praxis1966
11th October 2010, 21:14
Alternatively titled: White Supremacists on California's Ballots
Prologue: This thread may in fact be in an inappropriate place. I'm aware that it's overtly political and current, so a mod or admin may want to kick it into the Politics section or someplace else more relevant as they see fit. That being said, I only put it here because this was the locus of the original What the fuck, California?! (http://www.revleft.com/vb/fuck-californiai-t141425/index.html?t=141425) thread. Moving on...
So yesterday I finally get around to cracking open my mail-in ballot for the upcoming November elections. Yes, I am a lazy bastard, so no, I can't be arsed to go and stand in line at an actual polling place. Hence, I've voted by mail for probably a decade or so.
Anyhow, while I realize the futility of participation in bourgeois elections, I was a bit excited this time round to get my hands on a ballot. After all, there are some pretty juicy ballot measures this time 'round, not least of which is Prop 19 (http://yeson19.com/) (which, in case you've been living under a rock, would decriminalize reefer for personal use). Imagine my dismay when I discover that there are actual white supremacists on the ballot in this, the birthplace of the Black Panther Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, and Rage Against the Machine, purportedly most liberal state in the union.
What I mean is, I discovered that the American Independent Party was actually still ballot certified in this state (in other words, they get a free pass and don't have to pay a registration fee or stage a petition drive to get their candidates names on the ballot) and had candidates running for every office being contested including US Senate (!). A cursory amount of research lead me to discover that yes, in fact, California is the only state in the union in which these assholes still enjoy such a luxury.
For those of you who've never heard of the AIP, let me fill you in. The party was an outgrowth of the States' Rights Democratic Party (commonly known as the 'Dixiecrats'), which was founded by Southern Democrats as a response to the shift at the top levels of the Democratic Party toward a pro-integration platform in 1948. Specifically, they were pissed off that then President Truman had created what was called the President's Commission on Civil Rights and had integrated the US military. Subsequently, the SRDP ran the thankfully dead notorious racist Strom Thurmond in the 1948 presidential election.
The SRDP quickly folded, and upon it's ashes was founded the AIP. A brief rundown of their presidential candidates:
1968 - George Wallace, then governor of Alabama and arch-nemesis of Martin Luther King, Jr. When Wallace initially ran for governor of the state in Alabama, he ran on a pro-integration platform. After he lost, he is reported to have said to aide Seymore Trammel, "Seymore, you know why I lost that governor's race? I was outniggered by John Patterson. And I'll tell you here and now, I will never be outniggered again." He subsequently ran and won on a segregation platform, whereupon in his inaugural speech he uttered the now infamous, "In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
1972 - John Schmitz, member of the wingnut, ultra-right John Birch Society, supporter of Joseph McCarthy, homophobe, and sexist. Once characterized famed feminist Gloria Allred and her colleagues as a "bulldyke" and "hard, Jewish and (arguably) female faces," after they testified to support the pro-choice position before his congressional committee. Among his other accomplishments, Schmitz can count having sired offspring Mary Kay Letourneau (a Washington schoolteacher tossed in the klink for diddling a 12 year old student).
1976 - Lester Maddox, redneck governor of Georgia who remained an unrepentant (unlike Wallace) segregationist until the day he gave up the ghost. Case in point: Maddox's final public speech was in 2001 before a group called the Council of Conservative Citizens, which is what they're calling the current incarnation of the the ye olde White Citizens Councils these days and is an organization identified by the SPLC as white supremacist.
I could go on all day, but you guys get the idea. Anyway, I suppose the question is, how the fuck do these people still get ballot certified? I could explain it directly, but a case in point is probably more effective. Jennifer Siebel, wife of San Francisco Mayor/candidate for Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsome, is without a doubt now an official nominee for Dumbass of the Year. Apparently, she registered American Independent at one point, claiming that she thought this was the proper registration for "independent/non-partisan"... In other words, people keep registering as members of the AIP by mistake. Personally, I think it has to do with the shitty history curriculum in schools. If there was actually a decent job done dealing with the Civil Rights Movement (and by extension its opponents) we wouldn't have this problem.
