TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2010 EUGENE ROBINSON


A civil rights fairy tale


M


ississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who may seek the Republican nomination for president, is trying to sell the biggest


load of revisionist nonsense about race, politics and the South that I’ve ever heard. Ever. He has the gall to try to portray Southern Re- publicans as having been enlightened support- ers of the civil rights movement all along. I can’t decide whether this exercise in rewriting history should be described as cynical or sinister. Whichever it is, the record has to be set straight. In a recent interview with Human Events, a


conservative magazine and Web site, Barbour gave his version of how the South, once a Demo- cratic stronghold, became a Republican bastion. The 62-year-old Barbour claimed that it was “my generation” that led the switch: “my generation, who went to integrated schools. I went to in- tegrated college — never thought twice about it.” The “old Democrats” fought integration tooth and nail, Barbour said, but “by my time, people realized that was the past, it was indefensible, it wasn’t gonna be that way anymore. And so the people who really changed the South from Dem- ocrat to Republican was a different generation from those who fought integration.” Not a word of this is true. Barbour did not attend “integrated schools,” if


he’s referring to his primary and secondary edu- cation. Mississippi ignored the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that was meant to end separate-but-unequal school systems. Even- tually, officials implemented a “freedom of choice” desegregation plan — but black parents who tried to send their children to white schools were threatened and intimidated, including by cross-burnings. Finally, in 1969, the Supreme Court ordered Mississippi to integrate its schools immediately. The long-stalled change took place in 1970.


KLMNO


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A15 ANNE APPLEBAUM Europe’s new


dividing line The battle of North vs. South replaces East vs. West


TIM SLOAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


President Obama walks with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House last week.


Palestine’s inevitable independence


Even if peace talks fail, a state must be formed A


by Daoud Kuttab ramallah, west bank


Palestinian state is coming — it’s just not clear whether it will result from the cur- rent peace talks.


ROGELIO V. SOLIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour


That was long after Barbour had graduated from high school in Yazoo City and gone on to at- tend the University of Mississippi — the “in- tegrated college” he mentioned in the interview. The federal government had forced Ole Miss to admit its first black student, James Meredith, in 1962; he had to be escorted onto the campus by U.S. marshals as white students rioted in pro- test. The following year, a second black student was


admitted. In the mid-1960s, when Barbour was attending Ole Miss, it’s no wonder that he “never thought twice” about integration. There were only a handful of black students, and by all ac- counts — except Barbour’s — they were isolated and ostracized by their white peers. The governor’s assertion that segregation was


a relic of the past “by my time” is ludicrous. He was 16, certainly old enough to pay attention, during the Freedom Summer of 1964, when civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia, Miss. He was a young adult, on his way to becoming a lawyer, when the public schools were forced to in- tegrate. I’ll bet Barbour could remember those days if he tried a little harder. Equally wrong — and perhaps deliberately dis-


ingenuous — is his made-up narrative of how the South turned Republican. Barbour’s fairy tale doesn’t remotely resemble what really hap- pened. As he signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law,


Lyndon Johnson is supposed to have said that the Democratic Party had “lost the South for a generation.” Among those who voted against the landmark legislation was Sen. Barry Goldwater, who became Johnson’s opponent in the presi- dential race that fall. Johnson scored a landslide victory. Goldwater took his home state of Arizona and just five oth- ers: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. It was the first time those Deep South states had voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Reconstruction — and marked the moment when, for many South- ern voters, the GOP became the party of white racial grievance. It wasn’t “a different genera- tion from those who fought integration” that made the switch. Integration was the whole rea- son for the switch. Now, Haley Barbour is not stupid. Why is he telling this ridiculous story? Maybe this is the way he wishes things had been. You’ll recall that earlier this year, when asked about a Confederate history month proc- lamation in Virginia that didn’t mention the de- tail known as slavery, Barbour said the whole thing “doesn’t amount to diddly.” Most charita- bly, all this might be called denial. It’s much more likely, however, that Barbour has a political purpose. The Republican Party is trying to shake its image as hostile to African Americans and other minorities. It would be consistent with this attempted makeover to pre- tend that the party never sought, and won, the votes of die-hard segregationists. One problem, though: It did.


