David Brooks Debunks "Agitprop"

David Brooks presents a history lesson on Ronald Reagan and lauds Kevin Drum:

Today, I’m going to write about a slur. It’s a distortion that’s been around for a while, but has spread like a weed over the past few months. It was concocted for partisan reasons: to flatter the prejudices of one side, to demonize the other and to simplify a complicated reality into a political nursery tale.

The distortion concerns a speech Ronald Reagan gave during the 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., which is where three civil rights workers had been murdered 16 years earlier. An increasing number of left-wing commentators assert that Reagan kicked off his 1980 presidential campaign with a states’ rights speech in Philadelphia to send a signal to white racists that he was on their side. The speech is taken as proof that the Republican majority was built on racism.

The truth is more complicated.

Well, yes:

In reality, Reagan strategists decided to spend the week following the 1980 Republican convention courting African-American votes. Reagan delivered a major address at the Urban League, visited Vernon Jordan in the hospital where he was recovering from gunshot wounds, toured the South Bronx and traveled to Chicago to meet with the editorial boards of Ebony and Jet magazines.

However...

But there was another event going on that week, the Neshoba County Fair, seven miles southwest of Philadelphia. The Neshoba County Fair was a major political rallying spot in Mississippi (Michael Dukakis would campaign there in 1988). Mississippi was a state that Republican strategists hoped to pick up. They’d recently done well in the upper South, but they still lagged in the Deep South, where racial tensions had been strongest. Jimmy Carter had carried Mississippi in 1976 by 14,000 votes.

So the decision was made to go to Neshoba. Exactly who made the decision is unclear. The campaign was famously disorganized, and Cannon reported: “The Reagan campaign’s hand had been forced to some degree by local announcement that he would go to the fair.” Reagan’s pollster Richard Wirthlin urged him not to go, but Reagan angrily countered that once the commitment had been made, he couldn’t back out.

...

Reagan’s speech at the fair was short and cheerful, and can be heard at: www.onlinemadison.com/ftp/reagan/reaganneshoba.mp3. He told several jokes, and remarked: “I know speaking to this crowd, I’m speaking to a crowd that’s 90 percent Democrat.”

He spoke mostly about inflation and the economy, but in the middle of a section on schools, he said this: “Programs like education and others should be turned back to the states and local communities with the tax sources to fund them. I believe in states’ rights. I believe in people doing as much as they can at the community level and the private level.”

The use of the phrase “states’ rights” didn’t spark any reaction in the crowd, but it led the coverage in The Times and The Post the next day.

And Brooks' conclusion:

You can look back on this history in many ways. It’s callous, at least, to use the phrase “states’ rights” in any context in Philadelphia. Reagan could have done something wonderful if he’d mentioned civil rights at the fair. He didn’t. And it’s obviously true that race played a role in the G.O.P.’s ascent.

Still, the agitprop version of this week — that Reagan opened his campaign with an appeal to racism — is a distortion, as honest investigators ranging from Bruce Bartlett [link], who worked for the Reagan administration and is the author of “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy,” to Kevin Drum, who writes for Washington Monthly, have concluded  [Note - this is probably the Drum piece, from 2004, unless Kevin has become a regular Reagan apologist].

But still the slur spreads. It’s spread by people who, before making one of the most heinous charges imaginable, couldn’t even take 10 minutes to look at the evidence. It posits that there was a master conspiracy to play on the alleged Klan-like prejudices of American voters, when there is no evidence of that conspiracy. And, of course, in a partisan age there are always people eager to believe this stuff.

Let's just add a bit of contemporaneous coverage from the Times archive:

1.  Aug 4, 1980 Coverage of the Neshoba speech:

REAGAN CAMPAIGNS AT MISSISSIPPI FAIR; Nominee Tells Crowd of 10,000 He Is Backing States' Rights-- Attacks Inflation Policy Attacks Carter on Inflation Day Before Carter Feelings Not Assuaged

That last phrase is supposed to be "Black leaders' feelings not assuaged"; Jimmy Carter's tender sensitivities were hardly a source of concern in the Reagan camp.  The Times describes the plan to address the Urban League (Reagan was also slated to visit the South Bronx and meet with the publishers of Ebony and Jet magazines) but also notes that Reagan, claiming a scheduling conflict, had declined to address an earlier NAACP meeting in Miami.

2.  From Sept 26 1980:

Race Issue in Campaign: A Chain Reaction; Renounced Klan Support Use of Term Fades Accused of Insensitivity

Ahh!  In late July the Klan had endorsed Reagan without specifically mentioning their own goals of racial segregation; instead they cited his opposition to the E.R.A, the 55 MPH national speed limit, gun control, the Dept. of Education, forced busing, and affirmative action.  They also lauded his support for school prayer, lower taxes, the death penalty, and states' rights (nothing on strong defense?) - all pretty conventional right-wing talking points.

