Gingrich: Civil Rights Laws Weren’t Worth the Political Price

[kpete]

Gingrich: Civil Rights Laws Weren’t Worth the Political Price
By Mike Lillis 3/21/10 12:21 PM

Of the many reasons to oppose health care reform, this is probably the worst. From today’s Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/20/AR2010032003349.html?sid=ST2010032001699

Former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich said Obama and the Democrats will regret their decision to push for comprehensive reform. Calling the bill “the most radical social experiment . . . in modern times,” Gingrich said: “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” with the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

http://washingtonindependent.com/79850/gingrich-civil-rights-laws-werent-worth-the-political-price#more-79850

[treestar]

1. Not one to follow Gringich logic, but how the f does he figure

the Democratic party was "shattered for 40 years?"

:rofl:

[booley]

21. technically he's right

The GOP capitalized on anger from pro-segregationists to eventually capture the South.

It was called the southernization strategy.

OF course this also why it's called morality, not convenience.

So in saying this, Gringich makes a factual statement in regards to the 64 civil rights law... but also shows the true colors of the GOP.

They would prefer people suffer then risk their power.

[tallahasseedem]

2. They aren't even trying to hide their racism now...

my lord.

[The Wielding Truth]

3. He'll find out when he's in the old white man minority.

[Number23]

4. lol Don't you just love ol' Newt's "concern?"

"The lengthy and rancorous debate has inflicted considerable damage on the president and his party. It helped spark the grass-roots "tea party" movement and generated angry town hall meetings last summer that led to some opponents painting Obama as a socialist and a communist for advocating a greater government role in the health-care industry. The issue now is whether final passage of the legislation -- Senate leaders say they will take up the reconciliation bill this week -- will cause more harm or begin a turnaround in the Democrats' fortunes heading toward the November midterm elections."

He'll cry RIVERS if this hurts the Democrats. RIVERS. :eyes:

[JDPriestly]

5. Wow! So, Gingrich exposed for the racist he is.

What was the alternative, Newt? Aren't you from Georgia? Don't you remember Jim Crow?

I'm white, and I lived in Alabama in the 1950s. Segregation was ugly, really, really, really ugly. You didn't have to be African-American to see how ugly it was, to feel how ugly it was, to have compassion for the many beautiful people who just happened to have been born a slightly different color than you.

Gingrich's statements show that he has no ability to empathize with others. He lacks imagination. He can't walk in anybody's shoes but his own.

Gingrich is not just disabled by his hate and prejudice. That much-despised word "crippled" is the only word for what him. He is spiritually "crippled." He simply cannot feel what is beyond his own skin. I do not use the word "crippled" lightly.

I have known people with serious physical disabilities who had so much spirit, who achieved so much no matter their apparent limits. They were disabled, not "crippled." Gingrich has no apparent physical disabilities. His disability is spiritual -- and that kind of disability is crippling. A person with a spiritual disability can achieve nothing of value. That's Gingrich. Everything he strives for is without meaning.

[Control-Z]

16. Really well said.

Thank you.

[WCGreen]

19. I think he went to sixth grade with Jim...

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Newt, your 15 minutes were up a DECADE ago! STFU!! nt

[dsc]

7. that is a pretty unfair reading

you left out the following:

No one doubts that Johnson was right to push for those civil rights measures. And he was well aware of the potential damage they would do to a Democratic Party that was then a coalition including whites and African Americans, liberals from the North and conservative segregationists from the South.

I am no fan of Ginrich but the OP is pretty unfair to him.

[daleo]

18. So, Newt thinks it is a mistake to do what's right

No surprise there.

[dsc]

20. the word mistake doesn't appear

[daleo]

22. He say Democrats will regret HCR

To say something will be regretted is to imply it is a mistake.

You will regret dropping out of school.
You will regret marrying him or her.
You will regret smoking.
You will regret voting for Bush.

You get the idea.

When people make a morally correct but difficult choice they usually say "I don't regret it, because it was the right thing to do".

[Initech]

8. Um... fuck him.

[Swamp Rat]

9. That statement is proof that Newt Gingrich is quite simply a racist and a bigot.

His white sheet and hood have finally come off.

[Cha]

10. We did what was true and we were bound to win.

Hacks like gingrich just spout off crap to appeal to bigoted racist assholes.

[gratuitous]

11. Thank you for your concern, Mr. Gingrich

Perhaps you would be better served telling us all something you know a little more about. How to have a successful marriage comes to mind.

[Dappleganger]

12. In today's words of Rep. Alcee Hastings...

"Well call me a radical!"

FU and your immoral minority, Mr. Hypocrite.

[Arkana]

13. Yeah, Newt--cause civil rights laws weren't worth it.

You pathetic, lying little worm.

[MicaelS]

14. According to "legend" Johnson did make the comment...

''We have lost the South for a generation."

And, IMO, that is pretty much what happened. If not for Nixon and Watergate, I really don't think Carter would have been elected. And I think much of the appeal toward the "Reagan Democrats" was based on race, like the idea of "welfare queens and their Cadillacs". So from 1964 or 1968 to Clinton's election in 1992 was a generation.

What Gingrich is really saying, is that winning elections and thus maintaining power, is more important than committing the morally correct act.

[Uncle Joe]

15. Gingrich wants this bill to pass, so he puts up a false premise, knowing

that Civil rights laws are popular today, particularly with Democrats and most Independents.

Civil Rights Laws worked to equalize society, not to subsidize and cement in to American Society an immoral, illogical, fiscally irresponsible industry based on profiting from the American People's injury, illness and death.

There is no moral equivalency between Civil Right Laws and the for profit "health" insurance industry and Gingrich knows it.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[reggie the dog]

17. I don't think this will divide the democratic party as much as

when the dixiecrats left. most people who vote democrat are closer to the center than me,so even if this tempts me to vote green out of protest that the health care refome bill sucks most people who vote democrat will still vote democrat.

gingrich remembers the days when racists voted democrat and laments the time, that means that he is economically on the left but racist. his racism, and probably the racism of most working class who vote republican, is what gets them to vote against their own economic interests..........

[cynatnite]

23. Thank you, Mr. Gingrich!

I love it when repukes insure their party will remain in the minority.

[besdayz]

24. pea brain extraordinaire

not only is he a moron but he is inaccurate in his political analysis....sure the southern strategy hurt the new deal coalition in presidential elections...but
the congress was held soundly by the democrats till 1994......he of all people should know this and for that he is especially imbecilic....