Ronald Reagan States' Rights Speech in Philadelphia, MS

[perdondaris]

Reagan was a slick politician. Bill Clinton had nothing on Ronny for lying and cheating. Just look at the rap sheet of his administration. I remember Reagan saying the deficit is "big enough to take care of itself" and Reagan breaking the law and getting away with it (Iran Contra).I remember his "small government" BS--all the while trying to ban pornography and ramping up the war on drugs and bailing out the S&Ls.

[amberwhite122589]

@perdondaris Hey, you qualify for an Alheimer's Commercial!!! Good job LIBERAT!

[toddsmitts]

For the record, I don't think Reagan was a racist in the way that James Eastland or Strom Thurmond were racists, but he was clearly more interested in courting those who were than African-Americans. He initially authorized the Treasury and Justice depts to ask the Bob Jones v. US case be dropped, he opposed sanctions against South Africa until congress passed it with a veto-proof majority, and called the Voting Right act of 1964 "humiliating to the south". It's clear whose favor he was seeking

[harpolew]

I was at the fair on this day, and there were people from a lot of states, too.

[NOBULLSPIN1]

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are telling the truth! A+++++The evil liberals are what is wrong with America period! Liberalism is a Mental Disorder! Read: Liberalism is a Mental Disorder by Michael Savage! Michael Savage tells the truth about liberalism!

[daveroadie2004]

@NOBULLSPIN1 ....... Jim David Adkisson was found to have the book Liberalism is a Mental Disorder by retard Michael Savage , after he shot 8 people killing 3 of them in a Knoxville Tenn. Unitarian church while

25 schoolchildren put on a production of " Annie " ..... the sun will come out tomorrow , bet your bottom dollar .... conservatives suck . GOOGLE it .

[s99bf0c8]

@NOBULLSPIN1

I'm a liberal, I'm also a catholic. I am not evil. I do not have a mental disorder. I don't understand what you mean

[amboyace]

Reagan opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the fair Housing Act of 1966 saying: "If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, he has a right to do so." Who are you kidding with this? At BEST the man was pandering to White racists.

[whiteliberal1]

@amboyace Don't forget the King Holiday! He was against making it a Federal Holiday.

[ThomYorkesHead]

Philadelphia is a town of 7,000 people. Why give a speech there if not for the symbolism? Disgusting.

[FrsBigeasy]

I support the 1996 Welfare to Work Act which I think Ronald Reagan was getting to putting Welfare Recipients to work but President Reagan never tried to put a Law like that through Congress. The Welfare to Work Bill was passed 16 years after this speech & signed by a Democratic President after it was passed by a Republican Congress. The American Poverty Rate actually grew during the Reagan Presidency.

[busyguy925]

I don't see why anyone would have a problem with this speech. Issue of states rights has nothing to do with their murder/racism. Issue is who should deal with racism, a central power away from your community or your community. Maybe anti-federalists should start our own dialouge on how federalists all want to destroy islam. We could create a similar post then the first time a a politician dares talk about the responsibilities of the federal government on 9/11.

[shore2222]

@busyguy925 Plus Reagan was not against civil rights. He signed many pro civil rights bill both while he was governor of California and the president.

[whiteliberal1]

@shore2222 Spare us the general comments. Tell us about the specifics!

We can start with the 'King Holiday'. He was forced to make it an official (Federal) Holiday.

Now, tell us about the ones he signed while serving as Governor.

Southern Stategy......

[Mr40acresandamule]

@shore2222 That is because the state legislature in California was starting to become more progressive in regards to civil rights and would have overridden any executive veto.

[Mr40acresandamule]

There is nothing wrong with state and local governments managing their affairs. In 1980, there were deep divisions still among blacks and whites in the South over the role of government. State governments and local governments and the private sectors in the South would not have brought blacks into full economic, political, and social citizenship without the impact of the federal government. Reagan knew that. His advisors suggested Reagan to go into Harlem to make good with the black community.

[hulkyone]

@Gharalam No, YOU DO RESEARCH DUMBFUCK. DEBTS AND DEFICITS ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. YOU HAVE A VERY OVERACTIVE IMAGINATION

[hulkyone]

@Gharalam DUH. I DIDN'T SAY SUCH STUPID BULLSHIT. AN AMENDMENT CAN APPEAL OTHER RULINGS IN THE CONSTITUTION. LEARN ABOUT THE TWENTY-FIRST AMENDMENT, DUMBFUCK.  SPELL YOU'RE CORRECTLY TOO

[hulkyone]

@Gharalam Yes, THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT NEEDED TO EXIST. From you say, THE CONSTITUTION DENIES I'T OWN AMENDMENT. ARE YOU SO STUPID THAT YOU DON'T KNOW HOW AN AMENDMENT WORKS?

