AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

A friend asked me to forward her essay if I liked it. It is a history lesson, as it should be as she holds a doctorate in American history and is an award-winning teacher. What? Do I hear okie's fingers on his keyboard, typing how because she is a Ph.D. in history, she knows less than he does? I do!

So, here is her essay, a response to the march that Herr Beck is organizing to correct liberals on the history of the civil rights movement and to dishonor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King and all the people who devoted their lives to making a difference in the racial situation that plagued America from its inception:

Beck v. King?

Since your choice of date begs the comparison, let’s start with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yes, this Saturday is the anniversary of the occasion during which King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. The real inheritors of the Civil Rights Movement are quick to point out that you have no right to his day, much less his legacy. The event in question, however, was not “I Have a Dream Day” but the March on Washington (write that down, please: “March on Washington”). It was originally billed a march “for jobs and freedom,” but became an opportunity instead to pressure Congress to pass the Kennedy administration’s recently introduced civil rights legislation that would, among other things, outlaw de jure segregation in the South. The main organizer of the march was a union man, A. Philip Randolph, and he had proposed the march for the first time in 1941 (write down “union” please). The 1941 march was intended to protest racial discrimination in the defense industries and segregation in the armed forces (ya know, at the time when we were fighting actual Nazis, not the bugaboos of your fun-house-mirror history).

Why A. Philip Randolph matters to you: Comparisons of you to Dr. King distort not only his legacy but also the legacy of the Movement as a whole. Neither marches were proposed as mere platforms for solitary ideologues. The 1963 March emerged from the coordinated efforts of dozens, if not hundreds, of activist, civil and religious organizations. (While sometimes led by them, social movements are neither made nor sustained by ideologues. Mobs, on the other hand, quite often are.) Neither marches were funded by large think-tanks or multi-media conglomerates.

You are not holding a social protest this weekend; you are holding a rally for your fans, your ego, and the large corporations who are the real beneficiaries of your efforts, not the ordinary (white) Americans for whom you claim to speak. While you are certainly no match for Dr. King—a sincere spiritual leader who opposed racism, war and poverty—the true insult to this history is that you mistake your fans for activists and organizers.

“Wake Up America!’

Back to our lesson: Among those in attendance at the 1963 March on Washington was the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced “Snick”) which came into existence to coordinate the sit-ins that spread across the South like wildfire in 1960. Then chairman of this radically egalitarian organization was John Lewis, a participant in both the sit-ins and Freedom Rides. He was slated to deliver the most strident speech of the day, entitled “Wake Up America!” SNCC organizers, including Lewis, found the Kennedy administration’s bill inadequate on multiple fronts. They argued that it would not be enforced in the South given white supremacists’ lock on Southern politics, courts and law enforcement, that it would not protect civil rights workers from violence, and that it did not address issues of economic justice and poverty. Lewis’s proposed conclusion to the speech captures SNCC’s growing militancy and impatience: “We will march through the South, through the Heart of Dixie, the way Sherman did. We shall pursue our own ‘scorched earth’ policy and burn Jim Crow to the ground—nonviolently.”

Why John Lewis Matters to You: Georgia Congressman John Lewis’s life’s work—both then and since—demonstrates that that proposed closing to the speech was rhetorical flair, not a literal threat to burn down the white South. The other Movement leaders around him, however, recognized how easily that could be read otherwise, and, fearful of violence in their name, demanded its removal. That demonstrates sincerity of leadership and purpose. It recognizes that incendiary language can motivate the fringe of any group (regardless of partisanship or ideological bent) to commit heinous acts against innocent people, and, in the process, thus threaten the moral mandate of the movement as a whole. In contrast, the mandate of your so-called “movement” is neither morality nor justice, but vengeance and race-baiting. Your choice of “Restore” implies that you’re taking (white) America back from the various people you and your megaphoned brethren have repeatedly attacked since Obama took office—black people, Mexican immigrants, and now all Muslims. You are courting domestic terrorism for political gain and profit.

