George W. Romney’s Franken-Son: Mitt & His ‘Noble’ Lies

Mitt is an admixture of lies and deceit. Chief among these is the dissimulation of the idea led by his wife, Ann, that Mitt is a sterling example of the nobility of his father a Moderate and highly respected Republican governor of Michigan. A man of highest character whom Mitt is channeling as he desperately seeks the American Presidency. Nothing could be further from the truth than the claim that Mitt is morally qualified to be the U.S. Commander-in-chief and chief executive.

George W. Romney Campaigning (Dayton Daily Archives 1968)

Wife Ann has been crisscrossing the country with her new strategy, harkening back to Mitt’s father, George W. Romney, in a vain attempt try to connect Mitt to the reasonable and moderate stances that his father took while governor of Michigan back in the 1960’s, and thus wash away the stains of Mitt’s groveling at the feet of the Tea Party insurgency. So endeared and enamored is Mitt to his father that Ann felt compelled to reveal that often when Mitt takes the speakers stand he pens on a paper the word “Dad.” This is very touching but completely misleading, Mitt is nothing at all like his famous and revered dad.

Ever in the Shadow of Dear-old Dad: Mitt Romney holds up a campaign poster of his father George Romney while on the trail in Michigan (October 2012)

Mitt is a monster manipulator and striver, who will do anything, say anything to be elected.  

Knitting Together the Mitt Monster
Mitt Romney has shown himself to be a kind of Frankenstein in the service of the Hard Right both ideologically and religiously. His powerful backers are holding their noses yet totally intent upon his success in winning on November 6th. Radical Republicans and Corporatists are willing to take the desperate chance that they can achieve their long sought goals through Mitt’s compliance and malleability in order to regain and reassemble the power and prestige they lost under the grand failure of another favored son of privilege, George W. Bush. But at what cost to the nation this charade, this dark deception? It is time to entertain fear of the cabal in the backrooms of K Street and religious oligarchy.

Presented to the American public as a man of “rock solid” character, benevolence, and mainstream values and moderate political goals, Mitt Romney has fallen fall short of that depiction. As one has said “as a candidate campaigns, so shall he govern.”

The turbulent torrent of lies, misstatements, crude pronouncements immediately followed by misleading/ineffective “apologies” or next day corrections has marked Mitt’s long, long pilgrimage toward the nation’s highest office.

Romney is the ultimate “etch-a-sketch” creature, created in the PR labs, Frank Luntz’s focus groups, and the think tanks of the most dangerous and aggressive corporatists of our times—a heartless, lifeless, assemblage of images and bumper sticker sayings—the perfect Frankenstein candidate. As Grover Norquist quipped, "we just want a man in the White House who will dutifully sign" (rubber stamp) any or all legislation or vetoes we put in front of him.

What do they want? A robotic bureaucrat who serves at the will of his backers and handlers, not a man of moral courage and sterling meddle as was George Romney his legendary father, a man of iron will, strong convictions, and unbending principles.  

George Romney’s Aide Speaks Out: Mitt’s Father’s Right-hand Man’s Memo
Earlier this month, Walt De Vies a former aide to George Romney, delivered a letter that compared Mitt Romney, with his father George W. Romney which he dlevered to a number of journalists and reporters, one of them was at the New York Times:

A longtime aide to George W. Romney issued a harshly worded critique of Mitt Romney, accusing him of shifting political positions in “erratic and startling ways” and failing to live up to the distinguished record of his father [George Romney], the former governor of Michigan.

(Break)

In a telephone interview, he said he was motivated to write the essay by “an accumulation” of Mr. Romney’s actions, like his comment about 47 percent of Americans and his decision to campaign with Donald Trump. Mr. De Vries said he was annoyed by Mr. Romney’s repeated references recently to his father as inspiration and influence on him.

“I just don’t see it”. “Where is it? Is it on issues, no? On the way he campaigns? No.” [De Vies] said.
(Emphasis Added)

More from the Essay by Walt De Vries on George Romney vs Mitt Romney:

George Romney’s strength as a politician and public officeholder was his ability and determination to develop and hold consistent policy positions over his life. While it seems that Mitt would say and do anything to close a deal – or an election.

George Romney’s constant mantra to those in and around his campaigns and his gubernatorial staff: “As you campaign, so shall you govern.”

(Break)

George Romney reached out to voters in union halls and factory gates, a rare venue for GOP candidates back then and still now. [George Romney] refused to engage in personal attacks and kept his campaigns issue-based.

Mitt Romney and the people around him see campaigns as television marketing and voters as targets to be manipulated. Voters, they believe, make up their minds late and will be swayed with saturation television advertising. The campaign managers seek – daily it seems – for a magic bullet to force on the electorate that will move undecided and weak voters to Romney. [Mitt Romney] Policy papers, positions are rare and short on content and meaning.
(Emphasis Added)

Also this insight into Mitt living in the shadow of his father. Writes De Vries:

After the first debate it was wife Ann who said that Mitt had written “Dad” on paper he had at the lectern. Mrs. Romney, described as choking up during a post-debate interview with CNN, said it signified that Mitt respected what his father “taught me and what kind of person you are and I’m going to honor that.”

While that might make for some good post-debate spin, perhaps exploitation of his late father’s memory and dramatic television, the conduct of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is a far cry from the kind of campaign and conduct, as a public servant, I saw during the seven years I worked in George Romney’s campaigns and served him as governor.

Mitt's New Idol: Corporate Money and Influence from the Koch Brothers and ALEC

Mitt: The Man from ALEC?
The Romney plan/program and agenda (what little of it there that is available) is that of the Koch Brothers and the powerful mega-wealthy corporatocracy now seeking supremacy and control of the nation via such groups as the New Traditionalist’s American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which has taken over more than 20 individual state legislatures and railroaded the most extreme reversals and amendments to law in a lifetime. Here is Mitt Romney in 2009:

“Center reforms at the state level. Open the door to state plans designed to meet the various needs of their citizens. Before imposing a one-size-fits-all federal program, let the states serve as ‘the laboratories of democracy’.”

During the his second debate with President Obama, Romney used the terms in the second debate “States are the laboratories of democracy” again and throughout his positions and platforms (of the few that have been revealed) parallels to ALEC models and concepts have been exposed on Koch funded campaign denying climate change, his criticism of Obama regarding free reign for big oil and gas interests on drilling on public lands, his positions on privatizing public education (Romney used data from the ALEC Education Report Card to support his education pitches), his opposition to bargaining rights and public sector unions, and more recently his statements on closing down, or privatizing FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency). All these clearly show that even though he was probably not the first choice in the GOP primary field of candidates, he has now taken up the ALEC seal of approval.

 Read “Mitt Romney's meth labs of democracy” on DailyKos.  

The ‘Moral’ Mitt Monster and the ‘Noble Lie’
Mitt is a Mormon Bishop whom a Mormon scholar and historian has called unrepresentative of the Mormon religion. Dr. Gregory Prince, a Mormon Historian and powerful defender of his religion, was compelled to proclaim, “Mitt Romney is not the face of Mormonism”, in light of the 47% Statement from Mitt to high rolling donors in private at Boca Raton, Florida.

Mitt is a man whom many have labeled as “coreless” without a central set of established values, a man who possesses a serious “character flaw.” Mitt is a creature of the “Noble Lie.”

As Plato orated in his treatment of the “noble lie”:

“… the first and chief injunction that the god lays upon the rulers is that of nothing else are they to be such careful guardians, and so intently observant as of the intermixture of these metals in the souls of their offspring, and if sons are born to them with an infusion of brass or iron they shall by no means give way to pity in their treatment of them…”

This embodies the meaning-- such men as George Romney - a man of golden meddle-should mentor a son who, of the same class of good rulers and civic champions as his father, should be worthy of high office in his own right. To protect the elites and the aristocracy (the wealthy and the powerful) such leaders are given the right to participate in the use of the “Noble Lie”. From Wiki:

“In politics a noble lie is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly told by an elite to maintain social harmony or to advance an agenda. The noble lie is a concept originated by Plato as described in the Republic.”

