By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News
wslater@dallasnews.com
AUSTIN – In trumpeting states' rights, Republican Gov. Rick Perry has tapped a fierce anti-Washington sentiment with a phrase that long had a mixed meaning in the segregated South.
Gov. Rick Perry, who attended Veterans Day ceremonies in Dallas last week, says his use of 'states' rights' as a national rallying cry is about spending and federal mandates, not race.
To some, "states' rights" evokes an earlier era when it was a rallying cry against civil rights.
Perry's use of the phrase to unite fervent opponents of federal meddling has made him a national voice – but he risks damaging his message if he's seen as a politician who's out of touch with the legacy of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.
It is a difficult balancing act, said Rice University professor Earl Black, an expert on Southern politics.
"What's the best term to use to make the argument and be persuasive? I guess this term was at hand, but it certainly is going to muddy his message," he said.
For some blacks, the term is offensive. "Perry would be better off politically if he could find a term to get at the essence of his argument that's not a red flag," he said.
Perry defends his use of the phrase, saying his fight against Washington is about spending and federal mandates on health care and the environment, not race.
And in his new book, Fed Up, he tries to dissociate his use of "states' rights" against modern Washington from the negative connotations of the past.
"Let me pre-empt the naysayers out there who want to paint me as a backward Southern governor," he writes.
Cause vs. clause
In his re-election bid and his national book-promotion tour, Perry has appealed to tea party activists with his call to redress the balance between the state and federal governments.
The tea party movement, which has focused on fiscal issues, has rejected criticism that race plays a role in its opposition to Obama administration spending. Leaders have distanced themselves from signs at rallies depicting President Barack Obama in whiteface or as an African witch doctor.
But the sensitive issue of racial politics flared when tea party favorite Rand Paul , running for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky, criticized the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as an example of government overreach. The law made it illegal for private businesses to discriminate on the basis of race.
In a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News, Perry made it clear that he supports the federal government's actions ending segregation, including passage of the Civil Rights Act.
He said he'd prefer that Congress relied on the constitutional amendments ending slavery and guaranteeing citizenship to blacks, instead of basing its authority on the commerce clause allowing government to regulate business between the states.
"You don't need the commerce clause to clearly state that racism is not appropriate in this country," Perry said. "That's my concern, that the Congress and the Supreme Court have used the commerce clause way past what it should have been."
A test of context
Gary Bledsoe, Texas president of the NAACP, said he understands that Perry isn't speaking of states' rights in a racial context, but not everybody might get that message.
He said Perry's aggressive use of the term in his fight with big government is putting to a test – 40 years after the nation's civil rights conflicts – whether the term "states' rights" still carries the baggage it once did.
"I realize it was the federal government that freed my ancestors. It was the federal government that got rid of Jim Crow. It was the federal government that seeks to protect my right to vote. So these things are really sacrosanct," he said. "So that states' rights thing does have a really negative connotation."
Ken Emanuelson, a steering committee member of the Dallas Tea Party, said fighting big government is an appealing message for grass-roots conservatives. But he said there might be a better way than using the term "states' rights" to express it.
"I don't think for a minute that the governor and a lot of people who are using that term have any ill intent. But it is a little tone-deaf and may be a lot tone-deaf," he said. "There are terms that maybe aren't as broadly used, terms like 'federalism' and 'decentralization,' that mean the same thing."
Treading carefully
As governor, Perry has dealt carefully with questions of race. He's called for the federal government to secure the border with Mexico but has said Arizona's tough illegal-immigration law is not right for Texas. He signed a hate crimes bill that strengthens penalties for crimes against minorities. And he named the first Hispanic woman to the state Supreme Court.
In the exit poll on Election Day, Perry claimed 70 percent of white voters but just 8 percent of black voters who turned out.
Bledsoe of the NAACP said that although he and the governor differ on the role of the federal government, they share a belief that championing states' rights these days should not be about race.
"He doesn't want to have that kind of connotation when he uses the word and I'm hoping that he can talk with others or be a leader in that regard to let people know that when they use that term, they shouldn't mean those things," he said.
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