[hulkyone]

@Gharalam Yes, the Thirteenth Amendment needed to exist. You need to also understand that Reagan didn't actually agree with this speech at all. He was only saying it to appeal to the Southern vote, which Carter approved to greatly. At times, he flip-flopped on Civil Rights.

[hulkyone]

For the middle class, he prevailed. For people living in poverty, however, he was a disaster. He used the money that could have narrowed the poverty gap to strengthen the US military beyond neccessary requirements. Also, from observation, his wife Nancy- who actually took advice from astrologers- was a dope.

[hulkyone]

I am a strong Democrat, and I prefer Clinton- who gave the country a budget surplus- to Reagan anyday. But still, I got to honest, it is just a campaign strategy. Nobody can deny even Reagan lied at times too. He wanted to use the Southern vote - which Jimmy Carter had appealed to greatly- to secure the Presidency. He also wanted to use the area to help the Republicans gain control of Congress. It was called the Southern Strategy.

[AtlasShruggery]

This certainly explains why the KKK endorsed Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 1984 elections.

[clemtoe]

@AtlasShruggery does it explain why david duke ran as a democrat in 1988?

[semigotbanned]

"restore states' and local communities' those functions that belong there "

I've seen Mississippi Burning (the movie),

" states' rights, community level, local level etc " we know what that means in the context of the place and its history...

what a racist scumbag!!

[someonehasthisid]

Only a racist would think that speech was racist.

[AshyKnux]

what a wonderful party we have here...80% white who knew....... they will always be the party of rich powerful whites... that's what the republican party stands for not so called family values but racial dived and conqueror

[AtlasShruggery]

What a surprise, Ronald Reagan sucking up to the KKK crowd in Mississippi. Typical Republican.

[jsmythib]

? Sounds like he was a realistic guy , take responsibility for yourself...govern yourself..let the diversity bread the best ideas and inovation..get out of the peoples way and let them go-

[sixthSigmaSnowball]

I will work very hard to restore your right to abuse black folks as you see fit with no interference from the Feds. Do what you want, you need not worry about forced integration anymore.

Just another pandering, stuffed suit who would do ANYTHING to get elected. Nuff said.

[ctwriter]

There is not a chance in hell that he was NOT appealing to Southern racists by going to Philadelphia, MS, and using the battle cry of "states' rights" a mere 16 years after the notorious tragedy. Why else would he go to such a remote place and use those specific words? There are thousands and thousands of cities and towns across 50 states to choose from. Why Philadelphia, MS? Why states' rights? To say anything else is to rewrite history.

[hulkyone]

As much of a Democrat as I am, I can honestly say it would be ignorant to use this rhetoric to label Reagan as a racist. It is only a strategy speech, and

Reagan implied on numerous occasions that he was more of a Federalist. The Republican Party was even founded in 1854 as the reincarnation of the Federalist Party.

[sixthSigmaSnowball]

The KKK was in attendance and they endorsed him the next day. Coincidence?

[semigotbanned]

it's not only the rhetoric you dummy, it's the place too

Reagan had chosen this infamous, TINY town (of all America!!) to kick off his campaign, right after the GOP convention. Lots and lots of symbolism here!! If you fail to see it, well, you're a moron.

I can assure you that everybody got it at the time and Reagan was a race baiter.

[hulkyone]

It's still just a campaign

[rick9565]

In politics everything is in code. Words that can be interpreted, and revised as needed.

"there are programs like education...others...that should be turned back to the states..."

The word "others" is what is in question. What others? Affirmative action, abortion? Certainly these issues have never been ones that the republicans championed, but Reagan cleverly leaves "others" to the imagination.

The great communicator was so good you really had to listen to what he said and what he didn't.

[notebartello]

I can see the link with this speech and understand why Blacks would be leery of someone saying "states rights", especially where three civil rights workers were killed. But the civil rights laws had long been passed. Tragic incidents happened all over the south. It's hard to speak of puting government back into it's proper place and not say "states rights."

[notebartello]

Within the context of this speech I think it is far fetched to say Reagan was racist, and at any rate, he certainly did not promote racism- save perhaps inadvertently with the BJU controversy- and during his tenure Black unemployment and and the average household income increased, even by a higher percentage than whites. So Reagan was good for the Black Community. If he was racist, he did nothing to harm Blacks.

