RMIMinor: Wilkie Looks At Gothic Politics In South
Reporter, author and professor Curtis Wilkie, who refined his writing abilities on news fronts from Beirut to Bourbon Street, has actually dipped his pen into Gothic politics of Mississippi and the South and discovered how the area may search in the post-tea celebration era.
After roaming the world for 25 years covering information hotspots, Wilkie luckily has landed back in his native state as a teaching fellow in the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at Ole Miss.
His op-ed piece in The New York Times on August 13 assesses the evolution of Republican politics in the South from the Civil War to the present in exactly what he discovers are three stages– what he calls waves– each laced with a subtext of race.
The current Chris McDaniel-Thad Cochran Republican Senate main brawl, Wilkie states, served to revive Mississippis old bitter-end resistance. McDaniel, a creation of the states new tea celebrationtea ceremony activity, as Wilkie relates, declines to accept the credibility of Cochrans victory and leaves the states essential representation in Congresss upper branch, for the time being, in doubt.
Wilkie puts McDaniel, a state lawmaker, in the category with 2 of Mississippis noted racial demagogues, Theodore G. Bilbo and James K. Vardaman, both of whom peddled a mix of populism and bigotry that brought them a devoted following under the Democratic banner. The 2 demagogues were the end-product of the states very first wave or rebellion after the Civil War.
Different historians, beginning with VO Key, Jr. thought about the leading authority on Southern Politics, have evaluated the strangeness and behavior of specific states in the area. In his 1949 tome Southern Politics he learnt the Republican politician Party in the South then as a paper company whose management existed essentially to get patronage crumbs handed down from the national party.
As authoritative as Secret was back then. He did not predict the hugemultitude of blacks living in the South ever ending up being an elementa consider Southern politics or decision-making.
Having covered the 1948 state convention of Mississippis Black and Tan Republicans, I cant argue with Keys conclusion. Though they had no political power in state politics, the department. headed by Perry Howard, a black lawyer who invested most of his time in Washington, DC was recognized by the National Party instead of Mississippis Lily White Republicans.
The 2 groups were merged in 1956 to support Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the World War II hero who two times quickly won the presidency. Emergence of Mississippis contemporary Republican politician Celebration as an effective offset for the long time Democratic Party would not come until some three years later on when newly-enfranchised black voters gathered to the Democratic side.
Wilkie cites A. D. Kirwins 1951 Revolt of the Rednecks which traces the increase of Southern populists playing the race card. These demagogues, Wilkie says, made education a whipping kid, and began marching under the banner of states rights.
Right here we can see production of the 1948 Dixiecrats, leading a rebellion against the National Democratic Celebration and, in the viewpoint of lots of, constructing a pathway for the eventual change of thousands of Democrats to the Republican Celebration.
As Wilkie reminds us, Thad Cochrans Senatorial status is still not a done discount, and this state like the South, bedeviled by the tea celebrationtea ceremony, should discover its way in the world of politics.
Costs Minor is a contributing reporter. Contact him at PO Box 1243, Jackson, MS 39215.
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