I wonder how many conservatives think slavery was/is a good idea?

[Cyrano]

What kicked off this thought was this week's conservative idiot #9, State Senator Nancy Schaefer of Georgia. She made the idiot's list by saying that 50 million abortions a year in this country were depriving us of a source of cheap labor. That's not an exact quote, but you can read the posting for yourself on today's home page.

So how did I get from there to slavery? Here's how. Until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the South was virtually 100% Democratic. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Act, he told an aide, "This will cost us the South for generations to come." And sure as hell, the South is now one of the strongholds of Republican conservatism.

Along came Richard Nixon with his "Southern Strategy" which was code for, "Vote Republican. We'll keep 'Them' in their place." And today, racism is still a major weapon in the GOP's bag of dirty tricks.

Given this background, I read Senator Nancy Schaefer's comments and wondered how many conservative wingnuts believe that slavery was, and still is, a good idea. After all, is it really that big a jump from cheap labor to slave labor?

Ongoing battles over the confederate flag; voter disenfranchisement; racial profiling: These things and much more still go on today and it's all about black and white. And it's not limited to the South.

I am not saying that every conservative thinks that slavery is a dandy idea. But I am saying that, IMO, a hell of a lot of them do. What do you think?

(And please, don't let this degenerate into a thread for bashing Southerners. Wingnut bigots are not limited to any one region of the country. It's a nationwide plague which the Republican party feeds, and from which they benefit greatly.)

[BuyingThyme]

1. Pretty much all of them. Outside of racism or greed, can you think of

ONE reason for being a Republican.

[Selatius]

2. First off, you're using the wrong debate framing. Use this instead:

"Decreasing production costs."

What's cheaper than free labor? It's certainly very cheap to get the Chinese government to hand over its prisoners in forced labor camps to make your products than it is to hire workers and pay them wages, offer health care packages, pensions, etc. With free labor, you don't have to worry about any of this, and you get to pocket more money because of decreased "production costs."

I'll tell you what, if I was a greedy bastard, I'd try to get as close to "0" as possible. In my mind, "60 cents/hour" is getting pretty damn close, and that's the average wage in China. Pretty damn impressive for capitalism, no?

[genie_weenie]

6. Your post was a very well phrased and cogent

description of the situation. Thanks for the excellent viewpoint/idea.

[FSogol]

3. All of them. State's rights and market forces. n/t

[Sammy Pepys]

4. 50 million abortions a year?

That sounds a bit high to me....is that the actual figure?

[Cyrano]

7. Don't know. She said it, not me.

[alittlelark]

15. Not the actual figure... OP said as much

I believe it is @1 mill. +/- per year.... slightly higher (25%) than the pre-Roe v Wade #'s. Those in the Pre-Roe vs Wade were documented through medical emergencies and personal statements.

[Faygo Kid]

5. You must have missed Mrs. Ferguson, just last week

Link follows:

March 13th, 2006
God’s Freedom through Slavery: A View from the Great Peninsula

Adele Ferguson, a political columnist for the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal, waxes philosophical over the question, “Why do blacks continue to support Democrats?”

Ms. Ferguson is a real piece of…um…work. Her essay is a muddled racist rant in which she enlightens us as to God’s true purpose behind slavery:

One of these days before I die, I hope to see a shift in the attitudes of so many of my black brothers and sisters in this great country we share, from perpetual victimhood, to pride in their achievements on the road from slave to American citizen.

Remember Ronald Reagan’s story about the kid who had to shovel a huge pile of manure? He went about it with such joy he was asked why and said, “With all that manure, there’s got to be a pony in there somewhere.”

The pony hidden in slavery is the fact that it was the ticket to America for black people. I have long urged blacks to consider their presence here as the work of God, who wanted to bring them to this raw, new country and used slavery to achieve it. A harsh life, to be sure, but many immigrants suffered hardships and indignations as indentured servants. Their descendants rose above it. You don’t hear them bemoaning their forebears’ life the way some blacks can’t rise above the fact theirs were slaves. . . http://hominidviews.com/?p=259

[Selatius]

12. Slavery is not an "act of God." That's absurd at face value.

It doesn't take magic or divine powers to enslave a population, chain them down, and subjugate them. It takes brute force, terror, and weapons. Slavery is something borne from the hands of man, not the hands of God. There is nothing divine or righteous about that at all.

Also, there is a difference between being forced into slavery and indentured servitude. One is the result of somebody else's actions. The other is usually the result of the choice of the individual to enter into such a relationship, usually because of socio-economic reasons. One is involuntary. The other--it can be argued--is voluntary.

[demigoddess]

13. they used to quote the bible to justify slavery

when I was in high school in the south(hotbed for republican) now this was during kennedy administration, but alot of bigoted southerners went from the dems to the republicans when Johnson signed the civil rights bill.

First they will take away women's rights and then go after black people. And blame t all on the bible.

[BOSSHOG]

8. Part of the "conservative" states rights platform

Pro Slavery, ban gay marriage, ban abortion. Let the state's take care of these issues. However, if a state, say Louisiana has a caveat in their state laws which allows for a declaration of an emergency, lets say if a hurricane hit, and the declaration would allow for the control of firearms, then fuck the states and their rights, we have to seek guidance from NRA on how to change our state constitution to confirm with "conservative" wisdom.

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. They think it is OK, but only if it is outsourced

to slave labor in other countries. Keeps prices at MegaLoMart low.

[WiseButAngrySara]

10. Thought-provoking post. n/t

[warrens]

11. Some think they should be free

But kept in ghettos, given third-class educations, and kept in reserve to undercut wages if whites get to uppity.

[Maru Kitteh]

14. When we lived in Raleigh, NC my husband had to take a temporary job

keeping grounds at a massive golf course. It was one of the worst jobs of his life but that's beside the point. His supervisors were all white and all rabid foaming at the mouth pukes. My was the only white guy on the crew. His supervisors all treated the everyone on the crew like utter human garbage, except for him. They went out of their way to be nice to my husband and to assure him that when they called the crew worthless or otherwise yelled at or insulted them they certainly didn't mean him.

Would they be happy with slavery? Certainly.