Casting a Spell: The Politics of Rage

George Wallace was one of the early leaders of the New Conservative movement. He brought out his wit and National Guard and spoke about states rights. From before that time, State Rights have long well known to be the synonym for many philosophies in the Conservative movement.

Now-a-days, Wallace is considered a foot note, an anachronism, and a symbol of what not to be. Wallace apologized years later after being shot, for his actions against the civil liberties of the African American community. Most often if I mention him to folks, most don’t recognize him. The damage far outlasted the recognition.

We still see the outlandish hate from time to time, it is almost impossible to imagine what people lived through. We tend to forget why the fifties and sixties were so important to the United States. We recall the final images of a nation in disarray that final push that turned peace into violence.

This is how an enemy wins. As the song was famously sang that video killed the radio star, violence found a voice in the fight against violence. We can blame many things as the culprit, sure. Too much fun? Too many people freaking out on bad acid? Bad leadership?

At any rate, we were a country run amok. Often, that period of time has been considered our second civil war.

President Bush has begun a War On the Straw Man. This has been mentioned in many articles lately. The straw man is responsible for many many things. He is the reason we lost the Vietnam war. He is one of those weak in the knee folks who have a defeatist attitude. He is one of those Washington Post writers who hates America. He wants to give in to the terrorists.

You know him; he might be your neighbor or your wife, your brother or your sister’s boyfriend or his lover. But you better believe they have one of those pinko card carrying ACLU bumper stickers on their beat up Dodge Dart.

No, we don’t remember standing up for civil rights of individuals and whole races. We don’t recall arguing against a government that was full of tin eared leaders that were supporting civic leaders who could not recognize what was right and wrong; this was long before everyone started dropping LSD and dropping out.

This was a time when people got angry about ideas and where not just angry. Ideas vs. Anger; this is what it was all about. Leaders saw anger and used ideas against them.

As startling a concept as it may be Karl Rove understands it. See. When the administration talks about the war, they talk about dead Americans, the ones from 9/11.

The straw man, they accuse of not understanding the casualty of American Pride. Lou Gehrig didn’t just play for the Yankees, he loved America! So the story might go.

A long time ago, I saw a documentary called Making Sense of the Sixties. It had a good impact upon me. Sure, growing up I saw the imagery that everybody sees, Woodstock, Haight-Ashbury Park...Lennon and Leary…looked like fun. I liked the idea of the rebellion of the establishment. I understood rebellion.

But, while watching the documentary, I saw peaceful kids sitting at a lunch counter being dragged and beaten. I saw dogs attacking kids. I saw fire hoses pelting men, women and children. Years later at the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis I saw and felt a strong sense of the full tragedy.

There was Kent State…among other things that tilted the public’s opinion and the Conservative crowd against the Liberal crowd. Back in those days it was the culmination of unchecked power that students were standing up against. Mostly we recall a song but not the event. We no longer recall the rebellion. We never see the rebellion. We cannot understand that rebellion. It was just a strange long trip.

I’m no student of that time. I do admire the pioneers of its day. This is not intended to rehash those terrible days of family against family. I’m meaning to indicate that intelligent people decided that in America we have ideals to stand up for. The statement that all men are created equal, means all peoples. We, the People also came to understand that a government for the people, by the people meant that we had something to say and could demand to be listened to. Most of all, we did not tolerate being lied to.

Is the public being taken advantage of? I tried looking up who is currently in the royalty in kind program for the crude oil supplied to the Strategic Petroleum Reserves and couldn’t find a bit of current information, nor any thing realistic. It is all gone. President Bush this week said that He wouldn’t be making the decision of when to pull out the troops in Iraq; that would be decided by a future president. The staff called this a Freudian slip.

All last week, the President walked around town acted like he took some tough questions, while getting into a shouting match with an old woman, did his peacock dance and took his toys and went home. Condi Rice was all over the airways doing damage control on the Sunday news. The last few weeks it has been yada yada yada with these guys. But -what do we get from the alternate leaders? A hush; waiting to see if their names get dropped as the press tries to figure out who the straw man is… Savoir Faire is everywhere!

It is important to remember all of the details when we are rendering snap judgments against relevant parts of American history. There were ideas not just ideals. There was non-violence before the violence. There was hope and healing before division and destruction. The Conservative movement is nothing new. It is just that enough of a generation has gone by that Americans have forgotten other Americans have simply let it go.

It’s a shame, a real shame because a lot of good people made extreme sacrifices because they weren’t afraid to stand up. I do not see it today. Who will stand up and say who is leading us is wrong for us? Who else will stand up and say we want to change it?

Lame Duck or Down and Dirty Duck

It's gone underground…

Today could be the day....

I have many links today. There has been a lot streaming around. I want to mention specifically the ones about immigration… I am not exceptionally opinionated on this topic, but I do wish to talk about it. I would like to know what people think. I like the idea of enforcing the current laws and letting the system work. I’m not too sure where that puts me. I’m not convinced we need to do more than that.

Something for Ohio Republicans

More Ohio

More Impeachment

Looking to the future

Takin it to the streets

National Immigration Forum

Federation for American Immigration Reform

Rich Lowery on Immigration

Victor Davis Hanson on War

Another Excuse those Gas Prices are still high (they need to stop huffing)

Oh Really?

you don’t read women authors, do you?

Bakersfield Blues

Who is Morph the Cat anyway?