This use of the ‘Noble Lie’ is reinforced in the dubious practice of the Salt Lake Mormon hierarchy as shown in this quote: Marion G. Romney—a first cousin of George who was a former member of the First Presidency of the Church, its highest authority—famously related the instructions he’d received from the Mormon prophet Heber J. Grant:

"Standing by me, he put his arm over my shoulder and said: ‘Always keep your eye on the president of the church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, and it is wrong, and you do it, the Lord will bless you for it.’ Then with a twinkle in his eye, he said, 'But you don't need to worry. The Lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the people astray.'"

Source: “Defending the Faith: Defending the Faith: Keeping our eye on the president of the church” by Daniel Peterson, Deseret News, July 7 2011.

The fact of the matter is that the Living Prophet-the present President of the Mormon Church-can and may change his mind and create new revelation directly from God (Revelation is closed in the Christian Church doctrinal stance). New “truth” and/or revelation remains open in the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) or Mormons. Many changes to the Mormon scripture and key doctrinal writings have been changed, altered, or revised-up to nearly 4,000 times. The possibility of change is ever present in the 'Mormon cult'.

With this kind of wink and nod from the LDS Mormon’s living prophet, the president of the cult, has taken serious and substantial positions and stands on public policy via politics.

Again from Daniel Peterson, Desert News on July 7, 2011:

The church seldom speaks out on public policy issues, but sometimes it does. Two notable examples involve the proposed Equal Rights Amendment around 1980 and California's Proposition 8 in 2008.

Both cases provoked angry controversy, even within the church. And some politically conservative members — full disclosure: I'm a very serious conservative myself — quickly pointed out that members on the opposing side seemed to be out of step with church leaders.

More recently, the church has engaged the vexing problem of illegal immigration. On June 10, 2011, its Public Affairs Department even issued an official statement on the topic. This time, albeit very gently, it's the ox of some politically conservative Latter-day Saints that was gored.

Since then, I've been fascinated and disturbed to hear some of them — people who have generally welcomed and agreed with the church's rare statements on public policy, who have sometimes even prided themselves on being more faithful than their politically liberal brothers and sisters ("Can a good Mormon really be a Democrat?") — express outrage at the church for meddling in politics.

His Child is Going Backwards: George Romney Marching for Civil Rights in Michigan 1963

George Romney’s Challenge: His Faith & Racism
Then it is also very important to remember that the LSD/Mormon Church did not support the 1965 Civil Rights Act either. Writing in 1963, D. H. Oliver, a black attorney in Utah, stated:

“By reason of their numerical strength the Mormons elect most of the public officials, through the entire state, and here is where conflict begins. In most instances these elected public officials, conscious of the spirit concealed behind the walls of the Temple, adhere strictly to the doctrines of their church in the performance of their public duty and thereby refuse to employ or appoint any Negroes in any position of authority or trust.

… it is claimed that the failure of the 35th session of the Utah Legislature to pass any Civil Rights legislation was due to hidden and behind the scenes opposition from the Mormon Church... Any church has a right to believe what it will but it has no right to impose those beliefs on others against their will, and when those beliefs are detrimental to the welfare of others to the extent of infringing on their right to earn a decent living, such a church has no right to use the machinery of the state to enforce those beliefs.”

Source: A Negro On Mormonism, by David H. Oliver, 1963, pp. 30-31.

Read more on the LDS & Civil Rights in the 1960’s in “Curse of Cain? Racism in the Mormon Church”

During this time LDS missionaries were instructed to avoid contacting blacks and known black areas. Dr. Glen Davidson reported in The Christian Century:

“Mormon missionaries are directed not to proselytize Negroes and to keep out of ‘areas of transition.’ Not even Joseph Fielding Smith's [earlier] invitation to "darkies" is tolerated in the mission program. The membership ranks are being filled with those whose religious commitment is to the maintenance of a racist society and who find Mormon theology a sanctimonious front for their convictions” (The Christian Century, Sept. 29, 1965, p. 1183).

While the Mormon’s have accepted Blacks into the priesthood they have not changed their scripture or the historic nature of their racial bias and bigotry enforced by their own sacred writings and polity. Mitt grew up in this milieu and attitude and while his father fought it off at this same time even Gov. George Romney went against the high office of the church and was counseled in this personal letter warning the governor away from promotion and acceptance of the civil rights movement.

From “Mormons and the Civil Rights Act" by Ed Brayton on January 26, 2012:

The Boston Globe posts an incredible letter from one of the Mormon “prophets” to then-Michigan Gov. George Romney in 1964, taking him to task for his support of the Civil Rights Act. Here it is converted from PDF to text:

Governor George W. Romney
Governor’s Mansion Lansing, Michigan

Dear George:

It was a real pleasure to greet and have a moment to visit with you and Lenore here this past week. It is wonderful to see how enthusiastically you are received by the good people of Utah.

After listening to your talk on Civil Rights, I am very much concerned. Several others have expressed the same concern to me. It does not altogether harmonize with my own understandings regarding this subject; therefore, I thought to drop you a note — not in my official Church position, but as a personal friend. Only President McKay can speak for the Church.

I felt, George, your views were most liberal on this vital problem in the light of the revelations, but nevertheless, I cannot deny you the right of your position if it represents your true belief and feelings.

I would like to suggest you read two items on this subject, both by the Prophet Joseph Smith. Turn to page 269 of Teachings Of The Prophet Joseph Smith by Joseph Fielding Smith, and read beginning the middle of the page under the caption, “The Status of the Negro,” giving particular attention to the closing sentence on page 270. Also, read from History of the Church, Period 1, Volume 2, beginning on page 436, under the heading, “The Prophet’s Views on Abolition,” which article continues to the bottom of page 440. After reading this last-mentioned statement by the Prophet, then come back to the last paragraph on page 438, and give it some real thought. When I reflect upon the Prophet’s statements and remember what happened to three of our nation’s presidents who were very active in the Negro cause, I am sobered by their demise. They went contrary to the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith — unwittingly, no doubt, but nevertheless, the prophecy of Joseph Smith, “. . . those who are determined to pursue a course, which shows an opposition, and a feverish restlessness against the decrees of the Lord, will learn, when perhaps it is too late for their own good, that God can do His own work, without the aid of those who are not dictated by His counsel,” has and will continue to be fulfilled.

In this respect, let me give you a personal experience. A friend of mine in Arizona — not a Church member — a great champion of the colored race -— came to me after my call into the Twelve, and acknowledged President McKay to be a Prophet of God. He wanted me to ask President McKay to inquire of the Lord to see if the Lord would not lift the curse from the colored race and give them the privileges of the Priesthood. I explained to him that the Lord had placed the curse upon the Negro, which denied him the Priesthood; therefore, it was the Lord’s responsibility — not man’s — to change His decision. This friend of mine met a very tragic end by drowning. He was a most enthusiastic advocate of the colored cause and went about promoting for them all the privileges, social opportunities, and participation enjoyed by the Whites.

I am sure you know that the Prophet Joseph Smith, in connection with the Negro problem of this country, proposed to Congress that they sell public lands and buy up the Negro slaves and transport them back to Africa from whence they came. I am sure the Prophet, with his vision and understanding, foresaw the problems we are faced with today with this race, which caused him to promote this program.

The statements of the Prophet Joseph Smith have been a helpful influence on me because they accord with my own understandings regarding the Negro. I cannot, in my own feelings, accept the idea of public accommodations; the taking from the Whites their wishes to satisfy the Negros. I do not have any objection to recognizing the Negro in his place and giving him every opportunity for education, for employment, for whatever contribution he can make to the society of men and the protection and blessings of Government. Yet, all these things, in my judgment, should accord with the expressions of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is not right to force any class or race of people upon those of a different social order or race classification. People are happier when placed in the environment and association of like interests, racial instincts, habits, and natural groupings.

I am enclosing a little booklet entitled Mormonism and the Negro, which you may already have. If not, it is an enlightening exposition and quite well reflects the Church position in regard to these people.

