By Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger
“We pledge ourselves to use all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision which is contrary to the Constitution and to prevent the use of force in its implementation.
-The Southern Manifesto, Cong. Rec., 84th Cong. 2d Session, Vol. 102, part 4 (March 12, 1956)
‘This was an activist court that you saw today. Anytime the Supreme Court renders something constitutional that is clearly unconstitutional, that undermines the credibility of the Supreme Court. I do believe the court’s credibility was undermined severely today.”
-Michele Bachmann (R. Minn.), June 26 2012
Most people are familiar with the opinion in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al., 349 U.S. 483 (1954), in which a unanimous Supreme Court summarily outlawed public school segregation by tersely declaring, “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” 349 U.S. at 495. But many people do not know that Brown involved a consolidation of cases from four states. The “et al.” in the style refers to decisions on similar facts in Delaware, South Carolina and Virginia. And the response of Virginia to the ruling in Brown provides an interesting comparison with the actions leading to the current government shutdown.
In 1951 the population of Prince Edward County, Virginia was approximately 15,000, more than half of whom were African-American. The county maintained two high schools to accommodate 386 black students and 346 white students. Robert R. Moton High School lacked adequate science facilities and offered a more restricted curriculum than the high school reserved for white students. It had no gym, showers or dressing rooms, no cafeteria and no restrooms for teachers. Students at Moton High were even required to ride in older school buses.
Suit was filed in federal district court challenging the Virginia constitutional and statutory provisions mandating segregated public schools. Although the trial court agreed that the school board had failed to provide a substantially equal education for African-American students, it declined to invalidate the Virginia laws, concluding that segregation was not based “upon prejudice, on caprice, nor upon any other measureless foundation,” but reflected “ways of life in Virginia” which “has for generations been a part of the mores of the people.” Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, 103 F. Supp. 337, 339 (E.D. Va. 1952). Instead, the court ordered the school board to proceed with the completion of existing plans to upgrade the curriculum, physical plant and buses at Moton High School. When the plaintiffs took an appeal from the decision, the Democratic machine that had for many years controlled Virginia politics under the firm hand of Sen. Harry Byrd had little reason to believe that “ways of life” that had prevailed since the end of the Reconstruction era would soon be declared illegal.
When the Brown decision was announced, the reaction in Virginia was shock, disbelief and anger. Reflecting the prevailing attitudes, the Richmond News Leader railed against “the encroachment of the Federal government, through judicial legislation, upon the reserved powers of the States.” The Virginia legislature adopted a resolution of “interposition” asserting its right to “interpose” between unconstitutional federal mandates and local authorities under principles of state sovereignty. And Sen. Byrd organized a campaign of opposition that came to be known as “Massive Resistance.”
In August of 1954 a commission was appointed to formulate a plan to preserve segregated schools. Late in 1955, it presented its recommendations, including eliminating mandatory school attendance, empowering local school boards to assign students to schools and creating special tuition grants to enable white students to attend private schools. Enabling legislation was quickly adopted and “segregation academies” began forming around the state. Subsequent legislation went even further by prohibiting state funding of schools that chose to integrate.
In March of 1956, 19 senators and 77 house members from 11 southern states signed what is popularly known as “The Southern Manifesto,” in which they declared, “Even though we constitute a minority in the present Congress, we have full faith that a majority of the American people believe in the dual system of government which has enabled us to achieve our greatness and will in time demand that the reserved rights of the States and of the people be made secure against judicial usurpation.”
Throughout this period the Prince Edward County schools remained segregated, but when various court rulings invalidated Virginia’s various attempts to avoid integration, the school board took its final stand. It refused to authorize funds to operate any schools in the district, and all public schools in the county were simply closed, and remained closed from 1959 to 1964.
There are striking similarities between Sen. Byrd’s failed plan of Massive Resistance and Republican efforts to prevent implementation of the Affordable Care Act. There was widespread confidence among conservatives that the Supreme Court would declare the Act unconstitutional. When that did not occur, legislators such as Michele Bachmann, quoted above, attempted to deny the legitimacy of the Court’s ruling. Brent Bozell went further, denouncing Chief Justice Roberts as “a traitor to his own philosophy,” hearkening back to the days when southern roadsides were replete with billboards demanding the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren.