That means that your true predecessor is Alabama Governor George Wallace, not Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. So, Glenn, write these four names on your chalkboard: Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. These girls were killed in the basement of Birmingham’s 16th St. Baptist Church on September 15, 1963, shortly before their Sunday school class was to begin. True, the Klan planted the bomb. But the blood was ever on Wallace’s hands.

Oppression v. Victimization

Another Movement anniversary also approaches. Fannie Lou Hamer, a timekeeper on a Mississippi plantation, tried to register to vote at a courthouse in Indianola, Mississippi on August 31, 1962. The white plantation owner threw her off the land and shortly thereafter she formally joined the Movement. In June of 1963 she and other activists were arrested for attempting to use a whites-only restaurant and washroom at a bus station in Winona, Mississippi. They were arrested, taken to the county jail, and then summarily beaten and sexually assaulted by white police. The Movement is a sickening chronicle of pervasive white violence, much of it committed by white police—of mass arrests, beatings, church burnings, of children being hosed down sidewalks, of pieces of unidentified black bodies being found in rivers, of endless small humiliations—ketchup over one’s head at a lunch counter—to the unimaginably large but very real fear of lynching. In the face of this Movement activists trained one another to remain peaceful and respectful; they also quelled their fears by singing songs together, songs that had sustained their slave ancestors. This Movement culture undergirded the myriad campaigns sprouting across the nation—food drives, creating schools, activist training camps, voter registration drives, the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, letter writing campaigns, Freedom Summer, fundraising efforts, legislative proposals, legal battles, targeted boycotts at public and private facilities, and so on.

Why Fannie Lou Hamer Matters to You: Glenn, you and your beloved Tea Partiers love to claim yourselves oppressed. But you are actually the victims of your own delusions. Who has been fired, arrested, beaten, hosed down the street, bitten by police dogs, or murdered since your “Movement” began? Aside from public temper tantrums with misspelled signs, for what and against whom are your “protests?” Consider, for example, the origins of the “Tea Party.” It began in opposition to raised taxes at a time when all but the rich got a tax cut. Gun rallies—on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing no less—have occurred when no gun control legislation is pending. Your followers persist in demonstrably and laughably false claims, including my two favorites: that our Christian President who was raised by a white mother and grandmother is really a closeted Muslim who hates white people and that the mandated purchase of private insurance is really the government gearing up to gas grandma. If Movement organizers were truly your predecessors, they would have arrived at the 1963 March on Washington spitting on white people and carrying signs that read, “Stop Race Mixing.”

You also claim to be opposed to foreign terrorists as you criminalize 1.4 billion Muslims. Glenn, the Civil Rights Movement displayed the barbarity of Southern white racism to the world in order to end it. In contrast, you write Al Qaeda’s propaganda for them by begging for a Clash of Civilizations.

Hall High School

One last story. Many would recognize Little Rock, Arkansas’s Central High School as a key location in Movement history. Dwight Eisenhower, after all, sent troops to the school in the fall of 1957 to ensure that nine black children could enter after Governor Orval Faubus defied the court order to integrate. Many remember the white mobs outside the school who accosted lone student Elizabeth Eckford. Few remember Hall High School.

Hall High School was the newly built school in the wealthy white neighborhood in Little Rock, intended as a place of refuge for wealthy white students upon Central’s eventual integration. While this in no way excuses the rabidity of white resistance in Little Rock, what’s forgotten from the Little Rock tale (and subsequent stories about the racial roots of parochial schools and vouchers) is that, for many white middle class and working class parents, integration meant downward mobility for their children, as the white rich kids took the teachers, the resources and the prestige with them. Orval Faubus, and other white racial demagogues like him, redirected these white folks’ class resentments using their hatred of black people.


