coolmite

I’d never read about the Neshoba County fair of 1980 until a few days ago.  It seems that right-wing political commentators of today have glossed over the “code” that presidential candidate Ronald Reagan used at that fair in Mississippi when he said “I believe in state’s rights.”  In practically any other county, at any other fair, that statement would have been pretty innocuous.  In Philadelphia, MS, home of civil-rights murders and firebombs during 1964, the statement couldn’t have been more clear.  Mr. Reagan was against civil rights reform.  He blocked making Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday in 1988.  He also vetoed extending civil rights reform during the same year. 

President Reagan, for all of the good or bad he accomplished as President, was an advocate of soft racism.  Read the link above to make your own opinion.  This advocacy was used by Nixon and Goldwater in the 1960’s, and worked for Reagan in capturing the South in 1980. 

Does this still hold true today?  People like President Bush, Sen. McCain and others have fallen over each other to speak at Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian university, whose founder banned interracial dating on campus.  Voter suppression in black voting districts has arguably taken place in several points in Florida and in Ohio (weird, I know). 

I think the Republican party would have much more of a national draw if they didn’t soft pedal racism and discrimination.  Disagree with me?  Have your say…