For those of you who are too young remember, for more than a generation after the Civil War “waving the bloody shirt” was a popular Republican tactic used to remind voters of the Democrats’ sympathy with the South. As I pointed out here, “[t]he modern equivalent is for northern liberals, now Democrats, to accuse all Republicans of being sympathizers with the South, and thus racist.”
Now it appears the color of the shirt may be changing to brown. (Brown as in Hispanic, not as in fascist “brown shirts.”) A long article in today’s Washington Post discusses the fear (for many, of course, it is the hope) that the division within the Republican party over immigration will do it in. Many Republican Senators fear, as Sen. Chuck Hagel put it, that “[i]f we lose a generation of Hispanic immigrants, the Republican Party will be a minority party for a long time.”
The key to this fear, I think, is Hagel’s (and the article’s) concluding point:
“We are seen by too many as an intolerant party,” Hagel said. “And the majority of Americans are not going to elect intolerant representatives.”
And there it is: fear of Democrats’ waving the brown shirt; fear of being labeled as anti-Hispanic.
Hagel’s fear is, I believe, identical to the one that leads many Republicans to support racial preferences and voting rights measures that punish the South while ignoring identical non-southern practices: a fear of being called racist if they don’t go along. Either these Republicans have lost confidence in their ability to defend popular principles of basic fairness — colorblind equality in one case; not rewarding lawbreaking in the other — or, like the Democrats, they themselves no longer believe in those principles.
Perhaps someone should suggest to these nervous nellies that, in the words of another Democrat, the only thing they have to fear is fear itself.
John writes:
>>>”Hagel’s fear is, I believe, identical to the one that leads many Republicans to support racial preferences and voting rights measures that punish the South while ignoring identical non-southern practices: a fear of being called racist if they don’t go along. Either these Republicans have lost confidence in their ability to defend popular principles of basic fairness — colorblind equality in one case; not rewarding lawbreaking in the other — or, like the Democrats, they themselves no longer believe in those principles.
Perhaps someone should suggest to these nervous nellies that, in the words of another Democrat, the only thing they have to fear is fear itself.”
The reality is, America is “browning” demographically, and years of using the Southern strategy has made the GOP vulnerable to such criticism.
Don’t believe me?
>>>”Oconee County Republican Gresham Barrett was the only member of South Carolina’s congressional delegation to vote against the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act Thursday.
The bill passed the House of Representatives on a vote of 390-33. The Senate’s Judiciary Committee is expected to take up the bill next week. All 33 opposing votes were from Republicans.
Some Southern Republicans in the House opposed provisions in the act that require the Justice Department to continue to sign off on any changes to voting procedures that could alter minority voting strength.”
Only Southern Republicans voted against VRA
Do you see how inferences can be made from such a vote tally, where Southern Republicans don’t even reflect the majority of their OWN party on an act loaded with racial and social overtones.
–Cobra
Thanks for the link, Cobra. I guess I hadn’t really understood that the VRA picked out certain states as being hotbeds of racism while other are left alone. I’d have trouble putting my name to that too, although I would have because politically it’s too easy for the other side to make hay of.
For a different (from Cobra’s), and more persuasive, view of the shortcomings of this renewal of the VRA, see
this article by Edward Blum.