The House of Representatives has taken over 40 votes to repeal the ACA, quixotic efforts pursued for reasons known only to John Boehner and his colleagues. And in accordance with the Virginia legislative model, the House has attempted to starve the ACA by eliminating it from funding bills. Following the failure of these efforts, Republicans have elected to pursue the path ultimately taken by the school board of Prince Edward County and have shut down the government.
Even the strategy followed by Republicans is largely a southern effort. Approximately 60% of the Tea Party Caucus is from the South. Nineteen of the 32 Republican members of the House who have been instrumental in orchestrating the shutdown are from southern states. It is hardly surprising therefore, that the current impasse is characterized by the time-honored southern belief in nullification theory as a proper antidote to disfavored decisions by a congressional majority.
In reflecting upon the experience of Virginia many years later, former Gov. Linwood Holton noted, “Massive resistance … served mostly to exacerbate emotions arrayed in a lost cause.” Republicans would do well to ponder the wisdom in that observation.
This is a depressing post. It is based on government propaganda, (I’m not saying Mike A. is a member of the govt., only that he buys govt. propaganda).
The history that is relevant to the shutdown is much more recent than what Mike A. presents here. USGinc. has been explicitly governing through crisis, the shock doctrine, since 9/11. The proof of what it actually going on will be in the “accommodation” reached between Obama and Congress. When you see the austerity measures that will be coming out, it will be clear that there is something else besides evil Republicans is at work. Here is some actual information of the plan most Democrats are willing to defend to the death:
BTW: We are told that people should not resist. An election was won, the Supreme Court has spoken. The US is not a plebiscitory dictatorship. Would any person here be willing to fight against the NDAA? That was also ruled “legal” by the SC. People voted for the president who demanded that law. Congress passed it, with members of both parties’ help.
As a citizen are you allowed to resist? Does your role as citizen begin and end at the voting booth?
Indigo Jumble: Racism may be alive and well, but this article was about the republican strategy to thwart the law. Think critically much?
No luck posting the comment that doesn’t agree with this post. Every other comment I tried went through. I will now try again.
O.K., yes freedom of speech is alive and well in the US!
This is a depressing post. It is based on government propaganda, (I’m not saying Mike A. is a govt. paid hack, only that he buys govt. propaganda).
The history that is relevant to the shutdown is much more recent than what Mike A. presents here. USGinc. has been explicitly governing through crisis, the shock doctrine, since 9/11. The proof of what it is actually going on will be in the “accommodation” reached between Obama and Congress. When you see the austerity measures that will be coming out, it will be clear that there is something else besides evil Republicans at work. Here is some actual information of the plan most Democrats are willing to defend to the death: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/10/obamacare-narrow-networks-how-they-affect-doctor-specialties.html
BTW: We are told that people should not resist. An election was won, the Supreme Court has spoken. The US is not a plebiscitory dictatorship. Would any person here be willing to fight against the NDAA? That was also ruled “legal” by the SC. People voted for the president who demanded that law. Congress passed it, with members of both parties’ help.
As a citizen are you allowed to resist? Does your role as citizen begin and end at the voting booth?
Let’s see if I can get a post through at all.
Trying again to get this to post.
his is a depressing post. It is based on government propaganda, (I’m not saying Mike A. is a member of the govt., only that he buys govt. propaganda).
The history that is relevant to the shutdown is much more recent than what Mike A. presents here. USGinc. has been explicitly governing through crisis, the shock doctrine, since 9/11. The proof of what it actually going on will be in the “accommodation” reached between Obama and Congress. When you see the austerity measures that will be coming out, it will be clear that there is something else besides evil Republicans is at work. Here is some actual information of the plan most Democrats are willing to defend to the death: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/10/obamacare-narrow-networks-how-they-affect-doctor-specialties.html
BTW: We are told that people should not resist. An election was won, the Supreme Court has spoken. The US is not a plebiscitory dictatorship. Would any person here be willing to fight against the NDAA? That was also ruled “legal” by the SC. People voted for the president who demanded that law. Congress passed it, with members of both parties’ help.
