PLEASE! @TheDemocrats Help #ALpolitics @ALDemocrats REMOVE Bigoted Racist Joe Reed from the SDEC!
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, July 14, 2015
As I was saying…
(And I’m not the only one saying it.)
Racism & Bigotry Abounds
in the
#ALpolitics
State Democratic Executive Committee
Joe Reed,
a member of the Alabama State Democratic Executive Committee,
is a bigoted racist.
Make
NO MISTAKE:
Joe Reed is an evil, and wicked man.
For that reason alone, he should be ousted from the Democratic party.
And, it appears that the only way in which that could happen is by force majeure.
—
Want to see racism at work?
Meet the Alabama Democratic Party.
Alabama Democratic Party boss Joe Reed controls the State Democratic Executive Committee like it’s his very own country club, and you aren’t getting in.
By Kyle Whitmire | kwhitmire@al.com
Twitter: @WarOnDumb
on July 14, 2015 at 1:20 PM, updated July 14, 2015 at 1:23 PM
You should go to an Alabama State Democratic Executive Committee meeting, even if you are a Republican.
No matter what anyone says, racism is not a thing of the past, and there’s no better reminder — of its existence and of its corruptive, disruptive and self-defeating influence — than attending an SDEC meeting.
Last week Alabama Democrats gathered in Montgomery to fight the same battle they’ve been fighting for the last several years. Nationally, Democrats have done a good job of cobbling together many smaller constituencies into majorities, and with them winning the White House. Had no Republicans mastered gerrymandering congressional districts throughout the country, they’d probably have both houses of Congress, too.
But in Alabama, it’s a different story.
The Dems held their latest meeting at Montgomery City Hall. It’s a cheap venue, which works well for the Democrats’ pauper’s purse, and no matter how modest the building appears from the outside, the City Council chambers there are quite beautiful. A glass wall separates the chambers from the lobby. The Montgomery seal on the door reminds visitors of the city’s peculiar split identity.
City of Montgomery, Alabama Municipal Seal
Code of Ordinances of the City of Montgomery, Alabama
Chapter 2 – ADMINISTRATION
ARTICLE I. – IN GENERAL
Sec. 2-1. – City seal. A seal is hereby adopted as the official seal of the city. Such seal shall contain in the center a six-pointed star containing the words “Cradle of the Confederacy”, in a circle outside the star the words “Birth Place of the Civil Rights Movement” and in the outer circle the words “City of Montgomery, AL—Great Seal.” The city seal is a trademark of the city and shall be used for official city business purposes. The use of the seal of the city in connection with any merchandise, impersonation, solicitation, or commercial activity in a manner reasonably calculated to convey the impression that such use is approved, endorsed, or authorized by the city is prohibited. Express permission must be given to any contractor, person or non-entity of the city to use or display the seal. Any use of the city seal by any contractor, person or non-entity of the city is prohibited without the written permission of the city and any unauthorized use shall be a violation of this section.
“Birthplace of the civil rights movement,” it reads.
Along with, “Cradle of the Confederacy.”
Somehow Montgomery City Hall seems like the perfect place to have an identity crisis.
On the other side of that glass wall, there’s an old Negro man talking to a crowd of seated Negro people — the Alabama Democratic Party’s minority caucus. Anyone who’s not a member of that caucus — mostly Anglo Democrats, but some Negro members, too — is invited to leave.
Inside, the old Negro man, Democratic party boss Joe Reed, is giving the caucus its instructions and a yellow sheet with a list of names on it. Today the party will vote on nominations to fill some of the 50 vacancies on the executive committee, most of which represent majority white legislative districts in the state, which the Democrats have lost to the Republicans. If a name isn’t on the yellow sheet, they don’t get the caucus’s support.
Once Reed is done, the rest of the Democrats are allowed to file into the room. On our way in, I ask one of the members if Democrats have an equivalent to what the Republicans call RINOs (Republicans in name only).
“Are there DINOs?” I ask.
“I don’t know about DINOs,” he says. “But we do have dinosaurs.”
If there is a Jurassic Democrat, Reed is it. He rose to power having once been the associate executive secretary at the Alabama Education Association. He leads the Negro Democratic organization, the Alabama Democratic Conference, and he was once half of a cross-racial power-sharing pact, with the late AEA chief Paul Hubbert controlling the other half.
Related Story: Alabama Democrats disagree sharply, leave board seats empty
With the rise of the GOP in Alabama, most white elected officials either fled to the Republican ranks or lost their seats to GOP challengers. But that’s not to say there aren’t still Anglo Democrats in Alabama. There are many, and they have come to this meeting to try again to find a place on the executive committee.
Watch Alabama Democrats Split Along Racial Lines
On Saturday, the Alabama State Democratic Executive Committee rejected about two dozen nominees, mostly Anglo, from filling vacancies on the committee.
The party’s Negro minority caucus chose to leave the party unrepresented in those districts, rather than dilute its power on the committee.
Once everyone has found a seat, the meeting starts. Republican conservatives will be relieved to know that the Democrats still begin their meeting with a prayer. They ask the Almighty for, among other things, leadership.
In a new stop on the agenda, the Dems read aloud the names of members who have died recently. Among them is Hubbert.
And then the main event — filling the 50 vacancies on the committee. One by one, Party Chairwoman Nancy Worley reads aloud the empty district seats committee members make nominations.
And immediately there’s a recognizable pattern. Most, but not all, of the nominees are Anglo. And one by one, nearly all of the nominees are rejected by the party’s Negro caucus members.
Among the rejected nominees are county party chairs, former Democratic candidates for the Alabama legislature, an employee of the Southern Poverty Law Center and even a former party treasurer.
The Alabama Democratic Party is not a big tent party. It doesn’t even have a tent.
AL State Senator Vivian Figures (District 33) Castigates State Democratic Executive Committee
Of the Negro members of the executive committee, a handful doesn’t join ranks with Reed’s caucus. Among them is state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures who, after this exercise in futility is finished, asks Worley for a point of personal privilege.
“I am embarrassed. I am appalled and I am ashamed to call myself a member of the SDEC,” Figures said. “What I have witnessed here today is a travesty.”
Figures is the only person willing to say out loud what everyone in the room knows. A bloc of members loyal to Reed have rejected many highly-qualified nominees because they won’t “kiss the ring.” If your name’s not on Reed’s yellow sheet, there’s no place for you on the executive committee. The party, as it is constituted on the SDEC, would rather leave itself unrepresented in those districts than allow Anglo members on the executive committee.
Don’t mistake this for reverse-racism.
There’s no such thing as reverse-racism.
There’s just racism.
And whether racial politics is a means to an end for Reed or just the end itself, one thing is clear:
The Alabama Democratic Party
under his control is
a blatantly,
openly racist
organization.
The Alabama Democratic Party isn’t a big tent party. It doesn’t even have a tent.
http://t.co/hDqwO21WHR #alpolitics
— Kyle Whitmire (@WarOnDumb) July 14, 2015
—
AUTHOR’S NOTE: In this entry, the words “black” and “white” have purposely been changed in favor of the properly accurate, and dignifying terms “Negro,” and “Anglo” to identify ethic origins, rather than the words “black” and “white” because those words (‘black’ and ‘white’) are neither accurately descriptive, are color-based polar opposites, serve only to engender strife, do nothing to create harmony, exemplify a separating mindset of division, and are purely dissimulating.
Warm Southern Breeze 
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