At any rate, again I say, "What the fuck, California?! How is it that these dickheads' last refuge is this state?"
Prologue: This thread may in fact be in an inappropriate place. I'm aware that it's overtly political and current, so a mod or admin may want to kick it into the Politics section or someplace else more relevant as they see fit. That being said, I only put it here because this was the locus of the original What the fuck, California?! (http://www.revleft.com/vb/fuck-californiai-t141425/index.html?t=141425) thread. Moving on...
So yesterday I finally get around to cracking open my mail-in ballot for the upcoming November elections. Yes, I am a lazy bastard, so no, I can't be arsed to go and stand in line at an actual polling place. Hence, I've voted by mail for probably a decade or so.
Anyhow, while I realize the futility of participation in bourgeois elections, I was a bit excited this time round to get my hands on a ballot. After all, there are some pretty juicy ballot measures this time 'round, not least of which is Prop 19 (http://yeson19.com/) (which, in case you've been living under a rock, would decriminalize reefer for personal use). Imagine my dismay when I discover that there are actual white supremacists on the ballot in this, the birthplace of the Black Panther Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, and Rage Against the Machine, purportedly most liberal state in the union.
What I mean is, I discovered that the American Independent Party was actually still ballot certified in this state (in other words, they get a free pass and don't have to pay a registration fee or stage a petition drive to get their candidates names on the ballot) and had candidates running for every office being contested including US Senate (!). A cursory amount of research lead me to discover that yes, in fact, California is the only state in the union in which these assholes still enjoy such a luxury.
For those of you who've never heard of the AIP, let me fill you in. The party was an outgrowth of the States' Rights Democratic Party (commonly known as the 'Dixiecrats'), which was founded by Southern Democrats as a response to the shift at the top levels of the Democratic Party toward a pro-integration platform in 1948. Specifically, they were pissed off that then President Truman had created what was called the President's Commission on Civil Rights and had integrated the US military. Subsequently, the SRDP ran the thankfully dead notorious racist Strom Thurmond in the 1948 presidential election.
The SRDP quickly folded, and upon it's ashes was founded the AIP. A brief rundown of their presidential candidates:
1968 - George Wallace, then governor of Alabama and arch-nemesis of Martin Luther King, Jr. When Wallace initially ran for governor of the state in Alabama, he ran on a pro-integration platform. After he lost, he is reported to have said to aide Seymore Trammel, "Seymore, you know why I lost that governor's race? I was outniggered by John Patterson. And I'll tell you here and now, I will never be outniggered again." He subsequently ran and won on a segregation platform, whereupon in his inaugural speech he uttered the now infamous, "In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
1972 - John Schmitz, member of the wingnut, ultra-right John Birch Society, supporter of Joseph McCarthy, homophobe, and sexist. Once characterized famed feminist Gloria Allred and her colleagues as a "bulldyke" and "hard, Jewish and (arguably) female faces," after they testified to support the pro-choice position before his congressional committee. Among his other accomplishments, Schmitz can count having sired offspring Mary Kay Letourneau (a Washington schoolteacher tossed in the klink for diddling a 12 year old student).
1976 - Lester Maddox, redneck governor of Georgia who remained an unrepentant (unlike Wallace) segregationist until the day he gave up the ghost. Case in point: Maddox's final public speech was in 2001 before a group called the Council of Conservative Citizens, which is what they're calling the current incarnation of the the ye olde White Citizens Councils these days and is an organization identified by the SPLC as white supremacist.
I could go on all day, but you guys get the idea. Anyway, I suppose the question is, how the fuck do these people still get ballot certified? I could explain it directly, but a case in point is probably more effective. Jennifer Siebel, wife of San Francisco Mayor/candidate for Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsome, is without a doubt now an official nominee for Dumbass of the Year. Apparently, she registered American Independent at one point, claiming that she thought this was the proper registration for "independent/non-partisan"... In other words, people keep registering as members of the AIP by mistake. Personally, I think it has to do with the shitty history curriculum in schools. If there was actually a decent job done dealing with the Civil Rights Movement (and by extension its opponents) we wouldn't have this problem.
At any rate, again I say, "What the fuck, California?! How is it that these dickheads' last refuge is this state?"