More Proof U.S. Is NOT Post-Racial

The picture above is of Mildred and Richard Loving. They wanted to get married in Virginia back in the 1960s, but the state of Virginia (and many other Southern states) had a law against interracial marriage. This brave couple took that state to court, and in 1967 the United States Supreme Court outlawed the state laws preventing interracial couples from getting married. It was a landmark decision in this country's march toward equal rights.

Many right-wingers would like for American voters to believe a couple of things. First, that this country has entered a post-racial phase with the election of an African-American president (and there is no longer any need for laws preventing racial discrimination). Second, that the Republican Party does not contain a large number of racists. Neither of these things are true.

A recent Public Policy Polling survey clearly shows that. Their survey, done from March 24th through March 27th, polled 400 Republican voters in the state of Mississippi. I wish I could say the results were shocking, but they really weren't. They were about what I would have expected of any Southern state (including Texas), and probably of a lot of states out of the South.

The PPP survey asked the Republican voters about their choice for the Republican presidential nomination, but they also tossed in another question -- a question that blows both of the above-related right-wing assumptions completely out of the water. They asked them if interracial marriage should be legal. Here are the results:

SHOULD INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE BE LEGAL OR ILLEGAL?
Legal...............40%
Illegal...............46%
Not sure...............14%

There is only one decent and moral answer to that question -- that it should be legal to marry anyone of any race that you are in love with. Frankly, I think the "not sure" 14% are about as bad as the 46% who think it should be illegal, since they probably believe the same thing but just didn't have the guts to say it out loud. And that's sort of frightening, that 60% of the Republican Party in that state (and no doubt in many other states as well) still show definite racist tendencies.

There has never been any doubt that many racists fled the Democratic Party after Lyndon Johnson strong-armed the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and Fair Housing Act through Congress in the 1960s ending legalized segregation. These racists found a home in the Republican Party and have been there ever since.

In recent years they have not been as up-front with their racist beliefs since the country has made progress and those beliefs would have been scorned by many. Sadly though, it seems like the election of President Obama has made them bolder, and many (like the 46%) are no longer reticent to express those vile beliefs.

Here's who the Mississippi Republicans chose as their current choice for the presidential nomination. First is the choices of those who want interracial marriage to be illegal, and second is the choice of all the Republicans.

THE RACISTS WOULD CHOOSE:
Haley Barbour...............37%
Mike Huckabee...............22%
Sarah Palin...............13%
Newt Gingrich...............8%
Mitt Romney...............7%
Michele Bachmann...............2%
Tim Pawlenty...............1%
Ron Paul...............1%
Someone else...............7%

ALL MISSISSIPPI REPUBLICANS WOULD CHOOSE:
Haley Barbour...............37%
Mike Huckabee...............19%
Newt Gingrich...............10%
Sarah Palin...............10%
Mitt Romney...............6%
Michele Bachmann...............5%
Tim Pawlenty...............3%
Ron Paul...............2%
Someone else...............9%

It is interesting to note that two candidates do better with the racists than with Republicans in general -- Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. Haley Barbour's support is the same in both groups, and all the other candidates do better among Republicans in general. I don't know that it means anything -- I just found it interesting.