The New McCarthyists
By Adam Graham (05/05/06)
Ryan Lizza, fancying himself as the new Bob Woodward is on a search and destroy mission to prove that George Allen is a Confederate Sympathizer. Though a charge that seems more appropriate to the Presidential election of 1868 than 2008, many on the left are fanning the flames. They smell blood in the water and are closing in for the kill.
They have evidence, like many people living in the South, Allen has had the Confederate flag on prominent display in many areas of his life. Like the beloved Dukes of Hazard, Allen at one point even featured the Stars and Bars on his vehicle. As Governor of Virginia, he signed a bill recognizing Confederate Heritage Month.
For such sympathies its argued, he's not fit to be President. Its made worse because George Allen has no Confederate ancestors. Why is it assumed that there can be no sympathy to the Confederacy outside of heritage? Many of the Confederates were brilliant men. Lee was the sharpest mind of his generation. Stonewall Jackson was a man of unmatched courage, who before the war ministered to the needs of Blacks in his Church.
Liberals, who accuse Conservatives of being simple minded fools who can't understand the complexity of life turn the Civil War into a battle of the purely good Yankees and the purely Evil Confederates. Throw away the issue of slavery in the Civil War and what do we have? A Constitutional issue played out on the battlefield. Many people without a racist bone in their body, including noted Black economist Walter Williams, sympathize with the Confederate Cause on Constitutional grounds. While I'm glad the Union prevailed for both the sake of our nation and African Americans, I can respect the beliefs of people who believe the confederates were right.
However, the left can't. Yes, Lizza is leading a good old fashioned gray hunt. All we lack is a guy in a blue suit calling Allen in before the cameras and asking a series of questions:
Have you now or ever been sympathetic to the Confederate cause?
Have you now or ever flew the Confederate flag?
Have you ever played the Confederate side in a Civil War computer game?
Meanwhile, the net whispering campaigns and innuendo-laden stories miss the larger point. Is George Allen a virulent racist? Has he ever mistreated anyone because of their race? If George Allen was the type of man who was a hateful racist, why did he receive the endorsement of the conservative Black America's Political Action Committee (BAMPAC)? Show me the evidence, not of him flying a flag, but of the darkness of his soul.
These issues are smokescreens. The left loves to focus on symbolism because it distracts from the substantive issues. Did George Allen's having a Confederate Flag on his pick-up truck (remember Howard Dean said in 2003 that he wanted people like this in the Democratic Party) cause massive Black poverty in liberal run cities? Did it create substandard inner-city schools which Democratic leaders will not allow Black children to escape. Why is that the Black family was more intact under slavery than under 40 years of the sexual revolution?
If we measured by results and heart, not by silly symbolism, how would George Allen's efforts to reform Welfare and education measure up to a party that takes Blacks for granted and will be happy to let the Black family deteriorate, and continue to serve up an education that cares more about the teacher's union than Black children? If results mattered, who would be the racists?
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