#neo-confederates

[contemplatingoutlander]

Oh the Irony...

One of the most tragic ironies of the 21st century is that the Republican Party is no longer the "party of Lincoln" and the Union.

Instead, the Republican Party has become the "party of Trump" and the Neo-Confederates.

Republicans today are working hard to suppress the Black vote in red states and to use the conservative Supreme Court to dismantle the Voting Rights Act.

Republicans today are endeavoring to dismantle DEI programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, universities, government agencies, and private businesses.

Republicans today have used the conservative Supreme Court to ban affirmative action in higher education, and are filing more lawsuits to ensure that affirmative action is banned everywhere.

Republicans today have passed laws in red states that ban the discussion of systemic racism, and any discussion of race that makes any student feel "discomfort, guilt or anguish on account of their race" in public schools and universities. Instead, Republicans are promoting the teaching of a whitewashed American history.

Republicans today are opposed to taking down Confederate monuments or changing the names of schools, military bases, etc., that were named after prominent Confederates.

Republicans today are behind banning books on "race, racism, or [which] include characters of color" in school libraries across the nation.

Lincoln must be turning in his grave.

______________ Image sources (before edits): Lincoln & flag image; superimposed January 6th photos: 01 + 02; Lincoln facepalm sand sculpture.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 28, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 29, 2023

According to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, legislatures in at least ten states have set out to weaken federal child labor laws. In the first three months of 2023, legislators in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota introduced bills to weaken the regulations that protect children in the workplace, and in March, Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law repealing restrictions for workers younger than 16.

Those in favor of the new policies argue that fewer restrictions on child labor will protect parents’ rights, but in fact the new labor measures have been written by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a Florida-based right-wing think tank. FGA is working to dismantle the federal government to get rid of business regulations. It has focused on advancing its ideology through the states for a while now, but the argument that its legislation protects parental rights has recently enabled them to wedge open a door to attack regulations more broadly.  

FGA is part of a larger story about Republicans’ attempt to undermine federal power in order to enact a radical agenda through their control of the states.

That goal has been part of the Republican agenda since the 1980s, as leaders who hated federal regulation of business, provision of a social safety net, and protection of civil rights recognized that a strong majority of Americans actually quite liked those things and getting Congress to repeal them would be a terribly hard sell. Instead, Republicans used their control of federal courts to weaken the power of the federal government and send power back to the states.

Historically, states have been far easier than the much larger, more diverse federal government for a few wealthy men to dominate. After 1986, Republicans began to restrict voting in the states they controlled, giving themselves an advantage, and after 2010 they focused on taking over the states through gerrymandering. This has enabled them to stop Congress from enacting popular legislation and has created quite radical state legislatures. Currently, in 29 of them, Republicans have supermajorities, permitting them to legislate however they wish.

The process of taking control of the states by choosing who can vote got stronger today when the North Carolina Supreme Court, now controlled by Republicans, revisited an earlier ruling concerning partisan gerrymandering. Overruling the previous decision, the court green-lighted partisan gerrymandering, opening the door for even more extreme gerrymanders in the future. The court also okayed voter restrictions that primarily affect Black people.

Gutting the federal government and throwing power to the states makes it easier for business leaders to cozy up to legislators and slash business regulations. It also enables a radical minority to enact its own worldview despite the wishes of the state. This dynamic is very clear over abortion rights and gun safety.

Last June, quite dramatically, the Supreme Court overturned federal protection of the right to an abortion guaranteed in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. In the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision the right-wing court said that decisions about abortion rights belonged to voters at the state level.

But as the last ten months have made clear, the right wing does not really intend to let the voters of the states make decisions that contradict right-wing ideology.

After the Dobbs decision, Republican-dominated legislatures immediately began to restrict the right to abortion, although it remains popular in the country and voters have rejected extreme abortion restrictions in every special election held since the decision. Now Republican legislators in Ohio are trying to head off an abortion rights amendment scheduled for a popular vote in November by requiring 60% of voters, rather than 50%, to amend the state constitution.

