Carpet Bagging - Reconstruction

The Republican Southern Strategy - Carpet baggin Reconstruction

“"The South historically was just a poorer part of the country and didn't have the focus on education that other parts of the country had," said Jeff Kuhner, a spokesman for the Fordham Foundation, an education think tank in Washington.
"Part of its strategy for the past 25 to 30 years has been cheap, undereducated labor, they don't have labor unions. But human capital is just as important as investment capital."”

Source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/20922.html Study: Most students in South are poor.

The Republican Southern Strategy is to have all American except for the have and have mores to be “undereducated labor” void of labor unions or representation in the government is working. Note the number of Americans now living in that breeding ground of “undereducated labor” – severe poverty.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/tony_pugh/story/15655.html

“WASHINGTON—The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen.”

And as always the south leads the way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/us/16mississippi.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
“In Mississippi, Poor Lag in Hurricane Aid
By LESLIE EATON
GULFPORT, Miss.,
Nov. 14 — Like the other Gulf Coast states battered by Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi was required by Congress to spend half of its billions in federal grant money to help low-income citizens trying to recover from the storm. But so far, the state has spent $1.7 billion in federal money on programs that have mostly benefited relatively affluent residents and big businesses. The money has gone to compensate many middle- and upper-income homeowners, to aid utility companies whose equipment was damaged and to prop up the state’s insurance system.”

These three articles need little expansion. Notice the relationship between Mississippi and this poverty creeping across the country. In the Study: Most students in South are poor the authors point out that twenty years ago it was only in Mississippi that the majority of school children were poor. Now after the example Haley Barbour, the second only Republican governor elected in Mississippi since Reconstruction not only has Mississippi become the poster state for this strategy but with his Republican and Bush ties carpet bagging Reconstruction is spreading rapidly throughout not only the south but the entire nation.

The NYT’s article about Mississippi points out the special attention that the state of Mississippi got from Barbour’s old friend G. W. Bush.

“Mississippi is the only state for which the Bush administration has waived the rule that 50 percent of its Community Development Block Grants be spent on low-income programs, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the program. It is also the only state to ask for such waivers. “

To continue the Republican attack on the poor Barbour vetoed a sales tax on reduction bill on groceries in 2006. Yes, groceries. Can you see it spreading, reduce upper levels of income taxes on the rich, remove the estate tax and make up the difference by taxing groceries.

Not to bring too much religion into the discussion, but some of the biggest supporters of this Southern Strategy are Christians in the south. They seem to skip over the admonishment of James, considered in many circles as the brother of Jesus, when he said, “But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?” (James 2:6) It seems to me that not only the Christians are being lead to serving the richest among us at the harm of the most in need, but our whole country is, if we continue to allow the Republican’s Southern Strategy to expand.