The nation's preeminent white rule reluctant to let go
Ron Walters/NNPA Columnist
Issue date: 8/23/09 Section: Politics
Several people have contacted me about the similarities between Paul Krugman's recent New York Times article and my own idea that the Republican base is motivated by a rage that is, in part, racial.
I can still hear one of the protesters shouting at the top of her lungs at one of the recent town hall meetings shown on TV, "I want my country back."
Like many of her co-conspirators, she believes that in the election of 2008, she lost what she came to believe as the appropriate model for the country - preeminent White rule.
Krugman suggests that this is reminiscent of the Nixon Southern strategy that relied on White racial fears of Blacks and their potential advantages won in the Civil Rights movement. But as I tried to show in "White Nationalism, Black Interests," this is the soul of the Republican base, larded with southerners and others who fear Black advantage and the coming of a country that has a more diverse racial population in which Whites are not the majority.
So, while social transformation for many White Americans was so necessary at this juncture in history to right a sinking ship that they elected a Black president to do it, the Republican crazies who are tearing up the town hall meetings fear "transformation" as threatening to White political and cultural hegemony.
The fear: a non-racial political democracy. And with the coming of Black governors, presidents and a Hispanic added to the Supreme Court, who knows what could come from a mob that has deep racial fears.
As long as conservatives were in the White House who put the lid on social transformation and privileged subtle notions of White supremacy, the Republican base was satisfied, but now that they have lost power, they are enraged and afraid of policies of transformation.
The use of Nazi symbolism to chastise Barack Obama and his policies by them is misplaced. Rather, they should remember that in constructing his racially xenophobic movement, socialism was not the most important thing; it was the idea of a master White race.
I can still hear one of the protesters shouting at the top of her lungs at one of the recent town hall meetings shown on TV, "I want my country back."
Like many of her co-conspirators, she believes that in the election of 2008, she lost what she came to believe as the appropriate model for the country - preeminent White rule.
Krugman suggests that this is reminiscent of the Nixon Southern strategy that relied on White racial fears of Blacks and their potential advantages won in the Civil Rights movement. But as I tried to show in "White Nationalism, Black Interests," this is the soul of the Republican base, larded with southerners and others who fear Black advantage and the coming of a country that has a more diverse racial population in which Whites are not the majority.
So, while social transformation for many White Americans was so necessary at this juncture in history to right a sinking ship that they elected a Black president to do it, the Republican crazies who are tearing up the town hall meetings fear "transformation" as threatening to White political and cultural hegemony.
The fear: a non-racial political democracy. And with the coming of Black governors, presidents and a Hispanic added to the Supreme Court, who knows what could come from a mob that has deep racial fears.
As long as conservatives were in the White House who put the lid on social transformation and privileged subtle notions of White supremacy, the Republican base was satisfied, but now that they have lost power, they are enraged and afraid of policies of transformation.
The use of Nazi symbolism to chastise Barack Obama and his policies by them is misplaced. Rather, they should remember that in constructing his racially xenophobic movement, socialism was not the most important thing; it was the idea of a master White race.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Andy
posted 9/05/09 @ 5:06 PM EST
Fail. Violent white Revolution coming. The military and law enforcement apparatus is largely white. Rage is building. You cant stop it and what you write is immaterial to the coming reality. (Continued…)
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