Rep. Paul Broun, whose district includes the University of Georgia, went to the floor of the House of Representatives and said:
“If ObamaCare passes, that free insurance card that’s in people’s pockets is gonna be as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the War Between The States — the Great War of Yankee Aggression.”
Does any part of that comment make sense? Over at Think Progress, Lee Fang notes a pattern, with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina comparing the effort to pass health reform to Japan’s kamikaze pilots and Glenn Beck repeatedly referring to the effort as ‘reparations’ for slavery. Frankly, I can’t decipher Rep. Broun’s meaning. It’s just psycho talk. But, in this day and age, to refer to the Civil War as ‘ the Great War of Yankee Aggression’ is simply racist. I’m sorry, but it is. Georgia seceded from the Union because Abraham Lincoln was elected president and didn’t want to extend slavery into new territories. The only Yankee aggression was in the service of keeping the country together and in taking a stand against the immoral practice of human bondage. It is long past time to recognize that the North was on the right side of history. A failure to do so on the floor of the House deserves an official rebuke.
That usage is accepted in his generation in the South. One more dog whistle, not recognized by those who are targeted by it. A reprimand would risk creating a wedge issue with people who don’t consider themselves racist.
I don’t know anyone under 40-ish who uses the phrase, so it’s passing into history.
Screw that. This is the floor of Congress. Make them defend it.
Give it up, Boo!! We all know Congress only enjoys punching hippies! Republicans(and anyone on the right) is/are free to do and say what they want. Hell, did you see Abe Foxman basically called General Petraeus an anti-Semite? When are they gonna rebuke Foxman? We all know that ain’t going to happen.
Foxman is not a member of congress and he didn’t make his statement on the House floor. And Congress cannot pass a bill of attainder.
re: bill of Attainder…..
tell that to ACORN… Sure, it’s being shot down in the Courts, but what’s done is done…..
Foxman is not a member of congress and he didn’t make his statement on the House floor.
The same could be said about MoveOn.org .. and look what that got them!!
This makes no sense:
Who the hell doesn’t know what this means?
yeah, that’s the only part of his statement that I understood.
What I meant is that it’s racist, but the people who use it don’t recognize it or themselves as being racist. They’d strenuously deny racism to their last breath.
sound like the sort to deny their racism as they don the bedsheet and dunce-cap…..
‘It’s only to defend Family Values!!’……oooookay….
No, see, the way they keep from calling themselves racist is that they think of racists as just being those people (in white sheets), and ones who use certain words they’re above using.
Or to put it differently, racism is low-class, and those who use snide phrases are too educated for that.
I doubt Broun denies he’s a racist to his friends and family.
It all depends on whether he admits it to himself. I’d be surprised if he does, but YNK.
I doubt that he says “I am a racist.” That would be impolite — in Southernspeak “ugly”.
No, seriously. I’m a Southerner and everyone who uses “Yankee War of Aggression” is proudly racist. No denial, no pretense, no confusion involved. They usually have a confederate flag decal on their truck. They may do a smoke-and-mirrors routine in front of people they don’t know, especially outsiders, but they are quite clear in their own minds that the “White Race” is superior to people of color. Starting sentences with, “I’m not a racist BUT…” is just a game they are playing with your head.
Interesting. I’m talking about a different crowd. The folks I’m talking about don’t have confederate flags or pickup trucks. They don’t say, “I’m not racist” – they expect everyone to know that, and they know better than to use phrases that would require the denial.
One of the most fun things about current political alignments is to realize that the Republican Party is now run by precisely that class of Southern apologists for privilege that it was raised up to oppose. The current Republican Party is indeed the party of the neo-Confederacy, not just in incoherent ramblings like this, but in support for unrestricted free trade, destruction of domestic industry, free flow of international finance capital, and industrial farmers vs. small farmers. The neo-Confederacy’s racism is a little more concealed these days, since the North once again had to intervene to get the South to do the right thing. May the ghost of Abraham Lincoln rise and smite them all. Bastards.
More like the coalition of the segregationists (don’t even give them the dignity of neo-Confederate) and the anti-communist McCarthy faction of the GOP, with a little exploitation of religion thrown in.
How else to account for John McCain, Orin Hatch, Steve King, Pete King, Michele Bachmann, even Der Gropenator.
The real whopper is the “free insurance card in people’s pockets”. Is he trying to raise expectations of what this bill will do?
Dozens of Glenn Beck-ish Southern newspaper editors in the 1850s and a few dozen Arsenal (Charleston SC) cadets and their instructor put the lie to Broun’s “War of Northern Aggresson” nonsense. BTW the Arsenal was equivalent to a JROTC private school for the sons of the plantation owners.
When you don’t rebuke stupid, when you wait until a new generation stops using a phrase, you end up with people like this who don’t understand just how duped they have been.
btw, it’s well worth the watch
The country is together? Damn, I miss all the special events. Will there be a rerun?
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From my diary – “Sic Semper Tyrannis”
(The Atlantic) – Among other items of evidence seized from Timothy McVeigh’s car when he was arrested 15 years ago next month outside of Oklahoma City was a papered quote from Samuel Adams. “When the government fears the people, there is liberty,” the quote read. “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
… In other words, what the nation rejected as superheated lunacy and dangerous incitement out of McVeigh’s mouth in 1995, tens of millions of Americans now praise as patriotism from popular figures. What the militia movement lost in support following McVeigh’s attack it has gained a thousand times over by the current devolution in the language of dissent.
The most disturbing recent example of the use of the “tyranny” saw was offered up by Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Interesting article @ Old Hickory blog:
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Notice how he chuckles after he says it. If anyone tries to issue a rebuke, he’ll just throw up his hands and say, “It’s was just a joke, a bit of rhetorical hyperbole; don’t you have a sense of humor?”