Seeing opportunity some Dems tried to tar Reagan with this endorsement, although he had denounced it in early August after meeting with Jesse Jackson.

But then the "states' rights" comment in Neshoba on Aug 3 created a new controversy; by mid-September, an over-enthusiastic Jimmy Carter implied that Reagan was a racist and then retreated two days later in a press conference.

3.  In a Sept 21 column Anthony Lewis delivers a pox on both houses - yes, he says, of course Carter was trying to depict Reagan as a racist and it was hypocritical of Carter to pretend otherwise.  On the other hand anyone with Reagan's record talking about states' rights in Neshoba was certainly open to the accusation and could only claim either ignorance or insensitivity.

MORE:  Jon Henke was tackling this when Bob (One Note) Herbert was engaging in agitprop.

 

Comments

[PrestoPundit]

Brooks is taking a shot at fellow NY Times columnist Paul Krugman, no?

[PrestoPundit]

And, according to QandO, a shot at Timesman Bob Herbert as well.

[bgates]

It posits that there was a master conspiracy to play on the alleged Klan-like prejudices of American voters, when there is no evidence of that conspiracy.
No evidence of the conspiracy; no need for evidence of "the alleged Klan-like prejudices of American voters," in the eyes of the NYT 'conservative.'

[Andy Vance]

Ah, so the Great Communicator didn't intend any slight. What would Isocrates say?

[Andy Vance]

Alternatively, we could study Bonzo Goes to Bitburg

[bio mom]

I'm a conservative and a Republican but I get mighty tired of having Ronald Reagan brought up all the time like some sort of god from the past. It's late 2007. Talk about NOW not 1980. That said, I cannot stand Paul Krugman and most who write for the NY Times (exceptions are John Burns, Michael Gordon, and David Brooks most of the time not always).

[L.N. Smithee]

Here's why the Clinton machine is so efficient: it spent a monumental amount of time and expense trying to knock down reports that Hillary and her campaign staff stiffed a waitress.

On the other hand, so-called evil genius Karl Rove let candidate Governor Bush get dinged in 2000 when he failed to respond ferociously when Texas Dems concocted the deceptively-named "James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act," which Bush vetoed, sparking cries of racism that finally culminated in that disgusting NAACP TV smear ad.

[L.N. Smithee]

I'm a conservative and a Republican but I get mighty tired of having Ronald Reagan brought up all the time like some sort of god from the past.

Hey, he's the last Republican president that was really, really popular. And sadly, nobody of his caliber seems to want the job this time around. We'll have to hear about Reagan at least as long as the Dems continue to harken back to JFK.

[Clarice]

Actually, I think the Clinton campaign is badly handling this tip story. And it will probably cost her Iowa.

[Porchlight]

Alternatively, we could study Bonzo Goes to Bitburg

Well, Johnny Ramone had some sense:

Infamous in the punk community as being one of a few hardened conservatives, Johnny Ramone made his political affiliation known to the world in 2002, when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After thanking everyone who made it possible — clad in his trademark T-shirt, ripped blue jeans and leather jacket — he said "God bless President Bush, and God bless America," [1]. He said in an interview, when questioned on his conservatism, "I think Ronald Reagan was the best President of my lifetime."

Despite the dopey lyrics, Bonzo Goes to Bitburg is a great tune, especially the backup vocals.

[Jarhead68]

Not having been a fan of The Ramones, my respect for Johnny Ramone just went up 1000%.

[Andy Vance]

Well, according to Joey, Johnny was a member of the KKK. Natural affinity, I suppose.

[fdsaf]

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[Jim Miller]

Prestopundit - Yes, Krugman has. I found a recent column by Krugman that repeats the slur, and mentioned it in my own post.

From the reviews I have seen, I suspect that it is in Krugman's latest book, too.

[Jim Miller]

Prestopundit - Yes, Krugman has. I found a recent column by Krugman that repeats the slur, and mentioned it in my own post.

From the reviews I have seen, I suspect that it is in Krugman's latest book, too.

[kim]

Perhaps DB wants to hang on with new management.
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[Soylent Red]

States' rights is racist? News to me, since "states' rights" is more properly termed "Federalism", and since Federalism has been around since the inception of our country.

By the by, the concept of Federalism was regularly attacked by both Hitler and Stalin. I don't know for sure about Stalin, but I'm fairly certain that Hitler wasn't an advocate of integration and racial equality.

Just because a group of racist rednecks has co-opted a term does not necessarily mean that that term should not be used in its proper context.

And since, from the discussion here, it is apparent that no one knows that Federalism is generally the same as "states' rights", doesn't it make sense that the Reagan campaign would cook the idea of Federalism into the more user friendly and understandable "states' rights"?

[battery]

And since, from the discussion here, it is apparent that no one knows that Federalism is generally the same as "states' rights", doesn't it make sense that the Reagan campaign would cook the idea of Federalism into the more user friendly and understandable "states' rights"?

[sophy]

Please do not hesitate to have habbo credits . It is funny.