Romney/Ryan Supporters: Parallels to America's Racist Past

Republican Party officials and certainly the Christianist/Tea Party base of today's Republican Party bristle with feigned offense when they are accused of being racists.  Yet when one has followed has followed self-styled "family values" groups as I have and seen the steady racist undercurrents not to mention the often overt racism at some GOP and Tea Party events, it is difficult to take the crocodile tears of Romney/Ryan supporters seriously.  Of course, if there is any remaining doubt, there are also the racist comments circulated by GOP party officials like a former member of the Virginia Beach Republican Party or Newt Gingrich's "dog whistle" remarks back during the GOP primaries. Even more telling, as CNN reports, racism is on the rise in this country - fanned no doubt by the near constant anti-black and anti-Hispanic messaging being broadcast by the GOP and its henchmen.   Here are some highlights from CNN's coverage of the issue:

To some historians, Revels' [Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate in 1870] story offers sobering lessons for our time: that this year's presidential election is about the past as well as the future. These historians say Obama isn't a post-racial president but a "post-Reconstructionist" leader. They say his presidency has sparked a white backlash with parallels to a brutal period in U.S. history that began with dramatic racial progress.

Some of the biggest controversies of the 2012 contest could have been ripped from the headlines of that late 19th-century era, they say: Debates erupt over voting rights restrictions and racial preferences, a new federal health care act divides the country, an economic crisis sparks a small government movement. And then there's a vocal minority accusing a national black political leader of not being a "legitimate" U.S. citizen.

All were major issues during Reconstruction, an attempt to bring the former Confederate states back into the national fold and create a new era of racial justice. And many of the same forces that destroyed Reconstruction may be converging again, some scholars and historians say.

The notion that the country is poised to enter a new post-Reconstruction era may seem outlandish, even offensive. That period, known as the Jim Crow era, saw the establishment of American apartheid: segregated public facilities, race riots and white racists murdering blacks and their white allies with impunity.

Yet there is another slice of white America that seems stuck in a time warp, as if it never left the post-Reconstruction era, other historians argue. While not calling for the return of Jim Crow segregation, some white Americans are recycling the same political rhetoric and legal strategies that snuffed out Reconstruction, these historians say.  They are also resurrecting some of the most racist images from the post-Reconstruction era, some black commentators say.

A recent Associated Press online poll concluded that racial prejudice in America has slightly increased since Obama's election. The survey said that a majority of Americans, 51%, express explicit racial prejudice toward blacks, compared to 48% in 2008.

While the poll on its own doesn’t prove the country has become more racist in the last four years, it does offer evidence that the “post-racial” world some thought Obama’s inauguration would bring has yet to materialize.

"We're in a racist renaissance," Burton said. "It's a rebirth of the oldest forms of racism. It's not new, not different. It's like the 1800s, the most archaic abusive terms are applied to black people every single day."

Reconstruction, which lasted from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to 1877, was filled with dueling perceptions of race as well. The political changes unleashed by the Civil War unnerved many white Southerners: As blacks achieved positions of power that previously had been reserved for whites, historians say, many whites felt like their country didn't belong to them anymore.   .  .  .  .  .  The reforms provoked what some historians say was white Southerners' greatest fear: "Negro Rule."

The most commonly cited link revolves around the debate over voter ID laws. Since Obama's election, 34 states have considered adopting legislation requiring photo ID for voters, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Seven have passed such laws, which typically require voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls.

During the post-Reconstruction era, many white Southerners viewed the onset of black voting power in apocalyptic terms. They created a thicket of voting barriers - "poll taxes," "literacy tests" and "understanding clauses" - to prevent blacks from voting, said Dray.

"The idea was to invalidate the black vote without directly challenging the 15th Amendment," Dray said.

Sound familiar?  It should.  It is precisely what today's GOP is endeavoring to do in as many states as possible.  One need look no farther that Florida or Ohio to see the Republican elected officials doing all they can to block and/or disqualify minority voters.   They may claim that they are not racists, but it is obvious where they found their adopted model of obstructing minority voters. 

The piece also looks at the historical precedent in healthcare reform that swept in after the Civil War during Reconstruction to address medical needs of the newly freed slaves.  Not surprisingly, post-Reconstruction saw these advances scuttled too.  The parallels are quite interesting.  Consider reading the entire piece.