As a citizen are you allowed to resist? Does your role as citizen begin and end at the voting booth?
David2575:
Mike A., On can’t even post my comment on your article. It finally said I was trying to post a duplicate comment but according to my computer it never got past, “posting comment”. Would you please retrieve it if it is actually there.
This is a depressing post. It is based on government propaganda, (I’m not saying Mike A. is a member of the govt., only that he buys govt. propaganda).
The history that is relevant to the shutdown is much more recent than what Mike A. presents here. USGinc. has been explicitly governing through crisis, the shock doctrine, since 9/11. The proof of what it actually going on will be in the “accommodation” reached between Obama and Congress. When you see the austerity measures that will be coming out, it will be clear that there is something else besides evil Republicans is at work. Here is some actual information of the plan most Democrats are willing to defend to the death: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/10/obamacare-narrow-networks-how-they-affect-doctor-specialties.html
BTW: We are told that people should not resist. An election was won, the Supreme Court has spoken. The US is not a plebiscitory dictatorship. Would any person here be willing to fight against the NDAA? That was also ruled “legal” by the SC. People voted for the president who demanded that law. Congress passed it, with members of both parties’ help.
As a citizen are you allowed to resist? Does your role as citizen begin and end at the voting booth?
This is a depressing post. It is based on government propaganda, (I’m not saying Mike A. is a member of the govt., only that he buys govt. propaganda).
The history that is relevant to the shutdown is much more recent than what Mike A. presents here. USGinc. has been explicitly governing through crisis, the shock doctrine, since 9/11. The proof of what it actually going on will be in the “accommodation” reached between Obama and Congress. When you see the austerity measures that will be coming out, it will be clear that there is something else besides evil Republicans is at work. Here is some actual information of the plan most Democrats are willing to defend to the death: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/10/obamacare-narrow-networks-how-they-affect-doctor-specialties.html
BTW: We are told that people should not resist. An election was won, the Supreme Court has spoken. The US is not a plebiscitory dictatorship. Would any person here be willing to fight against the NDAA? That was also ruled “legal” by the SC. People voted for the president who demanded that law. Congress passed it, with members of both parties’ help.
As a citizen are you allowed to resist? Does your role as citizen begin and end at the voting booth?
Racism is alive and well. The card is played whenever suitable..Trayvon could have been my son…well same is true of the man who took the liberty of random shooting at the military base.
When the Democrats have no argument they resort to the racism theme.
If one disagrees with policy, it is twisted into a racial issue. It helps nothing.
Most politicians regardless of affiliation, have sold their souls to the highest bidder.
David2575: “The Democrat party simply….”
*
It’s “Democratic” party. If you don’t even know the name of the other major party in America no one will take your statements seriously.
lottakatz wrote: “It’s “Democratic” party.”
Sorry about the typo. Thanks for the correction.
“Sorry about the typo. Thanks for the correction”
DavidM,
Your nose just stretched to enormous length.
Mark: You’re missing the point. You’re focusing on the racism underlying the battle back in the fifties, but what Mike A. is speaking to the similarity of those efforts at nullification and what’s going on today. The issue was about state’s rights and this strategy has popped up again and again throughout our history, most recently, I think, in Missouri, where the state legislature tried to make it illegal for federal agents to enforce any gun laws.
Nullification was strategy developed by southern states, and propounded by John C/ Calhoun, to allow them to ignore federal laws they didn’t like while still enjoying the benefits of union. Mike A. simply noted the coincidence between contemporary republican strategy and the predominance of southerners representing the Tea Baggers in congress.
