My wife and I recently saw “THE HELP.” It is a terrific movie and a stark reminder of the racism in our not-too-distant past. One very interesting scene was when one of the most racist people in the story spots a pamphlet about the Mississippi race laws in her friend’s purse. She warns her to be careful who sees that because: “there are real racists out there.” It caused me to reflect on racism today.
I think most people would agree that we have come a long way since Mississippi in, 1963. But sometimes I fear we have simply traded one form of racism for another, more subtle and, perhaps, more dangerous type. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “we should judge people not on the color of their skin, but the content of their character.” Dr. King didn’t ask for preferential treatment, he asked for equal treatment.
The people most likely to be accused of racism are Republicans and Tea Party members. I find that interesting when throughout history it was the Republican Party that fought against racism and it was the Democratic Party that was the party of racism. The following rant from Jeneane Garofalo is typical of the lies and distortions by the liberal left that are sadly left unchallenged by the main stream media:
When you think about it, calling people racist for supporting a black candidate is pretty astonishing, even for someone as off the wall as Garofalo.
But regardless of the spin by the Democratic Party and the main stream media, the Republicans have the facts on their side. It is long past time to expose the racist past of the Democratic Party and the long history of Republicans standing up for civil rights against Democratic opposition. I really think Republicans should be demanding that the Democratic Party finally recognize its racist past and apologize. Democrats have no problem asking for everyone else to apologize, and we have a President who apologized for the entire country.
Following is from the Republican Party Platform of 1956:
The Republican Party accepts the decision of the U.S.. Supreme Court that racial discrimination in publicly supported schools must be progressively eliminated. We concur in the conclusion of the Supreme Court that its decision directing school desegregation should be accomplished with “all deliberate speed” locally through Federal District Courts. The implementation order of the Supreme Court recognizes the complex and acutely emotional problems created by its decision in certain sections of our country where racial patterns have been developed in accordance with prior and long-standing decisions of the same tribunal
The Democratic Party Platform of 1956:
Recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States relating to segregation in publicly supported schools and elsewhere have brought consequences of vast importance to our Nation as a whole and especially to communities directly affected.
Democrats “talked” about racial equality, but in reality they caved to the Southern Democratic coalition that was deeply opposed to both civil rights and desegregation. While there were Northern Democrats, like Hubert Humphrey, who were civil rights champions, the party was dominated by Southern Democrats who were determined to keep segregation at all cost.
It was Eisenhower who appointed Earl Warren Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and it was the Warren court that ended segregation in our public schools with the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision. It was Eisenhower who ordered Federal Troops into Little Rock Arkansas so nine black children could enroll in school. It was Eisenhower who signed the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which was voted against by Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Both Kennedy and Johnson also criticized Eisenhower for ordering the 82nd Airborne into Arkansas. But if Eisenhower had not done that, the entire civil rights movement may have collapsed.
Civil rights legislation in this country was blocked by Southern Democrats, including party stars like Estes Kefauver and J William Fulbright. This is ignored by the main stream media that has helped perpetuate the myth that all of the racist Dixiecrat Democrats became Republicans after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That, like much of the Democratic Party history with regard to racism, is a lie. Following are the Dixiecrats who remained in the Democratic Party after 1964:
Orval Fabus
Benjamin Travis Laney
John Stennis
James Eastland
Allen Ellender
Russell Long
John Sparkman
John McClellan
Richard Russell
Herman Talmadge
George Wallace
Lester Maddox
John Rarick
Robert Byrd
Al Gore, Sr.
Bull Connor
Only two Dixiecrats switched to become Republicans, Strom Thurmond and Mills Godwin. Both of them had to renounce racism before the Republicans would take them. A lot of people assume Jesse Helms was a Dixiecrat, but he wasn’t. He also didn’t vote against the Civil Rights Act, as was claimed in the following article for CNN by Roland Martin:
Jesse Helms wasn’t even in the Senate in 1964. However, Martin got it dead on when he wrote the following:
But when you stand in opposition to a bill that would, for the first time, give African-Americans from border to border the constitutionally guaranteed right to cast a vote, then I refuse to call you a stand-up person for the rights of every man, woman and child.
He just got the wrong political party. He failed to point out that every Senator who voted against the Civil Rights Act, with the lone exception of Barry Goldwater, was a Democrat. (To the best of my knowledge no one ever accused Goldwater of being a racist. His opposition was based on States rights.)
