Sons of Confederate Veterans Says They Were Fighting for the Same Things that People in the 'Tea Party' are Fighting for Now

The fringe element of the Tea Party movement continues rear its ugly head, while conservative leaders fan the flames of racism by coddling extremists, no different than the actions of Confederates.

Last week, I had a Twitter war of sorts with Andrew Breitbart over his $100,000 offer to anyone who can produce evidence that Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) was called nigger during his walk to Capitol Hill with the other members of the Congressional  Black Caucus for the historical health care reform vote. He called me a h8 - or hater -- because I took Rep. Lewis' side. The reality is that Rep. Lewis is a honorable man, who has been called nigger in the days of civil rights unrest for no other reason but the color of his skin, so I can't understand why it should be unfathomable that he was called that again by the fringe element of the Republican Party. After all, to echo Frank Rich, conservative leaders are enabling the extremism by remaining silent or egging it on with cries of “Reload!” to pander to the Tea Party-Glenn Beck base. Of course as Glenn Beck has said, President Obama is the real racist in this dogfight. Never mind the fact that his white grandparents raised him and he loved his white mother dearly.

During his appearance at the Freedom Works' rally, Andrew Breitbart took offense with Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) flashing the V-sign with her fingers to celebrate the historic legislation. Again, he said she was inciting the crowd. It was a racist act, if you will. Really Breitbart? So, in his estimation, I suppose the appearance of a gay, black and liberal legislator on the way to Capitol Hill, is an act of racism. They should not come up to the "big house" sah, they should start in the lower levels of the Capitol and let the Republican massas have their voices heard. He is fanning the flames of racism by his statements and I will continue to get under Andrew Breitbart's skin on Twitter.

For all the racial ugliness that is occurring in America, the conservative leaders have a hand in it. Take Virginia's Dixiecrat governor Bob McDonnell, who issued a state proclamation celebrating April as Confederate History Month.  In essence, he was resuscitated a dormant practice that had been initiated in 1997 by George Allen, former Virginia, whose career imploded in 2006, when he was caught on camera calling an Indian-American constituent “macaca.” McDonnell was lobbied by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group linked to segregation and overt racism. He gave in to their wishes and deliberately omitted any mention of slavery from this so-called proclamation, only to insert it after taking heat from black leaders. McDonnell also decided to insert another requirement in the process for convicted felons to get their voting rights back. He wants the applicants to write an essay detailing why they should get these rights back. This is nothing but a tactic to keep blacks from voting in Virginia. Sorry, but there's a Dixiecrat leading the state of Virginia. There's more to Bob McDonnell that the American public, specifically the people of Virginia need to hear about:

McDonnell isn’t a native Virginian but he received his master’s and law degrees at Pat Robertson’s university in Virginia Beach during the 1980s, when Robertson was still a rare public defender of South Africa’s apartheid regime. As a major donor to McDonnell’s campaign and an invited guest to his Inaugural breakfast, Robertson is closer politically to his protégé than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright ever was to Barack Obama. McDonnell chose his language knowingly when initially trying to justify his vision of Confederate History Month. His sanitized spin on the Civil War could not have been better framed to appeal to an unreconstructed white cohort that, while much diminished in the 21st century, popped back out of the closet during the Obama ascendancy. Source: NY Times

The actions of some conservatives, like Gov. McDonnell and Andrew Breitbart are deliberate and are stoking the racial fires, but I don't hear any leaders in the Republican Party or prominent conservatives issuing a denunciation. Instead, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said told Candy Crowley on CNN last weekend that the whole incident involving McDonnell didn't "amount to diddly" and he also issued a Confederate Heritage Month proclamation of his own. Don't get me wrong, I am like most Americans and I don't like President Obama's healthcare bill and people have a right to be angry, but not racist. The problem for me is the fact that there are elements in the Tea Party movement who are racist and they won't admit it. They are coddling these people, coupled with conservative politicians also encouraging this behavior.


It's funny that the Sons of Confederate Veterans has such a prominent role in the political arena in Virginia and Mississippi. You never really hear about that in the news, but it is worth a serious look. Grayson Jennings, first lieutenant commander of the Virginia division said of the secessionists, "They were fighting for the same things that people in the 'tea party' are fighting for now." He is also in favor of seceding again because of high taxes, illegal immigration and energy legislation. So, is the Tea Party movement is comparable to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization that is racist to the core? I am sure most members of the movement aren't but you have some on the fringe and those are the ones we have to focus on.

I am reminded of a statement made by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens in 1861. He said the Confederate government's "foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural . . . condition."The reality is to state any admiration for the Confederacy, with its admission that it fought for the repugnant cause of slavery and denigration of the "negro" is a slap in the face of equality and civil rights for all. To state that the fight of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Tea Party movement is the same, is also a slap in the face off all the decent people who are in the Tea Party movement and it is a sad commentary that Tea Party leaders and conservatives in the Oklahoma Legislature now aim to create a new volunteer militia that, according to the Associated Press. They are fanning the flames of extremism and something terrible is going to happen one of these days.