Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

 South Carolina is a heavily contested state because it is the first primary in the south, it represents the conservative base in the United States, and big money contributors emerge to support the winning candidate.  The small number of delegates awarded from the state may not be significant, but they don’t hurt either.  The manner in which the state has become such a vital stop on the road to the White House is convoluted. There are a few key people and factors that have cemented South Carolina as historically significant. One factor is the aggressive “Southern strategy” which exploits racism from Southern whites. This strategy was adopted by the Republican party and finds a receptive audience in South Carolina.  A master of this strategy was the South Carolina native Lee Atwater who made his way in American politics by winning the primary with dirty tricks and false rumors. Although “whisper campaigns” date back to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the rhetoric that develops in South Carolina during the primary is legendary. Unfortunately, the “wedge-issues” that develop in the state are becoming more banal. 

History has proven that the logistical significance of the South Carolina Primary has often been overshadowed by the rhetorical one. Until 1980 South Carolina held a caucus much like most of the other southern states in order to decide the candidate. In September of 1979 GOP state chairman Dan Ross coordinated the effort for the primary to put South Carolina in a powerful position.  By being first in the south and  creating a firewall for the frontrunner to establish his base in the southern states, South Carolina would attract a lot of media attention.  Meantime Lee Atwater, an energetic and scrappy young man was a consultant working on campaigns for state legislators.  Atwater had a knack for creating “wedge-issues” that white southerners loved to buy in to. By getting the word out early and quick he could take an assumption or a whisper and leak it to the press, thus killing the opponents campaign for very little money.  South Carolina was his stomping ground and he understood which issues would hit the nerves of the voters. In 1980 Ronald Reagan had been in a tight race with John Connally.  Connally ran a 13-month campaign in South Carolina with the support and endorsement of popular Senator Strom Thurmond. Connally was blind-sided by the claim (put out by Atwater) that he had been trying to buy black votes and as a result lost all but one delegate. Ida Mills of Clarksville, Arkansas is now known as the 11 million dollar delegate. Connally quit the race after the devastating loss.  After 1980 Republicans would hold the White House for the next 20 years. Some political insiders credit this to Atwater’s dirty tricks. 

In 1988 South Carolina was a must-win state for all the candidates, Jack Kemp, Pat Robertson, Bob Dole, and George H.W. Bush.  Dole had refrained from campaigning in the state and unlike the other candidates, did not see it as a must-win. Dole had won in Iowa and it was assumed that he would win in New Hampshire. He felt confident about seeing a second place finish in South Carolina.  Bush had finished third in Iowa and won in New Hampshire, but he was under scrutiny going into South Carolina over a policy that had dismantled the textile industry in the state. During the primary in New Hampshire The Bush campaign released negative ads and began attacking Dole on his tax policy. This strategy led to his good standing going into South Carolina. Atwater was hired as campaign manager for Bush.  If Bush were to lose South Carolina, then Atwater may have been fired from the campaign. Kemp was running out of money.  Robertson, a beloved televangelist was not seeing good poll numbers.  Negative press was circulated linking Robertson to the Jimmy Swaggart, a fellow evangelists sex scandals which successfully ridiculed him.  The Bush campaign released negative ads calling Dole “Senator Straddle” for being on the fence about key issues.   Although later breaking his promise, Bush ended up winning the primary and put Dole in a position of defending himself from the bottom on the new tax pledge that Dole refused to sign. Atwater stayed on as campaign manager. He and Bush had knocked out his opponents in South Carolina. They went on to use their tactics against Michael Dukakis in the general election such as the Willie Horton ads and accusations of flag burning by Dukasis’s wife Kitty.  Atwater later died in 1991 from a brain tumor after serving as the head of the Republican National Committee.

South Carolina in 2000 was a nasty primary season for the Republicans. There was a fight between George W. Bush and John McCain for the nomination.  While working on his father’s campaigns, Bush had been an understudy of Atwater.  Karl Rove is Atwater’s protege who had hired Atwater as his campaign manager for his run as President of the Young Republicans.  Bush hired Karl Rove to run his campaign.  Instituted by Atwater and passed on to Rove, dirty tricks were back in play.  A whisper campaign was started in South Carolina to put John McCain’s mental health into question calling him “unstable”. There was also a smear campaign against his wife for being a drug addict and another accusing him of fathering a black baby from a prostitute.  Bush supporters had circulated fliers questioning McCain’s sexuality. Bush reinforced the rumors by commenting that if he were elected he would not consider any homosexual appointments to his administration. The sentiment the candidates had about South Carolina’s confederate flag was a hot issue during the primary as well.  Bush  was able to skirt the issue while McCain had a flip flop and  gaffe related to his feelings about the flag. Bush succeeded in crossing the South Carolina firewall, and had a great deal of contemptuous rhetoric for McCain throughout the rest of the primary season. 

The people of South Carolina love a political fight. The winners of the Republican primary in this state have always shown tenacity and aggression while campaigning. The campaign values of Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, and the white supremacy of Strom Thurmond have inundated the citizens of the state who feel it is their civic duty to choose the Republican candidate. In the week before the 2012 primary Newt Gingrich may have solidified his position to win South Carolina by calling President Obama “the food stamp president”.  It is almost as if Lee Atwater coined the phrase himself.  When asked how Reagan could get to the racist Democrat George Wallace voter by claiming to cut down on food stamps Lee Atwater said,

 “You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."