I am not against a Civil Rights Bill if it conforms to the views of the Prophet Joseph Smith according to the references above given. I fully agree the Negro is entitled to considerations, also stated above, but not full social benefits nor inter-marriage privileges with the Whites, nor should the Whites be forced to accept them into restricted White areas. In my judgment, the present proposed Bill of Rights is vicious legislation. There needs to be some modification. The position of the Church cannot change until the Lord changes it Himself. Certainly I am not for exploiting racial or religious prejudices, but it is the present play up to the Negro voters which is unnecessarily creating problems that by a more firm, sensible approach can be avoided. There will be a few die-hard leaders, but then that has always been true with any debatable issue. Principle — religious or otherwise —— cannot be abrogated for political expediency.

Now, don’t think I am against the Negro people, because I have several in my employ. We must understand and recognize their status and then, accordingly, provide for them. I just don’t think we can get around the Lord’s position in relation to the Negro without punishment for our acts; going contrary to that which He has revealed. The Lord will not permit His purposes to be frustrated by man.

Please understand I have a great respect and admiration for you, but because of my feelings I thought I should express myself as I have so you will know my personal position.

This letter is for your personal use only (also Lenore), and is not to be used in any other way. It does not require an answer.

With best wishes and success to you and Lenore always,
I am Faithfully your friend and brother,

Delbert L. Stapley
(Emphasis Added)

George Romney overrode this kind of advice, pushed ahead, and advocated and worked for civil rights. Son Mitt has a very racist national vice chair, John Sununu who is overtly racist and the Republican party is deeply racist as per the statement of Lawrence Wilkinson, former aide to Colon Powell, who just comes out an says it like it is that “the GOP is fully of racists” in response to right wing attacks on Powell’s endorsement of President Obama.

This theme was taken up earlier by many, including the Washington Post’s Barbara A. Reynolds in “GOP: red, white and racist?” back in January 2012:

“So that leaves Mitt Romney, who should also be judged by what he has not said. Romney served as a leader in the Mormon Church whose doctrine until 1978 stated that people with black skin were cursed by God, could not enter heaven, nor serve in the Mormon priesthood. It seems a fair-minded person would have condemned this policy but Romney apparently did not.”

What has Mitt done to intervene and alter the Old Southern Strategy established by Dick Nixon which along with religion is the main glue in the reliable southern block of “Christian© Biblical Values Voters”.

Actually Mitt has placed a frank discussion of his cult’s beliefs and practices off limits, he will not discuss his faith.

 See Frank Rich in “Mitt Romney is afraid to talk about his Mormon faith” (VIDEO)

From Walter Shapiro on June 8, 2012:

“This time around (national presidential election 2012), though, the flashpoint is likely to be Mitt Romney’s religion. Romney’s Mormonism is entwined with his biography: Not only was he a missionary in France, but he also served as a bishop and stake president, overseeing a dozen congregations in the Boston area. As Boston Globe reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman conclude in their biography, The Real Romney:

"The portrait of Romney that emerges from those he led and served with in the church is of a leader who was pulled between Mormonism’s conservative core views…and the demands…for a more elastic, more open-minded application of church doctrine.’ “

All this would be ho-hum material if Romney were a Methodist or an Episcopalian. But Romney’s church, with its polygamous past and its easily mocked missionary zeal (The Book of Mormon), is outside the American religious mainstream. And that means that we are just one incendiary Super PAC donor or one intemperate cable TV comment by a Democrat away from a major campaign flap over Mitt’s Mormonism. So with that in mind, what should the journalistic rules be regarding Romney’s religion?”

(Break)

“…left unanswered is the deeper question of the role of Romney’s religious faith in understanding his political persona.”

Source: “Romney’s Religion, What should journalists do with the Mormon thing?” by Walter Shapiro on June 8, 2012.  

Back to the 'Noble Lie'
We have this from ancient wisdom:

"Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. We do not copy our neighbors, but are an example to them. It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while the laws secure equal justice to all alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit. "Neither is poverty a bar, for a man may benefit his country whatever be the obscurity of his conditions. There is no exclusiveness in our public life, and in our private intercourses we are not suspicious of one another, nor angry with our neighbor if he does what he likes; we do not give him sour looks which, though harmless, are not pleasant". -- Pericles (Athenian statesman, 5th century B.C.)

How does this relate to Mitt Romney here just days before the election?
There are a ton of items of dissimulation involved in the Romney campaign and so many of Mitt’s verbose and angry, intense spiels of disordered facts and false assertions, so much so that even the president found it hard, if not impossible, to reply to Mitt’s motor-mouthing through dozens of his stump stands on issues. And then in the 3rd and final debate President Obama found the “coreless” Mitt parroting Obama’s own views and stances on a wide variety of issues seeking to appear as moderate as his father, Gov. George. Astounding? Confounding? Deceptive and untrue. It’s all boilerplate Romney use of the ‘Noble Lie’ principle, do whatever you need, but by all means win the election for your backers and backroom boys.

See Mitt Run. See Ann Defend. See Mitt and Ann run the gamut of ‘Four Pinocchios’ fact checked lies and distortions.

It’s all for the greater good and maximum gain of the extremist Republican establishment and K-Street powerbrokers, the resurrected Ralph Reed’s, and the war-loving Neo-Cons awaiting in the wings, just off stage, barely out of sight.

This from an overview of the “Noble Lie” from Plato’s Republic:

Plato presented the Noble Lie in a fictional tale, wherein Socrates provides the origin of the three social classes who compose the republic proposed by Plato; Socrates speaks of a socially stratified society, wherein the populace are told "a sort of Phoenician tale":

“… the earth, as being their mother, delivered them, and now, as if their land were their mother and their nurse, they ought to take thought for her and defend her against any attack, and regard the other citizens as their brothers and children of the self-same earth. . . While all of you, in the city, are brothers, we will say in our tale, yet god, in fashioning those of you who are fitted to hold rule, mingled gold in their generation, for which reason they are the most precious — but in the helpers, silver, and iron and brass in the farmers and other craftsmen. And, as you are all akin, though for the most part you will breed after your kinds, it may sometimes happen that a golden father would beget a silver son, and that a golden offspring would come from a silver sire, and that the rest would, in like manner, be born of one another. So that the first and chief injunction that the god lays upon the rulers is that of nothing else are they to be such careful guardians, and so intently observant as of the intermixture of these metals in the souls of their offspring, and if sons are born to them with an infusion of brass or iron they shall by no means give way to pity in their treatment of them, but shall assign to each the status due to his nature and thrust them out among the artisans or the farmers. And again, if from these there is born a son with unexpected gold or silver in his composition they shall honor such and bid them go up higher, some to the office of guardian, some to the assistanceship, alleging that there is an oracle that the city shall then be overthrown when the man of iron or brass is its guardian.”

The fictional Socrates, created by Plato, proposes and claims that if the people believed "this myth . . . that would have a good effect, making them more inclined to care for the state and one another. This is his noble lie: "a contrivance for one of those falsehoods that come into being in case of need, of which we were just now talking, some noble one…”

On the Reader:
"GEORGE AND MITT: Like Father, Like Son? Not quite" (pdf Version) - essay comparing Mitt Romney and George Romney by Michigander Walt De Vries (Text Version)

Related Slates:

Middling Mitt Romney Not of His Fathers'Sterling Civic Michigan Mettle (Gaskell & George Romney) (June 2012) - For Mitt Romney, Billy Graham ‘Sells Out’ His Faith &Jesus for Political Advantage (October 2012) - The Crushing Blow to Mitt’s Quix-Toxic Quest: ‘Good Samaritan’or ‘Corporate Bandit’ (October 2012) or all posts on Mitt Romney or George Romney.

Fundamentalists in the Political Nutcracker: Vote Occult Leader, Black Man or Neither

The largest fundamentalist protestant group in America is now undergoing what may be the religious ‘Waterloo’ of the 21st Century. This shocking direct assault on Fundamentalists’ basic Christian beliefs and Biblical standards is a direct challenge: Its latent and enduring post-Civil War Jim Crow racism is riled and it is confronted by a direct and relentless challenge form its strong rival, America’s largest home-grown, nativist sex & heretical, powerful occult cult - Mormonism.  

