Showing posts with label Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy. Show all posts

Thursday, April 10, 2014

The True History Of Race And The Democratic Party By Larry Elder

April 10, 2014 Articles by Larry Elder , Civil Rights Act of 1964 1 Comments
Black Support For Bush Drops To Two Percent

By Larry Elder, Nov. 17, 2005

So much for the Republican "outreach" to black voters, with only 2 percent of blacks "approving" of the president's performance.

If only blacks knew of the true history of the Democratic Party.

"Black History Month" has been observed for 29 years, yet many blacks know little to nothing about the parties' respective roles in advancing or hindering the civil rights of blacks. How many blacks know that following the Civil War, 23 blacks -- 13 of them ex-slaves -- were elected to Congress, all as Republicans? The first black Democrat was not elected to Congress until 1935, from the state of Illinois. The first black congressional Democrat from a Southern state was not elected until 1973.

Democrats, in 1854, passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This overturned the Missouri Compromise and allowed for the importation of slaves into the territories. Disgusted with the passage of this Act, free-soilers and anti-slavery members of the Whig and Democratic parties founded the Republican Party -- not just to stop the spread of slavery, but to eventually abolish it.

How many blacks know that blacks founded the Texas Republican Party? On July 4, 1867, in Houston, Texas, 150 blacks and 20 whites formed the party. No, not the Black Texas Republican Party, they founded the Texas Republican Party. Blacks across Southern states also founded the Republican parties in their states.

Fugitive slave laws? In 1850, Democrats passed the Fugitive Slave Law. If merely accused of being a slave, even if the person enjoyed freedom all of his or her life (as approximately 11 percent of blacks did just before the Civil War), the person lost the right to representation by an attorney, the right to trial by jury, and the right to habeas corpus.

Emancipation? Republican President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War. In 1865, the 13th Amendment emancipating the slaves was passed with 100 percent of Republicans (88 of 88 in the House, 30 of 30 in the Senate) voting for it. Only 23 percent of Democrats (16 of 66 in the House, 3 of 8 in the Senate) voted for it.

Civil rights laws? In 1868, the 14th Amendment was passed giving the newly emancipated blacks full civil rights and federal guarantee of those rights, superseding any state laws. Every single voting Republican (128 of 134 -- with 6 not voting -- in the House, and 30 of 32 -- with 2 not voting -- in the Senate) voted for the 14th Amendment. Not a single Democrat (zero of 36 in the House, zero of 6 in the Senate) voted for it.

Right to vote? When Southern states balked at implementing the 14th Amendment, Congress came back and passed the 15th Amendment in 1870, guaranteeing blacks the right to vote. Every single Republican voted for it, with every Democrat voting against it.

Ku Klux Klan? In 1872 congressional investigations, Democrats admitted beginning the Klan as an effort to stop the spread of the Republican Party and to re-establish Democratic control in Southern states. As PBS' "American Experience" notes, "In outright defiance of the Republican-led federal government, Southern Democrats formed organizations that violently intimidated blacks and Republicans who tried to win political power. The most prominent of these, the Ku Klux Klan, was formed in Pulaski, Tenn., in 1865." Blacks, who were all Republican at that time, became the primary targets of violence.

Jim Crow laws? Between 1870 and 1875, the Republican Congress passed many pro-black civil rights laws. But in 1876, Democrats took control of the House, and no further race-based civil rights laws passed until 1957. In 1892, Democrats gained control of the House, the Senate and the White House, and repealed all the Republican-passed civil rights laws. That enabled the Southern Democrats to pass the Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, and so on, in their individual states.

Civil rights in the '60s? Only 64 percent of Democrats in Congress voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act (153 for, 91 against in the House; and 46 for, 21 against in the Senate). But 80 percent of Republicans (136 for, 35 against in the House; and 27 for, 6 against in the Senate) voted for the 1964 Act.

What about the reviled, allegedly anti-black, Republican "Southern strategy"? Pat Buchanan, writing for Richard Nixon (who became the Republican Party candidate two years later) coined the term "Southern strategy." They expected the "strategy" to ultimately result in the complete marginalization of racist Southern Democrats. "We would build our Republican Party on a foundation of states' rights, human rights, small government, and a strong national defense," said Buchanan, "and leave it to the 'party of [Democratic Georgia Gov. Lester] Maddox, [1966 Democratic challenger against Spiro Agnew for Maryland governor George] Mahoney, and [Democratic Alabama Gov. George] Wallace to squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice.'" And President Richard Nixon, Republican, implemented the first federal affirmative action (race-based preference) laws with goals and timetables.


So next "Black History Month," pass some of this stuff along.


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Sunday, March 30, 2014

The Elder Statement: Civil Rights Movement -- ‘Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy’ (Part 2)

March 30, 2014 Civil War , Debbie Wasserman Schultz 0 Comments
By Larry Elder, March 30, 2014

Today, there is a “Northern Strategy.”

