Selections from the Roots of Modern Conservatism

Matthew Yglesias reminds us that those who do not learn from History get to reinvent it on Fox.  In particular, the Sharon Statement which he explains in the historical context is about keeping the Negro in his place.  He mentions but doesn't link to a probable William F'Buckley editorial "The South Must Prevail".  I was interested in  reading it and The Google gave a bunch of references almost all of which were progressive or academic. I hadn't read Buckley in a long time.  He has a style which come across in his interviews which I recognized immediately,  David Brooks. It's "I'm so rational and more intelligent and educated than you are that my argument is obviously correct."  Also known as the Emperor's New Clothes.  Like Brooks, Buckley buries a hateful opinion masquerading as a fact among a slew of gracefully written facts.  In this case after talking about the Senate limiting the right of Southerners to suppress "Negro" voting he says

The central question that emerges-and it is not

a parliamentary question or a question that is

answered by merely consulting a catalogue of the

rights of American citizens, born Equal-is whether

the White community in the South is entitled to take

such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically

and culturally, in areas in which it does not pre-

dominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes

-the White community is so entitled because, for

the time being, it is the advanced race . It is not easy,

and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing

the median cultural superiority of White over Negro :

but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be

hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropolo-

gists .

Like Brooks, he often leaves little breadcrumb trails to his basic beliefs in this case:

It is more important for

any community, anywhere in the world, to affirm and

live by civilized standards, than to bow to the de-

mands of the numerical majority .

It get's better:  

Sometimes it be-

comes impossible to assert the will of a minority,

in which case it must give way, and the society will

regress ; sometimes the numerical minority cannot

prevail except by violence : then it must determine

whether the prevalence of its will is worth the ter-

rible price of violence .

Good stuff, right up with the Teabaggers.

Matthew makes the point that the same rhetoric is being used today but the context is hatred of teh gay not teh Negro.