Commentary: Election Integrity and the Jim Crow Slur | Mackubin Thomas Owens

by Mackubin Owens

Not too long ago, a good friend of mine took umbrage at a Facebook post that compared a proposed “vaccination passport” to the requirement that Jews in Nazi Germany carry papers identifying them as such. As a Jew, my friend argued that such a comparison trivialized the horrors of the Nazi regime that culminated in the Holocaust.

My friend’s objection was justified. But this same individual has not hesitated to join the president of the United States in comparing the recent Georgia voting law to Jim Crow. Anyone who makes such a claim has no idea of what Jim Crow entailed. Second only to slavery, the Jim Crow era represents the darkest period in U.S. racial history, far darker than Reconstruction or the decade that followed.

Indeed, the racial oppression, segregation, and violence that prevailed throughout the South during the era of Jim Crow in many respects exceeded that of the period of slavery. At least during slavery, there were free blacks in the South who, while denied most civil rights, were protected by laws that left them free to go about their business unmolested and did not prevent commercial interactions between the races.

Jim Crow is usually lumped together with Reconstruction and the period that followed: the Compromise of 1877, during which the South was “redeemed” by the Democrats’ overthrow of the “carpetbagger” regime in the reconstructed South and the end of Republican governance. But even after federal protection of blacks in the South was withdrawn following the Compromise of 1877, blacks continued to vote and to hold political office. As C. Vann Woodward writes in The Strange Career of Jim Crow, for a decade, alternate approaches to race relations not involving disenfranchisement, segregation, and violence competed as attempts to address the race problem in the post-Civil War South. Indeed, during this post-Reconstruction period, blacks were making substantial economic, political, and social progress. This all came to an end with the Jim Crow era, which began in the late 1890s.

Jim Crow, especially in the decade after World War I, marked the high point of racism, not only in the South but also in the United States at large. Jim Crow was enabled by the triumph of progressivism and its corollary, “scientific” racism. Both shared the same intellectual roots and involved the explicit rejection of the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

The administration of Woodrow Wilson came down foursquare on the side of racism, dismissing most African Americans from the civil service and resegregating those few who remained. It sanctioned the rise of the “Second” Ku Klux Klan that far exceeded the power and influence of the short-lived Klan of Reconstruction. Segregation and repression of African Americans were enforced by the barrel of a rifle or the end of a rope.

To compare Georgia’s law, which seeks to achieve election integrity, to the dark period of Jim Crow is an abomination, pure and simple. It is a smear and a libel, not worthy of a reasonable person. But yet we have presumably respectable people, including the current occupant of the White House, making that claim.

The ludicrous claim that Republicans in Georgia want to reinstate Jim Crow is part of a broader false narrative. It acknowledges the racist past of the Democratic Party and its role in defending slavery and Jim Crow, even the racism of the Progressives like Woodrow Wilson. But, goes the argument, the parties subsequently changed places. The Republicans adopted a “Southern strategy,” which sought to appeal to the racism of white Southerners. Thus the Party of Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence became the party of racial bigotry.

The “Southern Strategy” narrative persists because it offers comfort to Democrats who wish to atone for their racist past. But it is false. According to this narrative, white Southerners decamped to the Republicans in response to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The proof? Any political party that appeals to Southern white voters is racist because Southern whites are by definition irredeemably racist.

In addition to the blanket slur against white Southerners, many of whom worked within the limited political and social environment available to them, there are a number of other flaws with this argument. First, African-American voters began to shift to the Democratic Party during the era of the New Deal. They did so because they perceived it was in their economic interest to do so. Why didn’t the white Southern racists exit the Democratic Party then?

Second, many more Republicans than Democrats supported the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. Why would those motivated only by race shift their support to a party that did not share their racist outlook?

Third, many former Democrats left the party because of its feckless foreign policy and continuing government overreach. I was raised in a Southern Democratic household. From 1968 through 1976, I voted for Democrats. Jimmy Carter turned me into a Republican. Race had nothing to do with my odyssey from Democrat to Republican.

