Song of the Week: Backlash Blues

Hubert Humphrey came very close to winning the 1968 Presidential Election. Nixon took that one by something like 500,000 votes and in a victory celebration acknowledged Humphrey's loss by saying that he knew what was like to lose a close one. What Mr. Nixon did not acknowledge were the Southern Electoral votes and the nearly 10,000,000 popular votes received by George Wallace of Southern segregation fame.

The seeds for the GOP’s Southern Strategy were sown in 1948 when Strom Thurmond walked out of the Democrats' 1948 convention when none other than Hubert Humphrey himself called for a Civil Rights plank in the platform. Southern Democrats returned for 1952, 1956 and even 1960, when Roman Catholic John F Kennedy publicly placated overly sensitive Southern Baptists by declaring that his religion would not influence his governing. Times have certainly
changed.

Southerners went for Goldwater's States' Rights support and the deep South were the only States, besides Arizona, that voted Republican in 1964. Wallace had done surprisingly well in the Democratic primaries that year even in the North.

Wallace's success brought the defection from the once solidly Democratic South to fruition in 1968, a fact -- while not acknowledged by Nixon was not lost on Republican strategists. Conspiracy theorists had a field day on the assassination attempt on Wallace in 1972 that rendered him a paraplegic for the rest of his life. Nixon's landslide might not have been.

Black Americans and other minorities have been the wedge issue either silently or not so silently used by politicians and brought to new levels during the post-Marshall McLuhan Age. Lyndon Johnson, on the other hand, used the mushroom cloud to good effect in 1964 to scare the bejesus out of voters only to turn around and do what Goldwater was allegedly going to do by escalating the Vietnamese conflict. Bush 41 clobbered Dukakis with Willie Horton, as if it weren't bad enough for Bubba being confronted with that strange sounding surname. Al Gore lost his home state in 2000 because he was saddled with a faux gun issue. Mr. Rove continues to scare the bejesus out of the electorate with the image of threatening Moslems. It really doesn't matter that factually the Iraqis had nothing to do with terrorism by and large -- then. The racist layer there as well is not very far from the surface. It survives by appealing to the lowest common denominator.

Sometimes that lowest common denominator is clothed in high moral standards which in turn masks disdain for the very people being pandered to.

Homosexuals and their rights are the newest wedge issue -- so much so that even those on the so called left walk away from it, as is happening in Tennessee as an aside to the race issue, although Mark Foley's follies have snapped back emphasizing the lip service given to those who have fundamentalism in their hearts. Certain Democrats are dead wrong when they encourage their own party to take up the moral values banner. Civilized human beings are simply moral. Appeal to civility.

Yes, in Tennessee the Southern Strategy and racism reared its ugly head once more in the RNC's ad against Harold Ford. Once the damage was done, i.e. put out there to be absorbed by ignorant racists, who needed to be reminded where their votes belong, it was disavowed by all sorts of people involved on the Republican side. It is hoped that it will come back to bite them where the doorknob oughtt o hit them on their way out the door. Harold Ford can now play a card he did not have before.

Still, gay rights remains something that everyone seems to be ignoring. Mr. Ford goes to some pains that he supports the defense of marriage and all that. He also tends to make something of a deal of his religious faith.

There is a fine line that people need to walk in places like Tennessee in order to be successful as a public figure. It is most assuredly the source of Al Gore's so called stiffness, which can also be called being overly cautious. It is, therefore understandable that Mr. Ford is very reluctant to embrace the concept of same sex marriage. After all he was the target of a thinly veiled appeal to those who don't like the idea
of black men and white women together.

It may, however, also be important for this candidate to declare support for most rights for gay people -- i.e. those that don't go against his religious beliefs. His nomination is already a step forward for Tennessee. He should not take too many steps backward to pander to the backward. There are progressive people there. Gay people want to support him. Ford must not relegate them to the back of the bus. Oh and yes, there are gay people in Tennessee. Some of them are Republicans looking for a safe haven.

Sometimes being overly cautious relegates the candidate himself to the back of the bus. Just ask President Gore.

There are a great many bread and butter issues like health care, minimum wage and national security that are essentially ignored when the waters are muddied with non-issues like black men and white women together not to mention the concept that it is the government’s duty to define marriage and family for everyone.

So, this week's song of the week, "Backlash Blues" comes from 1967 co-authored by Nina Simone and Langston Hughes, a black gay man no less. It was a response to the burgeoning Southern Strategy of the time. A backlash per se is not a bad thing as long as the back that gets lashed is ignorance and man’s inhumanity to man.

Mister Backlash, Mister Backlash
Just who do think I am
You raise my taxes, freeze my wages
And send my son to vietnam

You give me second class houses
And second class schools
Do you think that all colored folks
Are just second class fools
Mister Backlash, Im gonna leave you
With the backlash blues

When I try to find a job
To earn a little cash
All you got to offer
Is your mean old white backlash
But the world is big
Big and bright and round
And its full of folks like me
Who are black, yellow, beige and brown
Mister Backlash, Im gonna leave you
With the backlash blues

Mister Backlash, Mister Backlash
Just what do you think I got to lose
Im gonna leave you
With the backlash blues
Youre the one will have the blues
Not me, just wait and see

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