Gun safety shows the same pattern. A new Fox News poll out yesterday shows that 87% of voters favor background checks for gun purchases, 81% favor making 21 the minimum age to buy a gun, 80% want mental health care checks on all gun buyers, 80% want flags for people who are dangerous to themselves or others, 77% want a 30-day waiting period to buy a gun, and 61% want an assault weapons ban.

And yet, Republican majorities in state legislatures are rapidly rolling back gun laws. Republican lawmakers in the Tennessee legislature went so far recently as to expel two young Black representatives when they encouraged protesters after the majority quashed their attempts to introduce gun safety measures after a mass shooting in Nashville. But they were not alone. Last week, when the Nebraska senate passed a  permitless concealed carry law, Melody Vaccaro, executive director of Nebraskans Against Gun Violence, shouted “Shame!” multiple times. She has since been “barred and banned” from the Nebraska statehouse.

The attempt of a radical minority to enforce their will on the rest of us, who constitute a majority, by stealing control of the states and then, through them, control of the federal government is precisely what the Confederates tried to do before the Civil War: it is no accident that one of the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, carried a replica of a Confederate battle flag.

And yet, in the wake of the Civil War, when former Confederates tried to dominate their Black neighbors despite the defeat of their ideology on the battlefields, Congress tried to make it impossible to pervert our democracy by capturing the states. It passed and in 1868 the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, putting into our fundamental laws the principle that the federal government trumps state power.

It reads, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,” and it gives Congress the “power to enforce…the provisions of this article.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[thenewdemocratus]

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: 'You Better Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself'

Source:CSPAN U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (Democrat, New York) giving a short but very powerful speech in response to U.S. Representative Byron Donalds (Republican, New York) Source:The New Democrat “Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL): “It has come to my attention that a so-called leader has made the factually inaccurate statement that Black folks were better…

[tomorrowusa]

Far right Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is getting ready to mark Black History Month which begins on February 1st. He’s doing so by banning African American studies in Florida high schools.

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, has rejected a new advanced placement course in African American studies from being taught on high school campuses. He argues that the course violates state law and “lacks educational value”.

[ ... ]

DeSantis officially banned the course in a letter from the state education department to the College Board, the organization that administers college readiness exams like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). They also oversee advanced placement (AP) courses, which allow students to earn college credits in subjects like English and chemistry.

[ ... ]

DeSantis, a one-time Donald Trump ally, plays an active role in stoking social and political anxieties, primarily among white Americans, that stem from conversations about race and gender that occur on K-12 public school campuses.

DeSantis enjoys pandering to white nationalists and their neo-Confederate views of US history.

His running excuse for his racist actions is saying that something is “woke”. Don’t tell DeSantis that peanut butter was invented by an African American or you may end up having to drive out of state for Reese’s candy or Jif.

[readingsquotes]

Now Paxton has shifted his mode of attack, enlisting the help of a Republican DA who “referred” a case to his office. I’m curious to know on what grounds, and whether there was any coordination at work. Paxton has now used that referral as a pretext to conduct raids on the homes and offices of Latino voting activists claiming “voter fraud.” Among the targets are Democratic leaders and election volunteers. They’ve had their cell phones, computers and documents seized, and ordinary citizens are now embroiled in costly criminal cases.

Make no mistake: The charges are political and are intended to intimidate and to suppress votes under the guise of “secure elections.” Latino civil rights groups have asked the Justice Department to intervene.

...

Paxton’s latest deplorable move

With the courts telling him he couldn’t pursue election fraud charges on his own, Paxton shifted gears. He enlisted the help of Republican District Attorney Audrey Gossett Louis in the 81st Judicial District in Texas. That includes Atascosa and Frio Counties, where some of the recent raids were conducted.

The New York Times published an account of some of the raids. Some raids were conducted on actual candidates running for office:

On Tuesday…officers raided the home of Cecilia Castellano, a Democrat running against Don McLaughlin, the former mayor of Uvalde, for a state House seat, taking her cellphone. Ms. Castellano described her experience as “very frightening” and said she still did not know why she was targeted. “This is all political,” she said.

