Almost half of Mississippi Republican voters polled said interracial marriage should be illegal [View all]

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/150569/what_shocking_new_polls_on_republican_attitudes_toward_slavery,_interracial_marriage_say_about_the_modern_gop/

What Shocking New Polls on Republican Attitudes Toward Slavery, Interracial Marriage Say About the Modern GOP

In a recent survey, almost half of Mississippi Republican voters polled said interracial marriage should be illegal. Sad thing is, that's not even very surprising.

April 11, 2011 |

<snip>Yesterday, the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, CNN released a poll that showed that 25 percent of the general public and some 40 percent of Southerners sympathize more with the rebellious Confederacy than with the Union. And in a particularly revealing inversion of the historical record--more than half of the Republicans surveyed believe that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War.

Not content to merely support an insurrection against the duly elected government of the United States, 80 percent of the Republicans surveyed by CNN also expressed admiration for the leaders of the South--a cabal whose allegiance to white supremacy was most tellingly summed up by the Vice President of the Confederacy's sentiment that its, "...foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based on this great physical, philosophical and moral truth.”

Echoing the Tea Party GOP's neo-Confederate longings, last week an equally troubling bit of polling data was released which highlighted how the Right-wing yearns for a return to “tradition” and the “good old days” in the Age of Obama.

Public Policy Polling surveyed self-identified Republican voters in Mississippi. They were asked a series of questions regarding issue positions and their likelihood of voting for a given Republican presidential candidate in the 2012 race. Among their findings: apparently, race still matters to the good Tea Party GOP voters of Mississippi, with 46 percent of the respondents indicating that interracial marriage should be illegal. And in good news for Sarah Palin, those who supported her were significantly more likely to oppose marriage across the colorline.