The Impossible Born-again Baptist Choice: Deny Christ of the Gospels or Vote for a Black.  

There Is No Way Out Except Not to Vote at All
A Southern Baptist wishing to vote in the November Presidential Election faces, what is for many, a completely illogical and unacceptable decision. It’s an ideological and religious deadlock. Vote for a cult that is aggressively challenging via its dominance and faith or vote for a Black President-who has been propagandized into a socialist and a leader (Read: FOX News, Christian Radio Networks) who does not represent America.

The slogan “Take Back America” is ringing in the angry Tea Partisan’s (Tea Party Republicans) ears and there is no logical or practical way out.

Lingering racism still remains the dominate dank ‘shadow’ of the culture of hotly religious, rural America both North and South, it has grown and flourished in what some are determined to call a “post racial” era. This is an ongoing ideological attempt/trick to say equality and race-based things are OK now, passé--Blacks have no further legitimate claim to discrimination, disenfranchisement or reprisals based on color—We’ve moved on... or so they claim.

America has indeed moved on. But the place to which it has moved is both dangerous and contemptible in its denials and its continued subscription to the old racial stereotypes and bigotry of the antebellum of the Old South.

The intense angst and anger, the grieving over the ascendency of a Black Man to the nation’s highest office and to the position of our Commander-in-chief has rekindled a dark and foreboding tide of irrational thought and dysfunction. Congress is deeply pitted in behaviors unbecoming our Constitution and the work of Abraham Lincoln to preserve and advance the Federal Union.  

Black or Occult: A Choice That is “No Choice” for America’s Fundamentalist White Male

Over 16 million Southern Baptist Convention regular church goes and others (aligned with Dr. Richard Land, SBC’s policies godfather) are pitted against the Mormon cultist (said to be the fastest growing religion in America) whose converts are coming substantially from the ranks of former nominally Christian ranks, including those of the once-dominate American religious faith, political, and cultural force- the Southern Baptists. Mormons claim worldwide membership of over 14 million.

 So what is a man who clings culturally to his religion, his pick-up, and his guns to do?

Not all that Ancient Rites on the American Right: Mitt Romney's Mormonism is causing major shifts in the rhetoric of the Religious Right-Wing (Mormon Ritual in the Temple 1890's)

 

The historic development of John Smith’s peculiar cultish blend of Protestant Christianity religion, the Jewish Kabbalah [Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection, by Lance S. Owens], Masonic rites, and other occult elements have worked into this religion which gives a Mormon man his religious basis for the domination and sexual freedom to have many female partners [both via Secret Mormon Endowment Ceremony] polygamy here on earth, pledged brides, and (for those “elites” who achieve “god-hood”) a planet to inhabit and populate with their offspring—an anti-Christian belief which is alluring and lustfully and carnally self-serving.

There is neither time or place to properly expand upon the tortuous route that John Smith’s cult as taken from its inception around 1830 until today’s historic clash of American voters in a Cultural War over the presidency.

Scholars find that Mormonism holds a theological “truth” that its head-living prophet represents God’s authority to revise and extend the Canon of the Christian New Testament into today.

Thus on many crucial and central tenets of Mormon belief there is an on-going fluidity and the ever present possibility of an abrupt sacred change vested in Mormonism’s present leader. It’s estimated that these changes the faith and secret and public practice of the Mormon ‘theology’ has already undergone 4,000 separate revisions, rewrites, and changes. Beginning, most notably with Joseph Smith himself.  

Mormonism Is Nimble
This cult’s nimble ability to morph faith and practice to fit the contemporary needs is totally inconceivable to the Fundamentalist Baptist who holds to the final warnings and cures of Revelation 22 ending God’s will and demands spelled out in inerrant scripture and precise behavioral practice of the God dictated and inspired New Testament are changeless and without error as written:  

Revelation 22: The New International Version

John, the Revelator and the Angel
6 The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”
7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me.
9 But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!”
10 Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near.
11 Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”

Epilogue: Invitation and Warning
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you [a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.

For the lay Christian the following article lays down the rule: the non-negotiable principle called Biblical Inerrancy:

Divine authority
For a believer in biblical inerrancy, Holy Scripture is the Word of God, and carries the full authority of God. Every single statement of the Bible calls for instant and unqualified acceptance.[42] Every doctrine of the Bible is the teaching of God and therefore requires full agreement.[43] Every promise of the Bible calls for unshakable trust in its fulfillment.[44] Every command of the Bible is the directive of God himself and therefore demands willing observance.[45]

Sufficiency
According to some believers, the Bible contains everything that they need to know in order to obtain salvation and to live a Christian life,[46] and there are no deficiencies in Scripture that need to be filled with by tradition, pronouncements of the Pope, new revelations, or present-day development of doctrine.[47] (Break) Many who believe in the Inspiration of scripture teach that it is infallible but not inerrant. Those who subscribe to infallibility believe that what the scriptures say regarding matters of faith and Christian practice are wholly useful and true.

Source: Biblical Inerrancy (from Wiki on scripture)

The “Nut” That Must Be Cracked  

Mitt Romney Must Not Be Elected President: He’s not Born-again

Well-Known Fundamentalist Author and real “Christian” Mover and shaker, Tim LaHaye (author of the Left Behind phenomena), takes a fundamentalist stance: Only A Born-again Christian Can Be President of the United States-- "Only Christians should hold high office.”

So what do the millions of “Values Voters”, members of the fundamentalist Southern Baptist Convention, the Pentecostals, conservative Roman Catholics, and hoards of Mega-Church believers do faced with Mitt Romney, the non-Christian leader of an anti-Evangelical, Sect-Mormonism, a non-Christian, and a 'Republican' who is asking for their vote as a “severely conservative” Republican?  

Internecine Battles: Fundamentalist v. Mainline
This sea change in America is an all-out-no-holds-barred attack upon the Methodists, Presbyterians, and other major Protestant denominations which are labeled "apostate" in the view of this militant army of Pentecostals, Fundamentalist Catholics, and Fundamentalist Independents. The Mainline Churches' "liberal" stances on human sexuality and the co-operation with the World Council of Churches are but two examples of this tradition’s gigantic "sins."

Nor is there likewise any real ultimate historical reverence or toleration of the Jewish and Muslim--Abrahamic faiths, or the Buddhists. Read their literature. The Fundamentalist Magazine, Tim LaHaye, "Only Christians should hold high office." (LaHaye's definition of "Christian" is on his own narrow terms and does not include many Mainline Christian believers with less Fundamentalist views than those of LaHaye).

Former Michigan Republican State Rep. Joanne Voorhees' simply stated conviction (quoted by the Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids, Michigan on January 22, 2004) was Christians are the only folk she would endorse or support for public office. She explicitly trusts only her brand of Christians.

The general public, perhaps casually agreeing with her sentiments, fails to understand Voorhees' thinking, practice, and parlance. “Qualified Christians” according to Voorhees are very specific, narrowly defined believers. Society thinks of Christian as a broad, inclusive term. Voorhees defines/limits Christian to narrow, specific dogmas and exclusivity. Her "Christians" must adhere to exacting/specific religious demands.

 It's a problem. Voorhees, was, at the time, still an elected official who must do all the people's business: her approved "Christians," other Christians and faiths, as well as everyone else's business. She was, as an elected state legislator, was sworn to uphold a national constitution disallowing religious testing for public office. Yet, in practice, Voorhees espoused religious tests for public office--conflicting with the constitution and putting herself above it.

Voorhees' subsequent restatement: "Christian" includes the Jewish faith--awkwardly and inaccurately attempted to mitigate damage her candid expression of her "selective" Christians Only viewpoint had previously created (See ALSO this posting).  

Romney’s Mormonism is a Gigantic Fundamentalist Christian Obstacle  

Joseph Smith said he had a revelation where Jesus told him that all the religions at that time were an abomination in His sight. From a panel discussion at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary entitled “Baptist panel OK’s vote for a Mormon” on September 11, 2012. From the seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr:

"Throughout most of Christian history, folks haven't struggled with this question because they didn't have the luxury of struggling with it. ... The separation of the priestly role from government is something that has to happen in the minds of American evangelicals," Mohler said, warning against viewing government as an idol.

