Trump: Southern Rage from the past is back

http://crooksandliars.com/2016/05/feel-southern-rage

I think we could find answers to the Trump question much closer to home. The line from Trump runs directly to the master of anti-establishment, anti-government rhetoric, the master manipulator of racial hatred, the long-serving governor of Alabama, George Wallace.

Wallace discovered, the hard way, that race drove politics in 1958 Alabama. He lost his first state-wide primary race to a KKK-endorsed candidate. After the election, Wallace analyzed the race this way, “I was out nig_ _ _ _ d by John Patterson. I’ll never be out nig _ _ _ _ d again.”

For the next 40 years, Wallace adopted the most racist views possible.

Wallace defended his racism. When a supporter asked why he started using racist messages, Wallace replied, “You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about n_ _ _ _ _s, and they stomped the floor.”

When George Wallace became the Governor of Alabama in January 1963, my extremist John Birch Society parents found a new hero. They were determined to stand with Wallace, despite the fact that they were Yankees, Catholics, and Chicagoans. I heard about the brave, honest governor who declared, in his inaugural address, “I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Wallace went national very quickly. “We intend to carry our fight for freedom across the nation. We, not the insipid bloc of voters in some sections, we determine in the next election who shall sit in the White House.”

My John Birch Society parents thought Wallace was talking about them when he said, “and you sturdy natives of the great Mid-West . . . we invite you to come and be with us . . . for you are of the Southern spirit.” They were with Wallace all the way from 1963 on.

In 1968, George Wallace bolted from the Democratic Party and became the American Independent Party’s nominee for president. Wallace made his goals perfectly clear from the outset: “We’re going to shake the eye teeth of the liberals of both national parties.” Time magazine said, “By liberal, he (Wallace) means anything left of the far, far right.”

The Wallace campaign’s slogan was “Stand Up For America.” From the start, Wallace supported “law and order.” Given the race riots and war protests that were sweeping the country, he had a ready audience of frightened Americans. Wallace explained his plan to stop the unrest stop to a Life reporter: “Bam! Bam! Bam! Shoot ’em dead on the spot! Bam! Millions of Americans agreed.

One woman summed it up the Wallace support like this, “He (Wallace) will put everyone in their place–the colored, the students, the people on welfare, anyone who has caused so much trouble.” Another Wallace fan said, “The only difference between the races is that the majority of blacks are bad, and with the whites it is only the minority.”