There used to be signs in Texas cafes that said, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” It represented post-integration segregation. “It’s not because you’re black (or Hispanic) that we don’t serve you bacon & eggs. It’s because, well, we don’t have to tell you why.”
Now, consider this sentence, from Victor Carrillo, an incumbent Republican Texas Railroad Commissioner defeated in the GOP primary by an unknown named David Porter.
…unfortunately, the Hispanic-surname was a serious setback from which I could never recover although I did all in my power to overcome this built-in bias.
In other words, in today’s Republican Party, you gotta be white, real white, and you gotta agree to refuse service to any and all non-whites. I am friends with many misguided souls who continue to vote for GOP candidates. They are not racists. Many are good, hard-working people. They’re just wrong. Anyway, these good folk have to be stunned at what’s happened to their party. The ghost of George Wallace has invaded the heart of the party, and it’s an ugly site.
It’s time for moderates to drive this sickness back into exile where it belongs. I know that in the wake of the Civil Rights Act it was convenient for conservatives to make an alliance with ignorant bigots, to create a kind of us-against-them world to drive up fear and exploit deep-seated racism. It’s not funny anymore. And it will lead to chaos.The business community knows this. Conservative? Yes? Hypocritical? Often. They’re happy to accept big government benefits while paying candidates to moan about big government. Corporate welfare is a much bigger beast than social welfare program ever were. Just ask the executives of Blackwater. Or Toyota, who bragged in memos about all the big government favors they got that allowed them to keep killing and injuring people with faulty accelerator systems. I digress. Business leaders like predictability. They like order. The empowerment of the ugliest and most violent Americans over recent years threatens the social fabric in a way fiscal conservatives must soon rise up and vanquish.
One more point, this one about the media. Journalists often have to strip the moral content from issues and controversies to make it easier to appear unbiased. Racism or threats of domestic violence (from say, Glenn Beck) become blank pieces on a political game board. Reporters feel they’re doing their job when they report, “This piece was moved here, that piece was moved there.”
We have come to a moment in our history when journalists must recognize the democracy-threatening immorality behind these crazed new right wingers. Denying constitutional guarantees of equality is undemocratic, morally reprehensible, and damaging to our economic futures. All our futures.
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About Glenn W. Smith
Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”
Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.
In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.
As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.
Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.
Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.
As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”
What the elected, elite Republicans don’t seem to realize is that the crazy wingers will turn on them as well as Democrats. They behave as if the nuts will just get rid of Dems, Progressives and other like-minded people but the wingers hate everyone who is not just like them. And the “suits” in the Republican
party are not like them. As it’s said “you reap what you sow.”
“The ghost of George Wallace has invaded the heart of the party, and it’s an ugly site.”
The heart of the Republican party is an ugly place, indeed. Whether the good folk who are still Republicans are ready to see this, I don’t know. It has mystified me for a long time now why they haven’t already seen the light.
Perhaps because of all the craven Democratic politicians, in the thrall (via the pockets) of corporate America?
we will be destroyed by a person draped in the american flag, carrying a cross.