The writer will answer questions at 1 p.m. Tuesday at www.washingtonpost.com. His


e-mail address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.


It is easy to be pessimistic, or even apathet- ic, about the latest round of Palestinian- Israeli peace talks. History is a witness to the lack of Palestinian accomplishments in in- cremental negotiations. All successful efforts to date have stemmed from secret talks made public only once a package agreement was reached. Nevertheless, a breakthrough is possible this time — thanks to the unshakable Pales- tinian peace strategy. Whereas the Palestine Liberation Organization long pursued a dual strategy of military resistance and politics, to- day’s Palestinian leaders have clearly opposed any form of violence. Most recently this deter- mined nonviolent effort can be seen and felt in every city, village or refugee camp in Pales- tine. With tactics including the boycott of Is- raeli settlement products and an interna- tional divestment campaign, it has captured the imagination of local groups, international activists and Israeli peace supporters. Palestinian security apparatuses are work- ing tirelessly to defend the peace strategy. These efforts have created an opening, but the situation remains plagued by attempts at ob- struction from both sides. When Palestinian President Mahmoud Ab- bas arrived in Washington last week, it marked the first time a Palestinian leader en- tered peace talks enduring deep opposition within his own party in addition to opposition from PLO factions and outside groups. Hamas has not stopped at verbal expressions of dis- agreement; it was behind the Aug. 31 fatal shooting of four Jewish settlers near Hebron and an attack near Ramallah that injured two settlers the following day. The attacks were clearly timed to disrupt the talks and weaken the position of the Palestinian delegation. Palestinians have good reason to be skepti- cal about Israel’s sincerity when it comes to peace. Chief among them: Israel’s heavy- handedness in Gaza and its continued vio- lations of international law by building Jewish-only buildings in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. When the spiritual leader of Shas, a major coalition partner in the Is- raeli government, has publicly expressed hope for a plague to kill all Palestinians, many understandably doubt Israel’s willingness to live in peace with its Palestinian neighbors. Even after the talks began, Israel’s foreign minister has dampened any hopes for prog- ress by saying nothing will happen this year. So why should Palestinians hold on to


hope? Rather than cursing the Israeli occupation,


Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a former World Bank executive, has shifted the focus to building up the Palestinian state. Fay- yad’s government has improved security — as


RICHARD COHEN


ne of the unintended results of the redec- oration of the Oval Office was the downsiz- ing of Barack Obama. In last week’s prime- time address to the nation, the president sat be- hind a massive and capaciously empty desk, look- ing somehow smaller than he ever has — a man physically reduced by sinking polls, a lousy econo- my and the prospect that his party might lose con- trol of Congress. Behold something we never thought we’d see with Obama: The Incredible Shrinking Presidency. This is an amazing and, to me, somewhat fright-


Obama’s shrinking presidency O


ening, turn of events. The folks who ran a very smart presidential campaign in 2008 have left the defining of the Obama presidency to others, in this case people on the edge of insanity. For example, a recent Pew poll reported that “nearly one in five Americans (18 percent) now say Obama is a Mus- lim, up from 11 percent in March 2009.” In other words, the longer Obama has been in office, the more ignorant people have become about him. This news about the growing ignorance con- cerning Obama’s religion came not too long after yet another poll revealed that 24 percent of Amer- icans don’t think Obama was born in the United States. An earlier poll showed that 10 percent of Americans think he was born in Indonesia, where he lived as a boy, 7 percent believe he is Kenyan and still others say (correctly) that he was born in Hawaii but do not know, a notable Elvis movie not- withstanding, that Hawaii is an American state.


