It's a strange idea. Why should Republicans celebrate the election of a Democrat? In fact, Obama's election is the culmination of the very principles upon which the Republican Party was created, In 1854, the Republican Party was founded on the principles of anti-slavery and against the aristocracy that controlled the slave trade. Republicans believed that free market labor was superior to the slave trade and that a meritocracy was superior to the aristocracy which had repressed not only blacks but poor whites in the South.
In 1860, the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln who went on to win the Presidency. To many people today, the Civil War that dominated Lincoln's Presidency was the Republicans' last battle for the civil rights of blacks citizens. Actually it was the first. For the next hundred years plus it was Republicans, not Democrats, who were on the front lines of the civil right battles. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act garnered much more support among Republicans than Democrats in Congress. In fact, it was Republicans who by voting for cloture, helped break a Democrat-filibuster of the bills in the U.S. Senate.
If you look back at the leading segregationists of the 20th century, people like Richard Russell, James Eastland, Lester Maddox, George Wallace, they have one thing in common. They were Democrats. Those elected Mayors and elected Sheriffs in the south who turned loose vicious dogs and fire hoses on civil rights protesters? Yep, all Democrats.
Republicans lost a substantial amount of the African-American vote during the 1930s because of the popularity of the Democrats' New Deal program. In the aftermath of the 1970s, Republicans lost more black voters because of the "Southern Strategy" aimed at picking up southern conservatives disenchanted with the Democratic Party. A lot of Democrats claim that Republicans simply adopted the racist policies of the old Southern Democrats. But while the long-term effect of the Republican strategy may have been fool-hardy, the Republicans have certainly never supported anything remotely close to the legal segregation and Jim Crow laws Democrats supported in the South. You want to study real "voter suppression?" Go look at what the Democratic Party did to blacks in the states of the old Confederacy for nearly a hundred years after Reconstruction. There were whole counties in Mississippi that were majority black and barely had an African-American registered. Checking one's ID at the polls, as advocated by Republicans, is hardly comparable to poll taxes, literacy tests, and White Primaries, all policies advocated and adopted by Democrat-dominated legislatures during the 20th Century for the purpose of disenfranchising blacks.
What happened after the 1970s was that the Civil Rights Movement, having won the battle to knock down legal barriers and end discrimination in public accommodations, turned its attention to securing special benefits employing the argument that centuries of discrimination had left blacks in an inferior position best remedied by affording minorities special benefits. Republicans, who led the charge against legal discrimination and for equal treatment under the law, philosophically balked at programs that would not treat people equally regardless of skin color. Democrats, who are better at using the spoils of government to solicit and retain supporters, took over. What happened from there was masterful political spin by Democrats to portray the Republicans opposition to those measures as racist, when in fact it is the Democratic Party which has an atrocious civil rights history. You ask the average Joe citizen on the street which political party has a lengthy history of supporting legal discrimination and repressing the votes of blacks, and the answer almost invariably will be the Republican Party. It just ain't so, Joe.
Why should Republicans celebrate the election of Obama? Certainly not because of his liberal policies which are antithetical to what Republicans should stand for. Rather his election represents the ascendancy of the Republican principles of racial equality and meritocracy. The tree of equality planted by Republicans in 1854 will have finally borne fruit on January 20, 2009. Democrats do not realize it, but on that very day of Obama's inauguration, the Democrats' support among African-Americans will begin to decline. Obama's victory will help end a racial spoils system Democrats have played masterfully, albeit disingenously, to saddle Republicans with their atrocious racial baggage. The meritocracy is alive and well. Thank you Barack Obama.
See also: Democrats & Civil Rights: A Shameful Legacy (9/28/2008)
4 comments:
By the way it was President Bush that made real black appointments such as Rice but to the Democrats that did not count and those appointments were denounced along with Bush. Clarence Thomas is denounced. Any black Republican is denounced.The Democrats will never give Republicans credit for anything, ever. The sooner the Republicans realize that they can quit trying to appease them or go along with their socialists agenda. The media now runs things.
Democrats ruin everything they run such as major cities- Detroit- New Orleans -the list goes on. They put Indiana in major deficits. So what did America do-they elect a marxist.
The brainwashing is complete. There is no celebrating.
Fantastic recap. Wish we could broadcast that on every blog.
African Americans should thank President George Bush. Media accounts have influeneced the public's opinion of Bush. Since 2000, many blacks believe and were convinced by democrats that he was selected and not elected. Democrats ran an effective media campaign regarding hanging chads and recounts in Dade and Broward County Florida. President Bush has had to function under a dark cloud of suspicion the entire 8 years of his administration even though it was proven he legally won the election after recounts by the US Justice Department, NAACP, independent news services, both democrat and republican attorneys, League of Women Voters to name a few.
Since the 1960’s War on Poverty, over $7 trillion spent on poverty programs. Under President George W. Bush, record money spent on education, job training, and health care. $1.4 billion for education - a record 137% increase, $13.1 billion No Child Left behind Act. Bush has spent $18.8 million for Historically Black Colleges, $24 billion for small business loans and grants, $10 billion for Medicaid, state-federal health insurance for the poor. Since 2001, access to free community health centers extended to 2.2 million poor people. May 2003, provided $15 billion, 3 times more money than President Clinton, to fight AIDS in Africa and Caribbean. All Americans received tax cuts under Bush’s tax cut plan. 108 million average families received $2,500. Over 3.8 million more poor people freed from tax rolls entirely, poor blacks received a gift of $1,000 per child plus $1,658 per family under Earned Income Tax Credit program. Tax cuts for the rich are a deceptive Democratic Party talking point.
Anon,
People forget that Bush was originally seen as someone who would expand the GOP by bringing in minorities. While he did have some popularity with Latinos, he almost immediately lost support among blacks and never got it back, despite he probably appointed more African Americans to higher positions in the federal government than any President ever.
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