95% of black Americans voted for President Obama. Why? Why do blacks, in general, consistently favor the Democratic Party as the party that has their best interest at heart?
Over 17 million black voters turned out to vote last November.
John McCain got 4% of the black vote- about a million votes. If the Republican Party could have attracted even about 30% of the black vote (John McCain and the Republican Party received a third of the votes by those identifying themselves as gay), the outcome of the ’08 Election would have been far different.
The conservative message needs a better delivery system than the one we’ve had. The Democratic Party has successfully painted Republicans as the party of racists, bigots, old white males, and the country club wealthy class who oppress the poor.
If conservative ideology were better understood by everyone rather than distorted and defined by its political enemies in the media and in pop culture and suppressed in Academia, if the Republican Party were more faithful to conservatism, then there’s no reason why we should ever lose another election ever again.
A reminder about the history of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party:
The Republican Party was formed in 1854 specifically to oppose the Democrats, and for more than 150 years, they have done everything they could to block the Democrat agenda. In their abuses of power, they have even used threats and military violence to thwart the Democrat Party’s attempts to make this a progressive country. As you read the following Republican atrocities that span three centuries, imagine if you will, what a far different nation the United States would be had not the Republicans been around to block the Democrats’ efforts.
March 20, 1854
Opponents of Democrats’ pro-slavery policies meet in Ripon, Wisconsin to establish the Republican PartyMay 30, 1854
Democrat President Franklin Pierce signs Democrats’ Kansas-Nebraska Act, expanding slavery into U.S. territories; opponents unite to form the Republican PartyJune 16, 1854
Newspaper editor Horace Greeley calls on opponents of slavery to unite in the Republican PartyJuly 6, 1854
First state Republican Party officially organized in Jackson, Michigan, to oppose Democrats’ pro-slavery policiesFebruary 11, 1856
Republican Montgomery Blair argues before U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of his client, the slave Dred Scott; later served in President Lincoln’s CabinetFebruary 22, 1856
First national meeting of the Republican Party, in Pittsburgh, to coordinate opposition to Democrats’ pro-slavery policiesMarch 27, 1856
First meeting of Republican National Committee in Washington, DC to oppose Democrats’ pro-slavery policiesMay 22, 1856
For denouncing Democrats’ pro-slavery policy, Republican U.S. Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) is beaten nearly to death on floor of Senate by U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks (D-SC), takes three years to recoverMarch 6, 1857
Republican Supreme Court Justice John McLean issues strenuous dissent from decision by 7 Democrats in infamous Dred Scott case that African-Americans had no rights “which any white man was bound to respect”June 26, 1857
Abraham Lincoln declares Republican position that slavery is “cruelly wrong,” while Democrats “cultivate and excite hatred” for blacksOctober 13, 1858
During Lincoln-Douglas debates, U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas (D-IL) states: “I do not regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever”; Douglas became Democratic Party’s 1860 presidential nomineeOctober 25, 1858
U.S. Senator William Seward (R-NY) describes Democratic Party as “inextricably committed to the designs of the slaveholders”; as President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State, helped draft Emancipation ProclamationJune 4, 1860
Republican U.S. Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) delivers his classic address, The Barbarism of SlaveryApril 7, 1862
President Lincoln concludes treaty with Britain for suppression of slave tradeApril 16, 1862
President Lincoln signs bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia; in Congress, 99% of Republicans vote yes, 83% of Democrats vote noJuly 2, 1862
U.S. Rep. Justin Morrill (R-VT) wins passage of Land Grant Act, establishing colleges open to African-Americans, including such students as George Washington CarverJuly 17, 1862
Over unanimous Democrat opposition, Republican Congress passes Confiscation Act stating that slaves of the Confederacy “shall be forever free”August 19, 1862
Republican newspaper editor Horace Greeley writes Prayer of Twenty Millions, calling on President Lincoln to declare emancipationAugust 25, 1862
President Abraham Lincoln authorizes enlistment of African-American soldiers in U.S. ArmySeptember 22, 1862
Republican President Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation ProclamationJanuary 1, 1863
Emancipation Proclamation, implementing the Republicans’ Confiscation Act of 1862, takes effect
February 9, 1864
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton deliver over 100,000 signatures to U.S. Senate supporting Republicans’ plans for constitutional amendment to ban slaveryJune 15, 1864
Republican Congress votes equal pay for African-American troops serving in U.S. Army during Civil WarJune 28, 1864
Republican majority in Congress repeals Fugitive Slave ActsOctober 29, 1864
African-American abolitionist Sojourner Truth says of President Lincoln: “I never was treated by anyone with more kindness and cordiality than were shown to me by that great and good man”January 31, 1865
13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. House with unanimous Republican support, intense Democrat oppositionMarch 3, 1865
Republican Congress establishes Freedmen’s Bureau to provide health care, education, and technical assistance to emancipated slavesApril 8, 1865
13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. Senate with 100% Republican support, 63% Democrat oppositionJune 19, 1865
On “Juneteenth,” U.S. troops land in Galveston, TX to enforce ban on slavery that had been declared more than two years before by the Emancipation ProclamationNovember 22, 1865
Republicans denounce Democrat legislature of Mississippi for enacting “black codes,” which institutionalized racial discriminationDecember 6, 1865
Republican Party’s 13th Amendment, banning slavery, is ratifiedFebruary 5, 1866
U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-PA) introduces legislation, successfully opposed by Democrat President Andrew Johnson, to implement “40 acres and a mule” relief by distributing land to former slavesApril 9, 1866
Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Johnson’s veto; Civil Rights Act of 1866, conferring rights of citizenship on African-Americans, becomes lawApril 19, 1866
Thousands assemble in Washington, DC to celebrate Republican Party’s abolition of slaveryMay 10, 1866
U.S. House passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the laws to all citizens; 100% of Democrats vote noJune 8, 1866
U.S. Senate passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the law to all citizens; 94% of Republicans [Senate] vote yes and 100% of Democrats vote no [96% of GOP House members also-ws]July 16, 1866
Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of Freedman’s Bureau Act, which protected former slaves from “black codes” denying their rightsJuly 28, 1866
Republican Congress authorizes formation of the Buffalo Soldiers, two regiments of African-American cavalrymenJuly 30, 1866
Democrat-controlled City of New Orleans orders police to storm racially-integrated Republican meeting; raid kills 40 and wounds more than 150January 8, 1867
Republicans override Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of law granting voting rights to African-Americans in D.C.July 19, 1867
Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of legislation protecting voting rights of African-AmericansMarch 30, 1868
Republicans begin impeachment trial of Democrat President Andrew Johnson, who declared: “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government of white men”May 20, 1868
Republican National Convention marks debut of African-American politicians on national stage; two – Pinckney Pinchback and James Harris – attend as delegates, and several serve as presidential electorsSeptember 3, 1868
25 African-Americans in Georgia legislature, all Republicans, expelled by Democrat majority; later reinstated by Republican CongressSeptember 12, 1868
Civil rights activist Tunis Campbell and all other African-Americans in Georgia Senate, every one a Republican, expelled by Democrat majority; would later be reinstated by Republican CongressSeptember 28, 1868
Democrats in Opelousas, Louisiana murder nearly 300 African-Americans who tried to prevent an assault against a Republican newspaper editorOctober 7, 1868
Republicans denounce Democratic Party’s national campaign theme: “This is a white man’s country: Let white men rule”October 22, 1868
While campaigning for re-election, Republican U.S. Rep. James Hinds (R-AR) is assassinated by Democrat terrorists who organized as the Ku Klux KlanNovember 3, 1868
Republican Ulysses Grant defeats Democrat Horatio Seymour in presidential election; Seymour had denounced Emancipation ProclamationDecember 10, 1869
Republican Gov. John Campbell of Wyoming Territory signs FIRST-in-nation law granting women right to vote and to hold public officeFebruary 3, 1870
After passing House with 98% Republican support and 97% Democrat opposition, Republicans’ 15th Amendment is ratified, granting vote to all Americans regardless of raceMay 19, 1870
African-American John Langston, law professor and future Republican Congressman from Virginia, delivers influential speech supporting President Ulysses Grant’s civil rights policiesMay 31, 1870
President U.S. Grant signs Republicans’ Enforcement Act, providing stiff penalties for depriving any American’s civil rightsJune 22, 1870
Republican Congress creates U.S. Department of Justice, to safeguard the civil rights of African-Americans against Democrats in the SouthSeptember 6, 1870
Women vote in Wyoming, in FIRST election after women’s suffrage signed into law by Republican Gov. John CampbellFebruary 28, 1871
Republican Congress passes Enforcement Act providing federal protection for African-American votersMarch 22, 1871
Spartansburg Republican newspaper denounces Ku Klux Klan campaign to eradicate the Republican Party in South CarolinaApril 20, 1871
Republican Congress enacts the Ku Klux Klan Act, outlawing Democratic Party-affiliated terrorist groups which oppressed African-AmericansOctober 10, 1871
Following warnings by Philadelphia Democrats against black voting, African-American Republican civil rights activist Octavius Catto murdered by Democratic Party operative; his military funeral was attended by thousandsOctober 18, 1871
After violence against Republicans in South Carolina, President Ulysses Grant deploys U.S. troops to combat Democrat terrorists who formed the Ku Klux KlanNovember 18, 1872
Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting, after boasting to Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she voted for “the Republican ticket, straight”January 17, 1874
Armed Democrats seize Texas state government, ending Republican efforts to racially integrate governmentSeptember 14, 1874
Democrat white supremacists seize Louisiana statehouse in attempt to overthrow racially-integrated administration of Republican Governor William Kellogg; 27 killedMarch 1, 1875
Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteeing access to public accommodations without regard to race, signed by Republican President U.S. Grant; passed with 92% Republican support over 100% Democrat oppositionSeptember 20, 1876
Former state Attorney General Robert Ingersoll (R-IL) tells veterans: “Every man that loved slavery better than liberty was a Democrat… I am a Republican because it is the only free party that ever existed”January 10, 1878
U.S. Senator Aaron Sargent (R-CA) introduces Susan B. Anthony amendment for women’s suffrage; Democrat-controlled Senate defeated it 4 times before election of Republican House and Senate guaranteed its approval in 1919July 14, 1884
Republicans criticize Democratic Party’s nomination of racist U.S. Senator Thomas Hendricks (D-IN) for vice president; he had voted against the 13th Amendment banning slaveryAugust 30, 1890
Republican President Benjamin Harrison signs legislation by U.S. Senator Justin Morrill (R-VT) making African-Americans eligible for land-grant colleges in the SouthJune 7, 1892
In a FIRST for a major U.S. political party, two women – Theresa Jenkins and Cora Carleton – attend Republican National Convention in an official capacity, as alternate delegatesFebruary 8, 1894
Democrat Congress and Democrat President Grover Cleveland join to repeal Republicans’ Enforcement Act, which had enabled African-Americans to voteDecember 11, 1895
African-American Republican and former U.S. Rep. Thomas Miller (R-SC) denounces new state constitution written to disenfranchise African-AmericansMay 18, 1896
Republican Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissenting from Supreme Court’s notorious Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” decision, declares: “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens”December 31, 1898
Republican Theodore Roosevelt becomes Governor of New York; in 1900, he outlawed racial segregation in New York public schoolsMay 24, 1900
Republicans vote no in referendum for constitutional convention in Virginia, designed to create a new state constitution disenfranchising African-AmericansJanuary 15, 1901
Republican Booker T. Washington protests Alabama Democratic Party’s refusal to permit voting by African-AmericansOctober 16, 1901
President Theodore Roosevelt invites Booker T. Washington to dine at White House, sparking protests by Democrats across the countryMay 29, 1902
Virginia Democrats implement new state constitution, condemned by Republicans as illegal, reducing African-American voter registration by 86%February 12, 1909
On 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, African-American Republicans and women’s suffragists Ida Wells and Mary Terrell co-found the NAACPJune 18, 1912
African-American Robert Church, founder of Lincoln Leagues to register black voters in Tennessee, attends 1912 Republican National Convention as delegate; eventually serves as delegate at 8 conventionsAugust 1, 1916
