Darryl Paulson: We are replacing racial segregation with political segregation

For 35 years I taught courses about Florida and Southern Politics.  A great portion of those courses dealt with the issues of race and segregation.  The struggle to end segregation and provide civil rights for all Americans was long and bitter.

The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped bring an end the worst practices in the South.  In the most recent presidential election, black voter turnout exceeded white turnout in both Florida and the nation.

Although racial segregation has greatly diminished, I would argue that we are replacing it with political segregation. I make no claim that political segregation is as evil as was racial segregation.  Thousands of blacks and whites were killed trying to secure civil rights and hundreds of black homes and churches were burned to the ground.

Political segregation shares several common characteristics with racial segregation.  First, both are based on stereotyping.  When whites suppressed blacks for one generation after another, they had to come up with a justification for their actions.

Southerners justified segregation by arguing that blacks were inferior and it was in the interest of both races to be separated.  They used the Constitution to justify their views.  The Constitution preserved the institution of slavery and referred to blacks as three-fifths of a person in securing Congressional representation.

The U.S. Supreme Court in both the Dred Scott and Plessy decisions concluded that blacks had no political rights that whites had to respect.  The Plessy case specifically authorized the “separate but equal” policy that turned out to be separate and very unequal.

Today, both Republicans and Democrats stereotype each other.  Democrats believe that Republicans are homophobic, misogynistic Neo-Nazis. Just Google “George W. Bush and Nazis” to see the tens of thousands of references tying Republicans and Nazis together.

Republicans see Democrats as socialists who are spending the nation into bankruptcy while destroying personal liberty by creating a monolithic federal government.

Stereotyping is the lazy person’s substitute for thinking.  Instead of carefully examining what the other party is advocating, we simply dismiss it because we know they are crazy.  Political segregation has closed the door of communication and isolated half of the population from the other half.

Racial and political segregation share another trait: social segregation.  In the South, blacks lived on one side of the tracks and whites on the other.  They created separate schools, waiting rooms, bathrooms and even water fountains.

Republicans and Democrats are just as isolated today.  Republicans watch FOX News and read The Drudge Report, The Wall Street Journal, National Review and the Weekly Standard.  Democrats watch MSNBC and read The Progressive, The New Republic, American Prospect and The Daily Kos.  We even have dating services to ensure that we never suffer the indignity of dating someone from the “dark side.”

Former Virginia Democratic Governor and current U.S. Sen. Mark Warner recently urged Americans to turn off FOX News and MSNBC.  “They both lie,” said Warner.

Each of us must take responsibility for our own actions.  We must reach out to seek opposing views and stop isolating ourselves from half of America.  Could it be that the other side may actually have a better idea?

Most Americans believe they are open-minded.  The question I would ask is when is the last time you actually reached out to the other side and really tried to understand their perspective?  When was the last time you read or watched something that challenged your own views?

Finally, I would ask each partisan if they are so insecure in their own political views that they are afraid to have those views challenged by the other side?