Police also broke down a door and raided the home of Manuel Medina, a consultant for Castellano’s campaign. Medina is also chair of the Tejano Democrats, a group advocating for greater Hispanic representation in the Democratic Party.

Elderly residents were also targeted, including Lidia Martinez, an 87-year old retired educator in San Antonio:

Nine officers, seven of them men, some with guns in their holsters, then pushed open the door and marched past a living room wall decorated with crucifixes, she said. “I got scared,” she recalled in an interview on Sunday, speaking in both English and Spanish. “They told me, ‘We have a warrant to search your house.’ I said, ‘Why?’ I felt harassed.” Ms. Martinez said that the officers told her they came because she had filled out a report saying that older residents were not getting mail ballots. “Yes, I did,” she told them. For 35 years, Ms. Martinez has been a member of LULAC, the civil rights group, helping Latino residents stay engaged in politics. Much of her work has included instructing older residents and veterans on how to fill out voter registration cards. “I go to a lot of senior events; I explain to them what they have to do,” she said. “I’ve been involved in politics all of my life.”

Reactions from Latino elected leaders have been swift and, understandably, full of outrage. State Senator Roland Gutierrez could barely contain his anger, claiming “Crooked Ken Paxton” had targeted and terrorized seniors in his district.

[ohsalome]

- Timothy Snyder - The Road to Unfreedom

[hajimeme1]

the feminine urge to blast "Union Dixie" outside of the homes of anyone who flies a Confederate flag

[whitesinhistory]

On the evening of August 11, 2017, more than 200 members of white supremacist, alt-right, neo-Nazi, and pro-Confederate groups from throughout the country converged on the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for a torch-lit march through central campus shouting slogans like “Blood and soil!” “You will not replace us!” “Jews will not replace us!” and “White lives matter!” The procession was the precursor to a planned “Unite the Right” rally scheduled to take place the next day to protest the Charlottesville City Council’s recent vote to remove a Confederate monument dedicated to Robert E. Lee. As the marchers paraded through the University’s campus, counter-protests quickly emerged and tensions escalated.

The next day, the rally began to form in recently renamed Emancipation Park, where the Lee statue stood. White nationalist rally-goers, many heavily armed, filed into the park amid the outcry of a diverse gathering of counter-protesters. Those opposing the white nationalists included members of anti-fascist groups, Black Lives Matter supporters, local residents, church congregations, and civil rights leaders. In the absence of police intervention, clashes between rally-goers and counter-protesters became more volatile and eventually led law enforcement to declare the rally an unlawful assembly.

As rally-goers and counter-protesters dispersed, sporadic clashes continued. Approximately two hours after the City of Charlottesville declared a local state of emergency, a neo-Nazi named James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car directly into a crowd of counter-protesters, wounding at least 18 people and killing a 32-year-old white woman named Heather Heyer.

The events in Charlottesville, Virginia, sparked national press coverage and debate regarding race, white supremacy, and Confederate iconography.

[ausetkmt]

THIS BURNS IN DETROIT EVERY MEMORIAL DAY

It’s Memorial Day on Monday. Some Michiganders will be visiting cemeteries, others will attend parades, and many will be lighting up the grill.

One person will be burning flags.

Not the United States flag. The flag that’s often a symbol of the Confederacy, the Stars and Bars Confederate battle flag.

John Sims, a multimedia artist and a Detroit native, who currently lives in the South, joined Stateside to explain why he burns Confederate flags every Memorial Day. 

"I'm not doing this to change pro-Confederate folks' minds," Sims said. "I'm doing this for people who have felt and are connected to the trauma and pain of the Confederate Flag and all that it represents. I'm doing this for me. I'm doing this for people who are looking for ways and rituals and processes and art performances as a vehicle to heal and to reflect and to gain energy and to stay in reflection about this historical legacy of American racism and segregation and division."