More from Russell D. Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Seminary:

‘Moore agreed, saying U.S. Christians have been guilty of trying to Christianize American history. "So many evangelicals want to go back and claim Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln and John Adams as orthodox, evangelical Christians," Moore said. "The problem with that [is that] Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were great men who did fantastic things for our country, but once you start claiming them as orthodox evangelical Christians, you're not elevating those men, you're downgrading the Gospel into something that fits whatever they happen to hold. And you wind up with [modern-day] politicians who learn the language of evangelical faith in order to use it, in order to manipulate people into supporting them." The four-member panel said Americans on multiple occasions have elected candidates who did not hold to evangelical beliefs. Among them were Unitarian William Howard Taft and Catholic John F. Kennedy.’

A Dialogue on “Mormonism & Christians” that appeared on WNET in PBS’s Mormons & Christians program led by reporter Lucky Severson featured commentary from the following guests: Stephen Davis a professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College, Patrick Mason, Chair of Mormon Studies, Claremont Graduate University and Richard Mouw, President and Professor of Christian philosophy at the Fuller School of Theology. From the program “Mormons & Christians”:

Professor Stephen Davis: “If the question is Mormonism a legitimate expression of Christianity, honestly I would have to say no. I think that legitimate expressions of Christianity can be found in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, virtually all the Protestant denominations, but not Mormonism, because too many of their doctrines and beliefs are non-Christian.” Patrick Mason: Mormons in a lot of ways are scarred from a long history of misrepresentation in what they see as false reports about the church or unfair treatment of the church, and this goes all the way back to the 1830s. [PBS Correspondent] Severson: That was when Joseph Smith said he had a revelation where Jesus told him that all the religions at that time were an abomination in his sight. From then on Mormons, who were seen by some as lower-class, superstitious dupes, were targets of ridicule and violence eventually leading to the assassination of Joseph Smith. In the 1860s, the government sent the army to Utah to keep an eye on the Mormons. The army established this fort overlooking Salt Lake City. The cannons that were here were aimed at the Mormons.

But the most vocal critics of Mormons have long been evangelicals. Richard Mouw, President and Professor of Christian philosophy at the Fuller School of Theology, says one reason is because Mormons have been such good proselytizers.

Richard Mouw: Mormonism began as this evangelistic program of going out and getting converts, and very often converts from the traditional denominations, and so evangelicals and Mormons have had an unusually hostile relationship over the years because they have been sort of competing proselytizing programs, but also they traded the rhetoric in very hostile terms. Patrick Mason: There’s a sense of them-against-us that in some ways gets inflated among the grassroots membership of the church. But there is no doubt that for many people (Mormons) they see evangelicals as the enemy, and they need to be converted.

Civil Rights Flip-flop of the Radical Right: Father George Romney marched with civil rights activist in the 1960's - The Son, Mitt Romney  chooses a different path - one paved with political expediency (Segregation Protest Sign, National Archives)

The question is not whether it is right for a Mormon or a Black man to run for the Presidency in 2012. Civil Rights for Blacks have been established. There is no constitutional basis for a “religious test for public office” but there remains the choice.

The question is what will this iron-clad “core” of the Tea Party Controlled, Fundamentalist infused “block” of Republican voters (largely in Southern States) do when it comes their turn to vote. A racial example from the fundamentalist school of thought:

Jon Hubbard, a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, has written a new book in which he says slavery was "a blessing" for African-Americans, among other questionable statements. Hubbard, a first term Republican from Jonesboro, Ark., makes a series of racially charged statements in the self-published book, including saying that integration of schools is hurting white students, that African slaves had better lives under slavery than in Africa, that blacks are not contributing to society.... Hubbard in his Book: “… the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.” (Pages 183-89)

Source: “Jon Hubbard, Arkansas Legislator, Says Slavery May 'Have Been A Blessing' In New Book” in the Huffington Post by John Celock on October 5, 2012.


A final anecdote from a Kos respondent:

"My very evangelical, Republican mother and I had a conversation about this last week. For reasons that defy logical explanation, she is very enthusiastic about Romney. She is one of the Republican dead-enders that loved Dubya all the way to the bitter end in 2008, so that ought to tell you something. As for Romney's Mormonism, she simply said that she would "just have to let God deal with that." Mmmmm-kay. You'll vote to impose your faith on everyone in every other way possible, but it's OK… Gotcha. I suspect to “let God deal with the fact that Romney is a Mormon”…that a lot of Southern evangelicals have this same mindset when it comes to Romney's Mormonism. What makes the hypocrisy even more amazing is that they are completely oblivious to it."

And then there’s this insight on Race & the GOP:

The issue here is whether the Republican Party has racism "baked into the cake", not whether racism is limited to the South. It is not a question of individualized, subjective racist intent, which is certainly ubiquitous as far as I can tell, but rather it is structural racism. Republicans adopted the "Southern Strategy" and thereby put racism into their very structure. 

Will they lay aside their racial prejudices and ancient discriminations and abuses or will they deny and betray the central tenet and core of their Fundamentalist Christian faith and endorse and support a Bishop from a rival occultist cult - Mormonism.  

The impossible choice, deny Christ of the Gospels or vote for a Black. Now is a historic moment of impossible decision: Whom will the Fundamentalist Choose?

UPDATE: AP Story "Evangelical leaders worry Romney's Mormonism could suppress conservative turnout"

CLIPS from the last night's October 9, 2012 AP Story:

"...what had been thought of as a hypothetical question for American evangelicals for years, Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler said recently, is now a reality with this election and is being tested in a contest that will likely be decided by slim margins.

(break)

"The fact is that Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and many of our people are very, very uncomfortable about voting for a Mormon, as I am. I supported somebody else in the primary. But, hey, we have no option," said Steve Strang, an influential Pentecostal publisher, in a conference call with pastors last week. Strang was speaking to participants in Pulpit Freedom Sunday, an annual challenge to IRS rules on churches' political activity.

(break)

Evangelicals make up about a third of voters who are registered or lean Republican. Some Republicans have estimated that a significant number of Christian conservatives have not been voting in presidential elections and have focused on getting them registered. But that effort has a new wrinkle this year: Romney is the first Mormon nominee for president from a major party.

(break)

Pastors are struggling to get that message across while still making clear that important doctrinal differences with Mormons remain. Conservative Christians believe they have a duty to point out beliefs they fear could lead others astray and risk their salvation.

As Strang was getting out the vote last month, the news editor of his best-known magazine, Charisma, wrote a column calling Mormonism "bizarre" and a "Christianesque cult." Another columnist called Mormon doctrines "creepy and (with apologies to Mitt Romney) demonic."

Mohler and other academics took up the issue in a discussion last month at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship training ground for future leaders of the nearly 16 million-member denomination. Called "The Mormon Moment? Religious Conviction and the 2012 Election," the speakers went to great lengths to emphasize that religion should not be a consideration when voting.

END of UPDATE

On the Reader:

Watch PBS Frontline "Election 2012" on Mitt Romney (and President Obama) and his history as a Bishop and leader in the Mormon church, see Romney artifacts or read more about the Southern Baptist Convention and Richard Land's (fundamentalists') dilemma in ""We Always Need a JESUS CANDIDATE"? - Just WhoWill be God's People's Choice for President in 2012” (January 2012).

Related Slates:

The Crushing Blow to Mitt’s Quix-Toxic Quest: ‘Good Samaritan’ or ‘Corporate Bandit’  (October 2012) - Middling Mitt Romney Not of His Fathers' SterlingCivic Michigan Mettle (Gaskell & George Romney) (June 2012) - Mitt Romney: America’s Nascent Holy “god” & PossiblePresident? (February 2012) - Welcome to Planet Willard: Michigan's Wayward Son MittRomney to Rule His Own World (January 2012)

Cross-posted by guest commentator Morton from the McGuffey Gazette to Kos.

