February 1, 2012
South Carolina. The first state to pass an Ordinance of Secession, on December 20, 1860. Lincoln had been elected President. He would not be inaugurated until March 4, 1861. He had frequently declared during his campaign that he had no intention of attempting to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states in which it then presently existed, for it was Constitutional, in them. He made it clear that he not an abolitionist in any sense of the term. He was, however, opposed to the unlimited expansion of slavery into the Western Territories. That was enough for South Carolina. On April 12, 1861, the shots that began the First Civil War were fired at the Federal Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.
South Carolina, where off and on the Confederate battle flag has flown above the State Capitol since 1962, when it was put there by the state legislature as part of their organized resistance to the growing civil rights movement.
South Carolina, whose junior senator, Jim DeMint, said, during the dragged-out debate on President Obama's health care reform initiative, that the GOP would "break him" over it. In the South, the term "break him" has a special meaning. It was what the slave masters would do, physically, to slaves who resisted the lash in any way, up to and including attempting flee. It was commonly used to punish the periodic attempts at slave revolt. The term meant literally taking the slave in question and breaking him or her, sometimes into pieces, more often breaking their will to resist in any way, through the use of physical and mental punishment.
And so Newt Gingrich came to South Carolina, behind in his race with Mitt Romney. What does he do then but utter three little words, now very well known to come from his mouth because they do so often: "food stamp President." Now Newt is from the neighboring state of Georgia. One does not often think about that because for reasons unknown he doesn't speak with the classic Georgia accent. But he is from the South and it does take a lot of conscious work for white Southerners of his age to lose their racial prejudices. Newt may or may not be personally prejudiced. That is not the question and in fact it is really immaterial. What is material is that he plays the race card openly and makes no bones about it.
The food stamp program is of course a national one that was created many years ago by Congress. Although the proportion of non-white persons on it is probably higher than the proportion of white persons on it just because of the socio-economic inequalities in our country, it happens that there are considerably more whites receiving food stamps than non-whites. Further, the reasons that the food-stamp program has expanded in recent years has nothing to do with President Obama personally but with the fact that increasing numbers of persons, unfortunately, qualify for it because of the shape the economy is in for lower-paid workers.
It should be noted that it is not only the recipients that benefit from the program. The food industry, growers, transporters, wholesalers, and retailers, benefit from it because they are able to sell food that they would otherwise not be able to sell. Of course, in classic GOP fashion, where politics and policy comes down to sloganeering, not programs aimed at solving problems, Gingrich, the "great thinker of the Republican Party" (sic) offers no alternatives to it, apparently thereby, being willing to let people starve. But none of this makes any difference to Gingrich or to his listeners. "Food stamp President" is just a great code phrase for him. This is especially so since for obvious reasons he cannot use the code words developed just a few years ago by one of his biggest fans, Sean Hannity (and his clones), to totally falsely cast the blame for the housing-bust/financial-disaster on African-Americans: "Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac."
It remains to be seen how far Gingrich will go, and will be able to go, with this one. Because of his very public prejudices, he is already trouble in Florida where a significant proportion of Republicans happen to be Hispanic (primarily Cuban immigrants and their off-spring). Following up on his "English-only" demands (which Romney shares, by the way), he has referred to Spanish as a "ghetto language." I'm sure that Cervantes would be interested to hear that one.
Of course Gingrich is an equal opportunity hater. As I have noted previously (1), in 1985 he addressed the issue of AIDS, saying: "AIDS is a real crisis. It is worth paying attention to, to study. . . . . [For] AIDS will do more to direct America back to the cost of violating traditional values, and to make America aware of the danger of certain behavior than anything we've seen. For us [Republicans], it's a great rallying cry." And there is his Islamophobia, which he has carried to very interesting, contradictory lengths: "I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time [my grandchildren] are my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists."
And so, this is what the GOP primary campaign in Florida is about, on one side at least. Gingrich does attract a lot of votes with his positions (and it ain't just rhetoric, folks). It remains to be seen if A) he can actually win the nomination with them, and B) if he fails and Romney does win it, just how much further will the latter, he of slogans, not of programs, find himself being pulled to the Right than he already is (2, 3). It all comes down to this: will the GOP of 2012 be the Party of Hate or will it be the Party of Slogans?
Post-script, Feb. 1, 2012: Well Newt did lose, big, in Florida. Except that he won big in the Florida Panhandle, which is the most “Southern” part of Florida in the Old-Jim-Crow and flying- the-Confederate-battle-flag sense. And so, he has pledged to continue his battle with Romney. It is very difficult to understand just why Newt is staying in, given that, as is well-known, A) he has virtually no chance of winning the delegates battle for the nomination, B) the GOP establishment, along with some VERY big money (4), is almost totally aligned against him, and C) in the process, he is in the process of tearing the GOP apart. But what they call “Super Tuesday” is coming up on March 6, 2012. And most of the states in which primaries will be held on that day were in the Confederacy that South Carolina led into the First Civil War, in nature much like the aforementioned Florida Panhandle.
So guess which message has a really good chance of working in them. You got it! Newt’s not Mitt’s (as reactionary as he really is). Newt will be politically done after this one. But his speaking fees for far-right, racist audiences will sky-rocket, along with his book sales in similar venues. That and an apparently limitless ego are apparently enough to drive him onwards, even at the expense of the party for which he professes to be a member.
References:
1. Ask Newt Gingrich, http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13203.
2. Mitt's Army of God, http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13064.
3. The Imperative of the Republicans' Rightward Imperative, http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13269
4. “Romney Gains Strong Backing in Rich Patrons,” The New York Times, Feb. 1, 2012, p. 1.
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