How do you feel bout George Wallace? Was he an effective governor of Alabama, despite his racism? Was his reformation at the end of his life genuine?

George Wallace during his 1968 presidential campaign.

He was ineffective. He now serves as an embarrassment. Long term he did great harm.

The ends do not justify means---this is where Trumpers screw up in modern times............but in their case the ends are imaginary, and the means are very destructive

Outside of his racial views and segregation, he was an effective governor. He brought significant reforms to education and social services in Alabama. He also brought forward labor friendly measures. While he will always be viewed primarily in the light of segregation, overall he was a decent and effective governor.

It is downright ironic that many of his policies would be considered progressive today, while at the same time he stood on segregation.

tshade said:

He now serves as an embarrassment. Long term he did great harm.

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He renounced his racism after he got shot, and publicly apologized.

Safiel said:

Outside of his racial views and segregation, he was an effective governor. He brought significant reforms to education and social services in Alabama. He also brought forward labor friendly measures. While he will always be viewed primarily in the light of segregation, overall he was a decent and effective governor.

It is downright ironic that many of his policies would be considered progressive today, while at the same time he stood on segregation.

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Don't try to give facts to the left. Man from a definitely different era. Wallace was a rogue and later a bit of a progressive. The left doesn't bother to study history, they pick up the few pieces they don't like and keep shouting it to the heavens, regardless of whether they got it correct or not.

He was a great governor during the time I spent in Alabama during the 70s in the oilfield. Domestic drilling rigs were everywhere.

I've known many bigots who after they became ill or disabled and taken care of by minorities and living with other races, ethnicities, "soften" their views as they became older. People often find too out late that they have more in common than they thought.

aociswundumho said:

He renounced his racism after he got shot, and publicly apologized.

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It took a bullet to shake it off. Yeah, that is better than nothing. I am glad that he, and anyone, sees the light of day.

Now a tough question. Would a MAGA renounce Trump under the same circumstances??????

Safiel said:

Outside of his racial views and segregation, he was an effective governor. He brought significant reforms to education and social services in Alabama. He also brought forward labor friendly measures. While he will always be viewed primarily in the light of segregation, overall he was a decent and effective governor.

It is downright ironic that many of his policies would be considered progressive today, while at the same time he stood on segregation.

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Hitler was a great leader if you take away the Final Solution, etc, etc............ nope, sorry, Wallace sucked....

Parrish said:

I've known many bigots who after they became ill or disabled and taken care of by minorities and living with other races, ethnicities, "soften" their views as they became older. People often find too out late that they have more in common than they thought.

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.after the damage was done,------big deal

tshade said:

It took a bullet to shake it off. Yeah, that is better than nothing. I am glad that he, and anyone, sees the light of day.

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You'd think he would be more angry at the world after being paralyzed, but instead he did the opposite and earnestly apologized for his racism.

tshade said:

.after the damage was done,------big deal

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I believe in redemption. I've seen it in my own family. A Dixiecrat great-great aunt, Daughter of the Confederacy and the Revolution married a black man. They were devoted to one another. Maybe one day you'll find it too.

Parrish said:

I believe in redemption. I've seen it in my own family. A Dixiecrat great-great aunt, Daughter of the Confederacy and the Revolution married a black man. They were devoted to one another. Maybe one day you'll find it too.

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you're right----forgiveness is Christ-Like.......................................but don't even TRY to excuse their damaging behavior, and those who took their example and continued it.

I am glad they are 'sorry', but that is little comfort to those who are STILL suffering because of their actions.....

tshade said:

you're right----forgiveness is Christ-Like.......................................but don't even TRY to excuse their damaging behavior, and those who took their example and continued it.

I am glad they are 'sorry', but that is little comfort to those who are STILL suffering because of their actions.....

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It starts with you.

Integrityrespec said:

Don't try to give facts to the left. Man from a definitely different era. Wallace was a rogue and later a bit of a progressive. The left doesn't bother to study history, they pick up the few pieces they don't like and keep shouting it to the heavens, regardless of whether they got it correct or not.