A Fully Electrified Detroit News Jim Crow Campaign Lights the 'Dark Clouds of Fury' with Neon Intensity

The drumbeat of Jim Crowism published by Henry E. Payne IV and his cast of "All Stars" at the Detroit News is now the accompaniment to a massive neon display with serial blinding flashes. These folks want to take down Detroit, and they want it down now. Mayor David (Dave) Bing, having raised resistance, feels like a "token" caught in the machinery of the cog works prepared by planners at the Mackinac Center and by elites invited into the Business Leaders for Michigan corporate cabal, the new “Big Boss.”

Planner and elites alike are steamed and they want Bing out of the way! But how?

Do they really think Mayor Bing should simply take the humiliation of being handed a consent decree? Without adequate time to even read it? Much less to digest its extremely important content, and then frame his reactions and assessments concerning its ramifications?

Just sign the order, ‘Mister Mayor!’ caws Michigan View's Blog Prof Chris Kobus, who pounced on this new opportunity when he saw an opening: Detroit must be made to realize it is now totally under the jurisdiction of the government of the State of Michigan.

Says Kobus, the city government of Detroit, including Mayor Bing, must be put under the EM laws and the authority of Snyder/Dillon “when that body gets out of line." Why? Kobus says because "I point out that Detroit does not operate in a democracy but rather under hegemonic domination of a single party and has for over two generations now."

There it is. A vast exaggeration and accusation not met at all by facts. The rub for creators of the new Jim Crowism is that minorities, especially Blacks tend to support the Democratic Party in large percentages; therefore, their behaviors as elected officials of the City of Detroit and as Democrats do not "operate in a democracy”. They are “beguiled” and “incapable of self-rule” in Kobus's Jim Crow view.

Recycling the Racism Fight: Civil Rights Congress
anti-Jim Crow Button (Cira 1948) (Tamiment Library Collection NYC)

The new Jim Crow supposition: Blacks can't or don't act in a genuine democratic manner; therefore, the Emergency Manager (EM) takeover (forced bankruptcy) of the City of Detroit is perfectly proper, if not absolutely necessary, on the part of Snyder and the TeaPublicans--now so solidly in charge of Michissippian-style governance. Here again, the News's electrified Jim Crow editorial campaign in service of the EM flashes neon for the Planners: TeaPublicans, Mackinac Center, and the Business Leaders for Michigan.

Michigan View Editor Henry Payne, in his own Jim Crow-style added digs against Mayor Bing. In his tart tome, “A DETROIT LEADER” March 14, 2012 on the Michigan View, Hank toys with several racially charged Jim Crow putdowns and 'bat language.' Here’s the list: 

FIRST, Payne refers to Black ministers’ objections which express disapproval toward the Snyder/Dillon treatment of Mayor Bing and the underlying larger rights issues and calls the religious leaders' objections a "black cloud of fury that rained on Governor Snyder's proposal."

Rev. Charles Williams II, the Michigan chapter president of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization based in New York, said, “We are unequivocally calling Governor Snyder a liar…We are standing up (against) hypocrisy."

Protesting Ministers arose in support of Mayor Bing, seen in Jim Crowism terms as “insubordinate” & “uppity,” for defending the powers of his office. Is this a "dark cloud of fury" ? Just how threatening and dangerous are ministers of the gospel, even if they are African Americans?

SECOND, "’When somebody lies to you, you can't trust them,’ raged Bing,” the nettled Payne wrote. Here Hank raises the image of an "angry Black Man" with his accusation and condemnation.

THIRD, Payne claimed that Bing used "coded language that skates along the line of us vs.them racial demagoguery." Is it wrong in a democracy for a Black mayor (forced by specific revenue devices, a punishing TeaPartisan legislature, and long term anti-Black Detroit bigotry) to acknowledge that what is happening is an historical and unprecedented use by Snyder and his own of use of the Shock Doctrine to takeover and usurp the duly elected officials of a city. Thus Snyder is threatening and enabling the EM to liquidate and/or sell off to privatizers (Disaster Capitalism) whatever he wills or chooses? This is a clear case of racial demagoguery by white Republicans against Black Detroiters, Black Democrats, all of whom are perceived as impotent, hapless enemies, endangering the whole miserly anti-tax policies of the TeaPublican scheme for Michigan., Payne teammate Kobus in “Detroit activists protest activism” March 19, 2012, fuels the flames at the Michigan View belittling activist Black pastors:

“Detroit has problems, and as Jeremiah Wright famously said, the chickens have come home to roost. So the Snyder administration is giving Detroit a carrot in the form of $100 million in loans. But it comes with the caveat that the D will have to hand the steering wheel off to non-drunks (politically-speaking). Of course, some aren't taking the news sitting down: Detroit activists ratchet up opposition to state financial intervention.

‘...a group of pastors and other community activists is staging sneak protests to amplify their opposition to state intervention in what they are dubbing '12 Days of Action.' 'We vow to bring 12 days of action against the financial review team and Gov. Snyder so they understand they can't dismiss democracy,' the Rev. Charles Williams II said.

“So once again, there is this bogus assertion that Detroit's democracy overrides state democracy, even though state taxpayers are on the hook for Detroit's corruption and incompetence. Ten (sic) there's this “’Many Detroiters say any intervention is unconstitutional if it strips elected leaders of their authority and autonomy.’"

Bing defended his actions alluding to his sworn oath of office: "I'll work for the people of the city of Detroit because they voted me in to do this. I won't work for anybody else."

FOURTH, Payne continued his rant by asserting Mayor Bing must "not make veiled allusions to not working for The Man." In this context, “Working for "The Man" has derogatory connotations. Under Jim Crow, a Black, even a mayor of the state's largest city, has no right to resist the power of "The Man." In this case the power is welded by a more powerful man, the white Gov. Snyder, who is "The Man" with all good intentions.

The motive here is said to move toward “reinvention” as derived from TeaPublican ideology and directed toward Mayor Bing and his urban dwellers--the city's growing and desperate revenue shortfall not withstanding.

And so it is Hank Payne himself who in his own words "skates along the line" deeper into ugly, provocative Jim Crow dialogue.

Paul Robeson & Civil Rights Congress picketing the White House (August 1948)

Jim Crowism: Conscious or unconsciously is racism at issue.

An important publication reminds us:

"The problem of unconscious racism is not confined to one locality or one point in time. The problem is a national problem that may be responsible in large part for the continuing disparities in any number of categories including wealth and income, percentage of population with chronic diseases, and incarceration rates.”

"These disparities are not insignificant and impair the ability of the African descendant communities to thrive and flourish.”

"FAILURE TO EXPOSE AND DISCUSS ISSUES OF ONGOING, UNCONSCIOUS RACISM PREVENTS THE IMPOSITION OF A REMEDY to minimize if not eliminate these ongoing disparities and undermines the true equality of African descendants."
(emphasis added)

Source: This selection is from “CAN WE TALK: How Triggers For Unconscious Racism Strengthen the Importance of Dialogue”, Adjoa Artis Aiyetoro, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) William H. Bowen School of Law, published by Columbia University (2009).


There Is a Legitimate Objection/ Reason for Protest of the Snyder/Dillon Moves Against Detroit  

Andrew Paterson, an attorney defending the rights of Detroit citizens has stated unequivocally:

"The proposal (Snyder's drawn consent decree) reveals that they met and negotiated at least twice in secret, in violation of the judge's order... They met in violation not only of the Open Meetings Act, but of the judge's order and Public Act 4 (the emergency manager law).(break) "It's a lawless group that is running the state right now."

A spirit of lawlessness has always hovered over the tactics of Jim Crowism whenever and wherever it occurs. Should this usurpation of minority rights and voter's sovereign rights (now centered on Detroit) be taken lightly, strictly because it came rushing through a state legislature, giddy with its unlimited power of repression and aggression against its alleged political enemies?

The entire imbroglio, as it concerns Detroit's pending subservient economic freedom and status as an EM Apartheid Plantation, is near the tipping point. Twenty-three years ago, a ham-fisted curmudgeon hammered down a cut- off of General Assistance to nearly 90,000 welfare recipients who were declared able-bodied. A large number of these individuals were residents of urban Detroit. One quarter were mentally ill and another quarter were functionally unemployable. Yet despite a huge outcry from many quarters and many religious leaders, Engler soldiered on. The damage done to former Republican Governor John Engler was that he gained a reputation as a coldhearted radical, a tag he still wears.