Sims has burned and buried the Confederate Flag all over the country, but he's bringing what he calls his "multimedia memorial" of the Confederate Flag to his hometown of Detroit. The event will have eulogies, remembrances, and a symbolic cremation where attendees will have a chance to pause and reflect.

Events like his have stirred up quite a bit of controversy wherever he has gone, and he is likely to do the same for the "Burn and Bury Memorial: Detroit 2017".   

The irony, of course, is that roughly 90,000 men from Michigan served in the Union Forces during the Civil War, including 1,600 black soldiers. Nearly 15,000 Michigan men died fighting the Confederacy. Yet, if you drive around the state today, Confederate battle flags can be seen flying at homes, and as decal stickers on vehicles.

Waving the flag in Michigan at the time of the Civil War would have been seen as traitorous by people in this state.

Listen to the full interview to hear details about the event in Detroit on Memorial Day and why Sims thinks the Confederate Flag is still popular in his home state of Michigan.

(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or with this RSS link)

[onepeoplesproject]

Heritage Foundation President Shows Love to a Long Dead Fascist at Moms for Liberty Conference

In his speech at the Moms for Liberty, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts cited a book written by a neo-Confederate paleoconservative racist as inspiration because of course he did. Continue reading Untitled

[icepixie]

My favorite response to the Jason Aldean thing.

Via r/nashville

[thenewdemocratus]

C-SPAN: Nadie Cohodas: Strom Thurmond Biography: The Politics of Southern Change (1993)

Source:The New Democrat  The best thing I can say about Senator Strom Thurmond, as someone who is not a fan, is that he was a reformed segregationist who reformed his views and rhetoric as the predominant views changed, even in South Carolina, especially as African-Americans became more prominent there. Or perhaps he changed his views because he believed he made mistakes in the past, but he…

[beauzos]

I love how even when white southerners try to pull the “but the confederacy was just our heritage it’s not about slavery!!!” that they still can’t help but go totally mask off about it and say “but you can’t say slavery was bad >:(“

Like bear in mind this was a response to a governor who created a “confederate history month.” the guy in question is literally pro confederate, he just also said “but slavery was evil and wrong” and white people STILL got mad. Tells you exactly what they actually feel

[trutown-the-bard]

New reaction image just dropped:

[tommy-288]

I have a question for the people who subscribe to The Lost Cause Myth.

Why do you think it was over states rights?

If the confederacy broke away from the United States of America, wouldn’t the claim “it was fought over states rights” be invalid. If you’re referring to the tenth amendment in the Bill of Rights. (Which was if the federal government doesn’t state an issue, it’s up to the state’s government to handle it.) I think that amendment, or any of the amendments would be obsolete. Since it was YOUR own country I think you’d have YOUR own rights.

[13thpythagoras]

should be illegal to dock someone's pay because they got a tip.

it's technically none of the boss's fucking businenss if a patron tips a server, minimum wage should fucking apply to servers

why should I tip when I know the establishment is going to steal the tips? Why would I go to a place where they steal tips? I boycott that shit, regretfully it has to be that way but we gotta find new jobs that aren't slavery, we gotta find food that ain't slavery

I urge the permanent boycott of any establishment that steals tips, or pays servers less than minimum wage. Illegal bullshit like that deserves to be boycotted and vandalized into oblivion, it's modern slavery

😡

“Waffle House shafts its servers out of a portion of their pay by requiring that they also wash dishes and cook, labor advocates say.

The restaurant chain engages in "rampant wage theft like performing non-tipped work for tipped wages," according to the Union of Southern Service Workers, or USSW, which filed a complaint with the Department of Labor on Thursday.

In it, the union accuses the Georgia-based corporation of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act's tip credit requirements and failure to pay servers the federal minimum wage, which has been stalled at $7.25 since 2009.

Employers can satisfy a part of the minimum wage obligation to tipped workers by taking a partial credit, paying an hourly rate of as little as $2.13 so long as its for tipped employees who receive enough in gratuities to earn the minimum, according to the DOL.

Waffle House CEO Joe Rogers III announced the company was hiking base pay for servers to $3 an hour in June.”