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Don’t tell that to GOP political strategists. Interview with Lee Atwater, Reagan’s senior campaign advisor:

“Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry Dent and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now [Reagan] doesn't have to do that. All you have to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues he's campaigned on since 1964 [...] and that's fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster...

Questioner: But the fact is, isn't it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?

Atwater: Y'all don't quote me on this. 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." “

Parrish said:

It starts with you.

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easy cop out...........................but hey, yeah........

tshade said:

easy cop out...........................but hey, yeah........

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For you, not me.

Integrityrespec said:

Don't try to give facts to the left. Man from a definitely different era. Wallace was a rogue and later a bit of a progressive. The left doesn't bother to study history, they pick up the few pieces they don't like and keep shouting it to the heavens, regardless of whether they got it correct or not.

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I lived growing up and as a young man through Wallace and the malicious South where Eisenhower and then Kennedy had to use elite Army Airborne Infantry Forces against the raging hate of too many rioting Southerners, in Alabama with Wallace and in Arkansas where the moderate Bill Clinton was in high school.

Your rightwing dogmatic post that is high and mighty lecturing and scolding is rejected. The blazing hate from the South was real. JFK was assassinated; brother Robert, assassinated; Martin Luther King Jr assassinated as the hair on fire racists never let up and never let go of their profound and unending racism, fierce anger and passionate hate.

Wallace led to Reagan who led to Ross Perot in 1992 who political scientists, historians and sociologists call the Father of President Trump and MAGAs -- each Wallace, Perot and Trump appeal to the same low socioeconomic, culturally deficient and generationally inbred public. Wallace said he was sorry but the hard cold fact is that racists can't have their cake and eat it too. Wallace remains as a shitstain on the history of the time and always. Wallace linear connected the defeated Confederacy to Reagan, Ross Perot, Trump and MAGA and now Russia -- as your posts confirm.

Posters who like the Confederacy like Russia; and the posters who like Russia like the Confederacy, Indeed, they are one and the same. Traitors against the Constitution that since the Civil War and until Trump & MAGA had been on a gradual path of expansive improvement.

tshade said:

.after the damage was done,------big deal

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How much damage was done when Senator Byrd was a klansman?

There is no way to be 'effective' despite racism, because racism is by definition ineffective, inefficient, and incredibly unproductive, especially if segregation is what you are fighting for. What is effective about a colored water fountain and a white one? What is efficient about people deciding which door to enter and leave by, depending on one's melanin levels? Is it productive to walk or drive further to get a burger, a shake and fries, because the place a block away refuses to seat you, even if it has only three patrons?

As for Wallace, I believe in redemption and I sure do respect people willing to admit and change their lifelong viewpoints,, but I don't have to vote for them. I assume Wallace sincerely changed, because too many black leaders who met with him repeatedly, said they saw the change. I still can't imagine casting a vote for him.

VySky said:

How much damage was done when Senator Byrd was a klansman?

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Byrd vs MAGA: the difference between repentance and doubling down on the sin.

I would like to think George Wallace became a decent person by the end of his life.

Parrish said:

For you, not me.

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n0----for you.............you conveniently avoid dealing with the issue....

VySky said:

How much damage was done when Senator Byrd was a klansman?

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a great deal.....why?? Do you have a point?

tshade said:

Hitler was a great leader if you take away the Final Solution, etc, etc............ nope, sorry, Wallace sucked....

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Wallace wasn't a HItler. I was 100% against all his racist actions, but I believe he was mostly playing popular politics in the Alabama of that time. I had a friend, an elderly man when I met him who was one of Wallace's main attorneys. He was not at all a Hitler-following sort. Well, literally, he fought in Europe during WW II. He was mostly so enamored of the Old South he could barely see the injustices in it. I was with him in mixed race social settings--professionals black and white from around the United States. He seemed quite comfortable with black attorneys. It was rather fascinating to me.