[mrbadguysan]

While he might not have been racist, he was a race-baiter.

In addition, the policies of the Regan-Republicans have been harmful to blacks. Just look at the racial composition of the Republican Party.

[override367]

States rights today are taking rights away from gay couples in clear violation of the constitution.

Sometimes the majority is wrong and the minority needs to have someone speak for them.

[thebrrdman1]

CLEAR violation of the Constitution? Where in the Constitution does it say gays have the right to marry? Where did one court ever make any ruling about it, up until the creative rulings of this decade? Was there a single judge even a generation ago who would have found that states defining marriage as they always have was unconstiutional? The fact is, you want to change the law, and it's easier to find a crackpot to legislate it from the bench than to get it passed the legal way. Appalling.

[hanBBall]

nothing to do with reagan fyi

[bryantIII]

Yeah, right. Try getting around the fact that the ku klux klan is an organization that was founded by men who were predominantly supporters of the democrat party. Eat it, you misinformed, mis-educated, hateful, socialist, communist, weak and powerless agitator. Cheers!

[AlexLaties]

You're a moron. You do know that there has been electoral realignment since the 1860s and the parties have effectively switched, right?

[Martysword]

AlexLaties, you realize we waste our words on guys like bryantill correct? Hopefully someone with an open mind will see both sides and actually investigate. brantill has hannity and Limbaugh to "think" for him.

[Martysword]

look into the realignment after the 1948 demcratic convention, bryantill. all the hard core racists left the dems and formed the dixiecrats, and later became Republicans. You are most likely willfully misinformed and will never be reached. So be it.

Smack one mosquito, here comes another.

"So it goes" -Kurt Vonnegut

[drag0nk1ng74]

Try reading the fucking Constitution. Then go find a soldier and kiss his/her ass. For they are the reason a peacenik progressives pussy like you will never be called to serve the country that your kind all hate so much.

ASSHOLES!!

[drag0nk1ng74]

This is the DUMBEST FUCKING "video" and argument I have ever seen. Reagan was a racitst and rallied the racists by where he gave a speech? How fucking stupid are you "progressives". I was once one of you mindless republican hating morons, but, I was also a very young child! Grow the fuck up, get a fucking job, and pull your fucking heads out of your collective ass.

[ervickviola]

What exactly is racists about supporting states rights? Is it not possible to support civil rights and states rights at the same time?

[jd24717]

States' rights is a great thing. So is civil rights.

But at the same time, it has been used as a code word for "let you continue being racist. We won't stop you." It's a shame, but that's what it's come to mean.

[ervickviola]

Can someone point out, in this speech by Reagan for example, of how the term "states rights" are being used as a cover for racism? Call me dense (or worse) but I sorry I'm not seeing the connection between the two.

[jd24717]

You're not dense, but you are convincing yourself on something that you know is not true. If you are a student of history, you already know the following:

By 1980, "States' Rights" had become a way of saying "We won't interfere with Jim Crow." It was a code word. Maybe Reagan hadn't intended it that way. I know he wasn't a racist. But he still must have been aware of the times.

[ProgressiveMaroki]

Ronald Reagan was and IS a racist. Reagan equates slavery with the right of the individual to enslave. Weak up dear friends; Americans are the laughing stock of the rest of the world because of your beloved Reagan and Bush I and II

[eirefrance]

I disliked Reagan's policies and I dislike Bush's now, but the job of the President of the USA is to lead this country. He or she should not give in to 'peer pressure' from other nations.

[ProgressiveMaroki]

Ronald Reagan was and IS a racist. Reagan equates slavery with the right of the individual to enslave. Weak up dear friends; Americans are the laughing stock of the rest of the world because of your beloved Reagan and Bush I and II

[bill9808]

incredible...simply incredible. what a start

[wilfredsnipple]

Many people would say that Ronald Reagan was racist. I guess he was as much a racist as Abraham Lincoln was an abolitionist.

[wilfredsnipple]

States rights did not create slavery. It is unfortunate that the notion of State Rights is so closely associated with slavery as it pertains to the era of the U.S. Civil War. State rights was the principle proponent in the design of the U.S. Constitution. The 14th amendment was drafted to balance powers given to the State and Federal Government as stated in the U.S. Constitution. After the U.S. Civil War the Federal Government abolished States Rights.

