Georgia state representative believes KKK wasn't racist, 'made a lot of people straighten up'

[MrWendel]

By Walter Einenkel



Georgia’s Tommy Benton has helped to introduce two bills this year, HR 1179 and HR 855. The first bill protects a Confederate veteran memorial and the latter makes sure that Confederate “memorial day” and Robert E. Lee’s birthday are both public and legal holidays. Why, you might wonder, would someone want to do that? Well, the argument is something usually about not forgetting history, wah wah, we lost a racist war being a bunch of racists. Now while that is the reason, there is something else at work, and always at work, when being involved in pro-Confederate propaganda—revising the history of racism and the Southern “way of life.”

The Klan “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order,” he said.

“It made a lot of people straighten up,” he said. “I’m not saying what they did was right. It’s just the way things were.”

In state Rep. Tommy Benton’s defense, he’s kinda a racist. Benton’s comments and proposed legislation came in response to state Senator Vincent Fort’s (D-Atlanta) proposed bill that would prohibit Georgia from formally recognizing Confederate States of America holidays. Fenton feels that’s sort of like celebrating Saddam Hussein’s birthday every year—remember how much fun Saddam Hussein was? Tommy Benton does not like this proposed legislation.

“That’s no better than what ISIS is doing, destroying museums and monuments,” he said. “I feel very strongly about this. I think it has gone far enough. There is some idea out there that certain parts of history out there don’t matter anymore and that’s a bunch of bunk.”

And just when you think you’re done with how backwards a state representative can be, there’s this—Benton has also introduced a bill to re-rename old streets that used to be named after Confederate veterans. This includes a stretch now named after Martin Luther King, Jr. that was once named after a KKK leader.

The bill does not mention King, but it does set 1968 — the year of King’s assassination — as the time period from which renamings would be reversed.

Tommy Benton continues to fight a war lost in the 19th century.

[phantom power]

1. Just more celebration of 'confederate heritage'

[Laurian]

2. Has a degree in history and was a teacher!

How painfully eye opening is that?

[SwankyXomb]

3. It's easy to make people 'straighten up'

when they're dangling at the end of a rope.

[Dr. Strange]

4. Also, the Nazis weren't racist: they helped a lot of Jews lose weight.

STFU Benton!

[temporary311]

5. Dunno about making anyone straightening up,

but they made quite a few stretch out.

[struggle4progress]

6. Speaker David Ralston silent as GOP lawmaker blitzes media to defend KKK

JANUARY 29, 2016 BY BRYAN LONG

Georgia House Speaker David Ralston has remained silent as Rep. Tommy Benton bounces from one news outlet to another defending the Ku Klux Klan as “not so much a racist thing” and just a harmless vigilante group that “made a lot of people straighten up.”

While it’s up to voters in Rep. Benton’s Jefferson district whether or not his neo-Confederate views represent them, it’s squarely on Speaker Ralston’s shoulders as to whether Benton’s views are OK with the Georgia GOP and the Georgia House of Representatives.

Yesterday Speaker Ralston attempted to dodge the issue completely.

“In the heat of legislative sessions, it is not uncommon for hyperbole to enter into disagreements and discussions,” Speaker Ralston told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I always encourage members, in both chambers and in both parties, to ratchet down the language whenever possible” ...

http://bettergeorgia.org/2016/01/29/speaker-david-ralston-silent-as-gop-lawmaker-blitzes-media-to-defend-kkk/

[struggle4progress]

7. Georgia lawmaker’s chairmanship targeted after Klan comments

Chris Joyner
January 29, 2016

... “Benton is backwards, out of touch and wrong. Speaker Ralston can do something about it,” Bryan Long, executive director of the progressive activist group Better Georgia, said in a robocall targeted for Ralston’s Blue Ridge district.

Through his spokesman, Ralston declined to comment.

In a statement issued Thursday, Democratic Party of Georgia First Vice Chairman Nikema Williams called Benton’s comments “deplorable” and questioned whether the retired middle school history teacher belongs in the House.

“Benton is either an ill-informed student of history, or he has no conscience,” Williams said. “For over a century, the KKK has operated as a terrorist organization responsible for some of the most unimaginable violence in the country. In an era where communities are working together to bridge divides, Tommy Benton seems content with spewing the kind of half-witted hatred that divides. Benton should be ashamed and his party should denounce him” ...

http://investigations.blog.ajc.com/2016/01/29/georgia-lawmakers-chairmanship-targeted-after-klan-comments/