Using hate to win elections

(9:00PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

I was reading over at The Field Negro this morning and in his July 4th eve post, he tells this story:

First, I want to talk about the lynching back in 1946 of Roger and Dorothy Malcolm, and George and Mae Murray. According to the AP, “on July 25, 1946, an angry white mob of as many of 30 people dragged the two couples from a car,tied them to trees, and fired three volleys of bullets at them, leaving their bodies slumped behind in the dirt. Dorothy Malcolm was seven months pregnant”.

This happened about 45 miles east of Atlanta (the city that’s now too busy to hate), and my man Hiroshima Harry Truman was so outraged that he sent the feds to investigate. Of course they got nothing, they were met with a “wall of silence” so they had to shut down their investigation. — And people think black folks invented the “no snitch” code.–

But not to worry, justice might be served after all these years. Back in 1991 Clinton Adams came forward to say that as a ten year old boy he saw the lynchings unfold from some bushes he was hiding behind. I wonder what took him so long? Well the good Governor of Georgia reopened the case, and now, finally, the frat boy’s Justice Department is following up. I say the good Governor of Georgia, because Georgia’s governors apparently weren’t always so good. Did I mention that the lynchings might have been sanctioned by Georgia’s Governor at the time, Eugene Talmadge, to sway rural white voters during a tough election?

I couldn’t help but think of a conversation I just had with fortschreitend in my essay on the ICE raids in Postville, Iowa about the motives for such an action that would basically wipe out a small town of 2,300 people by arresting 400 of its members. Here’s how fortschreitend responded:

I’ll suggest one possible motive.

These raids poll pretty well here — this is an election year — and Iowa is a swing state.  Iowa Republicans were left reeling after their 2006 wipeout and have latched onto these raids as something they think helps them.    

The type of brain power at work that supports these raids doesn’t think the town is hurt.  They say only the “illegals” are hurt and they don’t really count since they didn’t belong here.  I hear it all the time about Postville, and the right is so much louder than the left on this.  You should hear the complaints on talk radio about the Postville churches providing assistance — they want legal action against priests and nuns.

So I guess we can claim some progress in that raiding a factory, arresting 400 people and destroying a small town is perhaps less deadly force than shooting and lynching 4 people. But I am seriously saddened that this type of hate still works in this country. And I am even more saddened to hear what fortschreitend said about the right being so much louder than the left on this.

I do not believe that we can afford to stay silent when this becomes a way to win elections.

This last photo is from the Washington Post report on the raid. The caption reads Buses brought arrested workers from Postville to the National Cattle Congress grounds in Waterloo, Iowa, last week.

     

18 comments

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  1. but that with all that’s happening, I’ll not be celebrating much today.

    And if you want information on how you can help the people of Postville, you can find it here.

    • Robyn on July 4, 2008 at 16:11

    …are all the Republicans know.

    • Robyn on July 4, 2008 at 16:30
    Art Link

    4 by 4

             Four Freedoms

          Franklin proclaimed them

            to us in 1941

          Norman drew them

            for us in 1943

          We have lived our lives

            in search of them

          They are our most deeply

            held convictions

          Four are the freedoms

          and the freedoms are for

          all humans everywhere

          They are the goal

          Freedom of Speech

            Free to talk
              and hear

            Free to write
              and read
              Free to teach
                and learn
                Free to create
                  and experience

                Freedom to Worship

                  whomever or no one
                    whatever or nothing
                    whenever or never
                      wherever or nowhere
                      however or not at all
                        why ever or for no reason
                        the religion, philosophy, or ethos
                          the faith or belief we choose

                        Freedom from Fear

                          of oppression and brutality
                            by tyrants or despots
                              by bullies or demagogues
                              of killing and slaughter
                                because of nationality or religion
                                  because of race or culture
                                  of disease and corruption
                                    of bodies or minds
                                      of institutions or leaders
                                      of rape and torture
                                        of people or nature
                                          of wallets or souls

                                        Freedom from Want

                                          of food
                                            and drink
                                            of lodging
                                              and warmth
                                              of work
                                                and self-worth
                                                of respect
                                                  and value

                                                These are our values

                                                  or so I was taught

                                                So what the fuck

                                                  is happening to us now

                                                I

                                                  am
                                                    so
                                                        ashamed

                                                      We

                                                        are
                                                          fucking
                                                              pissed

                                                            It is

                                                              time for
                                                                them
                                                                    to go

                                                                  Help me

                                                                    take back
                                                                      this land
                                                                          from them

                                                                            –Robyn Elaine Serven
                                                                               –December 23, 2005
                                                                          • been a big disappointment for me.  I know it’s an old plot line — society’s problems need a scapegoat and the last ones who got here “must” have caused the problem.  There is barely a mention of the real problem that got us to this point.  Owners of these companies can make big profits exploiting undocumented workers for cheap labor.  Funny how the right doesn’t mind their illegal activities, isn’t it?

                                                                          • Well, that’s been excised  in the past 7 years even as something to talk about.

                                                                          • strikes me as a psy-op.

                                                                            Let me remind all of those who may reside in the more “red” states of America that the Bush administration is and has been the primary proponent of that non-existent plan called the SPPNA to form a North American Union much like the European Union from the three nations Canada, Mexico and the United States.  There has been enough evidence via the Minuteman Project and the prosecutions of border patrol agents who actually were doing their jobs to make the case the Bush has been playing both sides of the coin demographically targeted to specific target audiences for the gains of fat cat globally oriented business interests.  Hey, there are even recent State department warnings as to armed skirmishes similar to small scale war in areas of the Mexican US border.

                                                                            Now if that is not enough one could latch onto the Homeboy Security themes and associate all of that crap with the ultimate security inherent in the implanted 666 Satanic Mark of the Beast electronic microchips.  You can take that one to the bank with the real Bible thumpers.

                                                                          • …I need oxygen!

                                                                            You’re right NL, but it is just so hard to continue to contemplate those who are so hopelessly behind, and so incorrectly in charge.

                                                                            Don’t worry.  Although I feel down right now, I shall again continue to try to shake these folks by saying, “Oh you great black fool, can’t you see?”  There seems an instructive irony here!  But, but, but…does instructive irony, literature or acuracy have any effect?

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