Truth be told, Jim Crow was there, too, in Engler's decision and allowed him to float his political capital past the initial sting of public rejection and opened the way for Engler to mount further vicious attacks on the weak and defenseless, and on state government itself.

For those outcast by Engler's indifference, the Engleresque welfare program became: “Collect returnable containers" and "pick a deserted street corner or alley as your home.” What did Engler do with the money he saved by expelling the GA recipients? In part he subsequently raised the salaries of his top aides, to salaries totals greater than his own as governor.

Some of the GA savings were drilled in to a huge expansion of the state's prison system under Engler! Where are the 90,000 casts offs today?

John Mathias Engler froze government in the ice of cold, calculated indifference, thereby set up a harsh tone. That tone still rings in the ears of caregivers in Michigan. Once a threshold of heedless neglect of needs and human rights is breached by a governor, it is difficult to recover positive solutions from the reigning party leaders interested only in themselves and making money.

After the City of Detroit's resistance is taken down, EM becomes the rule of the day, what comes next?

Beyond that: What is the GOP/TeaPublican & Snyder/BLM Corporatocracy’s end game?

On the Reader:
Essay " CAN WE TALK: How Triggers For Unconscious Racism Strengthen the Importance of Dialogue" by Adjoa Artis Aiyetoro (Columbia 2009) (Read Abstract)

Related Slates:
More on Emergency Management issue in EM Plantation/Jim Crow Series in "Snyder’s Michissippi (Michigan) Revival of 21st Cent ‘Jim Crow’: Imposing ‘EM Plantations’ Across the State & Nation" - "A Shout Out to the Overlords of Michissippian EM Plantations (Michigan EM)" - "Jim Crow & Hank Payne Call for Detroit EM Martial Law: America’s First Urban Apartheid EM Plantation" - "High up in Jim Crow’s Nest: Constant Cawing Incites Civic Upheaval by the Detroit News - Michigan View" on the Gazette.

Original.

Snyder’s Michissippi (Michigan) Revival of 21st Cent ‘Jim Crow’: Imposing ‘EM Plantations’ Across the State & Nation

Pushed by elite big money controllers (Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM) & Mackinac Center for Public Policy), Rick Snyder's inventing 21st Century Jim Crow. Snyder has acted with vigorous, uncompromising and a self-aggrandizing false flag - "Relentless Positive Action"; utilizing the powerful punch of angry and irrational citizens-calling themselves "patriots." These malcontents sent to the state legislature are Know Nothing hotheads with a very narrow and targeted un-civic, anti-democratic agenda which is destroying Michigan as we once knew it.

Snyder is leading a precedent-breaking rampage of 'red neck' legislation designed to undercut and destroy local autonomy and the voter rights of citizens in targeted jurisdictions as well as passing legislation against labor, including receding many of the collective bargaining rights signed into law by Republican Gov. George Romney, 1965. Who benefits from this crusade? "Workers are over-paid" Betsy DeVos and the invitation only Business Leaders for Michigan who have been bailed out and enriched with other people's tax dollars and ridiculously over-generous pro-corporate legislation!

Snyder’s Michissippi Gives Rise to the Revival of 21st Century ‘Jim Crow’ via TeaPartisan Legislation Imposing ‘EM Plantations’ Across the State... and the Nation.

Ferris State University's Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia

A Strange Paradox: Historic Jim Crow Was Born First in the Cities of Northern States
"Jim Crow" developed in northern segregated cities BEFORE it moved south and regressed post-civil war reconstruction in the South. Now in a parallel universe, Snyder's EM Plantation reinvention of economic and racial repression heralds a Neo-Jim Crow method to enforce and implement repressive racial segregation and economic subjugation via quasi-legal and economic means.

Snyder & Dillon's usurpation of urban civil and citizens rights, the Rad Right's abolition of the voter's franchise, and the literal liquidation of the public's storehouse of taxpayer acquired and sustained assets, via the 2010 blitz of enabling legislation passed by the TeaPartisan Super Majority in Lansing is under way, Jim Crow is on the rise.

Snyder's invention of 21st Century Neo-Jim Crow bodes very negatively for the future of racial harmony and skews progress away from eventual positive outcomes. Is it any wonder Detroit's Black middle class/individuals have chosen to take their future hopes to another state, many choosing a new locale in the New South.

Segregation (complete separation of races) was developed and refined in Northern cities where small concentrations of people of color could be confined to certain areas. In the reactionary 1980's and '90's following the take down of Reconstruction by Republicans racists transplanted Jim Crow into the angry South.

The kind of segregation under the status quo ante bellum days of slavery was less of a rigid system of separation of the races than was the apartheid practiced in many northern cites. The model of physical separation into designated areas and/or ghettos the root of Jim Crow developed in northern cities. In slave days, the intermingling of races was much more nominative, whites and blacks were intermingled in everyday southern life, housemaids, nannies, workers, etc.

More casual and daily contact was involved in the culture and daily life in the South than was found in the rigorous and aggressive behaviors so often associated with the Northern Jim Crow urban segregation-as it developed and was practiced many areas and cities of the North. Following the failure of Reconstruction, the North's version of Jim Crow fit perfectly with the rise of the KKK and radical race hatred and fear that dominated the next decades of ugly race relations and regression in the Deep South and as Jim Crow continued in the northern cities where it was first practiced. Several southern states still have Jim Crow laws on the books. Some of these laws draw distinctions mirrored in the actions and legislation of Snyder and the TeaPartisans in Michissippi.


Fact: The Boston Tea Party Was A Criminal Act
The adoption of the Revolutionary incident of the Boston Tea Party as an archetype for this faction's modus operandi (means to overreach and grab excessive government power) has a strong erroneous message to deliver-civic crime is not virtue.

Original Occupy Boston? Warning flyer against the corporate interests
and monopoly of the East India Co. November 29, 1773

The Boston Tea Partiers disguised themselves as savage Indians (to throw off blame) and committed economic terrorism (against economic rivals, themselves 'bootleggers') by deliberate criminal acts-destroying highly valuable cargo. The subversive text running just below the banners ('Don't Trend on Me,' the 'Just leave us alone' howlings, and their banishing of sidearms at the ready) is that these astroturf cells have been ginned up and are entirely controlled by elements traced directly to the Koch Bros.' Americans for Prosperity, Grover Norquist, and finally a nasty religious fundamentalism which fuels the TP rabble. They did as they were trained/told, and the disunifing public outcome (in the service of such anti-government elites such as Amway, the Waltons of Walmart and the Koch's) has fallen us all to bear.

The operating myth of Norquist's severe tax limitation movement is carried on by elevating the vision of a vicious felony, the glorification of a violent criminal act. This vision involves starving Uncle Sam (by any and all means limiting taxes and revenues) into losing strength and vitality, until having become so emaciated, Uncle is subsequently unable to fend off being manhandled into a bathtub, now so shriveled and weak, as to be forcibly drown by these activists. This is again, the fanciful and ugly depiction of criminality that propels Norquistian radicals and the TeaPartisans of the sort Grover continuously fans into flames.

So when tax starvation leads to bold repression of minorities and the poor, public employees and teachers, especially those in despised inner cities such as Detroit; the rise of Neo-Jim Crow naturally and tragically follows.

Michigan's Public Act 4, 2011
The advent of regression under Snyder/Dillon led Jim Crow centers around the imposition of the newly stiffened and much more dictatorial PA 4 designed to literally change a democratically-run Detroit into a Jim Crow Plantation where the citizens of Detroit are disenfranchised, humiliated, limited and corralled and herded by the whims of highly compensated corporate attorneys trained in methods to dissolve systems, sell off valuable assets, and counterman the will of the citizens.

There's a clear distinction between civil liberties, which are the laws protecting citizens from unjust government power and control, and civil rights, in which government power is used to protect the rights of a marginalized or minority population from other citizen groups. Therefore, this is a case of rogue Corporatists ordering CEO Snyder and radical elements now in total charge of the Michigan Legislature via the insurgent TeaPartisans going on a racial rampage.

