Dingellfritz - Powerline has some

Dingellfritz - Powerline has some excellent expository commentary on this exchange between Ward Connerly and Rep. John Dingell (D MI).

The whole exchange is fascinating, of course. Money quote from Dingell:

The people of Michigan have a simple message to you: go home and stay there. We do not need you stirring up trouble where none exists.

Michiganders do not take kindly to your ignorant meddling in our affairs. We have no need for itinerant publicity seekers, non-resident troublemakers or self-aggrandizing out-of-state agitators. You have created enough mischief in your own state to last a lifetime.

Connerly's response is a work of art - see the Powerline guys for much more. I liked this part:

your advice is the echo of southern segregationists who sought the comfort of states' rights to practice their discrimination against black Americans. Have you learned nothing about "civil rights" from that horrible chapter in our nation's history?

There is such an eerie similarity between them and you that it bears comment.

George Wallace, Lester Maddox and others who shared their rabid and abhorrent views believed in treating people differently on the basis of skin color…and so do you.

They wanted to practice their brand of racism free from the interference of “meddling, outside agitators”…and so do you.

They called those who disagreed with them and merely wanted to exercise their right to assemble “carpetbaggers” and “non-resident troublemakers” who were “stirring up trouble where none exists”…and so do you.

They were arrogant and intolerant bullies…and so are you.

Your letter is a prime example of why the texture of civil discourse in our nation is so coarse. It is an indication of why Members of Congress need the police to intervene to separate them from fighting. What a terrible example for our children and our grandchildren.

Read it all, of course. It's a good primer on the coarseness of public debate today, as well as on what a wonderful thing it will be when the generation that includes Dingell, Maxine Waters and some of the Congress' other racialist demigogues finally passes from the political scene.

Posted by Mitch at July 21, 2003 08:16 AM