But Strom Did In '48!(The Bell Curve)

TheFreePress ^ | December 18, 2002 | by Alexander Cockburn

[fight_truth_decay]

Charles Murray argued the "Great Bell Curve IQ" debate that "the War on Poverty was failing because the poor, being clever enough to respond to the incentives generated by government programs, were reducing their work effort and increasing their dependency." (1984)

Murray was considered or termed "America's Most Dangerous Conservative".

Murry (quote)"Hillary Rodham Clinton is the personification of what worried Dick Herrnstein and I about the cognitive elite. I'm sure she has a high I.Q. score. She, and for that matter her husband Bill, are both examples of people who by the age of 18 had been siphoned off into elite colleges and have spent the rest of their lives interacting with other people very much like them--the cognitive elite."

"What happened in the Helm's bill( was an attempt to make sure that President Clinton was not allowed to do by Executive Order what Congress has declined to enact in the past two congressional sessions namely, 'to treat homosexuals as a special class protected under various titles of the Civil Rights Act of 1964').. is a classic example of what happens when the cognitive elite has been talking to itself too long, and thinks it knows what's best for everyone. "

[r9etb]

Commie or not, wrong or not, you have to love the way Cockburn writes. He nails the D's but good in this one.

[ClearCase_guy]

you have to love the way Cockburn writes

Maybe I'm just dim, but I thought a lot of this article bordered on gibberish. Sentences didn't flow, points of view seemed to whipsaw back and forth. I couldn't even tell if he thought Lott got a bad deal or if the Democrats had made a mistake by not being extreme enough! Maybe if I read it a second time, it would be clear (but why would I take the time?)

[r9etb]

why would I take the time?

Well, for one thing, Cockburn actually makes some good points. You have to discount for his obvious biases, but the underlying point is that Strom's '48 campaign platform has essentially been taken over by the Democrats.

This is essentially true. The D's have probably done more damage to black people in the name of "helping" them than old Strom could have dreamed of -- and when it suits their needs, they take up Strom's banner for themselves.

There's a lot of good stuff in there. It might be worth your time to give it a second look.

[ckilmer]

While there is much talk as to where Lott was coming from when he made his statement. (He was imitating a dixicrat of the late 1940's to honor an old warrior of a lost cause.) There is little talk of who he was talking to. That stubborn tone of an old dixicrat that Lott assumed was one you just don't hear in the south anymore. The reason you don't hear it--is because it is directed at Northern (damned) Yankees (the Northerners who defeated the South in the civil war)...a people the Southerners now consider to be--and rightly so--a defeated people. Nor was the defeat of the Northern Yankees at the hands of Southerners.

This is also why lott's words were indefensible. He exposed a lot of people.

This is also the reason for the wierd syntax of Cockburn. The context of Lott's statement is utterly unfamiliar to him.

[RLK]

The article wasn't worth much, but the comments following were excellent.

[T'wit]

Democrats, not Republicans, promoted and defended segregation in the South. It was called the "solid South" in that era, precisely because the Democrats controlled all the southern states. Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrats were, of course, Democrats. For that matter, Klansmen were Democrats.

In contrast, in the post-segregation era, the South has been strongly Republican and a bastion of conservatism. And that, of course, is why the Democrats nowadays drum up these idiotic attacks on the confederate flag or any other traces of their old turf.

For a Democrat to criticize Trent Lott on the issue of race should win a Nobel Prize for hypocrisy.

[fight_truth_decay]

"The context of Lott's statement is utterly unfamiliar to him." Agree.

Isn't that what it is all about? A point from which to start discussion? I find myself learning more from those posting comments in Free Republic then the posted article itself.

[Taliesan]

framing drug laws that will ensure that by the year 2002 (when it is scheduled that you will reach 100 years), many young black people will live in the certainty of spending long periods of their lives locked in prison.

Black men are going to jail because of the drug laws the White Man wrote. Not because they actually use and sell each other massive amounts of cocaine.

Cockburn is just another hallucinating idiot.

[fight_truth_decay]

The history of the Democrat Party is a story of tension. One the on hand are two rotten groups: (1) The one party Solid South, whose Klansmen insured that blacks, Jews, and Republicans were rare and invisible in one third of America for almost a century; (2) Big city machines linked to corrupt labor unions in northern industrial states.

The city machines were replaced by countless federally supported programs, bureaus, and offices.

The Solid South has been replaced by equally intolerant and vicious groups: bitter feminists; hate-mongering "Civil Rights Leaders", whose nightmare is very different from Dr. King's dream; and any other angry pockets of alienated people in America (with Democrats cultivating this anger with great attention).

[fight_truth_decay]

..but remember where there is no Will..there is no way out.

[RLK]

Isn't that what it is all about?

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I think it is mostly about hyenas --talentless hyenas in politics and the media looking for something or somebody to chew on to appear active and busy, to get attention, and to become the head hyena.

[Publius6961]

True, as George Bush likes to point out, his administration is adorned by Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell, which is like saying that all Nubians were doing well under the Roman Emperor Augustus because a Nubian eunuch stood at his elbow.

Hmmmmm.

I may be jumping to conclusions here, but the implication is clear, seeing the way it is phrased. Is Mr.Cockburn implying here that Secretary of State of the United States and Security Advisor to the President of the United States are on the same level as court eunuchs?

[RLK]

Is Mr.Cockburn implying here that Secretary of State of the United States and Security Advisor to the President of the United States are on the same level as court eunuchs?

------------------------------

It could be interpreted that way. Basically the piece is little more than a display of diffuse antagonism toward the world. There's no serious content.

[fight_truth_decay]

....as George Bush likes to point out, his administration is adorned

I stopped there and compared it to statements containing" I have black friends or I have white friends". Cockburn suggesting some racism in Bush's remarks.

[fight_truth_decay]

It's also about stirring the pot..turning the heat up high and waiting for the boil over..minority votes for the Democratic Party come next election. Goes deeper than what Lott said. He was just a convienent springboard.

[PRO 1]

The only thing missing from the title is the beloved FR

**BARF ALERT**

[RLK]

Cockburn is another irritating loudmouth in the mode of Maureen Dowd, Eleanor Clift, et all. They are like having a rock in your shoe. They are too irritating to ignore and the media won't let you get rid of them because they are re-presented constantly. We have insult and provokational journalism and TV.

[RLK]

It's about visibility and manipulation of the public. None of these people are concerned about integration or anything else but maintaing their self-importance. In occasion I used to drive by Senator Kennedy's home in the burbs. There arent three people here who could afford the upkeep on the lawn. It's as far from integration as it is to the moon.

[El Gato]

his administration is adorned by Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell, which is like saying that all Nubians were doing well under the Roman Emperor Augustus because a Nubian eunuch stood at his elbow

Wonder how Colin Powell likes being called a eunuch? This guy better pray he never meets up with Powell or Rice in a dark alley somewhere. He really better hope that if he does, it's General Powell and not Condi in that alley.