One can argue about the powers of states and the role of federal spending all day, a Texas House Democrat said this morning, but what message support for greater "states rights" is sending may be cause for alarm.
Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) hosted a rather strangely timed press conference today "condemning hatred and bigotry in public discourse specifically relating to the Tenth Amendment, states rights, tea parties, and secession."
The press conference came a week after Coleman took shots at several conservative activists for "hate-based campaigning" (see below).
Coleman told LSR that conservative and libertarian movements advocating a lessening of federal control threaten the Constitution's equal protection clause. Coleman said it took generations to build up to the civil rights protections now granted by the federal government, and reducing the federal government's role in leading the country poses a threat to racial equality.
"We're United States citizens. We're not just state citizens," Coleman said to LSR.
He mentioned the 81st Legislature's passage of House Concurrent Resolution No. 50 as an example of a return to a renewed view of a stronger role of states. HCR 50 was part of 28 other such pieces of legislation passed by state legislatures throughout the nation.
"Some proponents claim this resolution simply calls for the protection of the states from the fiscal tyranny of the federal government and seeks the protection of the state treasury. In reality, following the proposal would have serious social policy implications, reaching far beyond the expectations of some proponents," he said in his press statement. "... It is important to remember that, while the Tenth Amendment is an important tenet of states' rights in a federalist society, it is but one amendment to the United States Constitution. While it has its place, it should not be elevated above the other equally important amendments to the Constitution ..."
HCR 50's author, Rep. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), told CNN on April 14 that his resolution was intended to prevent the federal government from intruding in the affairs of the State of Texas -- particularly in terms of forcing states to accept "stimulus funds" -- and thus supporting the Tenth Amendment's reserved powers clause.
"It's important for me and the rest of the Texas Legislautre to stand up for 23 million Texans and make sure their constitutional rights are protected," Creighton told CNN prior to the bill's passage.
Coleman said as a member of the National Conference of State Legislature's executive committee, he supports a "mainstream view" on reserved powers. But he said that "states rights" is the rallying cry for racists to come forward and take action -- hearkening back to the Old South and even the Civil War when the South not only stood for a greater role for states in the American republic but also a support for racial segregation and slavery, he said.
"To many proponents and detractors alike, this measure may be considered ineffective and innocuous because it is only a resolution. However, it is dangerously symbolic of a more sinister movement spreading across the nation," Coleman wrote in the press statement.
Coleman included pictures from the recent TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Parties -- one of which included a sign decorated as Confederate Battle Flag reading "I'll keep my guns, freedom and money! You keep the change!" Another read "SECEDE and buy more ammo." A picture of a sign from an anti-health care bill rally in D.C. featured President Barack Obama in a turban, suggesting he is loyal to the Islamic faith.
The rhetoric, Coleman said in an interview with LSR, is hauntingly familiar. He said that was the tactic used in the "Southern Strategy" following Desegregation, where race was used to convince white voters to flee the Democratic Party and join the GOP in the South. (Texas, he said, was "half South" and it took longer for white Democrats to join the Republican Party).
Today, Coleman said, conservative activists are not just playing the race card: "This is the entire race deck."
Coleman said it wasn't until a president with African-American ancestry was elected to the White House that the TEA Party movements came about. Even while conservatives were not happy with many of the policies of then-President George W. Bush and the Democrats gained control midway through his presidency, grassroots conservatives were relatively silent -- a fact Coleman said is suspicious.
Coleman asserted that groups with racist ties such as the Conservative Citizens Council are behind the TEA Party rallies.
LSR asked Coleman if, in the event states are in the future granted more power (or the unlikely event Texas withdraws from the United States) if it would be possible to reinforce federal civil rights protections in Texas -- after all, it was the Texas Legislature that passed the James Byrd Hate Crime Bill in 2001 by a large margin, signed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry. But Coleman said again it was not his main objective to talk about the pros and cons of greater states rights but its associations with biggotry.
"Most references to states' rights are actually veiled references to segregation," Coleman said, urging conservatives to be aware of such ties. "... The State of Texas should focus more on pressing matters and not seek to reopen the wounds of the past with such an impassable resolution."
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Coleman said he has reason to suspect race still plays a large role in conservative politics. A mail flyer from October 2008 for Rep. Ken Legler (R-Pasadena) featured opponent Joel Redmond, a Caucasian Democrat, surrounded by photos of minority Democrats Sen. Mario Gallegos, Reps. Harold Dutton and Coleman (all of Houston), U.S. Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee, and Obama. The flyer outlined the Democratic positions on several issues ranging from school prayer to a state income tax, reading "Birds of a feather flock together" amid a flock of blackbirds and "Don't be misled: Bad company corrupts good character."
Empower Texans, a conservative group in Austin, put out the flyer, which was produced by Legler's political consultant Allen Blakemore of Houston. Coleman had supported Redmond, according to Blakemore.
"We've said enough about it already," Blakemore told LSR. "It was a Halloween flyer -- and that's the way people decorate their houses around here. It had nothing to do with racism."
The timing of Coleman's press release may have some to do with Coleman's recent opposition to Blakemore and conservative activist Steve Hotze during the Houston mayoral race. Hotze and Blakemore were behind Gene Locke and Coleman supported Annise Parker, who went on to win a runoff election against Locke on Dec. 12. Locke is African-American and Parker is a Caucasian.
According to the Dec. 3 edition of the Dallas Voice, a gay-themed news site, Coleman sent a letter to the Voice criticizing Hotze and Blakemore -- “Year after year, Hotze and his consultant Blakemore resort to the lowest forms of hate-based campaigning. It’s important to see the kind of filth that has come from the people behind the latest attacks in the mayoral race,” Coleman was quoted as having written.
UPDATE: (2:55 p.m.) Michael Quinn Sullivan of Empower Texans had this to say about states rights:
"The founders of our nation understood very clearly that one-size-fits-all situations do not work well at all ... They believed that the marketplace of ideas was a good thing in finding the most efficient and effective policy solutions, and that good ideas succeeded and bad ideas failed.
"And I'd point to the hideous concept of slavery as a prime example of that. Some states that supported slavery had problems coming out of slavery [before the Civil War]," he continued. "But the states that had rejected slavery were doing pretty well."
He said that states without income taxes have been showing positive job growth rates, while those with income taxes have suffered -- another reason, he said, that "we need to have that healthy competiton among the states."
Sullivan said that the Democratic Party has long been "the party of chains and slavery" and was not as instrumental in passing the Civil Rights Act as the Republican Party. "So Mr. Coleman is apparently trying to rewrite history -- and no one's buying it."