[wilfredsnipple]

I meant 10th amendment

[wilfredsnipple]

I meant 10th amendment

[puertoricantruepoet2]

i wonder what nerve did Ronald Reagan have to go to the site where three civil rights activists were murdered to say his "states' rights" speech.

[wilfredsnipple]

States rights was the principle proponent in the design of the U.S. Constitution. States rights did not create slavery or any other injustice.

[clemtoe]

just as their reconstruction of states rights as an axiomaticly racist thing is plainly dishonest as a smear, the smear is also intended to mask their actual objection to the concept of federalism. progressives seek an anti-democratic central dictate of elites. by recasting the federalism of our federal constitution "racism", they simultaneously smear its defenders and cover their own intentions.

[eirefrance]

You don't understand what 'progressives' want out of their country and government and your stupid statement is as much a smear as anything anyone ever said about Reagan. Learn about your opponent's argument from some source other than Fox News and talk radio before making broad statements.

[clemtoe]

jesus. even the way the democrat party "elects" it's canddates - by reserving a deciding 20% of the decision for a cabal of entrenched party elites so they can reverse whatever "choice" they allow their voters to think they have - is conciously undemocratic. how can you sit there and deny something you know to be demonstrably true? do you have a soul?

[eirefrance]

The Democratic party, in order to maintain power in a two-party system, enacted the super-delegate system specifically to keep the 'progressive' element from coming to the fore, since they knew that anyone too progressive would never be elected. Its something few Democrats I know support and something I personally revile.

[clemtoe]

wow. you stated that exactly opposite of what is in fact true. conciously, i suppose. the superdelegate policy was adopted from a commission chaired by george mcgovern and finally implimented by another progressive in 1984. in the 1984 election, the superdelegate system put walter mondale on the ticket over the (albeit sleazy) moderate, gary hart. but i sppose i could have expected you, as a defender of the democrat party and the progressive mindset, to state it the way you chose to.

[eirefrance]

Wrong about McGovern. Simplified the 1984 election. If its wrong to call Reagan a racist because, lets face it, the South went Republican because of federally enforced civil rights laws, its also wrong to make up stories about Democrats.

[clemtoe]

i'm correct about mcgovern. you can argue your version of history over at wikipedia if you like.

i noticed that your false narrative turns no longer on anything reagan did, ut rather what southerners are presumed to believe. tell me, were southerners "racist" when they voted overwhelmingly for carter a decade after the civil rights act? or when the democrat party reabsorbed the so-called "dixiecrats"?

face it: the narrative you're pushing is based on a tissue of lies.

[eirefrance]

MY argument about Reagan? At what point did I present an argument about Reagan? The Southern Strategy is well documented, I don't need to defend it. Race is not always the biggest concern in the world. Ford lost Vietnam, and lost for that reason.

[eirefrance]

There is nothing more un-democratic than consolidating power in one part of the govt and making oneself above the law. There has been no greater proponent of the unitary executive than Bush, a president who believes his office is clearly above the law. THAT is un-Democratic. There is a lot that is wrong with our political system, but if you think its all the fault of 'progressives', you're willfully blind.

[clemtoe]

so, that's your rebuttle? deranged hyperbole about bush? i guess we've hit the bottom of what you have to offer on this.

[eirefrance]

"We observed that a partys right to exclude is central to its freedom of association, and its never more important than in the process of selecting its nominee" Three guesses as to who wrote that?

[clemtoe]

i'm a man of similar fortitude, i'm afraid. i actually once had a drink at the green mill in chicago - the site, thirty years earlier, which was a hotbed of organized crime!!!

the point is of course not that organized crime is eqivalent to racism. the point is that this clearly demonstrates that i am cosa nostro!! phear!!

[clemtoe]

michael dukakis of course spoke in philidelphia missisippi eight years after reagan did, but the nonsense smear that this was "racist code" was not applied to him. in fact the neshoba county fair is a prominent political pitstop. neshoba county is in fact a blue county. most of the political speakers stumping at the event this year happen to be democratics.

this may be what progressives are attempting to obscure by pretending reagan was "racist" for speaking there.

[RobertGary1]

Its too bad no one has the courage to argue for state's rights today. Today we send our tax money to the federal gov't and our states have to beg to get it back. We send millions to the federal dept of education and it does not educate one single child.

[fessway]

David Brooks thinks it's a "slur" to believe that Reagan kicked off his campaign with an appeal to racism. I think this speech, and its location, speaks for itself.