I'm not looking to start a flame war here, but to discuss the current events regarding Lott & the Republican Party's quandry over "the race issue".

I paraphrased the title of an article at Time.com which is "Lott, Reagan and Republican Racism". The article is now being widely distributed on the internet, but this is the link I'm using:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,399921,00.html

This is how the article opens:

"Here's some advice for Republicans eager to attract more African-American supporters: don't stop with Trent Lott. Blacks won't take their commitment to expanding the party seriously until they admit that the GOP's wrongheadedness about race goes way beyond Lott and infects their entire party. The sad truth is that many Republican leaders remain in a massive state of denial about the party's four-decade-long addiction to race-baiting. They won't make any headway with blacks by bashing Lott if they persist in giving Ronald Reagan a pass for his racial policies.

The same could be said, of course, about such Republican heroes as, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon or George Bush the elder, all of whom used coded racial messages to lure disaffected blue collar and Southern white voters away from the Democrats. Yet it's with Reagan, who set a standard for exploiting white anger and resentment rarely seen since George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door, that the Republican's selective memory about its race-baiting habit really stands out."

While the Democrats certainly have plenty of blood on their hands in our nation's racist history, there are some historic facts that, at this point, can't be overlooked. The first is to look at the history of desegregation of the South, and the civil rights movement. Which party spearheaded the movement for social change in this regard? Not the Republicans. The Republican party took in the disenchanted and dispossessed segregationist Dixiecrats, and made ove the party of Linconln, into a party for white Americans.

While Democrats are still not above using race baiting to win elections, it is becoming an increasingly rare tactic, as it is considered too taboo, and for good reason of course. But the reason why I'm posting this, is because there really is so little Democratic Party "official" criticism of Lott, despite what the whiny wing of the conservative Republican Party claims. The attacks being leveled at Lott and the Republican Party are coming from within--from conservatives fearing that they have lost what they believed was a moral high ground for their conservative, war on everybody agenda, and from Republicans under the age of 40, who appear to be fucking clueless as to the realities of segregated Southern life today, and who have been so brainwashed by their Northern and Southern Republican elders on issues like affirmative action, the Confederate flag, and voting rights, that they don't even believe that racial discrimination continues to be a problem.

Despite all the high falutin' talk about "race healing" going round in Republican circles this week, I remain very skeptical about the Republican Party's ability to redeem itself in this regard.