Fourth, white Southerners continued to this day to vote for Democrats. Indeed, since 1964, many Southern states have voted for Democrats in presidential elections, including Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Barack Obama.

Racism in the guise of both slavery and Jim Crow was at odds with America’s founding principles. If the principles of the Declaration are not universally true, then there is no logical reason not to pursue racist policies. The American tragedy represented by both slavery and Jim Crow is that we have often failed to live up to these principles. But there have always been Americans of good will—including many white Southerners—who have worked to bring American practice into line with American principles, no matter how imperfectly.

Which brings us back to elections. Elections are the lifeblood of a self-governing people. Accordingly, the integrity of the electoral process is of critical importance. People who persist in comparing Georgia’s efforts to ensure the integrity of the electoral process to Jim Crow—an evil, unconstitutional, and inhumane monstrosity­­—are engaged in slander, pure and simple.

– – –

Mackubin Thomas Owens is a retired Marine, professor, and editor who lives in Newport, RI.
Photo “Worker at polling counter” by Governor Tom Wolf CC 2.0.


Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience. For licensing opportunities for our original content, please contact licensing@centerforamericangreatness.com.

The post Commentary: Election Integrity and the Jim Crow Slur appeared first on The Georgia Star News.

Skip The Scoop | Seek Understanding

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Explains How Anthony Fauci Has Been Manipulating Science | Video: 14 Minutes 38 Seconds

Show Me

Twitter Censors a Content From a Respected Medical Conference That Americans Deserve to Know

Show Me

New Twitter CEO: ‘Why Should I Distinguish Between White People and Racists’

Show Me

“China is Laughing at Us:” Twitter Suspends Rep. Jim Banks and Censors Marjorie Taylor Greene for Pointing Out That “The First-Ever Female 4 Star Admiral,” Rachel Levine, is a MAN

Show Me

NICKI MINAJ: ‘Open Your F**king Eyes’ to COVID Censorship, Twitter Ban is ‘Making Me Think’ That ‘There’s Something Bigger’ Going On

Show Me

American Booksellers Association ‘Protects’ Twitter Account After Censorship Backlash

Show Me

(READ) Congressman demands Twitter release evidence of political collusion on tweet censorship

Show Me

Twitter, California Sued for Cooperating on Censorship

Show Me

LAWSUIT: Twitter Conspired With Democrats on ‘Orwellian’ Censorship of Election Concerns

Show Me

Democrats Push for More Censorship at Facebook, Google, Twitter Hearing

Show Me

Diversity Darling Finds Out Her Black Ancestor Owned Slaves | Paul Joseph Watson

Show Me

Fully ‘Vaccinated’ and Now He’s Dead | Colin Powell Dead At 84 | New York Post

Show Me

Colin Powell’s Facebook Page Announcement Sums Up Everything That’s Wrong with Political Ruling Class Today

Show Me

Never Forget | “How Silicon Valley, in a Show of Monopolistic Force, Destroyed Parler” | Glenn Greenwald

Show Me

Vaccine Adverse Story Of 12 Year Old Participant | Video: 6 Minutes

Show Me

So We’ve Known All Along That Coronavirus Vaccines Are Very Dangerous | “Immunization With SARS Coronavirus Vaccines Leads To Pulmonary Immunopathology On Challenge With The SARS Virus” | NIH

Show Me

The Covid-19 ‘Vaccine’ Is Ruining So Many Lives | “Jeremy Chardy: I Regret Getting Vaccinated, I Have Series Of Problems Now” | Tennis World

Show Me

During FDA Hearings On Covid-19 Booster Shots, Dr. Jessica Rose Demonstrates Israeli Data May Show Covid ‘Vaccinated’ Driving Variants

Show Me

The FDA Advisory Board Overwhelmingly Rejected Booster Vaccine Authorization For Those Under 65 | “CDC’s Walensky Defends Overruling Vaccine Advisory Panel on Boosters”