Republican presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes, former New York Governor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice, endorses women’s suffrage constitutional amendment; he would become Secretary of State and Chief JusticeMay 21, 1919
Republican House passes constitutional amendment granting women the vote with 85% of Republicans in favor, but only 54% of Democrats; in Senate, 80% of Republicans would vote yes, but almost half of Democrats noApril 18, 1920
Minnesota’s FIRST-in-the-nation anti-lynching law, promoted by African-American Republican Nellie Francis, signed by Republican Gov. Jacob PreusAugust 18, 1920
Republican-authored 19th Amendment, giving women the vote, becomes part of Constitution; 26 of the 36 states to ratify had Republican-controlled legislaturesJanuary 26, 1922
House passes bill authored by U.S. Rep. Leonidas Dyer (R-MO) making lynching a federal crime; Senate Democrats block it with filibusterJune 2, 1924
Republican President Calvin Coolidge signs bill passed by Republican Congress granting U.S. citizenship to all Native AmericansOctober 3, 1924
Republicans denounce three-time Democrat presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan for defending the Ku Klux Klan at 1924 Democratic National ConventionDecember 8, 1924
Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis argues in favor of “separate but equal”June 12, 1929
First Lady Lou Hoover invites wife of U.S. Rep. Oscar De Priest (R-IL), an African-American, to tea at the White House, sparking protests by Democrats across the countryAugust 17, 1937
Republicans organize opposition to former Ku Klux Klansman and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black, appointed to U.S. Supreme Court by FDR; his Klan background was hidden until after confirmationJune 24, 1940
Republican Party platform calls for integration of the armed forces; for the balance of his terms in office, FDR refuses to order itOctober 20, 1942
60 prominent African-Americans issue Durham Manifesto, calling on southern Democrats to abolish their all-white primariesApril 3, 1944
U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Texas Democratic Party’s “whites only” primary election systemFebruary 18, 1946
Appointed by Republican President Calvin Coolidge, federal judge Paul McCormick ends segregation of Mexican-American children in California public schoolsJuly 11, 1952
Republican Party platform condemns “duplicity and insincerity” of Democrats in racial mattersSeptember 30, 1953
Earl Warren, California’s three-term Republican Governor and 1948 Republican vice presidential nominee, nominated to be Chief Justice; wrote landmark decision in Brown v. Board of EducationDecember 8, 1953
Eisenhower administration Asst. Attorney General Lee Rankin argues for plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of EducationMay 17, 1954
Chief Justice Earl Warren, three-term Republican Governor (CA) and Republican vice presidential nominee in 1948, wins unanimous support of Supreme Court for school desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education
[GOP President Dwight Eisenhower’s Justice Department argued for Topeka, Kansas’s black school children. Democrat John W. Davis, who lost a presidential bid to incumbent Republican Calvin Coolidge in 1924, defended “separate but equal” classrooms.]
November 25, 1955
Eisenhower administration bans racial segregation of interstate bus travelMarch 12, 1956
Ninety-seven Democrats in Congress condemn Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and pledge to continue segregationJune 5, 1956
Republican federal judge Frank Johnson rules in favor of Rosa Parks in decision striking down “blacks in the back of the bus” lawOctober 19, 1956
On campaign trail, Vice President Richard Nixon vows: “American boys and girls shall sit, side by side, at any school – public or private – with no regard paid to the color of their skin. Segregation, discrimination, and prejudice have no place in America”November 6, 1956
African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for PresidentSeptember 9, 1957
President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republican Party’s 1957 Civil Rights ActSeptember 24, 1957
Sparking criticism from Democrats such as Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, President Dwight Eisenhower deploys the 82nd Airborne Division to Little Rock, AR to force Democrat Governor Orval Faubus to integrate public schoolsJune 23, 1958
President Dwight Eisenhower meets with Martin Luther King and other African-American leaders to discuss plans to advance civil rightsFebruary 4, 1959
President Eisenhower informs Republican leaders of his plan to introduce 1960 Civil Rights Act, despite staunch opposition from many DemocratsMay 6, 1960
President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1960, overcoming 125-hour, around-the-clock filibuster by 18 Senate DemocratsJuly 27, 1960
At Republican National Convention, Vice President and eventual presidential nominee Richard Nixon insists on strong civil rights plank in platformMay 2, 1963
Republicans condemn Democrat sheriff of Birmingham, AL for arresting over 2,000 African-American schoolchildren marching for their civil rightsJune 1, 1963
Democrat Governor George Wallace announces defiance of court order issued by Republican federal judge Frank Johnson to integrate University of AlabamaSeptember 29, 1963
Gov. George Wallace (D-AL) defies order by U.S. District Judge Frank Johnson, appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower, to integrate Tuskegee High SchoolJune 9, 1964
Republicans condemn 14-hour filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act by U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), who still serves in the SenateJune 10, 1964
Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) criticizes Democrat filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act, calls on Democrats to stop opposing racial equalityThe Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced and approved by a staggering majority of Republicans in the Senate. The Act was opposed by most southern Democrat senators, several of whom were proud segregationists—one of them being Al Gore Sr. Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson relied on Illinois Senator Everett Dirkson, the Republican leader from Illinois, to get the Act passed.
[According to Congressional Quarterly, only 61% of Democrats in the House of Representatives supported the act, while 80% of Republicans voted in favor. In the Senate, 69% of Democrats and 82% of Republicans voted in favor. Among the Democratic senators who voted against the legislation were J. William Fulbright (Bill Clinton’s mentor), who was a racist- pg 82, Do-Gooders, Mona Charen]
*[Senator Barry Goldwater (R., Ariz.) opposed this bill the very year he became the GOP’s presidential standard-bearer. However, Goldwater supported the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts and called for integrating Arizona’s National Guard two years before Truman desegregated the military. Goldwater feared the 1964 Act would limit freedom of association in the private sector, a controversial but principled libertarian objection rooted in the First Amendment rather than racial hatred.]
Goldwater was also a founding (lifelong) member of the Arizona chapter for the NAACP.