Why Hall High Matters to You: This should be obvious: it’s the same as it ever was. Those in the Tea Party do have real grievances that are being misdiagnosed and then redirected onto race. The misdiagnosis: The closest you and your followers have come to any coherent ideology is anti-government libertarianism— the reigning ideology inside the beltway since Reagan (including Clinton) and outside the beltway (thus far) from the bats*** crazy Randians. The suffering of your fans is very real, but it is the product of free market ideology and the policies (or a-policies or anti-policies) that have flowed from it: the destruction and dissolution of unions, the export of our manufacturing sector overseas, the cuts to social services, the privatization of public jobs, and the wholesale collapse of government as a regulatory check on corporate malfeasance and greed. All of these changes have resulted from the increasing corporate dominance of our media, our political campaign process, the legislative process and the courts. Tea Partiers do not, and perhaps forever will not, recognize that all of these changes have also disproportionately affected people of color. Instead, they line up behind the beneficiaries of these changes, believing that those more vulnerable than them are to blame for their suffering.

So, it’s time to stop calling you and your ilk a movement. The end result here is that your fans will support more political candidates who preach that the government cannot work and cannot be trusted and will prove themselves right upon taking office by further dismantling it. As that unfolds, your followers will undoubtedly continue to decry fascism and theocracy as they support turning the U.S. into precisely both. This is the tragedy of things—that every day is opposite day.

And, that, at last, brings me to my final point.

You’re Brilliant, Glenn Beck

The above history lesson operates on the assumption that you have been sincere in your choice of date. And this is where credit is due to you and where many of your detractors get things wrong. While I think you a fool, and a very dangerous one at that, you and your talk-radio/Fox Blowhard Brigade are brilliant propagandists. White conservative claims to King’s legacy are pure cynicism, providing both political fuel and political cover.

Your adversaries consistently operate within the terms you set for a given debate, including reducing this to being just about Dr. King himself instead of the Movement of which he was a part. You rightly outrage those who are the legitimate beneficiaries of the Movement, particularly contemporary civil rights organizations and black political actors who continue the struggle against white racism. Yet, any and all black outrage serves as simple and immediate proof of your collective white victimization. Anyone who cries, “How Dare You Claim Yourself King’s Legacy!?!” reinforces your narrative that you are now the oppressed racial group in America, that your freedoms are under attack, and that therefore Dr. King belongs to you because he stood for “colorblindness.” Thus, at the same time that progressive outrage fuels your devotees, it also insulates them from charges of racism. The outrage is a, if not the, key ingredient in your recipe of misplaced self-righteousness. That is the point that your adversaries too often miss; these kinds of claims to Dr. King afford white demagogues like you the opportunity to repackage age-old racist ideas as some would-be opposition to the white racism of the Movement era itself. (Yes, even open racists among you will often claim a break with the racists of the past.)

Lastly, the ceaseless framing of “Is this story really about racism?” –in which your adversaries willfully participate instead of challenging the assumptions of the question itself—can occupy hours and hours of air time, distracting your followers from learning about the real causes of the economic and environmental catastrophes unfolding around them. Amidst the renewed bluster with each successive news story, you win, whether sincere or not. That political brilliance renders matters of the historical record (as, say, what appears above) besides the point. So bravo to you, because your adversaries—who are the legitimate heirs to Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement—play right into your hands.

Dr. Laura

So, Glenn Beck, here endeth the lesson. And, like most history lessons, it includes a homework assignment. Your chalkboard should have some arrows connecting The March on Washington to some Movement heroes and finally to the often forgotten Hall High. Please draw a final arrow to Dr. Laura Schlesinger. In light of recent events, would she be an apt addition to your “Restore America” charade? Why or why not?

I’ll give you time to think on it; you have a busy weekend ahead. Happy March on Washington Day.

If you are referring to the notion of having a few blocks on each of the four sides of the WTC become a national monument in order to bypass NYC zoning decisions, that silly idea is mercifully DOA, I hope.
The debate about the cultural center itself, of course, will continue.

