Texas Republican Know History, They Disdain the Effort to Comprehend History by Cubie Jim Crow on the Rise in America again! Jim Crow on the Rise in America again! I have some Republican friends with whom I enjoy a little banter, and ever blue moon they get it right. In the last couple of weeks they have been hitting a historical theme that is correct for the time period. Back at the time of the Civil War, it was the Democrats that supported slavery and President Lincoln, a Republican, issued the great Emancipation Proclamation. It was Democratic governors who tried to maintain segregation and prevent African Americans enrollment in state universities. However, it was about that time that the southern Dixiecrats, failing to prevent President Johnson, a Democrat, from passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 switched over to the Republicans party and during the past 50 years have persuaded the old righteous Republican Party to champion causes that restrict minority civil rights, equal pay for women, aid to dependent and poor children, reduce educational funding for research, healthcare for the poor, peek into people´s bedrooms, and started senseless wars that cost American blood and treasure. Now again the Republicans, led by the same Dixiecrat causes of Jim Crow, are attempting to restrict minority rights just as they did in the pre-1964 era. I had been wondering why so many of my Republican bantering partners had come up with the same lame and intellectually dishonest argument proposing that today´s Democrats are the same as those pre-1964 Dixiecrats. Last week sitting in a hotel room in Anchorage, Alaska I had an epiphany, a realization that this line of reasoning was driven by the Republican National Committee. They simply did not have any good answer to the Democratic charge that Republican state governors and legislatures were attempting to reestablish the old cynical Jim Crow laws and restrict voter rights. Last week I was awake almost every morning by 3:00 am, 6:00 am Texas time. One morning I turned to the TV and watched a couple of earlier evening FÓX News reruns. There on one of the FOX programs was a RNC leaders explaining how the Republican Party of Lincoln saved the slave population and today is saving slave descendants and how the southern Democrats had enslaved the blacks 150 years ago and is trying to do the same today. Like a light from heaven this realization became crystal clear; a nonsensical and historical misleading Republican talking point. In higher education, one of our goals is to help students comprehend what they read. It is one thing to read English, but to comprehend and understand the context of what students read is another educator’s challenge. Students usually need to read additional materials and then synthesize everything, in other words, comprehend what they read. I expect students to know that certain historical events took place and when, but this is only a part of learning History. I expect students to know the events, but also know why an event occurred and what the consequences were of an event. This requires comprehension, not just rote memory. The GOP leader on FOX News, mentioned in the previous paragraph, demonstrated a form of rote memory, but also revealed a total lack of comprehension. Considering the many political events that have occurred during the past 150 years and the many philosophical struggles that took place in the hallowed halls of Congress and state legislatures, and to refer to Republicans and Democrats as having the same ideology as they had 150 years ago, even 100 or 50 years ago is to completely miscomprehend History and those who struggled in the trenches of time to advance freedom and democracy. The argument that the GOP leader proffered on FOX News this past week, without even a suggestion of clarification by the host, implies either a sophomore effort to obfuscate a weak debating point, or a lame Republican talking point intended to misinform low effort thinkers and misdirect their thoughts away from current Republican attempts to reestablish Jim Crow in the South. Even six Republican leaders have admitted that their goal is to restrict minority votes and this is simply a renewal of the southern Jim Crow era. Next Tuesday is election day and in Texas I doubt that a Democrat will win any state-wide election. One could post Republican Tea Party on the back of a slow moving terrapin and that little guy would win. Texas is a very red state where most people place little emphasis on thinking, they hear Conservative and connect the concept to evangelical religion, and consequently vote for God. Although most Republicans will win their races Tuesday, I predict that the percentages of Democratic participation will inch up a few points. More Hispanics will vote and vote Democratic. But because of the Republican attack on women, minorities, and citizens´ civil rights, this great state will start becoming purple, if not blue, in the next general election. The Republicans remind me of a Scripture in which Jesus was speaking to a group of Pharisees and Sadducees articulated an accurate description of current Republican, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” It seems to me that Republicans have totally miscomprehended History and through their own misreading of the times (read that political, social, religious, and economic changes), like in the time of Christ, will be doomed to the trash bin of History for their refusal to comprehend change.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 16:24:22 +0000
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