When It's Wakey Time Down South

Take a good look at the photo above. It was taken almost a century and a half ago. Do you know who that man is? I'll give you a hint: He's dead. Nah, that doesn't say much, does it? Here's another hint: He was, beyond any doubt, the worst traitor in American history. Hats off to you if you recognized him - but don't feel bad if you didn't. By all rights his name should be forgotten. And yet, a lot people - particularly in the southern region of this country - are so out of touch with reality, they still view him as a great American hero. His name was Jefferson Davis: a man who actually raised an army to do battle against the government of the United States of America. The civil conflict which he helped to create was based primarily upon the silly notion that white people had a God given right to keep black people in bondage. In the four year period between 1861 and 1865, over six-hundred thousand human beings would die in the pursuit of the idea that that notion might forever be extinguished from America's national political conversation. However, one-hundred and forty two years after the Civil War ended, the treasonous flag that he flew in mortal combat against his own country - the so-called "stars and bars" - still flies high at court houses and government buildings (not to mention private homes) all over the deep south.

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Well, Ah do declare! If that doesn't sound just a wee bit un-American! Oh, Mammy! Pass me mah smellin' salts!

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Being a voracious reader of American history, I cannot but notice that the one common headache of every American president, going all the way back to George Washington, was dealing with the reactionary fools south of the Mason-Dixon line. Whether fighting them on principal or pandering to them for reasons of political expediency, the chiefs executive of this country have wasted much time and treasure over the years keeping the South pacified. Theodore Roosevelt was actually burned in effigy all over the former confederacy for the simple act of inviting an African American, Booker T. Washington, to dinner at the White House! Bully for you, Teddy!

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Like most people, I'm proud of my family history - except with respect to some aspects of my southern heritage. But while I'm proud to say that I am descended from southerners Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Lord Baltimore, the founder of the state of Maryland (and head of the first Catholic family to settle in the New World), I'm also descended from another native of Dixie, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney. Believe me, I don't sleep any easier at night knowing that I am related to the knucklehead who wrote the Dred Scott decision - the worst Supreme Court ruling ever. It is said that President Lincoln considered throwing Taney in prison for the good of the Union. He should have.

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In a recent piece in the New York Times, Paul Krugman made the astute observation that in order to win in a Republican primary - particularly in the deep south - a candidate has to say a lot of really stupid things. Why is that? Why does so much of our nation's well being depend on appeasing the remnants of the confederacy? Why do southern voters consistently elect as their representatives men and women appallingly lacking in vision, substance and - yes - intellect? Why is it that America's political dialogue has been held hostage by these clowns for as long as most of us can remember? What the hell is wrong with these people? Is it the heat? It must be.

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What tends to be forgotten is the fact that in the century following the end of the civil war, the "solid south" was primarily in the hands of the Democratic party. You see, for exactly one-hundred years, the idea of voting for the party of Abraham Lincoln - "that nigger lovin' bastard who freed the slaves" - was pretty much anathema to most southern voters. Remember, this is a people who seceded from the union because they thought slavery was a really neat idea! (There is still a cult that views John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin, as a great American prophet) After Lyndon Johnson managed to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed into law (the greatest political feat of the twentieth century), he told his aide, the recently deceased Jack Valenti, "We've lost the South for at least the next generation." He was right - and then some!

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During the campaign of 1968, while the Dems still had some hope of reclaiming Dixie, Dick Nixon cheerfully pounded the final nail in that coffin. Part of the Nixon Gang's "Southern Strategy" that year was convincing enough of these bole weevil Democrats (who were ideologically drawn to the third party candidacy of George Wallace) that they had more in common with the Republicans than they even knew. Through subtle use of code words and the race card, the GOP managed to do the seemingly politically impossible. The strategy worked. The "Solid South" has been solidly Republican ever since.

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The purpose of this little essay is not meant to imply that all southerners are idiots. Certainly that is not the case. A culture that can produce the likes of Tennessee Williams, Oliver Hardy, Charlie Parker and Molly Ivins has more than enough merit to it, thank you very much. It's just that one has to wonder why southerners - White southerners - many of whom live at or below the poverty level - would so habitually and happily vote against their own interests by supporting the GOP. Is it merely that the hatred of black people is so ingrained into their souls that they cannot see the forest through the trees? I'd like to believe there's another, less obvious reason. I'd like to believe that it's less a matter of social indoctrination than a matter of education.

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What needs to happen in the south (indeed, what needs to happen all over America) is an education revolution. Anyone who believes that a vote for Trent Lott or George Allen was a wise decision needs to be enlightened, to be sure. Were they not aware of the fact that it was a Democrat - a northern, LIBERAL Democrat - who brought the south into the twentieth century? Prior to Franklin D. Roosevelt's rural electrification programs, many areas of the deep south were in total darkness. The New Deal, which was opposed by the Republican party on almost every issue, changed all of that. Do they know that the economy has always soared during liberal administrations? (Excuse my language: I meant, "progressive" administrations) Have they ever been taught the undeniable fact that at three times in our nation's history, the plutocracy has seized control of all three branches of our government and that in every single instance they ran this country into the dirt? Maybe with a little education they might come to the obvious conclusion: Conservative philosophy of governance does not work. Period. It never has. It never will. While it might be a fine and dandy arrangement for the wealthiest one or two percent of the country, the rest of us always wind up getting hurt - BADLY.

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They used to say that the south shall rise again. Believe me, if they ever start talking secession again, I won't try to talk them out of it, I promise. But if there is ever another revolution in dear ol' Dixie, let's hope and pray that it's a revolution of ideas; a revolution of thought; a revolution of hope and Christian values - and I mean real Christian values: Jesus Christ - not Jerry Falwell.

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The South does not need to rise. The South needs to wake up.

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Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

tomdegan@frontiernet.net