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.
Methinks they might be trying to hijack the election results.
You are starting to sound just like my American History 101 textbook. Which, I might add, is so far left that it makes the New York Times look like NewsMax.
Stick to the facts. The FSA allowed the involuntary recruitment of northeners to serve on posses to chase runaway slaves.
Since all the federal government basically did prior to 1860 was deliver the mail and collect less than $2 per capita in tariffs --before the FSA-- I think my statement will stand. Good on the publishers of your text book.
Did you know there were NO federal taxes of any kind prior to 1860?
Walt
In that sense Walt you are correct. You buddies Sandburg, Dubois, and McPherson have already done it. Is there anyway I could talk you into buying you a bus ticket back to the north again? I wouldn't want you so disheartened living in the evil South. Wait, no forget that. We're not like the north down here. You remember, barring blacks from living in their states.
Total and utter BS. Ever hear of excise taxes, What about the "Whiskey Rebellion?" Of course you heard about them. You are just chosing to ignore them because you want to promulgate some sort of bizaire thesis. I understand that there is an opening in the Emory U. history department. Maybe you should apply for the job. There is sort of a tradition of making up your "facts" there. BTW sould we change the US flag because it represents racist laws today?
1. It salves their consciences in a weird sort of way, or at least means they don't have to reject their entire world view. They didn't lose because their philosophy and concept of government is bankrupt -- they lost because of the hostility of a bunch of knuckle-dragging, ignorant, hateful, racist, neo-Confederate yahoos. Yeah! That's it!
2. More importantly, if they can hunt out and publicize the few die-hards out there, then they may be able to sabotage Perdue's administration.
Certainly there are folks who believe that the flag issue carried the day. I believe they are unwise if they allow liberal Democrats to publicize their views for their own purposes.
I hate the new flag both because it is extremely ugly and because Barnes did a very improper thing in the way he handled the flag issue under cover of darkness, so to speak -- there should be a referendum as there was in Mississippi, and let the chips fall where they may.
Not true; I said you might just be ignorant.
All History with a capital "H" is interpretation. What matters is how valid the interpretation is, based on the facts.
I suggest that the Fugitive Slave Act was the most intrusive federal act prior to 1860. Among other things, it allowed magistrates empowered by the act to --involuntarily-- recruit citizens to serve on posses to chase escaped slaves.
If you can find another federal statute that is more intrusive than that, you need to provide that information. After all, there weren't that many federal statutes prior to 1860.
But you are not interested in a fair exposition of the actual historical record, because it conflicts with the neo-reb myth.
Walt
I remember your post from the previous thread; I thanked you for it.
And I don't take issue with what you said then, or now.
The article from CL was marked in the paper as a "rant". I think the author made some good points. Did Perdue supporters NOT wave CSA battle emblems/GA state flags? Did they no -claim- that the flag issue alone sank Barnes? Did Perdue NOT quote Dr. M.L. King to great laughter?
Walt
There shall be no mercy.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
So what? We'll take his money and make some more. Then we'll chawl up sum tarbacky an spit in 'is eye.
Interesting. By definition anyone who disagrees with you is either lying or ignorant. Hmmm You state your opinion as a fact I suggest that the Fugitive Slave Act was the most intrusive federal act prior to 1860 and then believe that I'm lying or ignorant when I think you're wrong.
BTW Now I have two points that you haven't answered
As for the quote -- King himself quoted an old hymn that has been sung at camp meetings and revivals, black and white, since the Methodist wildfire burned through here back in the frontier days. He didn't OWN it - although the King family does try to copyright and license everything they can. And if you consider that there hasn't been a Republican administration or legislative majority in Georgia since the puppet government of Reconstruction, it's certainly apropos. King himself would probably have laughed at it, he was both a jovial and a pragmatic man -- but this new generation of civil rights types are absolutely, totally humorless.
Total and utter BS. Ever hear of excise taxes, What about the "Whiskey Rebellion?"
Not a tax. If you didn't drink whiskey, you didn't pay a tax. There were no federal taxes prior to the ACW.
Two of the Whiskey Rebellion instigators were convicted of treason against the United States in 1795. President Washington pardoned them.
"Antebellum Americans had been one of the most lightly taxed peoples on earth. And the per capita burden in the South had been only half that in the free states. Except for tariff duties-which despite Southern complaints were lower in the late 1850's than they had been for more than 50 years- virtually all taxes were collected by state and local governments."
--Battle Cry of Freedom, James McPherson
You don't -know- the history, or you are willfully misrepresenting it.
Walt
The ACW -was- primarily about slavery.
Walt
Walt
I've been all those places. Yuck.
Walt
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