With news that Ole Miss has footage of President Reagan endorsing Haley Barbour for U.S. Senate in 1982, I reckon reporters are burning up the phone lines to the archives. Expect that tape to spring loose from there any minute now. Mr. Barbour would go on to work for the Reagan Administration as its political director. Mr. Reagan would go on to be the president whose mantle future Republican candidates would most like to claim.
Ronald Reagan the candidate understood the power of symbolism, certainly the powerful symbolism of Mississippi. Mr. Reagan opened the post-primary campaign with a speech about states' rights at the Neshoba County Fair, in Mississippi. From the local Neshoba Democrat:
I believe in states' rights; I believe in people doing as much as they can for themselves at the community level and at the private level. And I believe that we've distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended in the constitution to that federal establishment. And if I do get the job I'm looking for, I'm going to devote myself to trying to reorder those priorities and to restore to the states and local communities those functions which properly belong there.
Whatever Mr. Reagan meant that day at the Neshoba County Fair, if you're a white Mississippian listening to that speech in 1980, you're only 10 years removed from the integration of your schools -- the federal government telling your state what to do. Remember, too, that in 1964 three Freedom Riders were killed in Neshoba County and buried in a local dam. It's history, and it happened well before Ronald Reagan showed up. But the last time I saw James Chaney's grave, his tombstone was propped up with heavy iron bracing lest anyone come along and knock it down. So it's history, but it's not over.
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Oh, yea, Regan was a huge racist. He hated Blacks, Hispanics, and all other minorities. Why? Because he was FOR state rights! And anyone else for state rights is a racist, too, especially all those white folk in Mississippi. If you hear them saying that the federal government is the problem, like Regan did, you can rest assure that it is code for "I am a racist!"
Oh yeah, intergration was no big deal at all. Nobody thought twice about it.
The Southern Strategy was always short-sighted, but even more short-sighted as the "traditional" South becomes more of a raw amalgam of ethnicities and cultures.
Their dreams of Apartheid Nation could only exist with an ever-dwindling minority holding white-knuckled to the reins of power.
But then, who ever accused racists of actually planning for longer-term strategies?
I believe Ms. Maddow addressed that a few months ago. She explained the Republican posturing for the white vote alienates them from minorities but since the white vote is bigger than the minority vote they feel they are winning. Of course as the white vote grows smaller and the ethnic vote grows larger the strategy is doomed.
This is more hard evidence that right-wingers speak in code. Another example is the Bible phrases George Bush stuck in his speeches, Bible phrases that normal people would not notice but ring a bell for fundamentalists. It's important to understand that code.
When Republicans say "cut taxes cut spending" they mean cut ALL taxes, cut ALL spending, close government down and tear up the Constitution. When you ask a Republican how to pay for tax cuts and cut what spending they go blank just as Mitch McConnell did when asked exactly that by David Gregory. I can predict the same will happen when Gregory asks Boehner that this Sunday- cut what spending to pay for tax cuts? And Boehner will go blank.
I always thought that Regan is/was the worst President we ever had. At least until Bush II set a new record.
Other posts have detailed the long list of what I thought he did all wrong at the time and the shorter list that was secret at the time, but has come out since.
What can I add?
Jimmy Carter by far the worse President by far. Democrats just can't stand that they have no one held in high reguard as Reagan is and always will be. Clinton if he could have kept it in his pants might have had a slim shot, but first thing people think of is stained dress and cigars.
Clinton, who got impeached, still produced 20 times the jobs Bush the Younger did, and left the nation with a budget surplus. Whereas Bush left the nation with a budget crisis. He followed the Reagan playbook on steroids and got exactly the result one would expect who didn't have their head up their butt. When the Republicans get the Whitehouse again, you can expect the very same results again...shredded social safety net, out of control defense spending, unparalleled budget deficit, further erosion of the middle-class downward. Evidently this crap never gets old. Its like they watched and SERIOUSLY misunderstood the game of chicken played in Rebel Without a Cause, and honestly believe that the kid who drove his car off the cliff won the game. That's how you are supposed to work the economy. That is why all the conservatives are so outraged and shouting that the country is headed in the wrong direction...because Obama postponed our date with the bottom of the ravine and a new Great Depression. Wrist cutting Emo Goths have NOTHING on your average Conservative when it comes to nihilism.
Ugh yes because there is no such thing as a Democrat on freaking Mount Rushmore. #Fail! Eric, #Fail!
You may as well say Porky the Pig was the worst president by far. You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. To be taken seriously you must substantiate your post with facts. Otherwise you disgrace yourself and your cause.
Funny how the first post gets a pass, but since you ask. Here is the Misery Index for Reagan and Carter.