The old guard southern party affiliation with Democrats was largely because Lincoln was a Republican. They were the party identified most with the old unreconstructed south until the civil rights movement. As LBJ noted, the Democratic party would lose the south as soon as he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was right. As one raised in the south, I saw many begin to change party affiliation from Democrat to Republican early on, about the time Truman ordered the military to desegregate. I suspect many posting here were not alive then, so don’t have the same sense of history that those of us who heard the barbershop talk of those days understand it.
I do live in the South Justice Holmes and I do not know of anyone who thinks “slavery wasn’t all that bad”. What I do see is a strong devotion to the concept of individual liberty, a strong devotion to the historically correct concept of our nation being a union of sovereign states and a belief born out of experience that an overpowering centralized federal government weakens the ability of people to govern themselves.
And even if they do still believe that the Confederacy should have won that doesn’t make them racists, even under your own analysis.
Folks in the South understandably have never liked the idea of any president turning the guns of the United States military on his own citizens in order to assert the supremacy of the Washington bureaucracy over local city halls. Labeling today’s southerners as racists is just an easy way out, and it is wrong.
It is insulting to accuse people who reject an increasingly larger federal intrusion into their lives as slavery loving malcontents.
“I do live in the South Justice Holmes and I do not know of anyone who thinks “slavery wasn’t all that bad”. What I do see is a strong devotion to the concept of individual liberty, a strong devotion to the historically correct concept of our nation being a union of sovereign states and a belief born out of experience that an overpowering centralized federal government weakens the ability of people to govern themselves.”
Marc,
I live in the South as well. Mike Appleton who wrote this guest blog lives in the South. His thoughts mirror my own and yes I know plenty of people down here who think Obama illegitimate as President because he is Black, that is racism. A skunk by any other name would smell just as bad.
What raff said….
PDM: Obama will take the route of back room horse dealing, I presume. Agree to some future “loss” (a benefit for their common corporate overlords) that makes the Republicans look good, in return for making him look good now.
The ACA does citizens some good, but we pay about $10 for $1 worth of good. Remember this is the Romney plan and originally the Republican plan. The corporate overlords do not really want it killed, it isn’t going to die, they allowed it to pass in the first place only because it was GOOD for their bottom line.
So now they want something else, and they are leveraging what should be a non-event in order to get it. This is puppet theater, we won’t know what the handshake deal is until Obama inexplicably caves on something else and the Republicans look like heroes to their base. Perhaps in nine months when they (the Republicans) need an electoral boost for their 2014 election; mid-term is a pretty safe time for Obama to look weak and outfoxed; he will still have two years for image recovery.
RWL wrote: “Please give Democratic Congressional Leaders names and examples of their ‘southern racists’ behavior.”
Mike already gave you a name in the article above. Senator Harry Byrd. He just did not make it very clear that this racist motivated opposition was headed up by Democrats.
You could also consider Senator Robert Byrd who died just 3 years ago. Byrd once wrote, “I shall never fight in the armed forces with a negro by my side … Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”
The Republican party was founded primarily on the foundation to end slavery and racism. We have fought continually against racism ever since. The Democrat party simply runs a propaganda machine that attempts to reverse this and claim the credit for themselves. They claim they are the party against racism, when in reality it has always been the Republicans. Study a little history and you will find this is true. Some political analysts try to claim a huge “party role reversal” happened, but the truth is a bit more complicated than that.
“The Republican party was founded primarily on the foundation to end slavery and racism. We have fought continually against racism ever since.”
David,
I must hand it to you. You take disingenuous falsehoods to new heights. To be sure racism has been a theme of both parties, however, the Republicans adopted it after 1964 and have run with it ever since. The issue has never been about partisan politics, but about the monied elite you worship, who want to reimpose feudalism. I see you as a fawning courtier to some minor Duke. Your obsequiousness would keep you in a perpetual orgasmic state.
DavidM wrote: “The Republican party was founded primarily on the foundation to end slavery and racism.”
Mike Spindell wrote: “To be sure racism has been a theme of both parties, however, the Republicans adopted it after 1964 and have run with it ever since.”
Check your facts again. 1964? Try 1854. The Republican Party emerged to combat the Kansas-Nebraska Act which sought to expand slavery. Republicans experienced a resurgence with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but our stance for civil rights dates back to our inception by anti-slavery activists in 1854.
