The Slave Party, Once Again?

[genius]

This is an excellent article about why the flag comment was so offensive both to civil rights activists within the Democratic Party and to African Americans.

It's very informative. It also has some good things to say about Kucinich, Edwards, Kerry and Sharpton. I like Natasha's copyright comment. It really nails the Republicans.



http://debateusa.com/featured/hull_richter.htm

The Slave Party, Once Again?
By Natasha H. (age 12)

For the most part, Germany has distanced itself from Adolph Hitler and the Nazis just as the Democratic Party has distanced itself from racism and slavery. Still it would be insensitive at best and racist at worst for a German to reach out to a swastika just as it would be insensitive at best and racist at worst for a Democrat to reach out to the Confederate battle flag. Likewise to try to spin such a thing as a positive step or as inclusiveness is also insensitive or racist.

There is a copyright notice at the bottom of this article. Let me strengthen this. No Republican may reproduce or quote this article in whole or in part in any forum as Republicans have a tendency to lie, misquote and twist the words of the Democrats whenever they discuss the Democratic Party or members thereof. Correction: Republicans may copy the following sentence and only the following sentence from this article. The last slaveholder to become President of the United States was Ulysses S. Grant, A REPUBLICAN. <1>

...

[sandnsea]

1. agree or disagree...

this little girl kicks some serious butt. What a dynamo! I'm glad she's on OUR side!

[a_lil_wall_fly]

8. No kidding

The kid has some serious skills of the written word.

[JI7]

16. yup

i don't think i could write something as good and detailed and informative at 12. she seems to knows a lot more than MOST people older than her.

[redqueen]

2. She is AMAZING

I wish more ADULTS had her insight and courage.

[Kolesar]

3. That "confederate flag on pickup trucks" thing is way overblown.

and I am sick of hearing it.

[Bucky]

11. But it matters

The fact that he said it, the fact that he thinks that he's come up with something novel--when in fact Democrats have been getting clobbered in the South by trying to create an economic alliance between working class whites and blacks for 25 years--reveals what a tin ear Dean has for electoral politics outside of his New England sphere.

[Kolesar]

15. Racism is one of the most powerful forces in American politics

The gop has successfully appealed to the darker instincts in Southern white voters to make them focus on how much they hate the blacks and wish to keep them down while at the same time providing those same Southern white voters with nothing in return for their votes.

[alexwcovington]

4. Youthful commentary WASTED, Ignored until you hear something you like...

It does not speak well when young people are only heard on the frivolities of the day.

Young people are writing about pretty much everything these days and it pretty much all goes up online for all to see. Yet you only take note when it jumps up and down on some sorry attack against an overwhelmingly decent candidate for president.

The research was good and the writing was solid. I'm sure this person has a lot better material out there.

[genius]

5. Natasha had the courage to mention the Margie Shoedinger matter

In view of what happened to Margie, Natasha's got a lot of courage. Why aren't the Democrats going after Bush for this one?

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. I am African American and I was not offended

I know what Dean was getting at. He said something very similar earlier in the year, and no one raised a peep. I guess it was only offensive when coming form someone who was beating them.

[genius]

7. I'm sure Clarence Thomas wasn't offended either

It's time African Americans are treated with more respect from the Democratic Party. If the Democratic Party wants African American votes, it should earn it. BTW, a lot of Jews supported Hitler and turned in their relatives.

[Jerseycoa]

9. I missed something

Where do Jews come into this?

"BTW, a lot of Jews supported Hitler and turned in their relatives."

This is mindless antisemitism, as bad as mindless racism.

A lot of Africans supported the slave trade and sold their relatives.

See how it works?

[Bucky]

10. Actually, your sarcasm is not far off from the truth

A lot of Africans supported the slave trade and sold their relatives.

It's doubtful that that happened very often, but in fact a lot of the source for the slave trade originated with Africans selling Africans to Arabs, Europeans, and other Africans.

Slaves-to-be weren't just nabbed out of their homes at night by wandering marauders. The people kidnapped, sold, and shipped off to their enslavement (or death) were frequently war prisoners, criminals (great way to empty out the prisons), debtees, political rivals, or people already enslaved temporarily (slavery in West African society was a temporary condition with usually specified time limits).

[Jerseycoa]

12. Yes

I was being truthful as well as sarcastic.

[genius]

13. Sorry, your way off base with your reaction and blindly ignorant.

My comment was based on information received at family discussions about what happened in Germany. Based on your reaction, you apparently assumed neither I nor anyone in my family is Jewish.

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Dean is doing very well with African Americans

He garnering more support from African Americans in DC than any other candidate according to the latest poll.

http://www.wtop.com/?sid=146197&nid=213

In fact, he has just as much support as Sharpton and Braun COMBINED. Clarence Thomsas may not be very popular with African Americans, but Howard Dean is.