June 20, 1964
The Chicago Defender, renowned African-American newspaper, praises Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) for leading passage of 1964 Civil Rights ActMarch 7, 1965
Police under the command of Democrat Governor George Wallace attack African-Americans demonstrating for voting rights in Selma, ALMarch 21, 1965
Republican federal judge Frank Johnson authorizes Martin Luther King’s protest march from Selma to Montgomery, overruling Democrat Governor George WallaceAugust 4, 1965
Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) overcomes Democrat attempts to block 1965 Voting Rights Act; 94% of Senate Republicans vote for landmark civil right legislation, while 27% of Democrats opposeAugust 6, 1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolishing literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent African-Americans from voting, signed into law; higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats vote in favorJuly 8, 1970
In special message to Congress, President Richard Nixon calls for reversal of policy of forced termination of Native American rights and benefitsSeptember 17, 1971
Former Ku Klux Klan member and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black (D-AL) retires from U.S. Supreme Court; appointed by FDR in 1937, he had defended Klansmen for racial murdersFebruary 19, 1976
President Gerald Ford formally rescinds President Franklin Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWIISeptember 15, 1981
President Ronald Reagan establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to increase African-American participation in federal education programsJune 29, 1982
President Ronald Reagan signs 25-year extension of 1965 Voting Rights ActAugust 10, 1988
President Ronald Reagan signs Civil Liberties Act of 1988, compensating Japanese-Americans for deprivation of civil rights and property during World War II internment ordered by FDRNovember 21, 1991
President George H. W. Bush signs Civil Rights Act of 1991 to strengthen federal civil rights legislationAugust 20, 1996
Bill authored by U.S. Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY) to prohibit racial discrimination in adoptions, part of Republicans’ Contract With America, becomes lawApril 26, 1999
Legislation authored by U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) awarding Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks is transmitted to PresidentJanuary 25, 2001
U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee declares school choice to be “Educational Emancipation”March 19, 2003
Republican U.S. Representatives of Hispanic and Portuguese descent form Congressional Hispanic ConferenceMay 23, 2003
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduces bill to establish National Museum of African American History and CultureFebruary 26, 2004
Hispanic Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX) condemns racist comments by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL); she had called Asst. Secretary of State Roger Noriega and several Hispanic Congressmen “a bunch of white men…you all look alike to me”National Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed for a 25 year extension by President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006.
Until 1935, every black federal legislator was Republican. America’s first black U.S. Representative, South Carolina’s Joseph Rainey, and our first black senator, Mississippi’s Hiram Revels, both reached Capitol Hill in 1870. On December 9, 1872, Louisiana Republican Pinckney Benton Stewart “P.B.S.” Pinchback became America’s first black governor.
August 8, 1878: GOP supply-siders may hate to admit it, but America’s first black Collector of Internal Revenue was former U.S. Rep. James Rapier (R., Ala.).
October 16, 1901: GOP President Theodore Roosevelt invited to the White House as its first black dinner guest Republican educator Booker T. Washington. The pro-Democrat Richmond Times newspaper warned that consequently, “White women may receive attentions from Negro men.” As Toni Marshall wrote in the November 9, 1995, Washington Times, when Roosevelt sought reelection in 1904, Democrats produced a button that showed their presidential nominee, Alton Parker, beside a white couple while Roosevelt posed with a white bride and black groom. The button read: “The Choice Is Yours.”
GOP presidents Gerald Ford in 1975 and Ronald Reagan in 1982 promoted Daniel James and Roscoe Robinson to become, respectively, the Air Force’s and Army’s first black four-star generals.
November 2, 1983: President Reagan established Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a national holiday, the first such honor for a black American.
President Reagan named Colin Powell America’s first black national-security adviser while GOP President George W. Bush appointed him our first black secretary of state.
President G.W. Bush named Condoleezza Rice America’s first black female NSC chief, then our second (consecutive) black secretary of State. Just last month, one-time Klansman Robert Byrd and other Senate Democrats stalled Rice’s confirmation for a week. Amid unanimous GOP support, 12 Democrats and Vermont Independent James Jeffords opposed Rice — the most “No” votes for a State designee since 14 senators frowned on Henry Clay in 1825.
“The first Republican I knew was my father, and he is still the Republican I most admire,” Rice has said. “He joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father has never forgotten that day, and neither have I.”
“it is a plain fact of American political life today that Democrats are completely dependent on black votes. The day African Americans stop casting 80 to 95 percent of their votes for Democrats is the day Democrats stop winning elections.”– Mona Charen, Do-Gooders
Previous posts with Alfonzo Rachel’s videos:
Time for a Little Straight Rant
9 minutes McCain infomercial that should have aired…
Why are there Americans Who Will Vote on the Content of Race and not on Character and Shared Values?
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
An equally great problem is the Latino vote. I give George W Bush tremendous credit for both political acumen and common sense in his (unfortunately unsuccessful) attempts at immigration reform.
What follows isn’t precisely related, but I think it’s the most compelling anti-abortion video I’ve ever seen. About a 20 second spot.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
Blacks voted for Obama in by a slightly larger margin and in slightly greater numbers than they did previous Democratic candidates. It was Hispanics that put Obama over the top.
I’d have to say it’s the apathetic, not-interested-in-politics Americans. People who get their political opinions fed to them from Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, E!, MTV, MTV2, VH-1, Keith Olberman, The Daily Show, and so forth.
Pretending that there is absolutely no racial issues within the Republican Party or pointing fingers at the Democratic Party of fourty years agos ain’t going to cut it either.
It’s really simple, Democrats promise them the most free stuff. The males get the fun and the females get government child benefits. Not complicated.
The last election proved the point, it’s really easy to make idiot voters out of ignorant people by promising them free stuff. Communists have been luring people into Communism using exactly this formulaic for ages. Obama is just good at the act. And the media didn’t want to break the spell by actually asking a simple question — Who pays — The failure point of all communist systems.
Hey Obama even has the Kenyans thinking his being elected means they get free stuff in Kenya.
We would affectionately call what Obama says ‘jive talk’, well understood language in the ‘hood.
Trying to convince anyone that there are racial issues in the Republican party while your own Democrat party is the one with the sordid, racist past is a futile effort.
The Democrat party is currently inhabited by a KKK Grand Kleagle.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Democrat.
Trivia Question:
Name the only serving member of the U.S. Senate to be elected to the leadership of the Ku Klux Klan.
What party does he belong to?
Extra points if you can correctly identify the office he held in the KKK.
Great Post Wordsmith. I think the Republicans lost the black vote post TR. It is interesting however to see all of the traditionally solid southern Democrat states are now Republican.
Wow Aye & Mike, thanks for the textbook examples of blinders and finger pointing.
@Mike’s America:
Oooo….
Oooo….
I know, I know!
Pick me.
@Fit fit:
I know that you find facts and truth to be elusive strangers.
You should be grateful that Mike and I are so willing to help you out where you fall short.
For bonus points Fit fit, tell us which party just swore in a racist Vice President on Tuesday of this week.
No fair Googling the answer.
The point of the original post wasn’t that the GOP is racist. The point is about the importance of altering popular perceptions. This is important because, in every election, the GOP starts out behind. It’s as if it were a football game and the score, before the first kick-off, is Democrats 3/Republicans 0. And, with the explosion of the Latino vote, it is getting worse, more like Democrats 7/Republicans 0.
There are two ways to approach this reality. The first is to ignore it or to say that, public perception be darned, Democrats are more racist than Republicans. The second is to say that, justified or not, Republicans have a real problem, which is getting worse over time. How do Republicans convince both Blacks and Latinos that they have a better future under a government functioning under Republican leadership than under Democratic leadership?
