Richard Nixon: ‘This is the future of this party, right here in the South.'

[seafan]

“We got too many Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns. It’s the Southerners. They get on TV and go, ‘Errrr, errrrr.’ People hear them and say, ‘These people, they’re Southerners. The party’s being taken over by Southerners. What they hell they got to do with Ohio?’ ” ---Ohio Sen. George Voinovich, on the state of the Republican Party

Kathleen Parker translates:

'Those ignorant, right-wing, Bible-thumping rednecks are ruining the party.'

Southerners weighing heavily on Republican Party

By KATHLEEN PARKER
Aug. 4, 2009

.....

Not all Southern Republicans are wing nuts. Nor does the GOP have a monopoly on ignorance or racism. And, the South, for all its sins, is also lush with beauty, grace and mystery. Nevertheless, it is true that the GOP is fast becoming regionalized below the Mason-Dixon, and becoming increasingly associated with some of the South's worst ideas.

It is not helpful (or surprising) that “birthers” — conspiracy theorists who have convinced themselves that Barack Obama is not a native son — have assumed kudzu qualities among Republicans in the South. In a poll commissioned by the liberal blog, Daily Kos, participants were asked: “Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?”
Hefty majorities in the Northeast, Midwest and West believe Obama was born in the U.S. But in the land of cotton, where old times are not by God forgotten, only 47 percent believe Obama was born in America and 30 percent aren't sure. Southern Republicans, it seems, have seceded from sanity.

Though Voinovich's views may be shared by others in the party, it's a tad late — not to mention ungrateful — to indict the South. Republicans have been harvesting Southern votes for decades from seeds strategically planted during the Civil Rights era. When Lyndon B. Johnson predicted in 1965 that the Voting Rights Act meant the South would go Republican for the next 50 years, he wasn't just whistling Dixie.

A telling anecdote recounted by Pat Buchanan to New Yorker writer George Packer last year captures the dark spirit that still hovers around the GOP. In 1966 Buchanan and Richard Nixon were at the Wade Hampton Hotel in Columbia, S.C., where Nixon worked a crowd into a frenzy: “Buchanan recalls that the room was full of sweat, cigar smoke and rage; the rhetoric, which was about patriotism and law and order, ‘burned the paint off the walls.' As they left the hotel, Nixon said, ‘This is the future of this party, right here in the South.' ”

That same rage was on display again in the fall of 2008, but this time the frenzy was stimulated by a pretty gal with a mocking little wink. Sarah Palin may not have realized what she was doing, but Southerners heard the dog whistle.
The curious Republican campaign of 2008 may have galvanized a conservative Southern base, but it also repelled others who simply bolted and ran the other way. Whatever legitimate concerns the GOP may historically have represented were suddenly overshadowed by a sense of a resurgent Old South and all the attendant pathologies of festering hate and fear.

What the GOP is experiencing now, one hopes, are the death throes of that 50-year spell that Johnson foretold. But before the party of the Great Emancipator can rise again, Republicans will have to face their inner Voinovich and drive a stake through the heart of old Dixie.

The only stakes that need to be driven home are those through the black hearts of these bigoted, hate-filled monsters who would pit American against American in the land of beauty, grace and mystery.

[BlooInBloo]

1. He certainly nailed it with that quote.

:rofl:

[Xipe Totec]

2. Nixon should have read a little more history

to find out why so many southern state flags have that curious red cross.

The Spanish Cross of Burgundy and variants was probably the most common banner displayed on land and sea in New Spain, particularly by the Spanish military.



After Castile and Aragon were united to form Spain in 1516, Charles I's royal banner was the country's only flag. By 1520, Spain had adopted a new national flag, as shown above. The saltire design, known as the Cross of Burgundy, was a symbol of Philip I, Duke of Burgundy and father of Charles I, who became Spain's king in 1516.

There were many versions of this flag, but in its most simple form consisted of a red saltire (diagonal cross) on a field of white. Actually, the design was supposed to represent two crossed branches, the extension on either side representing bases of limbs which have been cut off, and a few Cross of Burgundy flags actually do show limbs. Variants of the Burgundy cross flag--principally versions with smooth-edged saltires--became widely used by the Spanish military on both land and sea

http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/s...

This was the flag of Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, Juan Ponce de Leon, and other Spanish conquerors. Hence, this is the flag under which Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for the King of Spain.

ETA: In the end, Republicans will lose the South for good.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. Those flags are actually believed

to have been derived from a St. Andrew's Cross, or Saltire.

"Saltires are also seen in several other flags, including the flags of Grenada, Jamaica, Alabama, Florida, Jersey, Amsterdam, Potchefstroom and Valdivia. The design is also part of the Confederate Battle Flag and Naval Jack used during the American Civil War (see Flags of the Confederate States of America). William Porcher Miles, designer of the Confederate Battle Flag never claimed it to be a St. Andrew's cross design, but rather a heraldic saltire without religious symbolism."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltire

[Xipe Totec]

5. All are predated by the Spanish cross of Burgundy

unless you can find something with that cross prior to 1500's

Grenada, Jamaica, Alabama, Florida, were Spanish dominions at some point.

PS: St Andrews cross is white on a blue background.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

According to this site, the Spanish flag was adapted from the St. Andrew's Cross. http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/andrew.html The color was changed many times by different people. It was originally adopted by a Scottish tribe. I have heard from historians my whole life that the flags were derived from the Cross of St. Andrew. A friend of mine called some local historians he knows and they agree with me.


Confederate Flag


Scotland


Ireland


England

---------------


Union Flag

The St. Andrew's Cross is seen on the American Confederate flag, showing the Scottish lineage of many Southerners. On this flag it is known as the Southern Cross. It is also seen on several national flags. For example the white cross on a blue background as the flag of Scotland, and a red cross on a white background as St. Patrick's Cross of the Irish. Both of these crosses were superimposed on England's red cross on a white background, St. George's Cross, to give the United Kingdom's Union Flag ('Union Jack') (...often taught to Boy Scouts as something that might be useful to know one day. They are also taught how this cross is used in mathematics to multiply numbers)

[Xipe Totec]

7. Without a date, we will have to agree to disagree

Do check, however, the earliest settlement date in the USA:

St. Augustine was founded in 1565, 42 years before the English colonized Jamestown and 55 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Spanish explorer Admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles established this presidio against British expansion from the north. The city is the oldest, continuously-occupied European settlement in the continental United States.

http://www.uwec.edu/geography/ivogeler/w188/south/st.augustine/staugustine.htm

[Lex]

4. They better hurry, they lost NC, Virginia, and Florida in the last round.

They are bleeding states in the South.

The Repuke party is(sub)regional at this point. Deep South (excluding FL).