With the success of the Gingrich win in the South Carolina primary of 2012 the legacy of Atwater lives. If nominated as the Republican candidate, Gingrich will likely continue to operate out of Atwater’s playbook and use the “Southern strategy” all the way to the general election

Driving Miss Daisy

     Driving Miss Daisy was released in 1989. It was originally a play of the same name by Alfred Uhry who also wrote the screenplay. The film is directed by Bruce Beresford and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Three others including Best Actress for Jessica Tandy, Best Makeup, and Best Adapted Screenplay were awarded. The score of the film was written and produced by Hans Zimmer. He performed the score entirely on his own using electronic instruments. It has become a well known score and is a tribute to Daisy’s impetuous sassiness.  

  Jessica Tandy plays Daisy Werthan, a wealthy Jewish widow living in Atlanta in the fifties. After she becomes unable to drive, her son Boolie Werthan (Dan Aykroyd) hires her a chauffeur. The driver is a black man named Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman). Daisy also has a black maid named Idella (Esther Rolle).  Daisy is very set in her ways and refuses to allow Hoke to drive her anywhere at first, but by the end of the film they become close friends, developing a love for each other that transcends all racial, ethnic, and age boundaries.  

Although the Southern Jews had arrived at the end of the 17th century and were common in cities like Atlanta and Charleston throughout early American history, the civil rights movement brought about an antisemitic sentiment.  Jews are less than 1 percent of the South`s population and the  first Jewish settlements were those of Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina.  By the beginning of the 19th century  there were more Jews in Charleston than in any other U.S. city.  The Jewish people of the south were neither more nor less likely to own slaves than their Christians peers, though it is said that they were more likely to show empathy for blacks.  Around 40,000 Jews, most of them German immigrants, made their way to the South in years between the end of the Civil War and the start of World War I. As Jews became more accepted, intermarriage and assimilation helped to lessen their cultural presence. This resulted in many synagogue closings in the South after 1950. In the scene when Daisy is in Temple, we can see disproportionate amount of empty seats in the grand building.

       As a Jewish family, the Werthan’s break the shopkeeper stereotypes of southern Jews at the time such as Neiman and Marcus from Texas. The family owns a textile plant in Atlanta that is now run by Boolie. Boolie is like many southern jews who are very different from the northern jews because historically they intermarried and assimilated more frequently and quickly. This is seen through Boolies marriage and his mother’s disgust when he embraces his wife’s excessive holiday traditions. 

  As Daisy becomes closer to Hoke, she becomes sympathetic to his struggle as a southern black man. Whether she knows it or not, Daisy’s identity as a southern Jew helps to define her character.  Through the progression of the film she becomes more aware of their similarities.  She is very defensive and feels as if being called rich is an insult. She is very proud of her hard work as a teacher and it shows when she beams with pride as she teaches Hoke to read. On a rainy day Hoke and Diasy are stuck in traffic on the way to Temple. Hoke gets out to see what is going on. He returns to tell her that the Temple has been bombed.  Hoke empathizes with Daisy’s pain by telling her about the hanging of his friend’s father.  Daisy seems to be in denial that the antisemitic bombing is in any way related to the racism that Hoke experienced. As a white woman, it was a very different reality for Hoke than Diasy and she refuses to feel sorry for herself.  Ethnicity is defined as more fluid than race. A white person can chose to be more or less Jewish, but a black person is externally identified and cannot change the color of his skin. 

The congregation bombing is perhaps a reference to the bombing of Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, Atlanta’s oldest and most prominent synagogue. It was the fourth Temple bombing within the time frame. At the time, the congregation was being led by Rabbi Rothschild and it was his support of racial integration that perhaps ignited the hatred that led to the bombing. In 1947 Rothschild had spoken out at the pulpit against segregation in the region. After the Little Rock 9 incident in 1957 Rothschild helped author the Ministers’ Manifesto which asked for communication between racial and ethnic groups. In the months before the bombing Rothschild said, "We must resolve not to surrender to violence, or submit to intimidation”. Later in the film Daisy attends a dinner with another important civil rights figure,  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and hears a speech that resonated with her.  King said, “history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the vitriolic words and violent actions of the bad people but the appalling silence and indifference of the good people. Our generation will not only have to repent the words and  actions of the children of darkness but also the fears and apathy of the children of light.” 

Toward the end of the film Daisy shows signs of dementia. One morning, Hoke shows up to work and Daisy is having an episode where her mind is lost in time. This is the first sign of her degenerating mind. She is looking for school papers and is frustrated. Boolie is called to the house and shortly after she regains her coherency and  is upset at herself. Hoke cheers her up by telling her that she is lucky to not be in a state hospital. Daisy let’s him know that he is her best  friend. Time goes by and her house is sold and Daisy is sent to live in a home for the elderly. Although Boolie never had any children and lived in a large house, she is still sent away. Her condition has come to a point that she can no longer live on her own, as many people with degenerative dementia experience.  In a symbolic gesture, Boolie drives Hoke to visit Daisy and after a biting comment about Boolie’s wife being a republican national committeewoman, Daisy and Hoke share a final intimate moment as Hoke sweetly feeds her.  

This last moment and reference to the republican party speaks to the politics on the way aging Americans are treated and the films theme of aging. Boolie may be a committed son, but his need to succeed in a capitalist society takes over. In the past few decades it has been common for party lines to be drawn on issue of the treatment of aging Americans. Currently the line is drawn on  Medicaid and Social Security programs. Republicans often offer a disgusting sentiment for any social program and speak of it like a it is a free ride that only promotes laziness and takes money from the pockets of job creators (a.k.a. the wealthy). When Americans, black or white, Jewish or Christians have worked hard for the majority of their lives like Hoke and Daisy, they do not deserve to be left out in the cold by the government while capital accumulation of the wealthy continues to drive politics. Driving Miss Daisy is a film that helps bridge the gap between rich and poor, black and white. Aging happens to everyone and all human beings deserve to do it with dignity even if the United States has deprived them of it in the past.