The pull of racial politics: John Lewis' history lesson

Over the weekend, a brave soldier of the civil rights movement remarked how the McCain-Palin angry crowds looked familiar to the sort once riled up by George C. Wallace.

In the aftermath, the comments by U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., were widely misinterpreted, as was the comparison between former Alabama Gov. Wallace and the Republican presidential ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin.

First, let's begin with the comments by Lewis, a native Alabamian.

"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who only desired to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed one Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama," Lewis said.

"As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better," Lewis concluded.

The reaction from the McCain campaign and its right-wing allies was outrage, a complaint that Lewis was comparing the Arizona senator to one of the most racist governors in U.S. history.

No doubt about it, Wallace left an ugly stain. His behavior and rhetoric tarnished Alabama and its citizens. In some quarters, the stain remains.

However, even at his worst, Wallace never wore a white sheet and burned crosses. His style was to rile up the angry mob as opposed to leading it in a positive direction, and that is exactly Lewis' point.

Wallace's 1964 speech against the Civil Rights Act is a prime example. It isn't littered with the N-word. Wallace framed his opposition not in outright hatred of black people but in the defense of the "free-enterprise system," and "having nothing to do with enforcing a law that will destroy neighborhood schools" and "the rights of private property."

He even media-bashed, dismissing newspapers "which are run and operated by left-wing liberals, Communist sympathizers, and members of the Americans for Democratic Action and other Communist-front organizations with high-sounding names."

Wallace pledged, "I am a conservative" opposed to "the liberal left-wing dogma which now threatens to engulf every man, woman, and child in the United States."

Sound familiar?

It's vaguely reminiscent to the sort of rhetoric employed by McCain-Palin and tossed back at them by GOP crowds last week. The candidates portrayed Obama as "palling around with terrorists" and saying the Illinois senator is "not like us." It goes without saying that they blamed the news media for the nation's ills.

Two developments offer hope.

The first is Lewis did a good service by reminded Americans that we are better than the anger on display at McCain-Palin rallies.

The second is that it appears McCain-Palin have dialed back their tough talk; in one instance last week McCain corrected an unhinged supporter who claimed Obama is an "Arab."

Towering ignorance stared McCain in the face so he did the honorable thing; he corrected the unhinged supporter and has, in the last few days, risen above the horrid rhetoric.

John McCain is no George Wallace.

But the pull of racial politics is heroin in the last days of a political campaign, especially when one is behind. It remains to be seen, then, if John McCain will go down in history as an honorable man.