Health Care and Civil Rights?
Make no bones about it, the enactment of a Health Care Reform Bill is momentous. The “new” Republican Party, formed out of the ashes of Nixon’s resignation fundamentally is opposed to Civil Rights, and has been using race as a wedge issue since Raygun. They have spent the last 40 years trying to obscure that fact – while continuing with policies which are fundamentally anti-minority.They have targeted white resentment, fought against every single remedy – such as Affirmative Action, and sought to return to the days of Jim Crow through stealth legislation.
One of their leaders, and father of the “Contract With America” strategy which propelled Republicans into a majority admits such in a rare slip of the tounge here in an article by the Washington Post –
But former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich said Obama and the Democrats will regret their decision to push for comprehensive reform. Calling the bill “the most radical social experiment . . . in modern times,” Gingrich said: “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” with the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
In the following clip, Rachael Maddow not only takes that on – but puts context around what the Health Care Reform Bill actually means…
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Btx3's Blog 
nanakwame
March 24, 2010 at 8:21 AM
Before he became Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers told me a story about helping his daughter study for her Advanced Placement exam in American history. While doing so, Mr. Summers realized that the federal government had not passed major social legislation in decades. There was the frenzy of the New Deal, followed by the G.I. Bill, the Interstate Highway System, civil rights and Medicare — and then nothing worth its own section in the history books.
Now there is.
Economic Scene
In Health Care Bill, Obama Attacks Wealth Inequality
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: March 23, 2010
Look at the article big man – it has a pdf on taxes in the Age of Reagan, that verifies your facts since I have met you. Why do folks want to compare 1960’s with 2010, after a decade of falling disposal incomes is just amazing s_t
LikeLike
btx3
March 24, 2010 at 9:48 AM
It is a fundamental change, Nana – and the follow on bills in Financial Reform, Education, and Immigration are going to flush the last vestiges of Raygun down the toilet. Here is a link to the article.
LikeLike
nanakwame
March 24, 2010 at 8:25 AM
Gingrich is doing damage control, the Donkey lost b/c there top White Males Polticans of the South, went into the GOP as to divide themselves from the black party. Let us stop kidding ourselves. They are still using that, it is not going to work this time. The so-called black and white issues are dying quickly.
LikeLike
btx3
March 24, 2010 at 9:53 AM
It’s deeper than that – the politics of white male resentment can’t generate the numbers to win in the current environment. That crossover, in terms of numbers was in 2008. As such, if the Republican Party doesn’t broaden it’s base…
It dies.
LikeLike