Perry Compares Civil Rights Movement to Tax Cuts for Billionaires

Rick Perry: A Reflection of the Neo-Confederacy in America

Republicans are a different breed today comparable to sixty years ago. Recently Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his entry in running for the Presidency of the United States. Perry from where I sit is a reflection of what is wrong with America, in particular the modern Republican Party. In many respects, they are very similar to the democrats of the pre and post-civil war era.

Perry is looked at by his faithful followers as the second coming of Christ, who will purge the sins of a nation under the leadership of Barack Obama. But dressage aside, one must call him for what he is, a throwback yahoo from the era of the confederacy who wants to see his state succeed from the union, and for god measure commemorate that time in history with a license plate honoring the confederate states and army.

Perry is a man of many contradictions. On the one hand he is an uber-globalist who has raised taxes and fees in Texas multiple times over his ten year career to the extent of massively growing the size of government, government spending and government debt in the state. A true plutocrat, he has even attempted to make young women all over Texas to be injected with the Gardasil vaccine. Although this is from a republican perspective, the same things they hate in an Obama, they can live with because the worse side of him which many applauded is his neo confederate political efficacy and locution - similar to Christian conservatives and Tea party stalwarts who continue to announce their desire to “take America back.”

This is the central premise of neo-confederates. In fact many of these patriots believe they would be better off if their states seceded from the Union. Especially in the south, where the intimation of secession is clear from Representative John Fleming to the Governor of Texas Rick Perry.

Perry made national headlines in 2009 when, during a speech to a Tea Party group in Austin, he suggested the rationale for Texas seceding from the union. This assertion is typical of the Governors political positions given his admitted being a member of the “Sons of Confederate Veterans." Evidence is noted in a document, published by the League of the South on its website DixieNet.org. Prior to his entrance into the race for the presidency, Perry rejected more than $500 million in federal stimulus funds and has been highly critical of President Obama's stimulus package.

Now some would say its all talk and rooted in historical fact, given Texas, the nation’s second biggest state was its own nation for 10 years before joining the United States in 1845. Perry is not alone; neo confederates in Georgia have also made similar assertions.

Georgia’s Senate Resolution 632, available for review online on the Georgia General Assembly’s Web site, and describes the circumstances under which the Georgia Senate believes, according to Republicans, that the state might be justified in seceding from the Union. The resolution affirms “states’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles; and for other purposes.

WHEREAS, the Ninth Amendment of the United States Constitution states "[t]he enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people" and the Tenth Amendment states "[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

In Tennessee, Rep. Zach Wamp, a Republican House member running for governor of Tennessee, is making a strong play for the crazy portion of the Volunteer State GOP primary electorate. He told Hotline OnCall that the new healthcare law might spur some states to secede from the Union.

Perry is ridiculous at best and crazy at worse. Last I read advocating the forcible dissolution of the union is a form of treason. Strange huh, given this man described Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman appointed by his fellow Texan and former President George W. Bush as “treasonous.” I guess like many in the GOP, especially in the South, they still hold on to the wish fulfillment of the south rising again.

Republicans Revisit Jim Crow Laws: Want to Require Photo ID to Vote

Across the nation, Republican state legislatures and governors are pushing the idea of requiring that voter’s present picture identification at the voting booth. The GOP is rewriting voting laws in at least thirteen states thus far and more may be on the horizon. These efforts are being implemented under the guise of “fraud prevention.”

In South Carolina, Governor Nikki Haley, although there is no evidence of fraud in any recent elections, Republicans have changed laws to require a picture IDs at the poll in order to vote. Just last week Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Rick Perry of Texas signed into law the requirement for a valid picture ID to vote. This week, in Florida, Governor Rick Scott is expected to sign a similar requirement into law. In Ohio, changes will reduce the number of provisional ballots cast on election day and do away with the five-day period in which new voters can register and then immediately vote, a rule that some say invited fraud.

Democrats argue that these laws are aimed to discourage voters, particularly those who don't have photo IDs, typically the poor and minorities. They also contend that such laws are equal to those implemented albeit unconstitutionally, during the period of Jim Crow in America where literacy test and poll taxes were put in place to keep poor whites and African Americans from participating in voting.

Although the fifteenth amendment forbids laws that obviate voting based on race, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 protects the rights of minority voters and eliminates any voting barriers obstructing voters rights, the Republican Party strongly support these measures.
Strange it seems given that these strict constitutionalist cannot point to any reference in the constitution of bill of rights requiring an ID to vote. Another concern is that many, including disabled, students and the elderly may not have “officially” accepted ID’s such as pass ports or drivers licenses. GOP-controlled statehouses nationwide are also restricting early voting, and imposing stricter rules on those who can register to vote.

These changes for some equate to a new poll tax. ID’s cost money, and some people just don’t have the money to get them. A study conducted by the New York University’s Brennan Center in 2006, claims that 11% of the American voting-age public—that means tens of millions of people—don’t have a photo ID.