"A devil is still a devil whether he wears a bedsheet or a Brook Brothers suit."--
Malcolm X
As conservatives rant and rave about the "evils" of liberalism, I often wonder if they ever take a look at the evils in their own political backyard. Do they ever take a look at the fascism among their own members? Do they ever take a look at the homophobia among their supporters, namely the Christian Right?
The reason I bring this up is because, recently, two Republicans have been linked to a racist organization called the Council of Conservative Citizens. Rep. Bob Barr, R-GA, gave a speech to this group back in June 1998. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi has had links to this organization for quite some time.
The Council of Conservative Citizens started around the mid-1980s. Its ideology is to work on issues concerning conservatives, issues like affirmative action and immigration, issues it opposes. The CCC is also against interracial marriage, a union it considers genocide to the white race.
The CCC is a direct descendant of the Citizens Councils of America, a racist and anti-Semitic organization formed during the civil rights movement. This group of middle-class whites was against integration and wanted to preserve the South's pure, Christian heritage, meaning an ongoing segregated "utopia" with no Jews. The CCA was also an ally of the Ku Klux Klan.
The CCC denies theat it's the same group from the '50s and
'60s. But one look at its website (www.cofcc.org/index.htm) would suggest that it is. Not only would a person see views about "importing more immigrants from Europe," one would also see views about Martin Luther King, Jr. being a "womanizer," a "communist" and a "plagiarist."
Last but not least (and I don't see how I was surprised), a person would also see the CC's obsession with brotherman, OJ Simpson. Believe me, OJ is all over this site.
Check out this quote from Phyliss Schlafly: "They (liberals) all knew that Clinton, like OJ, was guilty."
Speaking of OJ, it was his lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who brought to light Barr's connections with CCC. This was during President Clinton's impeachment trial with Barr serving on the House Judiciary Committee.
On Dec. 1, 1998, Dershowitz, legal writer Jeffrey Rosen, Judge Leon Higginbotham and law professor Steven Schwartzberg testified in a Clinton Impeachment hearing. All were anti-impeachment.
Then, Barr said the testimonies of these four men were irrelevant to "real America." Dershowitz said the words "real America" were code words for anti-Semitism and racism because Barr was trying to discredit the pro-Clinton views of one black judge and three Jewish lawyers.
Afterwards on Dec. 4, Dershowitz wrote a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Hyde, R-IL, about Barr's connections with the Council of Conservative Citizens.
Barr wouldn't answer to this at first. Then, he admitted making a speech to them but says he is not a part of the organization. The Council of Conservative Citizens says the same thing. Barr, also says he knew nothing of CCC's racist views before he spoke to the organization.
If Barr isn't involved with the organization, Trent Lott definitely is. Lott contributes a column to the CCC's newspaper, Citizen Informer. Lott is also known to have said that the spirit of Confederate President Jefferson Davis lived in the 1984 Republican Party.
For the record, it is also worth mentioning that Former Klan Member David Duke spoke before the Council of Conservative Citizens.
It's amazing how Republicans act as if they don't know that there are bigots within their organization. In fact, one of my white male assistant managers on Massa's Plantation (Wal-Mart) thinks Trent Lott is a great man. I brought up Barr and Lott's association with the CCC and he swears up and down that these two men aren't bigots.
Besides being a racist organization, the Council of Conservative Citizens is also a fascist organization that has ties to other fascist organizations in other parts of the world. On a trip to France, the CCC gave a Confederate flag to French fascist leader Jean Marie LePen.
Ever since Reagan, I have always had a suspicion that bigots and fascist types were in the GOP. I never knew how severe the situation was. I don't believe all Republicans are bigots. I also don't believe that all white Democrats love black folks. Still, I believe the Republican ideology caters to bigots the most.
One of the best ways to see the uncensored mindset of some Republicans is to visit online chatrooms. If a person were to visit any chatroom involving politics, there they would see what some Republicans really believe about minorities and homosexuals.
In political chats, 10 minutes does not pass by without some right-winger type saying the word "faggot." If you happen to be pro-gay rights, you are a "faggot." If you disapprove of their homophobic views, you are a "faggot."
If a chat room participant reveals that they are an ethnic or racial minority, the right-wingers start their racist rhetoric.
As this goes on, none of the "normal" conservatives tell their brethren to cool it. Yet and still, when something negative like GOP=Grand Old Pricks gets mentioned by a liberal, the "normal" conservatives start squawking about name-calling. Do I smell hypocrisy? Why jump on the name calling liberals but not the name-calling right-wingers?
One conservative in the chat room said I was being rather harsh when I said the GOP=Nazis. I don't think so because I believe the GOP behaves the same way the Nazis did. Just like the Nazis, the GOP used bigotry to get in power.
Reagan did it when he lied about an inner-city welfare mom living the high life, perpetuating the myth that most welfare recipients were lazy black folks. Jesse Helms did it in a campaign commercial. In the commercial, a qualified white lost a job opportunity due to affirmative action. This was perpetuating the myth that qualified whites were losing jobs to unqualified minorities.
Now, when a person uses racist propaganda, how can they be so surprised when they find out that racists support them? Wouldn't anti-affirmative action rhetoric sound like beautiful music to a bigot who wants to preserve white supremacy? These bigots don't want minorities to get the same privileges they have been receiving for years. Doesn't the average bigot think of black folks as lazy and living off welfare? Republicans aren't surprised because they knew what they were doing in the first place, catering to bigots.
During the 1992 presidential race, President George Bush and other Republicans kept saying Christian family values as if anyone who was not a Christian was the enemy. They were culprits for society's ills. Is it me or does this sound like something that could fuel the minds of those who are ... anti-Semitic?
Luckily, Bush lost that year.
The Republican bigoted propaganda is almost no different than what Hitler did to scare a whole country about Jews. The only difference is most Republican propaganda is more subliminal than Hitler's.
Hitler's rhetoric was more out-spoken. Just as Alan Dershowitz pointed out, Republicans use code words like "real America."
So, the next time conservatives start an anti-liberal rant, I would advise them to look in their own political backyard. Why are some of your friends hanging around fascist and racist organizations?
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Other MindPower columns by Patrick Scott Barnes:
