Posted on 12/13/2002 8:10:28 AM PST by Wallace T.
I am no fan of Trent Lott; he has proven to be an ineffective Majority Leader. Yet he is being skewered by GOPers and neo-conservatives for what in essence is a thoughtcrime, and not for his weakness as a leader. Lott is being hounded because he may harbor fond memories of the pre-Civil Rights South. Lott should be removed for his poor leadership. However, the usually sound conservative leaders, such as Cal Thomas, Peggy Noonan, George Will, etc., calling for his resignation at this hour only feed the appetite of the liberal media - Democrat axis.
De iure segregation imposed by state and local governments was an unjust use of government power, but so are the civil rights laws passed in 1964 and thereafter. If it is wrong to force a bus company to provide separate accomodations for blacks in 1952, it is also wring to force a homeowner to sell his home to a person he does not want to sell it to in 2002. Both types of law violate property rights and freedom of association.
Furthermore, the Federal civil rights laws, insofar as they apply to the private sector, are un-Constitutional. Inasmuch as the 14th Amendment (assuming it is a validly ratified Constitutional amendment, which it is not!) extends the Bill of Rights to the states, blacks should have received equal treatment in public schools, municipally owned transit, etc. That they did not, in spite of the Plessy v. Ferguson "separate but equal" doctrine issued by the Supreme Court in 1896, is a matter of record. Perhaps the Federal government was justified in compelling the states to treat all citizens equally. But this is a matter entirely different than the Federal government saying to a businessman that you must hire blacks, Hispanics, women, et. al. The Bill of Rights applies to the actions and decisions of government, e,g,, Congress shall pass no law...
Today's so-called conservatives, for the most part, praise the Federal integration laws that their putative forebears, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, opposed 40 years earlier. Indeed, some neo-conservatives have attempted to morph 1960s era liberal icons John Kennedy, a dissolute playboy, and Martin Luther King, an associate of Communists, into conservative heroes. Even more shocking, the Bush Administration will not denounce affirmative action, a racist policy as egregious as the anti-Jewish quotas at Ivy League universities before World War II.
There was much evil and violence in the segregated South, although the occurrence of illegal lynchings had dropped from over 200 a year around 1900 to less than 10 per year in the 1940s. Even with the high figure of 200 per year, I dare say black on black crime accounts for more deaths per year in Washington, D.C. alone in any given year, not to mention Detroit, Chicago, or New York. If many small towns posted a slogan "N______, don't let the sun set on your back" 70-80 years ago, it is also true that no one, of any race, dares venture out at night in Harlem, South Central Los Angeles, or Anacostia. If black schools in the South before 1954 suffered from poor facilities, overcrowding, and a lack of textbooks, minority schools in all regions after 1970 have often been plagued with rampant drugs, gangs, and violence, plus (when they can teach) instructors who promote hatred of whites, disparage traditional American values and encourage political correctness, to the exclusion of the traditional 3 Rs.
The only thing that Rothbard was wrong on is the timetable of America's slippage into socialism. He was too pessimistic. However, the threat of intrusive government is even more real in 2002 than it was in 1949. True conservatives need to recognize Thurmond's opposition to President Truman's reelection bid in 1948 as an act of courage and not as the folly of a racist.
The 'conservative' Democrats you speak of were also against anti-lynching laws -- definitely not a record to be proud of given that blacks who were lynched in the South often turned out to be ex-servicemen who had honorably served our country. These same 'conservative' Democrats were also against laws that would have outlawed various Jim Crow schemes such as poll taxes that were enacted in the South specifically to prevent blacks from being able to vote
And Thurmond would have let Macarthur do what he wanted in Korea, Nuke the ChiComs, and we wouldn't be worrying about China & North Korea now.
I especially disagree with your juxtaposing conditions today with those in the segregated south toegther with the suggestion things were better in the 'good old days'; there is a fundamental difference you ignore: the problems of segregation were deliberate and the product of ill will, whereas the most that can be said of the problems of the inner city and failing schools is that they reflect a failure of will rather than ill will. The political courage to tackle the problems of crime and poor schools headon is lacking, but those problems are not the result of anyone intentionally trying to make any Americans legally inferior.
The question is: what are the Constitutionally justified powers of the Federal government? There are many social ills, racism being one of them; it is wrong to use Federal power to correct these evils if the Federal government is not empowered to do so. There are Constitutional means of correcting ills. In the case of the poll tax you cited, the 24th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1962, prohibiting a poll tax in Federal elections.
Granted, some Southern Democrats, like Theodore Bilbo, were likely motivated by racism and not by true concern for states rights and adherence to the Constitution. Yet despite legitimate questioning of motive, the Dixiecrats and like-minded Republicans like Robert Taft and Barry Goldwater were correct in pointing out that the Federal government has no authority, except in the territories or on Federal lands, to prohibit murder. It would be better that conservatives return to their limited government and pro-Constitution roots rather than attempt to hold the socialistic political positions of Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey and call it conservatism.
Bump.
As for the difference between ill will and a failure of will, I would submit that a victim of either condition has been wronged. In either case, Federal governmental remedies should be applied only when Constitutionally warranted.
Which is why he deserves no leadership position.
If that makes me a neocon, so be it.
Next question.
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