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.
Excise taxes were on a far greater number of goods other than just whiskey. Saying that an excise tax isn't a tax is like saying a sales tax isn't a tax because you only pay it if you buy stuff. Well if it's not a tax try not paying it on stuff you buy. The federal government existed, taxed and spend money prior to 1860. No where near the confiscatory level of today, but why am I discussing this with you. You are not a drunk or an idiot near as I can tell, but that still leaves two possible categories or people not to discuss things with.
And then came the racist attack against the Confederate Flag and the author found out that racist attacks against the flag were just not acceptable, did he learn that lesson? Doesn't seem so.
Golly, gee, Walt, maybe you are finally coming around.
Not too long ago you would not have added the word "PRIMARILY" to that sentence.
Federal policies on "who" ("the states united" or "the united states") would have the final word on the issue of slavery might have been the "spark" but the powder, patch, and ball had been loaded much earlier.
The U.S. Constitution failed to adequately address the details of what would be the true nature of the association of "the individual states" and "the united states". Had it done so, the 1860's war may have never occurred. Slavery or not, that issue (States Rights) was eventually going to raise its ugly head.
I kinda got the feeling WP doesn't care much for the South.
Of course, the Confederate Falg being waved at Perdue's acceptance speech has been disproved. But that doesn't matter to some people.
The Senate Committee that Barnes appointed to support his unilateral flag change was the source of the ugly story that the flag change was a response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision. If you read the Senate committee report, you can see that their conclusion is entirely speculative as far as contemporary evidence goes - there is almost nothing from which they could even infer such a motivation. And since the prevailing opinion in Georgia at that time was unabashedly pro-segregation and anti-federal government, if that had been the true intention of the legislators it would not have to be inferred, the record would be full of long-winded speeches about it. It's only with our modern guilt and 20-20 hindsight that we believe a flag change for pro-seg purposes would have been done in a hole and corner fashion. The majority of Georgians were PROUD of segregation at that time (the more fools they)!
The committee was able to get a couple of legislators who were still around to say, yeah, they thought that was what the vote was about. Naturally, at the time the flag was changed there was TREMENDOUS pressure on those who were still in the legislature to do Barnes's bidding - he was not at all hesitant to kill projects in a representative's district if crossed. Those no longer in office or beholden to Barnes (both conservatives like John Sammons Bell (who died before the latest flap) and liberals like Carl Sanders (who is still alive)) uniformly told interviewers for the AJC and for the DeKalb newspaper that the motivation for changing the flag was the upcoming Civil War centennial celebrations. Bell was a long time Civil War buff and Atlanta lawyer who later became a Court of Appeals judge. He was the moving force behind the 1956 flag change, and he always was adamant that the creation of the Centennial committees for the upcoming celebrations was the reason for the change.
How about the Stars and Stripes, Walt? That flew over northern states that condoned slavery roo.
That is just one of the many excuses I have heard since Nov 5th..
Eight percent of Perdue's votes came from a single county: Gwinnett. It is a suburb of Atlanta, not a rural county. If I recall correctly, its residents have the highest educational level and income level of any county in the state.
Apparetly the writer thinks anyplace other than downtown Atlanta, Macon, or Savannah is a"rural" area.
You need to show that then.
Where can we see in the historical record that there were taxes "on a far greater number of goods" than whiskey in 1794 or right up to the ACW?
Walt
Try touring the Salem MA customs house. They give a partial list of taxed goods. (Post 1776)
The Constitution does state pretty plainly that it is the supreme law of the land and the state judges in every state will be bound thereby.
In fact it says:
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
So I don't think your statement is well supported.
Walt
Not true.
Tom Murphy (the GA Speaker of the House until he was thrown out in this last election) was staunchly pro-choice. As the story goes, his daughter is very pro-choice and Murphy has been pro-choice to please his daughter.
Try touring the Salem MA customs house. They give a partial list of taxed goods. (Post 1776)
In other words, you don't have a source. There were not even federal excise taxes in 1860.
I know for a fact that the government under the Articles of Confederation had no right of taxation --at--all--, so between 1776-1790, that Salem MA customs house was collecting --nothing-- for the U.S. government.
Walt
How about the Stars and Stripes, Walt? That flew over northern states that condoned slavery roo.
What the slave owners took issue with was that the nothern states were becoming less and less willing to support slavery.
The South Carolina Declaration of Causes even says that northerners labored under a false religious belief that slavey was wrong.
Slavery existed under the U.S. flag; it was U.S. citizens who were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with it ---except in the slave states.
Walt
Barne's seemed to have a political tin ear when it came to getting things done without getting people mad at him. The Northern Arc is a great example. He actually managed to get people on BOTH sides mad at him. First he tried to shove it through, then he just a quickly not only withdrew his support, but took steps that all but killed the project for the forseeable future.
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