Show Me

FDA Hearings On mRNA ‘Vaccine’ | “Dr. Jessica Rose Discusses Adverse Effects And Death Due To Covid-19 ‘Vaccine'” l Video: 1 Minute 54 Seconds

Show Me

The Covid-19 ‘Vaccine’ Has Created A Silent & New Killing Field | Jodi O’Malley, R.N., U.S. Department Of Health Whistleblower | Video 7 Minutes 12 Seconds

Show Me

Role Of Ivermectin In The Prevention Of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Healthcare Workers In India: A Matched Case-Control Study | NIH

Show Me

The Whole World Has Known How To Treat And Conquer Covid-19 Since It’s Inception – Politics Has Kept Us In Chains | “Ivermectin prophylaxis leads to 73 per cent reduction in Covid infection: AIIMS-Bhubaneswar Study”

Show Me

FDA Panel Overwhelmingly Rejects Pfizer Booster for 16 and Older

Show Me

FDA says it does not buy fetal tissue — any more

Show Me

Dr. Malone Explains How The Covid-19 Treatment Protocol Is Making People Desperate | Video: 1 Minute 5 Seconds

Show Me

Dr. Malone, mRNA ‘Vaccine’ Inventor, Discusses Ivermectin Misinformation | Video: 2 Minute 59 Seconds

Show Me

Dr. Malone, mRNA ‘Vaccine’ Inventor, Speaks About The War Against Covid-19 Therapeutics | Video: 1 Minute 30 Seconds

Show Me

Ironic: Sweden Condemned By The Left For Not Locking Down, Yet Did Better Than Most Nations Combating Covid | “Sweden Bans Travelers From Israel, One of the Most Vaccinated Nations”

Show Me

Who’s Really Being Hospitalized? | “Breakthrough cases reach majority levels in some jurisdictions but numbers elude CDC.”

Show Me

We’ve Known For So Long | “Review of the Emerging Evidence Demonstrating the Efficacy of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19” | NIH

Show Me

Oh, What A Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practise To Deceive! | “In 2015, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, in its only award for treatments of infectious diseases since six decades prior, honoured the discovery of ivermectin (IVM)” | There Was A 74% Reduction In Covid-19 Deaths In 30 Days Using Ivermectin | NIH

Show Me

Dr. Malone Discusses How Long Covid Symptoms & mRNA Adverse Symptoms Match Up | Video: 3 Minutes 21 Seconds

Show Me

If You’ve Come To Think That You’re Being Lied To About Covid-19, You’re Not Alone | “Federal Judge Allows NIH Ivermectin Deception Case to Proceed” That The “NIH deceived the nation on a treatment for COVID-19.”

Show Me

You Didn’t Actually Believe The Talking Heads From The CDC & NIH, Like Fauci, Did You? | Now It’s Not Just Hydroxychloroquine & Zinc, Vitamin D3 & A Host Of AntiInflammatories In Our Arsenal, Invermectin Has Been Shown To Reduce Illness & Death As Published By The NIH

Show Me

The Saddest Covid-19 ‘Vaccine’ Deaths Are From Those Who Strongly Advocated Taking Them | “Lisa Shaw: Presenter’s death due to complications of Covid vaccine”

Show Me

Dr. Malone On Ivermectin and The Whole Plethora Of Therapeutics Available For Covid-19 | Video: 3 Minutes 44 Seconds

Show Me

When It Comes To Combating Covid-19 . . . First, Hydroxychloroquine & Zinc Was Demonized | Then, Vitamin D3 Was Trivialized | Now, The Smear Campaign Is Against Ivermectin, So Safe & Effective Researchers Call It The ‘Wonder Drug’ As Published By The National Institutes Of Health

Show Me

Mayo Clinic-Trained Pathologist Tells RFK, Jr.: Early Treatment Is Key to Fighting Delta Variant

Show Me

130+ UK Doctors: Failed COVID Policies Caused ‘Massive’ Harm, Especially to Children

Show Me