It’s the insidious accusation of racism in order keep blacks angry and voting 95 percent-plus for the Democratic vote. Examples:

-- Voter ID: AG Eric Holder says the laws “are designed to depress the vote of particular groups of people who are not supportive of the party that is advancing these photo ID measures.” Recall that Holder, sociologist-in-mid-season-form, once said "America,” when it comes to race, has been “a nation of cowards.”

Cowards? Abolition movement; Civil War resulting in some 700,000 dead (equivalent to a population-adjusted death toll of 7,000,000 -- and this doesn’t included maimed and wounded); the pre- and modern civil rights movement; LBJ’s war on poverty (ill-advised, notwithstanding); the appointment of back-to-back black secretaries of State -- up to and including the election of a black president, the first and only majority white society to do so -- represents, in matters of “race,” a national “cowardice”?

What does that even mean? A “nation of cowards”?

How do you define it, quantify it? Or is it just another demagogic design to, in some eerie horror film-like way, let the 95 percenters know that The Man has only been held down temporarily by President Obama. He’s out in 2017. Then it’s back to the basement, planting mushrooms in the dark, awaiting enlightenment.

-- Obamacare opposition: Jimmy Carter said the "vociferous" opposition to Obamacare is because some people cannot accept Obama's race.

-- DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz saying the GOP wants to "return to the days of Jim Crow."

-- Hillary Clinton (who never served in the House): “When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about."

-- Joe Biden: Republicans would “put y’all back in chains.”

-- Charlie Rangel saying about the GOP in the 1994 Republican-led House: "It's not 'spic' or 'nigger' any more. They say, 'Let's cut taxes.'"

It’s today’s “progressives” who seek Jim Crow-like mandates on private conduct. Examples include the science-defying anti-e-cig laws; Bloomberg’s nothing-larger-than-16oz Slurpee campaign; “commonsense gun control” laws; requiring employers to supply contraceptives despite religious objections; mandating that porn actors to wear a condom; and many, many others.

What these laws have in common with Jim Crow is that they tell people how to behave with or on their own property -- as long as it's on the government's terms.

Related:  Civil Rights Movement -- ‘Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy’ (Part 1)
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Saturday, March 29, 2014

Civil Rights Movement -- ‘Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy’ (Part 1)

March 29, 2014 Articles by Larry Elder , Civil Rights Act of 1964 2 Comments
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964
By Larry Elder, Mar. 29, 2014

A big reason that blacks hate the GOP is that party’s alleged use -- during the ‘60s and beyond -- of the so-called “Southern Strategy.”

That is, the GOP supposedly made -- and many say continues to make -- both naked and subtle racial appeals to white racist voters: Vote for the GOP and we’ll promote policies to oppress blacks. Never mind that as a percentage of the party, more Republicans voted for the civil rights bill than did Democrats.

The author of the term “Southern Strategy,” Pat Buchanan, then a speechwriter for Richard Nixon, described his “strategy” very differently from that way today’s critics characterize it:

            "We would build our Republican Party,” Buchanan said at the time, “on a foundation of states' rights, human rights, small government and a strong national defense, and leave it to the ‘party of [Democratic Georgia Gov. Lester] Maddox, [1966 Democratic challenger against Spiro Agnew for Maryland Gov. George] Mahoney and [Democratic Alabama Gov. George] Wallace to squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice.’”

Why do those offended by the “Southern Strategy” give a pass to the LBJ’s racist rationale for supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964? These quotes are from “Inside The White House” by respected investigative journalist, Ronald Kessler:

“I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” -- Lyndon B. Johnson to two governors on Air Force One

And:

“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

Finally, Jim Crow could not have survived but for government-imposed de jure segregation. If all the rednecks wanted not to trade with blacks, why would there be a to need pass laws to make these racists do what they are all supposedly doing anyway?

This is from Thomas Sowell’s book, “Preferential Policies, An International Perspective”:


“Even after such Jim Crow laws were passed, the streetcar company in Mobile initially refused to comply, and in Montgomery it was reported in the early years that blacks simply continued to sit wherever they pleased. In Jacksonville, the streetcar company delayed enforcing the segregation seating law of 1901 until 1905. Georgia’s state law of 1891 segregating the races was ignored by the streetcar companies in Augusta until 1898, in Savannah until 1899, and in the latter city was not fully enforced until 1906. In Mobile, the streetcar company publicly refused to enforce the Jim Crow laws of 1902, until its streetcar conductors began to be arrested and fined for non-compliance with the law. In Tennessee, the streetcar company opposed the state legislation imposing Jim Crow seating in 1903, delayed enforcement after the law was passed, and eventually was able to get the state courts to declare it unconstitutional.”

 Related:  The Elder Statement: Civil Rights Movement -- ‘Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy’ (Part 2)


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