Israeli army generals have acknowledged — and the rule of law while also introducing far- reaching reforms in education, health and the economy. In its annual report on assistance to the Palestinian people, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development estimates that gross domestic product in the occupied terri- tories rose 6.8 percent in 2009. The recently unveiled second-year phase of this plan is ti- tled “home stretch to freedom.” Palestinians have launched a public rela- tions campaign, “I am a partner,” aimed at the Israeli public. Featuring key Palestinian nego- tiators, it seeks to debunk the myth that there are no peace partners on the Palestinian side. It is true that Abbas was reluctant to go to


Washington. Palestinians and the Arab League had hoped for some agreement on borders to be reached in four months of prox- imity talks as a prelude to direct talks. If the western borders of Palestine are agreed upon, the thinking went, it would be obvious that settlement building in areas to be included in Israel’s international borders would be con- trolled by Israel, while decisions about the status of buildings and lands earmarked for the state of Palestine would be made by Pales- tinians. Now the 10-month partial moratori- um on Israeli settlement building is due to end Sept. 26, and there is no clear idea as to where the freeze can be rescinded and where settlement building must cease. The Obama administration’s commitment is another reason for optimism. With Amer- icans chairing tripartite talks and committed to staying in the negotiations for a year, Pales- tinians were assured that Israel will not be able to bully their delegation. Despite President Obama’s statement last


week that the United States cannot want a peace agreement more than the parties them- selves, the United States, by heading the talks, has as much interest in peace as do the two parties. The creation of an independent, via- ble and contiguous Palestinian state has been declared by both Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, to be in the United States’ in- terest. And the talks appear to be timed with the U.S. political calendar. Holding the talks now allows for positive press and photo op- portunities before the midterm elections, while any potential arm-twisting will be com- pleted long before the start of the presidential reelection season. Palestinians have good reason to be hopeful about the eventuality of an independent state. If its creation is a result of peace negotiations, good. But if the talks fails because of Israeli obstructionism, Palestinians will have no choice but to declare their state unilaterally and hope the world will recognize it. Those Americans who witness Palestinian conduct in the negotiating room over the coming year will have to decide whether to recognize the state or keep this conflict festering.


Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian journalist, is a former Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University. His e-mail address is info@daoudkuttab.com.


lead — all of that vacation time, and the Germans pay for it! There are some anecdotes about the way time seems to work differently here, about how things take longer here. One regales the others with tales of the Greek real estate market. The thing to re- member, he says, is that all houses have two prices: the “official” price and the “real” price. You pay taxes on the official price. You pay the owner the real price. Everybody knows about this, and everybody winks — including the tax office. Ah yes, someone says, those corrupt bureaucrats


A


— we used to have them in Estonia, too. Ah yes, someone else says, Polish houses used to have an “of- ficial” price and a “real” price as well. But that was two decades ago — back in the days when Europe was divided into “West” and “East.” Now, at least in the eyes of some, it is slowly redividing itself into “North” and “South.” “North and South”: Not everybody is going to like


that concept, especially not the new South, some of whose members are not necessarily in the southern half of the continent. For these are not geographical designations but, rather, political terms of art. The South contains all of those countries whose political classes have not been able to balance their national budgets, whose bureaucrats have not been able to reduce their numbers, whose voters have not learned to approve of austerity: Greece, Spain, Por- tugal, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and, at the moment, Ireland. The North contains the budget hawks: Germany,


Poland, Estonia, Scandinavia, the Czechs and the Slovaks. Britain’s new government, with its new aus- terity budget, aims to return to the North, following its recent experience of life in the South. France floats somewhere in between. “Wealth,” as such, isn’t Northern: Much of the South is very rich. But in the North, private wealth has grown more or less in tandem with the public sector. Private wealth and public squalor are more typical of the South. Or at least that’s one perspective. I realize that these are subjective categories and that the mem- bers of these two clubs, as listed here, could easily be disputed. Polish bureaucracy is no better than the Spanish kind. Irish capitalism is in some ways healthier than the Czech version. Living standards are still higher in Italy than in Estonia. And some leaders of the South — socialist governments, iron- ically, in both Greece and Spain — are struggling to institute reforms that should have been made years ago and that are aimed at making their economies more Northern. But even if we swap a few of the names around, or


at least agree to disagree about some of them, it’s still hard to ignore the existence of this new North- South division, which is suddenly so much more im- portant than that old East-West division. It’s also tough to ignore a few hard truths about the new North, which is clearly dominated by Germany. So far, Germany is leading the region by example: Its relatively high growth rate— achieved thanks to re- cent labor market and tax reforms — is attracting imitators, not subordinates. Nevertheless, German economic clout within this region is large and will get larger.