How about just considering it as an exercise? What precisely could be done, given the premise that it should be done, to increase the percentage of the Black and Latino vote which goes to GOP candidates?
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
It seemed McCain/Palin did well until the financial debacle. It went South after that. Never did pick up steam. The fear factor worked well for the Dems.
I have to laugh at an old friend of mine who loves to complain that “Bush and Cheney used fear against us.” I usually manage to shut her up by reminding her of how Obama and the Dems keep telling us that the country is in the worst shape in history and ready to go under.
As for the Latin vote. Why do you think Hispanics didn’t go for McCain after his co-authoring the Immigration Reform Bill with Kennedy? I held that against him but hoped we’d be able to bring him into some sort of sanity about illegal immigration if he had been elected.
Mike’s Trivia Question: It has to have been Senator Byrd but can’t imagine that he was Grand Wizard.
Image — schmimage: I argue that an “image makeover” for Republicans, at this stage, is akin to polishing a turd. It can’t be done, people. As long as the populace is able to look behind the “image” and see what currently passes as a Republican, conservatives are toast. In other words, please flush the turds. A makeover will do no good whatsoever.
if republicans are turds, then democrats must be the corn.
@Ken Wiebe:
Obama would be so proud of this one, eh? Here we have another example of Obama’s weak, weak leadership. Perhaps its a simpleton who is not able to remember what was preached during the 2 year campaign and in his Inauguration speech. Definately not heeding his leader’s advice.
@Missy: What?
Face the truth. Everyone is a racist to one degree or another. All people want to hang out with their own tribe. It is in the genes.
But to the point. In my county here in California there are 2 Democratic districts side by side. One district had a retired white GOP cop running and the other a well known GOP Latino businessman and former union president (just like Reagan). Both were working hard to win. When push came to shove the white Republican got the party funding. Wow. Who would have thought it?
The Democrat incumbent that the Latino GOP businessman was running against knew the threat of a Conservative Latino in a Latino district. He was running TV ads to protect himself. But the GOP can’t find its back side with both hands and then they wonder why they are a minority.
The republicans are having an identity crisis. Big time too. There is no way they can compete with the democrats. The author is right about the sterotypical image that many minorties have concerning republicans. But I think the bigger issue is how fast minorities are growing in this country. The democrats have captialized on that, and will do so even more in the future if they are smart. Bush saw it, and acted on it here in Texas and got elected as Gov, and the president by appealing to hispanics. One reason he refused to do anything about the border issue. If I was a dem. politician I would refuse to take any action on the border, no action on English as the national language, tax cuts/rebates for the low income people, all kinds of give away programs for those who make under 20.000 a year, do not equire citizenship for welfare, and SSI and disability, etc…. While the republicans are losing ground everyday by catering to those Americans who cannot see the writing on the wall. They want their old supporters but see their voter group getting smaller every year. They are going to have to make a choice and or compromise like Bush did. Sounds cold and calculating but thats politics.
Demorcratic party founders were slave holders. They put justices on the supreme court who routinely ruled that blacks were not equal and against any measure to give them freedom or rights. For decades the democratic party did everthing possible against the black man. When it came to even agreeing to limit slavery to existing areas, they left the union and went to war to continue to keep the black population from being considered as human beings. When democrats lost the war, they formed the Klan and for the next 100 years they went about lynching blacks and limiting them in any way from being considered equal. FDR, the great democrat knew first hand that they were lynching blacks and refused to go against the desires of his party to end lynching by passing anti lynching laws. Thats right, a president knew blacks were being lynched by members of his own party in white sheets and refused to get involved. Why, because democrats care more about having power than any black man. And the white press never reports this in any meaningful way because they want to keep ignorant blacks lined up voting democrat.
When it came time to give them rights in congress, the democrats were led by a former Klan member in filibustering any passage, a man who still serves in the democratic party today in the Senate Robert Byrd. With him was the father of Al Gore, Gore Sr. who did everything possible with many others in the party to fight civil rights acts in 1957, 64, and 65. LBJ has to get some credit for finally doing something when the firehoses being turned on blacks trying to march for freedom were on live TV. JFK did not do so and in fact the so called great friend of blacks had his brother wire tap MLK to try and get dirt on him to silence him. So how did freedom and civil rights come to the Black man? By a Republican president and Republicans in Congress acting in their behalf for decades.
With Civil rights passed by republicans, suddenly blacks now had the vote in the south and here come the democratic party to try and win the black vote in the south. They found out that black votes came with baubles passed out at the behest of the government. Never enough to escape poverty where they might not need the democrats for their vote, but enough to say they care. Kind of like giving them their old clothing so the dems could live in all the new stuff. LBJ you see understood politics and he came out with The Great Society at the same time as Civil Rights. Yes, blacks would now get 2 acres and a sad ol mule under their plan. 40 acres and a new mule might give them so much they might just not need uncle on a yearly basis. The republican party actually tried several programs to give blacks a leg up, home ownership, and good schools through choice. Democrats never did want to give black people a choice to go to good schools, but to keep them trapped in schools that everyone knew were bad. Of course they never sent their own kids to those schools. Where are Obama and Clintons and other dems kids going to school? Certainly not with the field hands kids. So over decades they doled out just enough to keep the black man fooled into thinking they cared but not enough to leave them. And a bonus was that with the handouts, it could set up laws that tore families apart. Nothing like single women trying to raise kids on a government dole. Enough to exist, but never enough to escape. The sad fact is that for generations, the government has known that this produced kids that ended up dead or in jail but most were black.
Then came abortion and the racist dems saw this as a way to keep the black population down. Black abortions made up 36% of the abortions even though they made up only 13% of the population and a good percentage of black men were in jail. Over a 13 year period, they killed over 11,000,000 black babies. So why is all of this not viewed by the black community as a pure assult on their very existance as a race? Hitler killed 6,000,000 Jews and it is widely known, museums are set up for rememberance, and the media has put this number out endlessly. So why do we not give credit to the democratic party that keeps abortion alive and legal when they have killed almost twice that number of black babies in about the same number of years Hitler was in power? Why do black churches support the democratic party that has this track record toward the black race. We are not talking about a few years or a few bad policy choices, but slavery and murder well over a century and a half.
@AnnMonterey:
Ann, I’m a strict grader so I can only award you one point out of 4.
Robert Byrd is the correct Senator.
