Pelosi and Reid: Call for national repudiation of the Confederacy [View all]

[RainDog]

Have to share this GREAT idea. Pelosi and Reid need to call for a joint resolution to support the Union of American states, not the Confederate States of America, and repudiate Republicans (and Democrats) who would support the slave-holding confederacy over the United States that Lincoln (for better or worse) held together.

Here's the reason for the resolution: 37% of Mississippi Republicans would back the Confederacy in a civil war.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/37-percent-of-mississippi-gopers-would-back-confederates-in-civil-war

A new Public Policy Polling survey found that 37 percent of Republicans who voted in the Mississippi primary runoff election between incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R) said they would back the Confederate side if there was another Civil War.

The poll, obtained by TPM, is full of goodies for poll geeks. Of those polled, including Democrats and Republicans, 50 percent said they would support the United States while 29 percent said they would support the Confederate States of America.

Broken down by party affiliation, 82 percent of Democrats said they would support the United States while just 9 percent said they would support the Confederate States of America. Among Republicans, 37 percent said they would support the Confederate States of America while 41 percent said they would support the United States. Another 21 percent of Republicans said they weren't sure while 9 percent of Democrats said they weren't sure.

PPP's poll was conducted among 501 Republican primary voters from July 10 to 13. All those surveyed said they voted in the Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

Sadly, in Mississippi, even 9% of Democrats would as well. Wonder if there are poll numbers from other states.

THEN I read the comments after this bit of info.

The lovely and talented bluestatedon, whoever s/he may be, suggested this in the comments section at TPM:

If the Democrats in D.C. had any brains or balls, Reid and Pelosi would introduce a joint resolution that openly repudiates and castigates the pro-Confederacy tilt among Mississippi Republicans. The purpose of such a move would be totally symbolic in a nakedly partisan way that would generate a great deal of attention, and none of it would be good for the Republican Party.

The advantages of introducing a well-crafted resolution accrue regardless of what the GOPers in Congress do. Boehner would very likely never allow such a resolution to come to a vote in the House, which would simply provide the Democratic Party with the opportunity to rightly and loudly accuse the Republican Party as a whole of sympathizing with seditionists and traitors within its own ranks, and more importantly, communicate this information to the minority members of its own base.

If, by some miracle, Republicans actually voted for such a measure, it would deepen the existing fissures between establishment Republicans and the teabaggers who are currently running the ideological show in the GOP.

It's time for liberals to make a stand for liberal values in the House. This could also be a "teaching moment" for Americans, many of whom have been brainwashed by homeschooling religious hate propaganda, as well as brittle academics who can't find the pulse of history, with facetious arguments that the Civil War was about economics, as tho no humans were involved.

Slavery was economics for every nation that practiced it, and, even more to the point - if you were a slave or an abolitionist at that time, no matter what the privileged elite may say, the civil war was about ending slavery in this nation. History isn't just about those wielding power, even tho they think it is.

It was NEVER about "states rights" as some ethereal political concept because the state right that was at issue was slavery. So, a state's right argument needs to be recognized for what it is: a pro-slavery, white supremacist argument.

Then, let Boehner and other Republican members of the House discuss this issue. Ask if they agree with Republicans on record who've stated "slavery wasn't so bad..."

Republicans do this crap like "impeachment" all the time. It's time for Democrats to fight back with an issue of unity - the Union, not the former Confederate states that make up the bulk of support for the Republican Party. A diverse union - not uniform, but united.

I don't mean union with Republicans - at least not those who control the party now.

GO AFTER REPUBLICANS on the floor of the House and ask why they tout state's rights but take so much federal money - Republicans need to acknowledge that the Federal govt. is essential to their lives because they refuse to govern responsibly and raise taxes to pay for things their states need and, therefore, liberals are paying for conservative irresponsibility - or conservatives are simply violating human rights by denying health care to poor people in their states.

The era of two parties who have disagreements but then kiss-kiss after the laws are passed is over and has been since the Bush Jr. years. It's only gotten worse and it will only get worse because the tea baggers are putting candidates in the House. So, time for Democratic politicians to school them on their responsibility to the Union and tell them to make their support for the Union public and on the record.

Well, I'd support this.