[Kolesar]

17. I don't care if the author is 12 years old, she is full of shit

Let me cover the minor stuff:

1. I hate the page because it is hard to read with the tiny print and the grey hash obscuring the right margin.

Now the major stuff:

2. Most of the history lesson in that page is wholly irrelevant padding.

3. Senator Kerry is definitely stretching it saying that Dean's remark is related to the NRA. Dean did not say anything about the NRA, he said, "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks."

I have read this sentence by Mr. Kerry several times and it does not make sense :

"Howard Dean is justifying his pandering to the NRA by saying his opposition to an assault weapons ban allows him to pander to lovers of the Confederate flag.

Again...per Mr. Kerry, Howard Dean said in effect "(my) opposition to the assault weapons ban allows (me) to pander to lovers of the Confederate flag" (?!). So, by Mr. Kerry's logic, Dean's "goal" is to "pander" to lovers of the Confederate flag. Given that (as Mr. Kerry's stated), Dean pandered to them on the assault weapons ban, he can further pander to them. So, what is this "further pandering" that Dean is offering those guys? Health-care-for-all that they are always talking about and that they have always been dreaming of? More vinyl Confederate battle flag stickers? Well, what?

4. Her tying Dean's remark to the Nazis is an even bigger stretch than Mr. Kerry's remark. I find it objectionable. One of the DUers started a thread with this thesis and it was locked as flamebait in matter of scant hours, I will add.

5. I have listened to Dean's stump speech several times, and I think I know what he is getting at. The white southern man has been voting for the republicans for decades and it has yielded them nothing except divisive feel bad rhetoric on race and religion.

Let me elaborate: What would yield the white southern man some gain would be to vote for someone who would actually get health benefits for the uninsured, the right to organize in the workplace, and other benefits that their republican leaders have fought fiercely.

Folks, please read this. I had been ignoring this Confederate flag topic, but the level of insufferability exceeded my tolerance with Miss Natasha's very-well-footnoted personal article. I had to say something.

[genius]

18. Your blind support of Dean seems to have affected your reading ability

She does not compare Dean to the Nazis. She compares the atrocities of Hitler to the atrocities of slavery and expresses that reaching out to Hitler's symbol or to the symbol of those who fought to maintain slavery are both bad. If you cannot understand why the abuses of slavery were as bad as anything Hitler did, then you clearly know very little about slavery. One of Natasha's best quotes in her article was from Abraham Lincoln. "Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." I can understand how he felt.

Her concerns about Dean seem to be based, not only on his comment abut the flag, but also on his record, which doesn't help his image.

As for health care, if Dean repeats his Vermont record of cutting services for tax cuts to his rich friends, then African Americans probably won't see any improvement in health care services - should Dean get into office. Hopefully, we the Democrats will run someone who is more concerned with health care than with budgets.

From your elaboration, it would appear that the Southern whites should vote for Kucinich as he is the candidate that will best give them those benefits.

[Kolesar]

19. I feel more despair for Kerry than I do blind support for Dean

Especially considering that I am "on the fence" about who I will vote for. I was hoping that by now in the campaign Mr. Kerry would have been demonstrating his great qualifications to the electorate. Instead, he is on the defensive. That assault weapons issue must really be driving Senator Kerry crazy if he feels he has to morph it into an attack on Howard Dean's pickup truck remark.

It was hard to figure out what Natasha's thesis was because she wandered all over the place with her subject.
edit:great

[sandnsea]

21. Nobody listens

Kerry gave the most brilliant speech on foreign policy in years yesterday and all anybody can do is take the name James Baker out of context. Clark releases his 10 promises today, which are excellent, but his fans drool because they don't bother to listen to anybody else and recognize that they're almost the same as a small portion of what Kerry said yesterday. Same with Dean. It's all pointless. The media will annoit the winner, which will probably be Dean. Then they'll annoint Bush and life goes on. It's the media generation and we'll have McPresidents for some time to come.

And having the endorsement of the NRA would have made Democrats flee in recent years, but not with McPresidents. It's all about the buzz. Janeane Garofalo is supporting a candidate who has had the endorsement of the NRA. WTF? And we wonder why the country is in decline.

[1a2b3c]

20. I think you are right on

He wasnt being racist, and i would guess most of the people saying its racist are the same race as Howard Dean. He is trying to reach out to a group that, for some reason, vote for Bush. He is anti more nonsense gun control. This is what MANY people want to see from a democrat, no matter what color or what region of the US or what flag they have hanging in their car. He was just trying to open the democrats up to something other than the few states with the most electoral votes, that seems to be all the democrats are worried about. The east coast and the west coast. All those in between they just dont care. Dean wants to care about all voters.

[genius]

22. Natasha is right. I don't want the KKK in my Party. We can landslide

without them as LBJ did. As Natasha pointed out, for doing the opposite of Dean, LBJ was punished with a landslide victory in 1964. He didn't need the racists and neither does any good candidate who can win without them Dean's problem is that he's so weak in so many areas that he thinks he needs the racists. The real issue is why can't Dean win without racist support. Or do you guys just like the racists?