T. Scott:
Most probably, the high point in American History was seen in those years immediately after the ending of World War II. Its own territory never under serious threat from any quarter, Americans rose to defend freedom throughout the world. While American blood was shed across the troubled globe and tens of thousands of young American men found their final resting place in wonderfully beautiful and inspiring military cemeteries across the globe, as soon as the conflict was ended, America began to erase the damage of war and rebuild the nations it had bested on the field of battle, an act never seen on the planet we call Earth. The cost of repairing infrastructure damage was in the billions of dollars and this was cheerfully spend by an America that just knew their course of action was the right one – that this course of action honored our military as well as the military of the opposition – that America was a truly benevolent Christian nation and honored this tradition openly for all the world to see.
Few remember and as history does not teach well, most Americans are not aware of the colossal act of pure bigotry launched by Franklin Roosevelt at the onset of World War II. With virtually no exception, Japanese Americans – some third and fourth generation citizens – were rounded up and herded into Internment Camps all caused by Roosevelt’s use of Executive Orders. Countless innocent people lost everything, jobs, businesses and property.It became clear that Roosevelt intended to apply his sanctions against Japanese Americans, not the many Italian or German Americans living in this nation.This action was simply an open act of bigotry at the highest level of government , but it was not to be the only example.
Soon after the cessation of hostilities, returning veterans were hailed as true heroes and soon found their way into the educational opportunities offered by a grateful government as others found the way to home ownership was opened wide by various lending bills enacted by a nation proud of all veterans.
For those black people who served, another vestige of the sordid past was removed as the black family emerged as a solid group, their children were more warmly received across the nation( except in the deep, highly Democrat South) and while there were still hurdles to overcome, the pathway was wide and welcoming, well, almost. Higher educational goals beckoned and were eagerly filled with young black men who had served their nation proudly and were eager to take forward steps using the GI Bill and to take their place as productive members of society. Where new laws opened doors, southerners, in the main, found new ways to shut those doors resorting to hateful events that clearly showed the Southern Democrat was not about to consider any of those people of color as equal. A pronouncement coming from the pen of Harry Truman in a letter to his wife, ” I think that one man is as good as another so long as he’s not a n*gger or a Chinaman ”
showed all that there were deep-seated problems here and there.While America had donned its ‘benefactor” robe as it mounted great effort to rebuild war damage around the globe, and while many here at home tasted new freedoms as the many programs to benefit veterans took hold, in the deep south, all was not well and racial strife often reared its ugly head in unexpected places. In his infamous ‘ court-packing’, Roosevelt appointed two ardent segregationists, Jimmy Byrnes and Hugo Black to the Supreme Court where both continued their activities as race haters and ardent supporters of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Byrd of West Virginia, proud of his Klan membership, carried his hate through his career even venturing to use the ” n “word in March 2001 as he was a guest of the Tony Snow Sunday news program – an event hardly noted by the media who, by this time, were totally blind to many democrat actions, politics and their litany of hate.
And, there were more, many more, Hollings of South Carolina, Jesse Jackson , Al Sharpton, Dick Gephardt, and Andrew Cuomo, Dan Rather, just to name a few.
The Civil Rights Movement saw opposition from Democrats and support from Republicans – where voting records clearly show that in 26 major civil rights issues, Republicans favored some 96 % of those actions where protected Democrats opposed some 80 % of those votes and yet, with the aid of a media system never addicted to the truth, America is constantly told that all credit for the civil rights bills passed belongs to the Democrats. Facts show that it was Democrats who led the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, among them Byrd, Fulbright, Gore, Erwin and Russell. Forty percent of House Democrats voted against the Civil Rights Act while 80 % of the Republicans supported it. When the Voting Rights Act of 1965 came up, it was supported by 82% of House Republicans and 94 % of Senate Republicans, the solid block of Southern Democrats voting against the bill. When the final Civil Rights Act came before Congress, it was the tireless work of Senator Dirksen and Representative Kuchel who championed the bill and were able to exert enough pressure on the severely divided Democrats to pass the bill Republican President Eisenhower signed the bill.
Overt racism is still with us, Harry Reid commented that Obama has no negro dialect, Biden stated , ” I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy.” Topping the list is a quote from a Johnson conversation with several governors, ” I’ll have those n*ggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.”
Please, let us not forget the big three of school integration, Maddox of Georgia, Wallace of Alabama and Faubus of Arkansas, a Clinton hero who use police and state forces to block segregation of a school in Little Rock – the standoff settled after intervention by then president, Eisenhower, a Republican.
Clearly, racial strife is alive and well in America, the fires liberally stoked by Southern Democrats, aided and abetted by judges who had no thought of correctly enforcing the law while the leading source for citizen awareness, our system of media, conveniently blinds itself as it sings the same old song that the democrats are the party of the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden.
Fifty years of the LBJ Great Society and America should be smiling, happy and standing far above all other nations in any manner of measure possible. Look at where we are ! Our young have been denied progressive education by unions that, frankly, don’t really care about those in their care as long as the union benefits continue to rise. Test scores illustrate that the learning abilities of our young have literally fallen off of a cliff as American children trail 17 other, some third-world, nations. The really sad aspect is that well-taught children can take and hold good jobs, giving them a sense of accomplishment and reason to seek personal improvement in a world that seems to have lost hope for the masses.