Misery Index = Unemployment rate + Inflation rate
President
Time Period
Start
End
Change
Avg.
James E. Carter, Jr.
1977-01 - 1980-12
12.72
19.72
7.00
16.26
Ronald W. Reagan
1981-01 - 1988-12
19.33
9.72
-9.61
12.19
I would agree that Bush was not a good President and I never brought up Bush.
Yes, Mickey there are some good Democratic Presidents I would agree, but Carter was not one, just like Bush wasn't a good Republican.
MickeyMouser, I'm not sure what you mean about Mt. Rushmore, but Thomas Jefferson is up there and he founded the Democratic Party.
I guess this shows the level of your knowledge.
As to my lack of listing evidence to back up my post above, I felt like everyone here would would already know the list, so why list it again? I guess I forgot about the people who watch Fox "News", live in a different reality and therefore need to be taught the actual facts.
...and yet Steven you list no facts or evidence. Steven you know sarcasm right? Mickey was being sarcastic, but since it was lost and she did a terrible job. #Fail! Mickey, #Fail! #Fail! Steven, #Fail!
Eric! demonstrates the ignorance of the typical low-information voter.
Carter appointed Volcker who raised interest rates to remove the inflation-causing extra cash pumped in to stimulate the economy by Nixon lackey Arthur Burns. This stagflation problem was handed to Carter by Ford. Carter solved the problem, and Reagan gets the credit. Reagan does deserve some credit for letting Volcker finish the job. Fact is same economic recovery would have happened had Carter been re-elected.
Eric!'s mind is blank to economic history and into that void Republicans shovel their lies.
However, Eric! is quite astute in recognizing sarcasm, which ability Steve clearly lacks.
States aren't hurting for money at all. There is no such thing as a poverty stricken state or a bankrupt state. Therefore it is only logical that if you stop federal funding for programs like education, states will be more in control.
My understanding of the facts, is that most states ARE hurting for money, so how can you say otherwise?
Even here in Colorado with our TABOR rule and therefore low taxes and low spending, we are really hurting and need to make deep cuts to balance the budget.
The three men killed in Neshoba county: Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and John Schwerner were not Freedom Riders; at least that's not why they were there in Mississippi when they were murdered. They were there as part of CORE, working during what CORE was calling "Freedom Summer" a sort of "get out the vote" for African Americans. CORE's mission was to prep black voters for the poll tests that were being used to prevent them from voting. The Klan found out that Goodman and Chaney had been to Mt. Zion church to talk about setting up a "Freedom School," and a few days later showed up to the church, surrounded it during a budget meeting, and when the people came out, they were beaten and asked who the men "stirring up trouble" were. The Klan burned the church to the ground after assaulting some of the members. I was able to talk to the daughter of two people who were there that night and were beaten by the Klan during my Civil Rights trip.
Anyway, Goodman and Chaney heard about the church being burned and people being beaten and immediately came back down to MS to find out what happened. This time, a young man named John Schwerner joined them. It was his first time coming to Mississippi. The Klan found out they were back, and I think everyone knows the rest of the story.
Had the federal government not gotten involved, the bodies of those men never would have been found. And when they were found, Goodman and Chaney, who were good friends, couldn't be buried together because of segregated cemeteries. No one would have faced charges. That, Mr. Reagan, is what "states rights" means in the South.
I will never believe that the South would have changed jack sh*t unless the federal government had made them. Some of the cities with larger black populations may have gotten things changed in the cities through boycotts and sit ins, but the rural south? Please. There are some areas in the South that would still have White Only signs if they were allowed to.
THAT is what needs to be known. THAT is the story that must be told. I've got a jackass on Last Word blog who calls me a racist whenever I call out white sepremacists and Neo-nazis. He also insists that countries that had been conquerored by the Nazis became Germany. He's a real prize named HAMBONE if anyone cares.
All I'm saying is that it is damn shame stupidity is not a punishable offense.
Meanwhile cretins like Barbour and Reagan are all to willing to white wash the past and gloss over ugly truth, whether back then or now.
I think they just don't want to admit that the connotative as well as the denotative meaning of words matters. In the south, "states rights" is code for "stop dragging us, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century." Especially in regards to Civil Rights.
Speaking in Neshoba County, where this particular issue has deep meaning, Reagan was either completely unaware of this fact and was thereby showing a lack of historical knowledge that is just disturbing, or he was courting white supremacist votes. Either option is distasteful.
CoraH, great post. Thank you.
BTW, there are places in the South that still have White Only signs, but now they read Members Only, Seating by Reservation Only, or similar. Signs as these we may take for granted, but still being used to segregate and discriminate.