Thursday, November 10, 2011

The D Word

I was flitting around Right Wing News the other morning, trying my best to balance the objectivity or lack thereof in many of the different news sources I check on any given day. To their credit, Right Wing News is an equal opportunity basher of its own.......to a point. As long as it is a bonafide card carrying conservative type doing the bashing. I was somewhat surprised to see so much Romney bashing and not so much Cain bashing, even though there was some. The right wing is all huffy over using the politics of personal destruction with regards to the latest sensationalizing of Cain's alleged sexual misdeeds.

Their undeserved righteous indignation is one reason I have lost so much respect for the Right. After all, they are the ones who took what everyone agrees publicly is a low blow tactic and raised it to an art form back in the 1990s. Nobody uses the politics of personal destruction better than the Right. And these clowns expect me to take their shock seriously at having a newly anointed favorite son run through the same mill? Right.

Then I noticed an article written by I am guessing an in house writer for Right Wing News. "MSNBC Discusses North Carolina’s Forced Sterilization Program, Avoids mentioning The D Word". The "D" word in question is Democrat.

There was a shameful period in our history that seems to never see the light of day much. That period during the early part of the 20th century when Eugenics was all the rage. Eugenics was a popular theory that believed poverty, promiscuity, substance abuse and a host of other undesirable activities were inherited traits. And a great way to nip these bad habits in the bud was forced sterilization. 31 states dabbled in it back in the day. North Carolina was one of them.

Okay fine. Another chapter of our past we would just as soon forget. Lumped next to our treatment of Indians, Blacks, Asians during WWll, muslims now, and a host of other nasty things that come with being a country with history.

What I find amusing is the gist of William Teach's article is that he takes MSNBC to task for not including in their treatment of this, the role of the Democrats. He states, and I am guessing he is correct, that back in the early 20th century, most statehouses in the South were lead by Democrat majorities. He does his best to tie in blame to our current version of the Democratic party.

I can hear all the Winger faithful now, "Yeah, what about that you lily livered liberals. You castrated thousands, you and your better world idealists."

While Mr Teach calls MSNBC on the carpet for not including Democrats in their treatment of a bad period in our history, he himself is guilty of the same thing. If he is going to be completely fair, he should mention that the southern Democrat of yesteryear is the southern Republican of today. I know, I watched the South switch sides starting right after the Civil Rights laws were enacted, picking up steam in the 1970s and finally turning red in the 1980s. I have found mindsets tend to remain the same even when labels change. So Mr. William Teach, I would be cautious of trying to tie the modern Democrat to shit that happened decades ago when many of the people responsible most likely spawned many of the people who make up your core audience.......eugenically speaking of course.

Later...........................................

7 comments:

Randal Graves said...

So is this eugenics thing gonna give me x-ray vision or better yet, invisibility? Recharging this cloak is expensive.

BBC said...

So if you go on a camping trip for a week and are away from all the information coming at you will you give a shit about any of this shit?

Ol'Buzzard said...

In the 1940’s and early 50’s the main political power in the south was the Democratic Party. President Truman had desegregated the military, and the heavy southern political players of that day were concerned about a possible move to desegregate the south. In 1948 they came together in a common effort to oppose racial integration and to retain Jim Crow laws. They decided that if the Democratic Party introduced a platform of integration in their 1948 convention, they would break away and form a third party. The States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) was formed with a party slogan of “Segregation Forever!” The defeat of the Dixiecrats was the defining point in which disenchanted southern Democrats begin to change party affiliation. Over the next ten years most southern Christian Democrats were assimilated into the Republican Party

It is a remarkable change when you think about it. The Republican Party (once the Party of Lincoln and champion of human rights) is now the party of the financial elite, southern Christian fundamentalist and covert racist, while the Democratic Party is the party of the middle class, the ethnic and the poor.
the Ol'Buzzard

MRMacrum said...

Randal - Against my better judgement, I have chosen to comment. And whose comment do I have to deal with first? Well, you can bet your ass it ain't yours. Uh, wait a second......never mind.

BBC - Fair play is always something "I give a shit" about.

Ol'Buzzard - What's remarkable is that both sides often drag up ancient history and try to revise it in such a way as to make the other side look bad in the present day. A tactic used by both when the need arose.

okjimm said...

hahaha... what you said re:Randal.... never mind....

BBC said...

Fair play? On the planet you live on? Good luck with that friend.

Snave said...

Excellent post, MrM. Lots of things change while labels stay the same...