Posted on 11/26/2002 2:36:03 AM PST by WhiskeyPapa
Hell fire, y'all! White folks done voted to take Georgia back 40 years!
Well, that's it. The (white) people of Georgia have spoken, and they've told us that the confederate flag is more important than anything else in the world. And make no mistake, folks -- as far as the governor's race was concerned, it was all about the state flag. Angry rural white people turned out at the polls in numbers not seen since the days of Lester Maddox to vent their fury at that danged ol' Liberal King Rat Roy Barnes.
What you heard on Nov. 5 was not a Republican earthquake. It was the sound of progressive men like William B. Hartsfield and Robert Woodruff and Charles Weltner rolling over in their graves. For the first time in a generation, the reins of Georgia government have been handed over to a wide-eyed hick who proudly panders to the neo-confederate crowd, a shadowy and racist gang of baccer-chewin' morons most city folks had believed to be extinct, if not permanently powerless.
And now these clueless crackers are running amok, planning to embarrass us all by restoring the confederate emblem to the state flag and transforming zombie-like Democratic state Senators into right-wing Republicans by the busload. And it's all being orchestrated by Ralph Reed. God help us.
History books say that Eugene Talmadge, the legendary race-baiting Georgia governor, often boasted of the fact that he'd "never carried a county with a streetcar." It was a pretentious rejection of modernity, as if being backwards was somehow a worthy attribute. But the Talmadge following was comprised of an ignorant gaggle of bumpkins and Klan-affiliated rednecks, so I guess there is a legitimate comparison to what happened to Georgia on Nov. 5. Just like "Ol' Gene," Perdue's victory came from an overwhelmingly rural base.
I am old enough to remember the Georgia countryside in the late 1960s, when "Maddox Country" signs were plentiful. I'd foolishly believed for most of my life that those days of racist politics in Georgia were long gone. When "Sonny Country" signs bearing the confederate flag began popping up earlier this year, it worried me -- but not seriously. "Surely we have progressed beyond such foolishness," I said to myself.
Well, I was wrong, by God. Yee-haw!
Of course, suburban Republicans are now spinning their asses off, swearing to anyone who will listen that Perdue's election had nothing to do with race or the flag, but was actually due to Barnes' alleged "arrogance," a charge that anyone who has met the governor knows to be ridiculous. But try as they might to muddy the waters, establishment Republicans cannot dispute the shocking and disturbing videotape of Perdue supporters waving confederate flags on election night as the governor-elect mocked the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Nor can they deny the backwater election demographics, or the legions of gloating boneheads from racist groups like the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and the League of the South, all of them taking credit for Perdue's victory.
Yes friends, the sleeping giant redneck has awakened, and he don't give a damn about what uppity colored folks think about the confederate flag. He's out stomping across Georgia like some kind of mutant yokel Godzilla, wreaking humiliation and destruction upon our hard-earned image as an enlightened place to do business.
To their credit, Democrats didn't play the race card during the election. And if they had, they would've probably been screwed anyway. It's tough to battle against a race-bating enemy like state GOP chairman Reed, who once said, "I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag."
Reed and his Republican nightriders may have lynched Barnes -- but at what price? This klutzy clan has painted itself into a corner: If they put the flag to a vote, the state will pay mightily. If they don't, the rednecks will revolt, and the world may be subjected to a petulant spectacle of white-trash madness not seen since Sherman lit a match.
Either way, Georgia's hard-won image as the progressive leader of the south will suffer.
Jeff Berry is buying up confederate flags as fast as he can -- and burning them.
Tariffs.
There were no taxes on individuals in 1860. None.
Tariffs were how Hamilton rescued the nation's finances in the 1790's. Hamilton had bonds issued. The debt on the bonds was paid for by the tariff revenue. This helped cause an immediate reversal of national fortunes.
The last navy ship was sold off under the Articles in 1785. Yet by 1794, only the fourth year of the operation of the Constitution, Congress was able to fund six very excellent warships, including the U.S.S. Constitution, United States and President.
You seem totally unfamiliar with the history of these events.
Walt
To the extent that I cared at all about the flag, I was just as happy with the pre-56 flag as the centennial flag. What really torqued me was the way Barnes shoved it through and threatened legislators to get it done. My state representative was MOST annoyed because he didn't even have time to call his constituents. . . . he wasn't on the "inside track" so to speak and wasn't even informed that the legislation was pending until a couple of hours before the vote. He spoke out on this, and his district was promptly split in half by Barnes in the next legislative session as punishment. (He won anyway, but I'm not in his district any more. Barnes moved us to Billy "stick a shiv in him" McKinney's district, the awful father of Cynthia, what a joke, but we threw McKinney out too.)
I know the man who designed the new flag. He oughta be ashamed of himself. What an ugly design, and to have his name associated with one of Barnes's strongarm ventures isn't so great either.
