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The faith we have not kept

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A little background is necessary here. Sen. Strom Thurmond, then the ultraconservative segregationist senator of South Carolina, wrote this manifesto on his views of the social turbulence of the 1960s.

On one hand, he decried the street violence of that era, and of the dangers of Communism. No sensible person today can give much argument against condemnation of these things. However, he blames much of this on the Supreme Courts rulings on individual liberites and civil rights that he considers unconstitutional. He denounces the Miranda Ruling (you have the right to remain silent) as aiding criminals and as most segregationsits did at the time, attribute the country's slide into violence to "Brown Vs. Board" (the 1954 ruling outlawing segregation od schools) as trampling on "Constitutional" principles (the right to discriminate ?). He even denounces the 1965 Voting rights act as "allowing illiterates to vote." (As if there was something wrong with brinigng true democracy to all Americans). He ties all of this to the street violence of the late 1960s and the rise of Communism in the so-called Third World when the two were really apples and oranges.

Today, much of this can be dismissed as extremist right wing drivel designed to confuse the issues for ignorant and bigoted voters. Even Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan would not touch some of this rhetoric (although they were friends of Thurmond and would not condemn him for it). Fortuantely, even Thurmond would later back off from some of these extreme positions, but stuff like this would give the American political right a bad name for years to come.