The party to which he belongs is the Democrat Party.
Now, he was never Grand Wizard in West Virginia, but was elected Exalted Cyclops.
The Wash Post did an excellent article on the subject:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801105.html
The only cross burning racist to sit in the U.S. Senate is a Democrat but who cares. Everyone knows there are two sets of rules and we just don’t hold Democrats accountable in the same way we do Republicans.
In fact, according to Democrats nearly every Republican, and certainly every conservative is a racist because we don’t endorse the failed social and race policies of the Democrats.
But take a look at every major urban center where race is a problem and guess who runs the show?
Sorry… that last question was just too easy so no points will be awarded for a correct answer.
That was a good article on the Washington Post. I hope no thinks that I was backing the democrats. Everything is perception. And the dems are excellent at perception, and distortong reality. Look at the so called Kennedy years in the white house. You cannot tell a democrat or even some republicans that JK did not walk on water with-out getting yelled at. Did anyone hear thoe recordings of Kennedy on the history channel awhile back. We have friend who refused to believe them. Just like they refuse to believe that Clinton had affairs. Its that kinda insane loyalty that is so dangerous to any nation. Thats why I get so frustrated with Party people from both parties. All presidents make mistakes. Its how they handled the mistakes that count in my book. Admit them, then resign with a little honor and dignity.
http://kliphs-underground.blogspot.com/
95%? I think it’s closer to 99% this time.
The Republican party is for individuals taking care of themselves.
The Democratic party is for the government take care of the people.
Mike: Well, thanks. I read over your trivia question so fast, I missed the line about which party. I do know that Byrd is a Democrat and the oldest sitting Senator. I’ll be more careful next time. 🙂 I remembered there was history of him in the KKK but did not know he was a honcho.
My Grandfather, born and bred in GA during the Reconstruction, was elected Sheriff of his small town as a young, married man and, at that time, father of 5. Two of the locals (KKK members) were seeking some sort of revenge on a couple of black men and wanted Grandfather to join with them. He refused, consequently was not re-elected and soon left Georgia. His family said “under a cloud” but he had to get out or the KKK would have killed him. He had an Uncle in Oklahoma and he was hired by the RR as a Detective. He then sent for my Grandmother and children. They settled in Arkansas and made a good life. He didn’t go back to Georgia for 25 years…until the relevant parties had died. He was a Democrat and yes, he was racist but he was not a murderer.
@gramps:
Gramps, sir, you hit the nail right on the head.
Absolutely. Spot. On.
we are living in the end times, imho,. what is right is wrong, what is wrong is right. all i can say is, if you are a believer, you should get your soul right with our LORD. if you want prove of this read the book of Daniel or Revelations. if your not a believer, just read it and see what you think. the king version of the Bible is hard to understand, the Living Bible is a good interpretation.
our country has to made weak inside for a take over, our military is too powerful. the uniformed, the power grabers, and the welfare crowd is who voted for this guy and now he has filled his cabinet with the same people that helped set up 9/11 by doing nothing about the ME threat.
i don’t pretend to know when this will happen, maybe in my lifetime, that is for our GOD to decide, however, i do know a storm is coming and the only way the US will be taken down is within.
Maybe the perception problem isn’t with blacks, but with (white) racists.
While not every Republican I know is racist, every (white) racist I know is a Republican. I’ve known a lot. They were in my family, I went to school with them and even now I work with them everyday. They seem to think the GOP is the party for them…
Happy to say my history is the complete opposite of yours fit fit. Even as a child my father often invited his black co-workers to dinner at our home way back in the 50’s, we were taught early on of the value of each and every human being God placed upon this earth, color did not matter to any of us. Unfortunately, my democratic in-laws were quite different. They often scolded us for allowing our children to bring their friends into our home for over-nites and birthday parties. My employment history was also free of racism until I worked briefly for Head Start, there I experienced reverse racism, not toward me, it was toward the children. My 20 year history of volunteer work in our public schools was much the same even though our school system went through a deseg case for quite a few years. Not only did we work for our own schools, we expanded our fund raising efforts to upgrade the schools in the poorer neighborhoods and a group of us tutored minority students, I personally had 12 students at one time.
The majority of people I worked with were Republicans before I became one. I guess it’s all in who you choose to gravitate to. If I had worked in an office with a hint of racism, I would have changed jobs like I did with Head Start.
In the 90s my husband and I built a home in a small community outside of the city. We had racist skinheads as neighbors. Having been my Representitive’s campaign coordinator I had our district’s voter list. They were democrats and they were vile, hateful people. So, maybe you should put that broad brush away and broaden your horizon a bit.
I work in the construction industry in the south. Racism and Republicanism go hand in hand for 90% of the contractors I deal with. My horizons are pretty broad, I know plenty of Republicans who aren’t racist and I know many black Democrats who are extremely racist. I speak only about what I have seen in my life.
Thank you so much, WS, for this piece of history.
*gush
Seriously, I could go on about this post. FA is a powerful place. Alfonzo is powerful, too. We need a July 16, 1864 call to arms, as it were. Not only for this issue, but many. It’s only going to get worse.
Video
Not to mention the two words plaguing every thinking human being in this Country, I say, the World, ‘Executive Orders’.
its simple: if you want to be popular, you need to also be liberal. If you want to be known as a knuckle dragging neanderthal, you should be a republican. Or at least that is what the popular liberals tell everyone. Seems like a catch 22 doesn’t it? Liberals own the comedy industry: get people to laugh about something, it is easier for them to believe it. Liberals own the music industry: get enough people singing your songs, it is easier for them to believe it. Liberals own the movie industry: if you have many attractive, funny, personalities selling the same thing, it is easy to not only believe it but to create mini-salesmen. Does anyone ever watch E! true hollywood stories? If they can’t run their own lives why would we as a culture idolize and follow them? Easy – people are lost and want to find something to fill that hole.
With that said, if a black guy was asked, ‘why are you voting for obama?’ and he answered ‘fo rizzle, you know you gotta support the brother’, that could easily be something that people would shake their head and laugh at. If a white guy was asked that and he said, ‘because I support white people’… case and point.. I think in general, if you turn the world on its head, you then have a clear picture of what is right.
I understand the black community has gone through a lot of crap. I hate that for them. But so have the chinese and in fact, most non-white immigrants. The only community that has made a big deal about it, are black people. Liberals come to the rescue and ‘help’ them by encouraging things like affirmative action, government dependence, and the idea that the only way out of the hood is through basketball or rapping. Liberals for the most part, are not for liberty but for dependency. The government is one of the most bloated, inefficient, entities in existence. It is filled with corruption from every corner and yet, people would want MORE of it?
