CPAC 2013 and the continuation of white supremacy deeply embeded in conservatives

We have seen chronic terrible excuses made for slavery and white supremacy by the right, from claims that black Americans were better off under slavery because of their families being together (except when they were separated and sold off, or when children were conceived by black women raped by white masters), that they were fortunate to be slaved so they could be indoctrinated with Christianity, and of course, the assertion by tea party assholes like Rand Paul or right wing activist judges and justices like Scalia who want to dismantle the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation. We have seen it as well in the desire uncovered by opinion polls, to re-criminalize mixed race marriage in the south.

The core of conservatism is racist; and they consistently whine and claim to be victims -- oh WHINE, the poor pitiful advantaged dominant white male!  I'm heartily sick of the whiny indulgent victim claims of the right. The reality is that we are not a white nation, we are not a male nation, we are not a European nation, we are not an English-only speaking nation, we are not a Christian nation or increasingly a nation of any religion at all. The hell with the fake denials about racism; this IS racism.

The dog whistle about opposing 'big government' and standing up or states rights is nothing more than an attempt to reverse the federal enforcement of voting rights and civil rights. The right wants to keep any federal government out of their desire to do bad things like deny science, teach creationism, impose indoctrination in Christianity - a particularly virulent, dominionist, oppressive fundamentalist version of religion that gives white males back a form of a whip hand. The conservative right has always been the party that takes away liberty, and runs up the debt, gets into wars, and raises taxes -- but supports racism and misogyny.

Apparently that includes a desire to bring back the bad old days of segregation and Jim Crow laws:

“In all things social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”― Booker T. Washington

And denial of the atrocities of slavery, like this quote from perennial dim-bulb racist tea party popsie Michele Bachmann which was blissfully ignorant of how many black couples are two parent middle class households in the late 20th and early 21st century:

 "...black child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African American baby born after the election of the USA's first African American President."

And of course her mistaken notion that the founding fathers were slave owners trying to end slavery (- they were slave owners, ending slavery not so much) and her must-read book list that included statements about how happy AND fortunate slaves were to be slaves -- not unlike the comment in the clips below about how slaves should have been thankful to their masters they were fed and housed and clothed.

Slavery, as it operated in the pervasively Christian society which was the old South, was not an adversarial relationship founded upon racial animosity. In fact, it bred on the whole, not contempt, but, over time, mutual respect. This produced a mutual esteem of the sort that always results when men give themselves to a common cause. The credit for this startling reality must go to the Christian faith. . .  The unity and companionship that existed between the races in the South prior to the war was the fruit of a common faith.

The very roots of CPAC, its founders and core organizers are and always have been racists and white supremaciss (from Mother Jones): 

For the past week, the American Conservative Union, which founded and is the primary organizer of CPAC, has showcased on its website an article from its newsletter, the Conservative Battleline, headlined "Debating Liberal Tactics" and written by Robert Weissberg. The ACU identifies Weissberg as a professor from Cornell and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and the author of 11 books. What it doesn't mention is that Weissberg has long been affiliated with a pseudo-think tank called the New Century Foundation. This foundation publishes a magazine called American Renaissance and hosts conferences under the same name, promoting the theory of "scientific racism" and providing a forum in which Klan members, neo-Nazis, and David Duke followers can mix it up with the intellectuals of the white-nationalist movement. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the foundation's founder and American Renaissance editor, Jared Taylor, as a "courtly" white supremacist, who once wrote in American Renaissance, "Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization—any kind of civilization—disappears." Weissberg has been writing for Taylor's magazine for years and has spoken at American Renaissance conferences. The Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR), a nonprofit social-justice organization that tracks far-right groups, has been sounding the alarm about Weissberg this week and first called attention to his work on the ACU website. It has assembled a history of his racist work here. Among the highlights—or lowlights—is a speech Weissberg delivered at a 2012 American Renaissance conference on a "Politically Viable Alternative to White Nationalism," in which he argued that white racism needed an image update. He suggested that white people retreat into "Whitopias" that carry zoning codes and other subtle requirements that would keep out the "undesirables," according to IREHR. IREHR dug up a video of Weissberg, who is Jewish, giving a speech in 2000 entitled "Jews and Blacks: Everything the Goyim Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask," in which he puzzled over Jewish support for civil rights—a problem he dubbed "an affliction"—and suggested that non-Jewish whites and Jews should team up to fight against the blacks and what he termed African Americans' hatred of education and learning. Here's that speech:

continuing from Mother Jones:

Following up on that theme, Weissberg recently published a book called Bad Students, Not Bad Schools, which blames black and Latino students for wrecking the American public school system with their genetically low IQs. (On Amazon, the book features a glowing review from fellow white nationalist John Derbyshire, and is "frequently bought" with a book on education by Bell Curve author Charles Murray.)

Such work, and Weissberg's affiliation with American Renaissance, got him booted from the pages of National Review last year after IREHR raised the issue. Editor Rich Lowry explained at the time:

Unbeknownst to us, occasional Phi Beta Cons contributor Robert Weissberg (whose book was published a few years ago by Transaction) participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a noxious talk about the future of white nationalism. He will no longer be posting here. Thanks to those who brought it to our attention.

An ACU spokesman hasn't responded to a request for comment from Mother Jones.

Maybe it's progress that Weissberg is only on the ACU website and not speaking at CPAC. Last year, the ACU gave a microphone to several white nationalists who headlined a panel titled, "The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the Pursuit of Diversity Is Weakening the American Identity." Among the panelists was Derbyshire, who also has been kicked out of the National Review editorial lineup for his racist writings; Peter Brimelow, the founder of the nativist site VDARE, which publishes the work of many other anti-Semitic and white-supremacist writers; and Robert Vandervoot, who's also affiliated with American Renaissance and the nativist group Pro-English.

Two board members of Young America's Foundation, which cofounded and sponsors CPAC along with the ACU, run a political action committee that gave money to a white-nationalist group, as my colleague Nick Baumann documented earlier this year here. As Baumann noted, Ron Robinson, one of the YAF board members in question, is also on the ACU's board.

The conservative movement will continue to have a tough time appealing to minorities if it keeps cavorting with these folks, no matter how many African Americans appear on their panel discussions.