With their smear of Congressman John Murtha, including a hysterical attack by Congressman Jean Schmidt calling him a coward, and the GOP House Leadership writing a bill requiring Bush to leave Iraqi immediately and portraying it as Murtha's bill, the Republican Party continues their brand of lies, hatred, smears, and political opportunism. Their smear of John Murtha shows that they appeal to the worst instincts in American culture by treating Murtha in a similar way that the segregationists treated Blacks in the Jim Crow era.

The expectations that the segregationists had for Blacks and the expectations that the Republicans have for military veterans are very similar. The segregationists expected Blacks to be quiet, not get too uppity, not make trouble for whitey, and stay on their end of the tracks. Blacks who didn't were regularly lynched; one writer I studied in college suggested that the White segregationists did so in order to show their sexual prowess.