With Obama supporting FOCA and international infanticide, are country is quickly turning into pre-WWII germany. Conditioned people in great need, with a powerful orator at the helm.
Your list of historical breakthroughs against racism, spearheaded by the Republican party, is very nice; anyone who wants a sense of the history of racial relations in America should learn some of that history.
On the other hand – you make no attempt to explain why, if all this is true, do blacks still vote Democrat? It’s kind of a big gap in the story. There was a great change which happened in the period of roughly 1964 to 1972; one intro though by no means complete even as an overview is here.
An additional factor is likely the urbanization of the black population during the Great Migration(s), from largely rural areas into urban areas that have been Democrat strongholds for a long time.
I also wanted to point out that anyone who claims that some particular slice of voters had a primary causal role in victory (like fit fit: ‘Blacks voted […]. It was Hispanics that put Obama over the top.’) is just making up stories. All the votes count the same, and last I checked the vast majority of the votes Obama got were from white people.
Of course, someone who is interested in election strategy would want to know which groups of voters (whether racial groups or any other groups that could be identified and targeted) were most likely to change their vote. While a long view of history might give you reason to hope that the black vote can change, in the short term this mostly means targeting centrist white voters, as the number of white swing voters is very large both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the overall white vote.
click on the link or paste it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_in_the_United_States_Congress
Check out this Wikipedia link to Blacks in Congress. There are many great pages on 19th Century Black Republicans.
Bottom line. The GOP has no right to any Black voter. In Southern district after district Black Republican voters were being denied their right to send Black Republican Congressmen to Washington. . . . . and the GOP did NOTHING. The national Republican Party abandoned Black Republicans to lynchings and the KKK.
The wiki link you provide again shows us some interesting history, but it lends no support whatever to your ideas about Republican culpability for black disenfranchisement and victimization. The southern disenfranchisement is correctly described as a Democratic initiative. Even if we wish that the Republicans had done more to stop this, we would still have to assign primary blame to the Democrats for undertaking it.
In any case, judging the parties of the present day on the basis of their predecessors’ actions of a century ago is a tricky business. You would really want to show a continuity of ideology and thought, or at least a lack of remorse and contrition, so as to tie together the past and the present day; that the name is the same is something of a minor matter.
To Missy:
You’re married? Darnit just my luck. Your husband is a lucky man.
Ron
@Ron:
He knows that, I tell him so quite frequently and he believes every thing I say.
Remember that the Democratic party was started by Thomas Jefferson. Not only did he own black slaves, he had sex with atleast one of them.
But as for the Republicans, their downfall with African Americans begins with the ascent of the conservative movement in the 1950s.
William Buckley Jr in the National Review supported segregation (http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2005-3_archives/001467.html)
The Republicans at the time who were supporting civil rights on a national level were more of the liberal Weiker/Rockefeller/Chaffee/Mathias mode, than the state rights crowd.
And then there is the Presidential election of 1964:
Democratic candidate Lyndon B Johnson supported the Civil rights Act of 1964.
Republican candidate Barry Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As for twenty years later, the overwhelming support by the Democrats in Congress is why President Reagan signed a reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Reagan did not initiate support of its renewal.
@StephaniePlume:
Stephanie,
Good grief:
wordsmith #19:
@StephaniePlume:
Stephanie,
This is what happens when you don’t bother to read the actual post. I know the laundry list was a lot to wade through, but if you had done so before leaving the above, I wouldn’t have to highlight it for you:
Satisfied?
Can you tell me what his reason for not initiating support for its renewal, Stephanie? Or, as liberals have done to Barry Goldwater, will you perpetuate the distortion? Are you implying any racism on the part of Reagan?
And yet, like the Voting Rights Act, he signed the legislation for MLK Day.
Who signed Executive Order 12320?:
In private life, he was definitely not bigoted; as far as policy decisions, you have to look to motive for your answer. There are reasons that go beyond charges of racism.
@Gary Julian:
Must be why they loved the Democratic Party so much back then [/dripping sarcasm].
As I led off to Stephanie in this comment, can’t apply 21st century morals to the 19th century without trying to understand the cultural constraints of the times. Cultural change doesn’t happen just overnight. What is remarkable, is that slavery as an institution was around for….what? 2000 years? And yet in a short span of time, it was brought to an end….where? In the West. Britain and America led the first anti-slavery movement in the world.
We cannot judget 19th Century morals???? Like MURDER! Lynchings.
I suspect “Thou shall not kill” goes back a ways.
Republican voters were being MURDERED for daring to vote. In violation of the Constitution they were prevented from voting for a Republican Congressman.
The GOP cut a deal with white Southern Democratic racists for “peace”. Selling out Black Americans for racists to murder.
No, we can’t judge actions like that. It would be wrong.
@Fit fit –
You must not visit America’s deep south very often. White Southern Baptist men and women are the most racist individuals I have ever met. Many of these still hold a Civil War grudge, Reps and Dems alike, but the racist Dems outnumber racist Reps by about two to one. I lived in Dallas from 1975 to 1981, and still keep in touch with a few friends, and I can assure you that the white male racist Democrat is in no danger of extinction!
JV
@Gary Julian:
Gary, you’re not thinking it through, but responding with emotionalism. Please try to reach deeper, and understand what is being said rather than seizing on one line to knee-jerk out a response.
Murder and lynchings were not institutions of accepted societal norms. Slavery, however, was an institution that was practiced all over the world for 2000 years. The remarkable story about the history of slavery, isn’t that it was practiced in America; but that within our short history, it was brought to an end.
Slavery was common to all civilizations. Put into a world where it was common practice and never questioned by any anti-slavery movement (until the 19th century, and only in the West), what makes you assume you, as a man living before, say, the 17th century, would have felt moral revulsion to the institution? You have the benefit of being raised in the world today, to apply today’s standards of beliefs to yestercentury’s citizens. Today, we recognize the following: That slavery is a profound evil. In the 1800’s, not everyone experienced our sense of moral revulsion. People like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and William Wilberforce went against the grain of established belief and acceptance of a 2000 year-old established institution. Yet they’re still criticized for moving too slow or not being pure enough in their rejection of slavery and what we might hold to be racist viewpoints, today.