Thanks for providing the link to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. I followed the design competition a few years ago but then forgot about it. It covers 8 of the 16 acres of the WTC site.

Failure to vote out Republicans will doom america into a banana republic with the power in a few hands.

From the Midnight Cowboy?

Failure to vote out DEMOCRATS will doom America into a banana republic with the power in a few hands--those few hands like the practitioners of Saul Alinsky's Principles (e.g., Barach Hussein Obama).

If you can't spell Barack maybe you should use Baruch Obama a perfect Jewish name.

Any restrictions smack of the mean civil rights fights during the 1960's. African Americans were either not allowed in certain public places, on public transportation, etc., or they had specially appointed locations to go to if they were allowed in. How would you feel if you were treated that way? How? What comes from within will give you your truth.

Southern Cheyenne Chief Laird (Whistling Eagle) Cometsevah told me that over 400 Cheyenne were murdered at the Sand Creek Massacre. To disrespect this means to disrespect Chief Whistling Eagle and to disrespect Chief Whistling Eagle means to disrespect the Cheyenne people.

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://www.sandcreekmassacre.net

god bless radio god Ron Bennington

while discussing Glenn Beck's dog and pony show this weekend

"i don't care much about this rally, i'm waiting to watch his performance from the Memphis balcony on April 4th"

okie, You still don't "get it." Nobody is allowed to build at Sand Creek Monument; it's not restricted to only one group.

Who is disrespecting what? I am the one that brought up Sand Creek as an example of people murdering other innocent people, as a comparison to 9/11 in New York. We know that there are differences of opinion as to how many Native Americans died on that day in 1864, but the park flyer says more than 150, and I have seen a number of approximately 160. Wikipedia says an estimated 70 to 163. If there was definite proof of anything close to 400, I think that would be known by the National Park Service, as they have done much research on it, as noted in the following quote from the National Park Service website.

In fact, disrespect is exactly why I think the Islamic center should not be built in the 9/11 area, any more than I think a museum honoring something called "Manifest Destiny" should be built in the area of the Sand Creek National Historic Site. Do not jump to conclusions, nothing like that has been proposed and never will, because most people have better sense, contrary to what is going on in New York. Reasonable and decent people do not try to add insult to injury.

The quote from the national park flyer also indicates how descendants of the Native Americans and tribes have indeed provided significant input into the planning of the historical site, just as I think relatives of 9/11 victims, rescue personnel and others on the scene there should be able to do the same, and if the information is correct, apparently they have been to some extent.
http://www.nps.gov/sand/historyculture/index.htm

"Several years of research and cooperation between tribes, government agencies, universities, and local landowners contributed to the establishment of the historic site. Stories from descendents of survivors helped identify the location of the massacre site. Researchers also reviewed historical documents. The site continues to be studied.

Also this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre

Obviously comparing apples and oranges. Your comparison rings very hollow, Donald. This is about showing proper respect and consideration, it is not about discrimination.

So this "radio god" is suggesting that Glenn Beck should be murdered the same way Dr. King was?

i don't think he cares one way or another what happens to beck, it's humour, and sometimes it's black

he was riffing off the folks who are upset that beck is holding his little publicity stunt on the same spot the same day as MLK gave his dream speech (which he'd actually given before, just not as dramatically obviously), his thought, if beck is going start shadowing MLK, the most interesting thing to watch would be said hotel balcony performance

i laughed, and tend to agree, but then you could substitute about 95% of the folks on tv and radio and i'd still laugh and agree

The Tea Totalitarians and their fellow travelers decry Barack Obama as inexperienced and yet they would see the nation send experienced legislators packing to be replaced by a bunch of yaboos who don't know how a bill becomes law and haven't a clue as to what any Amendment to the Constitution means. Talk about contradictions.