The real question is did all those Southern Democrats suddenly morph into anti-racism freedom loving Americans? Or did they just change tactics? Democrats only accept African Americans who are liberal Democrats. Other African Americans, regardless of ability, are scorned. Compare the way Clarence Thomas was treated when he was appointed to the Supreme Court to the treatment given Obama’s two extreme liberal appointments. Thomas’s real crime was being black and being conservative. If he had been black and liberal, the main stream media would have been outraged at the way he was treated.
Look at the disrespect for Collin Powell who has been called an Uncle Tom, and the main stream media indifference to Condoleezza Rice. Now add in the discounting of Herman Cain as a legitimate Presidential candidate. Whether you like him or not, Mr. Cain is a very serious person who was CEO of two major corporations. Yet he continues to be treated condescendingly by the main stream media. Ms. Garofalo accidently said it right when she said in the minds of the liberal left, supporting a conservative black candidate is the moral equivalent of racism. The message is clear. It is ok to be black, as long as you are a liberal Democrat. But if a black man dare raise his hand and say he is a conservative the wrath of hell will descend upon his head. African Americans are only accepted if they tow the party line like loyal sheep.
Perhaps this is just me, but I have a theory about this. It is based somewhat on the following two (in)famous quotes from Lyndon B. Johnson. (Keep in mind that it was the United States Senate, when Johnson was majority leader, which blocked any attempt at passing civil rights legislation for several years):
I’ll have those (n word) voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” LBJ on Air Force One
“These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.” — LBJ
A lot of African-Americans view John Kennedy as a hero of the Civil Rights movement. But 25 years after his death, Robert Kennedy In His Own Words, was released. This contained several interviews given by Robert Kennedy before he was assassinated. The following article illustrates some of the significant things said by Robert Kennedy that were totally ignored by the main stream media, by the Democratic Party and by African American leaders in general:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=17550
The pattern is clear. Kennedy was more interested in politics that he was in civil rights. He was more concerned about losing the support of Southern Democrats than he was about promoting civil rights. It is impossible to reconcile the actual words of Robert Kennedy and the myth of Kennedy being a civil rights champion. When you combine these interviews with the recently released Jacki Kennedy tapes, the picture comes into focus. At best, John Kennedy was a reluctant “Johnny Come Lately.”
We did have a President who deserves credit for bringing about fundamental change with regard to civil rights in this country. His name was Dwight D. Eisenhower.
I don’t think that the racists in the Democratic Partychanged their opinion of African Americans one iota. Idon’ t believe they got a religious conversion and I don’t believe they dropped their racist outlook. They just changed strategies by implemented programs designed to keep African Americans satisfied and under control, while avoiding having to ever treat them as equals. Think about this. What has been the impact of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society? What has been the impact of his War on Poverty? The following chart shows the poverty levels in this country since 1969, allowing 4 years for the “War on Poverty” to have full impact:
Year Poverty Rate
1969 13.7%
1979 12.4%
1989 13.1%
1996 13.7%
2000 11.3%
2007 12.5%
2008 13.2%
2009 14.3%
2010 15.1%
When you consider the billions of dollars spent on anti-poverty programs over the past 47 years, we really haven’t made much progress. It is significant to note that poverty dropped after Bill Clinton reluctantly accepted welfare reform in 1996. It was also lower during the Bush administration than during the Clinton Administration. It has obviously shot up significantly since Obama was elected. Perhaps, instead of taking cheap shots at Republicans and the Tea Party for non-existent racism, it is time for African Americans to take a long hard look at real record of the Democratic Party.
African Americans have supported the Democratic Party by wide margins for decades. What have they gained, except for temporary hand-outs that did nothing to reduce the level of poverty, but did manage to destroy our economy?.
When African American’s supported Republicans they got an end to slavery, an end to segregation, civil rights legislation and a Federal government determined to enforce it. In spite of all the rhetoric, it was George Bush, not John F. Kennedy, not Lyndon Johnson, not Jimmy Carter and not Bill Clinton who appointed the first African American, Collin Powell to a major cabinet position.
The Democratic Party was dragged kicking and screaming to the civil rights altar but they now try to claim all the credit for the legislation they had fought to the bitter end. Sadly, it worked. It is long past time for Republicans to set the record straight!
TDM