It is arrogant of you to assume you’d fit squarely in their camp of “seeing the light”; and pompously wishful-thinking if you believe you would have led the charge, stronger than Wilberforce in rejecting slavery, and leading the movement to change the world and abolish slavery, and end the slave trade. Today, you have the advantages of 20/20 hindsight morality. Back then, you might have been blind to the suffering experienced by slaves.
There is no scholarly evidence to suggest that there were any anti-slavery movements anywhere in the world, until the 18th century, beginning in the West, from deeply religious Christian evangelicals.
Think about some of the other things we apply our standards to, when judging previous generations: Watch an old movie…..I believe in Casablanca, Sam is referred to as “boy” by Bergman’s character. Should we be offended? Only if we forget the contextual restraints of the time. Ever read an Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan novel? Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn? Should Mark Twain’s book be banned from being read in schools? I find it difficult to call ERB a “racist”; yet you can definitely find “racist”-held views/beliefs, or sentences that might come across as offensive today.
Hope that helps clarify the point.
@AnnMonterey:
I’m sure Barack “McCain is running negative ads against me” Obama running this campaign ad to Spanish speakers didn’t help McCain’s chances:
Unfortunately, just like in the case with how the War on Terror gets translated as a war against Islam, the debate over illegal immigration gets to be framed by liberals as: “Republicans are against immigration” and “Republicans hate Mexicans”. Doesn’t matter how soft a stand McCain take on immigration reform is, if the GOP’s image is tarred and feathered like that.
@Mike’s America:
Wasn’t he also a recruiter for the KKK? Or is that what an “Exalted Cyclops” is? As opposed to an “Unexalted Cyclops”….
@Gary Julian:
As for your charge suggesting that it’s the Republican Party that has a stronger history of racism against blacks, Reverend Wayne Perryman (check out his book, Unfounded Loyalty) knows that if there is any one single institution that should be sued for reparations- an acknowledged horrible, misguided idea, but if there’s ANY institution out there- then it should be the Democratic Party:
I just have to relate my own most significant confrontation with the Racism demon; your responses are solicited and very welcome:
On the outside, I am (obviously?) caucasion, and have always represented myself as such when filling out employment applications and other forms, and my family history had not led me to believe otherwise. My mother is half German and half Scandinavian (Norwegian and Swedish); my last name is believed to be of French origin, but otherwise my father is all Italian.
Or so we thought. Recently, one of my uncles reported that his study of our geneology revealed ancestors from the African country of Morocco. Once this information was confirmed, it became easier to see why my dark-skinned father and his siblings (especially his brothers) were “mistaken” as African-American (“Negro”, “Colored”, or “Black” in those days). It also helped to exain the difficulties my family experienced moving into the “white bread” far western Chicago suburbs.
Consequently, I was genuinely concerned that my application on file with my employer at the time, so I explained the situation (including my family’s discrimination experiences) to the woman in charge of Equal Employment Opportunity in personnel – a young, upwardly mobile African-American. Her response was simply “Don’t go there.” She walked away, and I stood stunned By yet another example of the one-way street called Discrimination in America. Apparently, you haven’t experienced discrimination unless your skin color is darker than some arbitrary “standard” (how’s that for an oxymoron?).
JV
@me.yahoo.com/a/tgqdcI0Oz: Thanks for sharing your story. It touches upon one of the other problems I see with affirmative action and reparations.
I do believe that Senator Obama’s ancestors on his mother’s side were slave owners. To my knowledge, and I could be wrong here, since his father immigrated from Kenya, unless he has a slave ancestor on his mother’s side as well, he wouldn’t/shouldn’t have any claims to reparation money (what if Obama has ancestors from Africa who captured and sold slaves?); but given his ancestry on his mother’s side, he should definitely be a contributor if one believes in the whole concept of reparations to descendants of slavery.
@Fit fit:
When I was in high school living in Austin, Tx., I never had a problem at all with whites as far as racism went; but I got into fights with blacks, quite often, over racial slurs and attitudes coming from them. Back then, my young mind wondered “For a class of people who have been oppressed by racial stereotyping and slurs, you’d think they’d know firsthand the barbs of racist remarks and racial hatred.” Maybe sometimes, we inevitably become what we hate without the wherewithal and self-awareness to realize it.
In Keith Richburg’s Out of America, pg 15-16:
Do we scapegoat racism and bad behavior on the part of blacks with a chip on their shoulder as “slavery caused it; oppression against blacks by “the system” excuses their lashing out with incivility? And when enough blacks continue to carry “chips on their shoulder”, doesn’t it feed into the negative stereotypes, reinforcing white (and non-white) racism/bigotry against blacks?
Dang, Wordsmith!
When you said “partial list” I thought you were going to post a partial list! That’s the whole damn history of the Republican party. It’s ok, though. It bolsters the point I made over at your blog that it is altogether possible to create a new political party with a strong grass roots effort. That’s how the Republican party was created, and they didn’t even have the advantage of the internet!
All we need is a catalyst, and the election of Obama certainly seems to qualify as a catalyst. We need a Conservative party. One that espouses the values and convictions of the American Conservative. McCain, of course, would only be considered for membership if he can convince us he has changed his ideology. As will most of the other so-called Republican lawmakers in Washington.
Numbers from the 2009 U.S. budget
End homelessness in one year.
Number of homeless: Less than 900,000
HUD budget: $38.5 billion
Divide that by $400,000 and multiply the common legal limit of 10 people per household and there are 962,500 slots. If the average home bought was $300,000 it would be over 1.8 million slots. Over 100,000 foreclosed would be bought (using the later number) would be purchased. To relieve pressure, more houses would be bought. This should also help ease the housing crises.
Health insurance for all.
Obama said 47 million were uninsured. 10 million of those are illegal aliens. 17 million make $50,000 or more. $224 billion Medical and $70.4 billion from United States Department of Health and Human Services adds up to $294.4 billion. divide that by $5,000 and it can fund 58.88 million people. In 2002 there were 39.9 million people on this program. This would fund 18.98 million more. $5.25 billion to fund the rest could come from the $17 billion in farm subsidies that mostly go to rich farm companies.
Overcrowded prisons? A prison costs about $500 million to house 5,000 and this doesn’t include operating one. $20.3 billion goes to the United States Department of Justice. That could make 10 prisons a year to house 50,000 new prisoners. Much of the job could be picked up by homeland security and the states. Eventually there will be more beds than prisoners and the DOJ could be revived or the money could be used to pay for operating costs. Some of the prisons could be built on old army bases (federal land) to skirt zoning laws.