One ward of the party (I prefer ward to wing because ward sounds more like an insane asylum, which is a fair description of the Republican Party with all its nuts) -- one ward of the party is advocating that the Republicans become crazier than ever. This is the Palin crowd: we're nuts and we won't change. This crowd thinks of little else than sex -- other people's sex lives, gays, guns, abortion, and God. They are what most of us call fanatics.
Another ward of the party is more the business-oriented group, fairly uninterested in other people's sex lives, devoted solely to money. They want to quiet down the sex and God fanatics, and begin claiming that the Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility, pro-business. I can't even type this without cracking up. Were they all out drunk the entire 8 years of the Bush-Cheney Regime when our country was being looted, treasury bankrupt, businesses pillaged pursuant to the Republican mantra of Greed is Good? Now they say they're fiscally responsible? How can they claim to be good for business, when most of our businesses ended up bankrupt at the end of the Republicans' most recent Reign of Terror?
Finally, there is a third ward which thinks that the Republicans should stop wearing white sheets and pointy hats every time they get together, stop the cross-burnings and lynchings, maybe become just a tiny bit more inclusive. After all, women and non-whites make up the big majority of our country, so a party devoted to violence against and enslavement of women and non-whites might not get the most votes.
This third ward prevailed in a few skirmishes, early on. First, they picked Michael Steele, a black man, to be the new head of the RNC, Republican National Committee. He was supposed to go forth in the country and show everyone that Republicans have a new face. They have a good-looking black guy too. And he's educated, and cool. That was the theory. But the other wards of the Party, the Klan folks and the Sex Fanatics, could not stand the thought of having a black person as the head of the RNC. So every time Michael Steele opened his mouth, these people demanded he be removed. The fat guy on the radio, the white drug-addict with the big mouth and the Southern bunker, he demanded Michael Steele be removed almost the day after he was appointed. Newt Gingrich has now joined in. Proving one thing: Southern White Republican men are just as racist, vile and ignorant today as they have always been.
There used to be towns all across the country that were known as "Sundown Towns." Only white people were allowed to live in these towns. Nobody would sell or rent any dwelling in the town to a non-white person. The white townspeople would allow black people to come into town to do the dirty work, clean houses, dig ditches. But there were signs posted all over town that said: "N***er, don't let the sun go down on you in this town." The threat was that if any black person was found inside the town limits after sundown, they would be attacked, assaulted, maybe killed.
That's what's going on in the Republican Party today. It's a Sundown Party. The Fat Dumb White Guy on the radio, the drug addict, ensconsed in his Southern bunker, started screaming almost immediately that Michael Steele, a black man, must be removed as head of the RNC. Newt Gingrich, another ignorant racist, extremist right-wing Southerner, soon joined in the choir: this man must go.
Now the rumor has it that Michael Steele may step down to avoid this verbal lynching by the members of his "own" party. And I say this to Mr. Steele: join us. Dump those losers. Don't be like the abused wife who hangs around the moronic husband who beats her up every time she opens her mouth. Use your brain, use your talents and do something that makes sense: leave the Republican Party, and become a Democrat. You're welcome in our party.
The Sundown towns existed all across the country, from coast to coast. There are reports that some still existed into the 1970s, but gradually were eliminated because of Civil Rights and housing laws prohibiting discrimination based on race.
It was not just blacks who were excluded. In some towns, Chinese Americans were driven away by the local whites based on racism. The population of Idaho in 1870 was 1/3 Chinese or Chinese-American. There followed years of violence against the Chinese until, by 1910, there were almost no Chinese people in the entire state of Idaho. There was a town in Nevada which reportedly blew a town whistle at 6 p.m. every day to warn all Native Americans to leave the city limits. Many cities had policies to prevent Jews from renting or buying homes, including the terribly upscale Darien Connecticut.
For more on Sundown Towns, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102001715.html
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