But it was certainly not the ONLY issue, not by a long shot. And many were affected by it not because of the issue of Confederate heritage, but because of the nasty way Barnes went about changing it. (I fall into the latter group, although I do feel that a referendum here would clear the air. Let the chips fall where they may. I will absolutely vote AGAINST that abortion of a new flag, regardless of the other alternatives presented. If that means the 1956 flag that was honestly and legally voted in, so be it.)
i'm sick of your hatefilled damnyankee-apologist LIES, though by your treachery against your state & the southland, you TOO serve the cause of southron liberty.
free dixie,sw
he is NOT stupid enough to fail to "dance with them who brung him", unlike scalawags hodges, barnes & cleland.
those three scalawags CAREERS "in public service" are OVER, permanently, as a result of their treachery! southrons have LONG memories and will NOT forget.
free dixie,sw
even the democrat campaign manager said on TV, election night, that the ONE THING that "beat us" was the CSA FLAG.
i'll say again- "every politician in the south MUST learn that the CSA flag is the ONE issue that will cause their defeat" if they are "fuzzy" on the flag.
the SCV, UDC & the LOS will not rest until the traditional GA flag flies over every public building in the state. and the referendum will PASS by a LANDSLIDE to restore the GA flag to it's proper form. it will not even be close anywhere but Fulton County.
free dixie,sw
Think for a minute. Don't let the Democrats USE you to torpedo Perdue's administration before it's even sworn in. The Democrats and media gleefully reported all sorts of remarks about the flag immediately after the election, and taxed Perdue with questions about it, repeatedly, to the exclusion of all else. They would LOVE to paint Perdue as an unreconstructed, tobacco-chewing moron, just like the Creative Loafing column. Don't hand them the stick to beat Perdue (and you) with.
One of the things we would all do well to learn from the Bush administration is how to refrain from excessive gloating, or demanding IMMEDIATE action on our pet issues before the sun sets on the day after the election.
The SCV has publicly announced that they are going to wait and let the dust settle. I think that insisting too loudly on this issue is going to hurt Perdue's efforts to startup the first Republican government since Reconstruction. In the interest of the larger issue -- moving Georgia towards conservative government -- we should let the flag issue rest a little bit. Once things calm down, we can have the referendum and that should settle it once and for all.
free dixie,sw
I hate to burst your bubble, but it isn't going to happen. The Dems don't want it. Business in the state will lobby against it. And the Republicans have bigger fish to fry (they don't want their 1st time in control in 130 years to get bogged down in a flag debate.)
Here is what I think will happen. There will be calls for changing the flag from different groups, but politicians will decide it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. GA will continue with the current flag for at least 10 years. After about 10 years, the calls to go back to the old flag will have died down. Georgians will get tired of having the ugliest state flag. There will be a public debate (without any single politican taking the lead) over changing the flag. The state will compromise by going back to the pre-56 state flag (the one with 3 stripes.)
The confederate heritage groups will accept it because it is at least a flag based upon a confederate flag. The left will accept it because it totaly gets rid of the stars and bars. Everyone else will accept it because GA will no longer have the ugliest state flag.
Of course, that's just an educated guess. The one thing you know for certain that will never happen is the state going back to the star and bars version of the state flag. That you can take to the bank.
you can NOT make friends with the mass media any more than you can trust a poisonous snake.
be not deceived, the media is the ENEMY of EVERY conservative belief, religious tenant & traditional value in the world.
what we members of the SCV will do is give him about 60-90 days to call a referendum to return the GA flag to all government buildings. after that, "katy, bar the door"! THEN we'll start putting on the pressure.
Sonny KNOWS this; he is NO DUMMY!
free dixie,sw
trust me on this. what the "C of C clic" and the tendy-lefties in GA wants is not relevant.
free dixie,sw
That was a good post. But the "stars and bars" was the flag with the three stripes and the seven original so-called seceded states represented by stars in a circle on a blue field. The one with the St. Andrews cross is known as the confederate "battle emblem.
Walt
they are headed toward PERMANENT minority party status in the southland and PERHAPS toward that status everywhere.they seem to be determined to take a lethal turn to the hard left!
by 2010, i predict that there will not be a SINGLE DIMocRAT senator from any southron state. some will get beat & some will retire. the new senators will be GOP and/or SP.
imVho, there is no future for the DIMs as statewide pols in the south, period, end of story.
free dixie,sw
Better odds of winning the lottery than the south ever seperating again. People as a whole simply have no interest to revive a war fought in the 1800's.
it will simply be that one day in the not too distant future, that the two sections will (i HOPE) peacefully devide into 2 nations, as the Czechs & Slovaks did.
Los Estados Unidos de Azatlan MAY devide off first, to become the THIRD nation.
the southrons & the damnyankees are NOT, longterm, destined to remain in one country;we are TOO/TWO DIFFERENT peoples.
free dixie,sw
no more compromises!
free dixie,sw
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