At the moment, the new North Europe is not the same thing as the eurozone either: Not all of its members use the common European currency — though some of the South infamously does. Clearly, this is illogical: The increasingly similar, deeply connected and ever-converging economies of the North maintain different currencies. On the other hand, Germany, France, Italy and Greece — coun- tries that have radically different attitudes about public spending and budgets — are bound into the same currency zone. Wouldn’t it make sense to drop the euro in favor of a “Northern” currency? How long can it be before that begins to seem like a good idea, especially in Germany? We aren’t quite there yet: Europe, led by the Ger- mans, did rescue the Greek economy this year, while demanding massive structural and budgetary changes in exchange for a massive injection of mon- ey. But the rescue was not carried out in the name of European solidarity or because the new North feels any responsibility for the new South. It was under- taken grudgingly, reluctantly, on behalf of banks that owned too many Greek bonds. And here is a prediction about such rescues: It won’t happen again.


applebaumletters@washpost.com agios nikolaos, crete


handful of Estonians and a Pole are sitting around a Greek taverna, telling stories. There are some jokes about the good life the Greeks


Obama’s approval rating tracks at about 47 per-


cent. Ronald Reagan did worse at this stage of his presidency, but he was both liked and known. Oba- ma is not all that liked and not very much known. He has become a polarizing figure — irrationally hated by Republicans and lacking much of his original support. Among whites, for instance, if the election were held now, Obama would get just an alarming 28 percent of the vote. We are once again two nations. Some of Obama’s travails stem from the lousy economy — unemployment up at around 10 per- cent. The latest figures, while significantly higher than when he took the oath of office, are clearly the consequence of the monster recession-cum- financial debacle he inherited. This was in addi- tion to two wars and a huge debt. If in his private phone call to George W. Bush last week, the presi- dent did not drop a “Thanks a lot” into the con- versation, he is a man of saintly forbearance. But it is clear by now that Obama has allowed others to define him. For this, Obama needs to blame Obama. His stutter-step approach to certain issues — his wimpy statements regarding the planned Islamic center in Manhattan, for instance — erodes not just his standing but his profile. What we thought we knew, we do not. Like a pic- ture hung in the sun, he fades over time. Obama is stuck with Obama — the good and the


bad. There is more of the former than the latter, so all is not lost. But what Obama can do — what he


must do — is get some new people. His staff ill- serves him so that he presents a persona at odds with his performance. Not only has he compiled a pretty remarkable legislative record, but he moved with dispatch to rescue the financial system, save the auto industry and — in case no one was looking —implement reforms of our woebegone education system. The more he wins, the more somehow he loses. Go back to Obama’s recent Oval Office speech. It was only his second and so great importance was attached to it. He should have had something mo- mentous to say. In fact, he had almost nothing to say— no news to make or report. The speech clock- ed in at 2,547 words. But if encomiums to both American and Iraqi troops were deleted, it went for only 1,948 words, which meant that about one- quarter of it was mush. Yes, indeed, we all love the troops — apple pie and momma, too. Now, let’s get on with it. The president needs better speechwriters. The president needs a staff to tell him not to give an Oval Office address unless he has something wor- thy of the Oval Office to say. The president needs someone to look into the camera so that, when the light goes on and he says, “Good evening,” he looks commander in chiefish: big. In other words, the president needs to fire some key people. Either that, or the way things are going, the American people are going to fire him.


cohenr@washpost.com


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