallbuilders.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv+Screen=PROD&Store_Code=W&Product_Code=B30&Category_Code=B
"Celebrate Liberty!" ed. by David Barton:
"John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, George Washington Adams - These are but a few of the authors whose words are recaptured in this timely collection. Their orations inspired thousands in earlier generations, and now WallBuilders makes them available to the hearts of citizens today!"
...in other words, a book of speeches by yankees including the wholly undistinguished George Washington Adams, a womanizing drunk from an otherwise famous political family who committed suicide at age 28 by jumping into Long Island sound. Some role model for liberty!
Dittos from another Parker delegate. Barton's become the establishment just like Weddington was. He won't be missed here.
HOLY CRAP!!!
Slavery is BANNED???
What about the family I have tending my garden and cleaning my garage???
I'm still miffed at W for yanking the plaque.
I would guess that TX is like TN....many new GOPers are northern guests and just don't have our sensibilities about the past.
Many are fairly conservative but southern provincialism is not on their radar....alas.
You better communicate that to Susan Weddington. She's still apologizing for it 140 years later.
I was always curious about this; is Susan Weddington in any related to the lead attorney for the woman who petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the anti-abortion statues of Texas?
No relation that I know of, though both Weddingtons are flakes as this one's slavery apologies demonstrate.
If memory serves me correctly-it rarely happens, but sometimes I luck out-the attorney representing Norma McCorvey was also politically active. I believe she won a congressional seat after Roe v. Wade had been decided in her client's favor.
Makes sense. I've always wondered what exactly David did for the party as vice-chairman - nothing as far as I can tell. Must help him get on to those textbook committees, though. Some people use their business to get into politics; looks like David uses the Republican Party to help his business.
Like I said earlier, Wallbuilders seems on the surface to be pretty mainstream, and I agree with the mission, but David Barton isn't wouldn't be my first choice to lead that mission.
There is enough evidence of Christian faith in the founding that one does not have to invent it. Barton has apparently fallen into the trap of following the example of leftist revisionists who use history to advance their own contemporary political agendas. As much of a Republican as I am, believe in the Russell Kirk approach to conservatism as a rejection of ideology. Re-writing history to serve some modern political agenda, even it is intended to help Republicans, is every bit as detestable as Marxist revisionism.
The more I think about it, the more embarrassed I am to have David Barton representing us.
And she is not referring to Reconstruction. There are a good number of folks in the GOP who no longer wish to play the race game. If this is the GOPs idea of building black voters in the party, it won't work.
Exactly. If we want black voters we need to carry our message of conservatism to them. Those who aren't conservatives we should convert.
This sort of stuff is pandering, pure and simple, of the very worst Jesse Jackson Tom Daschle Hillary Clinton type and the GOP embarrasses itself by playing along.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.