This morning I signed up with the Tea Party. I also sent Ted Cruz money. He is a true American who does not play the Washington bureaucrat game. We need more men like him. I need to devote more of my energies toward positive work like his and the Tea Party instead of the negativity and ignorance that I am bombarded with around here.
“This morning I signed up with the Tea Party. I also sent Ted Cruz money.”
DavidM,
This is no surprise. Most of us knew what kind of creature you were all along, now you’re coming out of the closet so to speak.
Michael Murray’s comments are spot on. As is the article itself.
But there is another dimension to the Southern Strategy. That phrase was in fact articulated by Lee Atwater and which has become the policy adopted by the entire RepubliCon Party. Lee was from S. Carolina and died several years back. He was campaign manager for Ronnie Raygun. The wikepedia article on Lee Atwater is excellent. Go to Google.
The RepubliCon Party today had advanced the Southern Strategy to a new level with the Pee Party segment. The underlying appeal is to the little bigot hidden in many Americans who live in Northern and Western states. You don’t have to live in the Old South to know which way the wind blows. But it is not just the race bigot that the Party appeals to. It is Class. Class goes hand in hand with racism. The white oligarch wants his ranch and he wants you to eat it too. He wants his big house in the suburbs. He hates people he sees in line at the grocery store using that “food stamp” credit card whether they are white or black.
Historically, at least since the Civil War and even before, the strategy of the white oligarch in the South was to pit the poor white trash against the minorities. That way they would focus on another evil than themselves and go along with Right To Work and other such mechanisms of class control.
The term States Rights needs further examination and discussion. When the Klan comes out and lynches someone and then the federal government makes some attempt to step in to stop the lynchings or prosecute the terrorists the locals throw up the Mantra of State’s Rights. The unarticulated aspect of this is that we may have lost the Civil War down here but we are tired of you Yankees running our lives. Reconstruction is over and don’t send no one down here from Dover. The minions of the RepubliCon Party who espouse States Rights today do not mention the lynchings or the Klan. But the main error in their preaching is that our Constitution lays out a dynamic about rights and powers. The federal government or wing of government has powers. States have powers. Individuals have rights. Nothing in the Constitution defines anything on the basis of States Rights, with or without the capital letters.
So when the union comes to Lowes in North Carolina and tries to explain to JoeBob that he is working for low wages and has no rights in the workplace, the oligarchs tell him about an aspect of States Rights that is near and dear to his dumb heart: The Right To Work. Yes, that phrase is the ultimate tomfoolery. Then there is the right to send your kid to a segregated Charter School on the public dime. Now its the right to choose your own health care and not be bound by some federal system set up by some negro president whom you did not vote for. Yes, sir.
Lee Atwater is up there in Heaven laughing at you chumps who fall for all of this. He never dreamed that he and Ronnie Raygun would bring America so far.
I am just a dog here and I don’t know nuthin bout birthin babies. So don’t listen to a dog barkin into a dogalogue machine invented by the NSA for dolphins and converted into dog use by Stanley. We dogs were put here on Earth on the 8th Day by God to watch over humans. Listen to dogs at your peril. Or listen to dogs for good reason.
“The RepubliCon Party today had advanced the Southern Strategy to a new level with the Pee Party segment. The underlying appeal is to the little bigot hidden in many Americans who live in Northern and Western states. You don’t have to live in the Old South to know which way the wind blows. But it is not just the race bigot that the Party appeals to. It is Class. Class goes hand in hand with racism. The white oligarch wants his ranch and he wants you to eat it too. He wants his big house in the suburbs. He hates people he sees in line at the grocery store using that “food stamp” credit card whether they are white or black.”
BDog,
This and the comment it was part of nailed it in a nutshell. This is indeed what is going on and is the psychology behind it.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/10/confederate-flag-wont-help-conservatives-win-shutdown/70479/ Conservative house republicans are calling the rally a “game changer”. I don’t think so. It really just supports the view that they are seccessionists.