SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT

Just one unthinking comment by Senator Lott and the excrement hit the media fan. It spread like an acid bath all over the Republican "compassionate-conservative" subterfuge. This unveiling caused consternation among many. Cries of, "I'm melting, I'm melting," formed a nasty stench over the Capital buildings and Statehouses.

Many Congressional Republicans have long hidden their considerable race bias under a veneer of patriotic pap and pious demeanor. However, when they campaign for office, they show their true hearts to their political base. As Maureen Dowd says, "You gotta keep the seggies on board, you just don't want 'em up front." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/18/opinion/18DOWD.html

These latter-day Dixycrats make up a large part of Rush Limbaugh's dittoheads and they don^Òt all live in the South either. They are linked to their base and each other by what has been referred to as the modern day KKK the CCC, Council of Conservative Citizens. http://www.cofcc.org/

Notice how all the attention is being centered on Trent Lott? That is to keep people from remembering things about Attorney General Ashcroft that came out during his confirmation hearing before a soft-ball lobbing Senate Committee. For example, all the information about his neo-Confederate leanings which he shares with Lott, as do others.

House Republican leader Tom DeLay, who continuously insists that America is a "Christian country," is a raptor of the same feather. To put it another way, all of the leaders in the last decade, except for Speaker Dennis Hastart, have been Southern Oreo's: segregationists on the inside covered with a thin camouflage coating of good-old-boy affability.

The name of the segregation game is discrimination, impure and complicated. Racism bred and borne in the hearts and souls of these legislators. What women must remember is that this hatred applies to them too since racism and sexism live in the same dark hearts. Just ask Tom DeLay and he'll quote the chapter and verse from the bible that asserts male supremacy.

The bible toters led by DeLay are dedicated to totally canceling women's hard won reproductive rights. And never forget that Bush is behind them 100%. And he is no stranger to campaign dirty tricks. Like the other Kompassionate ones, he won by playing on white fear and by keeping many blacks from voting.

Whether it's segregation or theocracy that the media fears, it has long avoided looking into the background of the Republican leadership. Perhaps now they will, but not unless Liberals and Moderates keep its feet to the fire. President Clinton laid it all out and the L&M's must follow through. http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/18/clinton.lott/index.html The first order of business must be to check for any racist skeletons in their own closets. Find any errors or omissions and publicize them before the Republicans do. Republicans are hurting now and will be avidly searching for a scapegoat.

The Democratic leaders in both houses should leave the Republicans to their symbolic slicing and dicing of Lott out of his majority leader position, and concentrate on putting out their own programs. Please! Let us hear something out of DC that is NOT generated by Karl Rove and force-fed to the media.

twanda@twanda.org

2002-053

Copyright 2002 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@twanda.org.