These ideological elements, who have full control of the entire four branches of the state, are recklessly acting against both civil liberties and voter rights; subjecting minorities to unjust governmental power and control.
The legislature of Michissippi has been the sponsor of a new 21st Century "Jim Crow" that will metastasize and spread to other areas, even re-infest the South-still under lingering bigotry and racism stoked by Republican strategists.

Snyder's Michissippian model, 21st Century Neo-Jim Crow/EM Plantation(s), constitutes a very evil and volatile lapse- capable of tearing the fabric of our nation with economic racism and bitter minority blowback...there already is talk of Snyder's EM/Jim Crow model spreading to other states.

On the Reader:
More on the history of Jim Crow imaginary visit the Ferris State University's "Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia".

And the real story of the Boston Tea Party by Thom Hartmann based on the only first-hand account by George R.T. Hewes (Video).

More on Emergency Management issue in EM Plantation/Jim Crow Series in "A Shout Out to the Overlords of Michissippian EM Plantations (Michigan EM)" - "Jim Crow & Hank Payne Call for Detroit EM Martial Law: America’s First Urban Apartheid EM Plantation" - "High up in Jim Crow’s Nest: Constant Cawing Incites Civic Upheaval by the Detroit News - Michigan View" on the Gazette.


Original.

Jim Crow & Hank Payne Call for Detroit EM Martial Law: America’s First Urban Apartheid EM “Plantation”

Response to a series of Henry Payne and Detroit News op-eds supporting Emergency Manager (EM) in Detroit in the Detroit / Mackinac News and Michigan View.

Hank Payne is on one of his fringe stretches, trying hard to make a case for confiscatory EM takeover of one of the nation's past great super cities.

The impetus for this Draconian move has long lingered in the dark side of the Jim Crow mentality allowed to metastasize in the psyche of many confused and desperate Michissippians. As their fortunes continue to diminish and their income and security are sucked away by the Great Bush Recession new life is given to latent civic poisons of prejudice, racism and bigotry.

"Detroit is pathologically abnormal..." Payne opines pseudo-philosophically, recommending "Nix the Detroit bailout. Send in the emergency manager - just like other Detroit cities have done." In this harsh demand, Hank Payne perfectly mirrors the Mackinac Center's many calls for Detroit's bankruptcy among them is the Mackinac Center's Paul Kersey, Oct. 15, 2009.:

"As long as the unions refuse to make concessions, there appears to be no certain remedy for the city short of bankruptcy court."

"The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality
in Postwar Detroit" by Thomas Sugrue (Princeton, 2005)

From a review of the book "The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit" by Thomas Sugrue:

"The Detroit metropolitan area today is arguably the most racially segregated region in the United States, with a primarily African-American, largely abandoned and dilapidated urban center surrounded by layers of primarily white, affluent suburbs." 

"Thomas Sugrue (author of The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, Princeton Studies in American Politics) provides a thoughtful, well-researched, and fascinating analysis of systematic racial inequality in Detroit during the post World War II automotive industry boom of the 1940s through deindustrialization and "white flight", and ending with the catastrophic race riots of 1967."

"Sugrue avoids the current, common oversimplifications of blaming Detroit's urban crisis on the '67 riots or Mayor Colman Young by weaving together a complex story of human behaviors, fears, and incentive structures backed by data, references, and personal accounts: 'By the time Young was inaugurated, the forces of economic decay and racial animosity were far too powerful for a single elected official to stem.'"

A Look Back on the Rude History of Jim Crow Racism in Detroit.
As Michalek summarizes - "(Thomas) Sugrue's analysis provides insight to understand major groups of stakeholders and their interactions" with the following observations:

• "Workers flocked from the southern states to Detroit seeking relatively high-paying automotive jobs.
• In the free market, resulting housing shortages allowed landlords to divide properties into tiny apartments and charge premium prices, protecting their investments by being selective in their choice of "low risk" white tenants.
• Bankers also preferred "low risk" clients, resulting in unequal access to funds.
• White home owners, wanting to protect their families and financial investment, resisted neighborhood integration to avoid declining property values and perceived dangers.
• Real estate agents capitalized on fears of mixed neighborhoods by buying property from fleeing whites at junk prices and selling immediately to blacks at premium prices.
• Labor unions protected seniority, which unequally benefited whites, and tended to compromise on racial issues in order to gain bargaining ground.
• Store owners avoided hiring black workers, wishing to avoid offending or frightening mostly white, mostly female, customers.
• Suburban tax incentives and new technology made large, flat assembly plants more efficient than the old multi-story plants. This drove automakers away from Detroit, where the rail and riverside real estate was largely developed, and contributed to unemployment and race and class polarization.
• Racial inequality in Detroit stems from complex social systems of incentives and categorical isolation caused by systematic inequality in access to employment, housing, networking and other resources.
• Recognizing the complexity of this social system helps the reader understand how individuals who fail to actively oppose racism actually support it, and why official 'race-blind' policies fail to stop the polarization caused by chain-reactions of systematic, historic, self-reinforcing racial inequalities and the ruthless self-interest of capitalist culture."

 Source: Jeremy Michalek in a January 2, 2004 Amazon Book Review of "The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit" by Thomas Sugrue (Princeton, 2004)

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The race hatred and the animosity that resides just behind the editorial facade of Gannett's Detroit News daily rants continues to roil up potential social and civic disaster for Detroit and fuels the same kind of fear and hatred that Rush Limbaugh has engendered for far too long. Limbaugh, his fawning 'dittoheads' chime, is but an "entertainer." What kind of "entertainer" is it who panders and incites the lowest of the low emotions/prejudices and repressed hatreds residing regretfully in a political party? Republicans were once the great GOP of Jerry Ford and Ike, now relegated to a bifurcated party which is now brought down, ham-fistedly hectored by mealy mouth gutter snipe-style rants and corrupting greedy corporate (Koch Bros.) influences?

Hank, walk away from racial prejudice and your own lack of positive vision. Throw off your dark despair. Use the Gannett Mission Statement as your new beginning: To enrich lives by informing and inspiring consumers, by providing the ease and accessibility to connect them with their communities of interest, and by being a catalyst for the conversations that are making a difference every day. Also include the Gannett Vision Statement:

"OUR VISION: To be the trusted, leading media and marketing solutions company at the forefront of a new era in human engagement."

To achieve these goals Hank, you will need to discover what is "a new era in human engagement" not the kind of snarky disengagement you've displayed in calling for the literal liquidation of Detroit, as a government and a city via bankruptcy and imposition of a EM dictator.

Hank, you will need to be tutored in how to make your contributions via the News more in the service of the greater civic good. Gannett ownership calls for journalism that is "trusted" and "at the forefront of a new era of human engagement" yielding a dialogue that is pro-positive "enriching lives" by "informing and inspiring" readers to become "catalysts for conversations that make a (proactive, positive) difference every day.

Gannett employees should be ever mindful of their journalistic responsibilities as outlined (highly accurate news and responsible/fair-minded balanced opines) in Gannett's corporate Vision and Mission Statements.

Now more History than Real News, the official Michigan Historical Marker at the Detroit News reads:

"On August 23, 1873 James E. Scripps began publishing The Evening News, one of the first popular, low-priced evening newspapers in Michigan. The News specialized in short, local, human interest stories. Resolutely independent, it continuously championed political and business reform. In 1917 the enterprise moved to this building designed by Albert Kahn. By its centenary, The Detroit News had attained the largest evening circulation in America."

The Detroit News now, with it's current staff spewing all this 'stuff' into Detroit's toxic drainage ditch, the Michigan View, is just a shadow of its better self.

On the Reader:
"The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit" by Thomas Sugrue (Princeton, 2005)

Related Slates:
More on Jim Crow at the Detroit News in "High up in Jim Crow’s Nest: Constant Cawing Incites Civic Upheaval by the Detroit News - Michigan View" and on Emergency Manager policy in "A Shout Out to the Overlords of Michissippian EM Plantations (Michigan Emergency Managerment)".
 
More responses to Henry Payne and the Michigan View on the Gazette.

Original.