However, the one constant is that most of the yaboos are filthy rich. They're from that top quintile of American earners whose wages have soared in the last 30 years while most of us . . . the bottom four quintiles. . . have seen our earnings stagnate.

Why support the rich?

Because they buy the Tea Totalitarians?

Because they are the Tea Totalitarians?

Because the great unwashed admire and are jealous of the rich and so want them in sight?

Frankly, most of these candidates wouldn't be capable of walking your dog when you are on vacation . . . or working overtime because they, the rich that is, have all your money!

Did you follow the link that Mr. Vasicek posted, along with his real name and his actual photo?

I suggest that your inability to communicate well led Mr. Vasicek here to respond to you.

As he is a film maker who researched and dealt with the subject of the Sand Creek Massacre, he probably has a program that gives him regular updates on his subject. You often fail to make yourself understood and you often do not remember what you post. Try to be more careful. Keep a journal of your postings so that you can return to them with greater ease than you do at the present time.

This is an interesting piece from People for the American Way on glenn beck:

God is speaking through Glenn Beck... or so he and many other Religious Right figures would have us believe. Despite an historical animosity towards Mormons like Beck from the evangelicals who control the Religious Right, his efforts to become the leader of a "spiritual awakening" are being aided by Religious Right figures like David Barton, Jim Garlow and Ralph Reed.

Beck's "Restoring Honor" event tomorrow will be preceded by a warm-up event at the Kennedy Center tonight called Divine Destiny. At tonight's event, Beck and others will present some good old fashioned revisionist history on "the role faith played in the founding of America." Tickets were to be distributed at 10am this morning, but so many people were already in line by 8:30pm on Thursday that tickets were gone far ahead of schedule -- talk about a "hot ticket!"

We need to seriously examine how Glenn Beck is perceived by the Right. According to a recent Democracy Corps study, among the Tea Party crowd, Beck is one of the most revered and highly regarded figures. According to the same study, Beck is more than a trusted commentator: he's an "educator." That's a chilling reminder that the hate-drenched right-wing propaganda Beck passes off as "history" is being swallowed whole by his millions of viewers and radio listeners. In Beck, the Right has added an atomic bomb to its arsenal in its war on science, history and reason. Beck insists that "progressives" -- whom he calls a "cancer" on our country -- "control the textbooks." * He's an avid climate change denier. And with his attempt to "reclaim the civil rights movement" this weekend by holding a rally in the same spot as and on the anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, he is twisting our nation's history to serve a scary agenda.

Just the other night Glenn Beck aggressively attacked President Obama's Christianity -- fanning the flames of bigotry at a time when a whopping 18% of Americans think the president is a Muslim and some on the Right are trying to start a new "Birther-style" movement demanding proof of Obama's baptism. Is this the spirit of Dr. King's movement Beck is talking about reclaiming?

One would think that as someone whose own faith has come under attack, Beck would be more careful about attacking others' religion. But in the messianic light in which he sees himself, he can do no wrong and commit no hypocrisy.

Stay tuned. People For will be covering Beck's self-aggrandizing events in Washington, DC this weekend as well as Sunday's "early 9/12" Tea Party event.

* my note on textbooks. My daughter worked as a textbook editor and I was one of a group of writers who produced a teacher's manual. The American right is actively involved in the control of textbook content. Another factor controlling such content is the California lobby against fat, but, I suggest that they are largely of an uncommitted centrist position.

In order to publish a textbook, it has to sell in both California and Texas.

If you are a baby boomer, your history textbook decried the carpetbaggers and scalawags. This misrepresentation was largely due to the influence of those who supported Jim Crow laws.

A quick note to conservatives:

I am going to switch to bing as my search engine and see how it works out. Google has ,in the past, held some positions that were distasteful to me (For Obamacare and Net Neutrality). However, they have received their third strike from me by allowing leftist activists to co-op their service. Case in point is the latest corruption of their google Maps RE the location of Becks 8/28 Rally.

Be a happy conservative!

JM