The Former Confederacy & Modern American Politics, Part Fifteen

After long negotiations by President Jimmy Carter and his administration to secure the release of the American hostages being held in Iran, a deal was struck in the final hours of Carter's term, but the hostages did not leave Iranian airspace until Ronald Reagan was officially president.

Republicans controlled the United States Senate for the first time since the early part of the 1950s, and while Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, conservative Southern Democrats, who were called "Boll Weevil Democrats," provided enough support to some Reagan supported legislation to help pass that legislation. There were contradictions in Reagan's life and rhetoric, as one of his core groups of supporters was the "religious right," which pushed a theme of "family values," including opposition to divorce. Reagan was divorced from his first wife, actress Jane Wyman, and he was estranged from a couple of his children: nevertheless, religious right leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson loved Reagan, who rarely went to church and who was not an especially religious person. Reagan's rhetoric opposed abortion, but Reagan never did much on the political front in support of that position. Reagan and his wife, Nancy, came from a Hollywood background in their earlier years, and, as such, they had many gay friends and acquaintances, but neither spoke out about political ads aired on television in the former Confederacy during the 1980 campaign knocking Jimmy Carter's support of equal rights for gay Americans.

President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley on March 30, 1981. Besides wounding the president, Hinckley also wounded Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, DC police officer Thomas Delahanty and White House Press Secretary James Brady. Brady was shot in the head which caused speaking difficulty and the need for a wheelchair for the rest of his life (he died in 2014). President Reagan required surgery and it took more than six months for the president to recover (he was 70 years old).

In August of 1981, a large economic package pushed by Reagan passed Congress. The package included large tax cuts skewed toward business and the wealthy, but not exclusively. The most crucial vote in the House was 238 FOR to 195 AGAINST. Democratic members in states of the former Confederacy voting for the bill: 2 from Alabama, 6 from Florida, 7 from Georgia, 2 from Louisiana, 2 from Mississippi, 1 from North Carolina, 3 from Tennessee, 8 from Texas and 1 from Virginia (none in either Arkansas or South Carolina). So, to put this into some perspective, the bill passed with 48 Democrats voting for it, with 32 of those Democrats being from the former Confederate states. In contrast, only one Republican from Vermont voted against the bill.

In a controversial act, in early August of 1981, Reagan fired thousands of the nation's air traffic controllers who went on strike. The controllers wanted better pay, but the main issue was a shorter work week in the stressful job. Reagan had voiced support for the controllers' cause during the 1980 campaign and the union endorsed Reagan over Carter in the election. During the campaign too, Reagan touted how he had twice been the president of a union, the Screen Actors Guild (now combined with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). In states of the former Confederacy, Reagan's action likely caused little concern, as unions were relatively weak in the southern part of the country, where they even existed there.

Meanwhile, the economy was slipping, as the high interest rates of the Federal Reserve took more of a toll on economic growth, and the nation went into a severe recession, with unemployment reaching nearly 11 % by 1982. In the election of 1982, the first held under the redistricting of the 1980 Census, Republicans weren't spared the wrath of voters, and they lost a combined 26 seats to Democrats in the House of Representatives. Changes in the delegations in the former Confederate states: Democrats gained 3 seats in Virginia, making that delegation 6 Republicans and 4 Democrats; Republicans gained one seat in Mississippi, making that delegation 3 Democrats and 2 Republicans; Democrats gained 3 seats in Texas, all newly created by redistricting, making the delegation 22 Democrats and 5 Republicans, in Tennessee, Democrats gained one newly created seat, making the delegation 6 Democrats and 3 Republicans; Democrats gained a seat in South Carolina, making the delegation 3 Republicans and 3 Democrats; in North Carolina, Democrats gained two seats, making the delegation 9 Democrats and 2 Republicans; in Florida, four new seats were created due to reapportionment, with each party winning two of those new seats and the other seats remaining in control of the same party from the previous election, but now the increased delegation being 13 Democrats and 6 Republicans; Democrats gained one seat in Alabama, making the delegation 5 Democrats and 2 Republicans (states not listed saw no change in party representation in their delegations). In Senate elections, the Republicans gained a seat in Virginia, for the only change in former Confederate states. In elections for governors, George Wallace once again was elected in Alabama as a Democrat, but he replaced a Democrat, so no change in party control. In Arkansas, Democrat Bill Clinton defeated the Republican who had defeated him in the previous election, thus changing the party control there. In Texas, Democrats defeated the Republican incumbent, thus Democrats gained the governorship there.

WORD HISTORY:
Issue-This word, with both noun and verb forms, is related to "exit" (a word borrowed by English). The first part of "issue" goes back to Indo European "eks/eghs," with the notion of "out from, out of, out." This gave Latin "ex-," a prefix with generally the same meaning. The rest of the word goes back to Indo European "ei/ey," which meant, "to go." ^ This gave Latin "eo," with the same meaning. Together, Latin had "exeo," which produced the infinitive form "exire," which meant "to exit, to leave, to go out (from)." This passed to Latin-based Old French as "eissir/issir," with the same meanings. One of its participle forms in Old French was "issue," and it was this form that was borrowed by English in the late 1200s. The meaning of a person's or couple's "children" derived from the notion of "children coming from the parent or parents," and developed not all that long after the word was borrowed into English. It was the legal system in England where the meaning, "legal matters," developed, a meaning that then broadened beyond court. The verb meaning of, "to send out, to give notice, to present to an individual or to the public," was also sometimes used in legal matters, as well as governmental matters, as it usually conveyed a sense of authority ("The court issued a summons to the man," or, "The traffic cop issued a ticket to me for speeding." Ah, unfairly, of course!) Later it also came to be used for "handing out, distributing, supplying," as in, "The commander issued weapons to the civilians in the town."

^ It "seems" that Old Germanic also had a form from this Indo European word, which gave Old English "eode," which later became "yode," and was the past tense form used for "go," although it was unrelated to the word "go." To confuse matters more, "yode" itself was replaced by "went," a word related to neither eode/yode" nor "go," but rather was the past tense of "wenden," which is now simply "to wend."