These folks wouldn't mind traveling back to this period, preferably before 1954 when all of the unpleasantness of the Civil Rights movement started flaring up. Back when America was the undisputed king of the world, flush with cash and industry, bristling with confidence and with a wary eye on the big boogeyman du jour, the Soviet Union. Eurasia had its Eastasia, the kids had their new-fangled TVs set to Captain Kangaroo and cowboy flicks, and those who were supposed to be in their place were in their place. Which brings me to Pat Buchanan's latest brain fart:
In an interview with radio host Mark Davis, agreed with Davis when he said that unlike today, blacks of the 1950s were "woven into the fabric of the America of that time than many of today's black Americans are woven into the America of this time."
Buchanan goes onto explain that during the 1950s, blacks and whites "all had a common religion, we all worshiped the same God, we all went to schools where American literature was taught, the English language was our language, we all rooted for the same teams, we read the same newspapers, we listened to the same music. We were a people then. We were all Americans. Now I'm not saying segregation was good. But what I was saying, that did not prevent us from being one people."
Ladies and gentlemen, Pat Buchanan has found the world's best weed, and he is now duty-bound to share with the rest of America whatever it is he's smoking. Given the above, it must be some of the best shit anyone's ever smoked in their entire life.
I don't think I have to remind anyone of what segregation did to rend and tear the American fabric. Nor will I remind you how it was part and parcel in the legal and extralegal enforcement of Jim Crow, a system of socioeconomic apartheid designed to keep black Americans in a economically and politically powerless "second class" status. To say that segregated black Americans were somehow more "patriotic" than today's black America is...well...pretty fucking stupid.
Blacks engaged in quiet, dignified suffering is a beautiful sight to those who view stoic suffering as the pinnacle of "Donner Party Conservatism," something that's only a stone's throw away from the "Flagellants," Calvinists and other social and religious groups that hold ever-persistent mortification and constant tribulations in one's life as a golden standard of piety and "right living." These ideal blacks never complain about their circumstances or their station in life. Instead, they "keep on keeping on" as America's readily available service industry job pool, doing all of the things that white Americans rather not do, quietly. These days, the Latinos are expected to fill that role, except when certain states decide to chase them away for political brownie points.
It's interesting to hear Buchanan effectively say that blacks have somehow grown so far apart that they've become their own sub-species of sorts from the rest of America, so much so they can't be deemed as being as "patriotic" as their defacto and de jure counterparts from 60 years ago. I suppose it pains Buchanan to see blacks become a great deal more expressive of their current lot in life than the ones he remembers from his childhood. After all, your mammy didn't run off at the mouth about political issues if she valued her job. Neither did the porters, janitors, doormen or shoeshine boys. Flattering and accommodating white customers while getting the job done without whining or crying about this and that was the ideal of the day, and it's something I suspect many want to get back to.
