Segregation De Facto instead of Dejure

An excellent post by Carpetbagger and the Master Economist Paul Krugman spells out an ugly truth that dare not be spoken among my Republican friends, the Southern Strategy.

When the modern GOP was formed almost 50 years ago from the remnants of the old Dixiecrat party, it was perfectly cool to support segregation by law.

The modern GOP has not abandoned this idea, but society moved on, and naked racism is simply not acceptable. The solution for the GOP was a stealth campaign to disguise the party’s actual intent.

Instead of a poll tax to keep African Americans from voting, you now have a voter ID law. Since you can no longer lock up large segments of the minority population for the crime of looking at white women, you switch to racist drug laws (even though the majority of illegal drugs are used by whites).

And while it would be great if you could simply prevent minorities from getting an education, DE Facto segregation works just as good as De Jure (see recent Supreme Court decision : Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1) .

The Rubberstamp Morphs into a Road Block

Your old Commander is back after a month of training for his new job. Maybe I can keep this blog up on a regular basis (I may also win the Mega Millions Jackpot).

The Carpetbagger links to an excellent article by the Washington Monthly reporter Kevin Drum on the morphing of the Rethugs from Rubber Stamp:


to the Roadblock:

As pointed out by Margaret Talev at the McClatchy Newspapers:

This year Republicans also have blocked votes on immigration legislation, a no-confidence resolution for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and major legislation dealing with energy, labor rights and prescription drugs.

Nearly 1 in 6 roll-call votes in the Senate this year have been cloture votes. If this pace of blocking legislation continues, this 110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous record number of cloture votes — 58 each in the two Congresses from 1999-2002, according to the Senate Historical Office.

Government by obstruction, or poisoning the well. It is an elegant political ploy to attempt to hold up the D's as a do nothing Congress. And thanks to the enabling by our pundit class / mediawhores / presstitutes, it may succeed:

September 20, 2007

Congress Approval Rises Slightly to 24%
Gain almost entirely due to improved ratings from Republicans

by Lydia Saad

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's 2007 polling from January through August chronicled a nearly relentless decline in public approval of the job Congress is doing. However, after sinking to a record-tying low of 18% last month, Congress approval has rebounded to 24% -- the largest one-month increase in support for Congress seen since the Democrats took majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January.