South Carolina has tradition in this arena. In 1856, a South Carolina Congressman, Preston Brooks, walked into the Senate chamber and expressed his indignation to remarks made by an anti slavery Senator by reigning blows with a wooden cudgel upon the skull of this Senator, the unfortunate Charles Sumner. Sumner's legs became entangled in his Senate desk which was bolted to the floor, and rising to defend himself against the surprise attack, he wrenched the desk free from its moorings while the South Carolina Congressman continued to deliver blows to the skull. The Congressman from South Carolina managed to blind the object of his displeasure, but only in one eye, and it took three years for his victim to recover from the hail of blows.
I suppose one could call this maneuver, the South Carolina blind side.
In South Carolina, such attacks are apparently regarded as a sign of courage and resolve and moral superiority; Brooks received scores of canes from admirers throughout South Carolina, who urged him to use these cudgels on other opponents of slavery. The Congressman became a hero to that locus of paranoia and resentment which had as its umbilicus the Palmetto state.
Was it merely a coincidence the first shots of the Civil War were fired in a South Carolina harbor?
I think not.
Where else would disagreement degenerate so predictably?
The Congressman either suffers from Tourette's syndrome or he is from South Carolina.
Has to be one or the other.
And I realize I am being quite unfair to sufferers of Tourette's.
The Congressman is either an imbecile or he is simply from South Carolina. But then, this may be a distinction without a difference.
Do we know anything about this man? Do we need to know more?
Does he listen faithfully to Rush Limbaugh and Imus? Of course he does. He has not had an original thought his entire life. He simply listens and smiles idiotically when something Rush says appeals to the few functioning neurons he manages to synapse.
Where was his little hand held poster of Obama with the Hitler mustache? Other Republicans throughout the chamber were armed and ready with little placards to wave at the President that night, although none saw fit to interrupt him with a shout out.
Here in New Hampshire, during the run up to the voting last November, a local Democrat was educating me about New Hampshire Republicans. I was new to the state and standing on corner with her and she was holding up an Obama for President poster. She told me, "Well, New Hampshire Republicans are Republicans, but they are not assholes." Coming from this very primlady in her Talbot's jacket and her pressed blue jeans and her L.L. Bean field shoes, I was a little taken aback. Such language from this lady who had Junior League written all over her.
Just then, a car drove by us, and a man leaned out of the window and I could see he was angry because the neck veins under under his tattoo were bulging. He screamed, "Nigger lovers."
I looked to her for an explanation.
"I'm not sure he's a Republican," she said. "I'm not sure he's even from New Hampshire."
Maybe a tourist, from South Carolina.
The mystery is not that people like this exist--we saw them at all the town hall meetings this summer. They crawl out from under their rocks now in then, into the sunlight to spew.
The mystery is why the President clings to the notion you can engage in civil discourse with people...like that. By which I mean, the Republican party.
They waved their little placards at the President during his speech. They are so smug and self satisfied.
They believe in being born on third base and thinking they've worked hard and deserve all the good things and all the advantages they have.
We cannot be rid of the Republicans. We have to tolerate them, even if we ignore them.
But let's just saw off the entire state of South Carolina with its statehouse flying the stars and bars, that symbol of "Southern heritage" and "history," a proud history of defending slavery and then tobacco and whatever other slime ball institution like states rights, segregation, lynching uppity black people--let's just saw off the entire state, which is, thank our lucky stars, on the eastern seaboard, and we can hope it will drift out to sea.
There are several states we would not miss at all. South Carolina has to be a leader of the pack. Mississippi and Alamba are not far beind. But South Carolina has always had a special place in the black little hearts of the really demented.
What would we miss about South Carolina, if it simply got its 150 year old wish to separate from the Union? It has no institutions of higher learning, although it has some football teams attached to things they call colleges. There may be a few golf courses. There is a fort off shore which has historical significance. But can you name anything you'd really miss?
The place is an abscess which ought to be incised and drained and excised if possible. All the hate and poison of the country has flowed right there.
Let's be done with that wretched state. It may pollute the Atlantic, but eventually the ocean will claim it and we'll be a much healthier country.
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