REPUBLICAN RACISM

Race is an issue that makes Americans very uncomfortable. And to be honest, as someone with skin about as pale as it gets, I feel odd bringing it up sometimes.

But I have also found that the discussions that result when I bring it up, sometimes in blog comments, sometimes privately by email, are always excellent and appreciated by people whose skin contain far more melanin than mine.

To paraphrase a well known black blogger from Brooklyn, commenting on one of my diaries, "I may not agree with everything you say, but I really thank you for bringing these issues up."

One thing that has been blatantly obvious to me at least since the Willie Horton ads, and whict will be blatantly obvious on a large scale if Barack Obama wins the primary nomination, is that the Republican Party is willing and eager to use racism as a tool to win elections. Republican racism can be seen in the fact that Republicans have resisted every effort to extend civil rights in America since the 1960's. There are certainly racist Democrats as well, but for the last 40 years every single piece of civil rights legislation was crafted and enacted by Democrats and largely opposed by Republicans.

I think a defining moment in my realization of the racial and class disparities in America was Katrina.



(Image from Dan Harlow.com)

My response to what I saw then was to focus on the need for under-represented and under served people to take a strong role in the political system, because without such a role, our society treated them like nothing.

Another defining moment in my realization of the racial and class issues in America was during a hotly contested Congressional primary in Brooklyn where race shouldn't have been an issue, but became an issue, and my family was accused of reverse racism because we supported a black candidate...who also was a friend and who was endorsed by Democracy for NYC and many other progressive organizations. This Congressional race led my wife to ask "Why are we only supposed to be color blind during an election," a statement that inspired one of my more passionate articles, I think. I should note that in this case the racism that played out in the primary election was a subtle, muted form of racism among Democrats. So I am not saying racism is uniquely Republican...but when it comes to racism, the Republicans outdo Democrats hands down.

In America, the role of racism in politics is prevalent, particularly in the Republican Party. But the Democratic Party, despite its civil rights leadership, largely allows Republicans to get away with racism. This is a point that comes up in Drew Westen's book The Political Brain, which I will soon be reviewing more generally. To quote Westen:

One of Reagan's first acts as president was to try to defy Federal Law by securing tax exempt status for Bob Jones university despite the fact it practiced racial discrimination (forbidding interracial dating). This reflected a deliberate, conscious decision...And the Supreme Court was not forgiving, ultimately rebuking Reagan in an 8-1 decision. Yet the Republicans have used the same "southern strategy" in every presidential election they have won since 1968, and Democrats have never once made them pay for it.

Reagan, of course, had also opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1965, yet many Americans STILL saw him as basically a "nice guy." Truth is, one on one, Reagan WAS a nice guy, widely recognized as one of the nicest people in California politics in terms of how he treated people right down to the lowliest campaign worker (I get this from someone who was an insider in California politics at one time). But nice guys don't withhold basic rights from entire segments of American society.

But that is exactly what the Republican Party does. They may talk "state's rights" but "state's rights" NEVER was supposed to mean the withholding of Constitutional rights from people with dark skin. What it really boils down to is the use of racism as a tool to win elections. If blacks aren't voting Republican, Republicans don't want blacks to vote. And they go way out of their way to discourage black voting.

Again, from Westen's book:

Since the mid-1960's, the party of Lincoln has desecrated his memory. Republicans have opposed every effort to extend equal rights to anyone who isn't white. They have played the race card in every presidential election they have won since 1968. As long as Democrats don't turn racism into a character issue, Republicans will continue to use it as an instrument of political persuasion.

In 2006 there are two very instructive Senate races: Virginia and Tennessee. In Virginia, the Republican incumbent used a racial slur against a dark-skinned American and it blew up in his face. He lost. Democrats hit him hard for his open racism, and we now have Senator Jim Webb of Virginia instead of the racist Republican incumbent.

In Tennessee, racist Republican candidate Corker and the Republican Party ran an ad that implied his oponent, Henry Ford, jr. (a black) was having sex with white women. In it, they use the phrase, "Harold Ford...He's just not right."

A phrase that sounds suspiciously like "Harold Ford...He's just not white." And the truth is, neurologically our brains will interpret that phrase to mean "white." The pairing of the sex with white women, and the "he's just not white" line was clearly trying to play on the racism many voters might have deep down.

This ad, by the way, was crafted by Karl Rove.

Democrats tried to ignore the racism of the Rove/Corker ads...annd Corker squeaked by to victory, leaving us with a racist representing Tennessee.

If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee in 2008, and let me say now that he has many of the characteristics that WIN ELECTIONS, we are going to see EXACTLY these kinds of racist ads flooding the airwaves and Democrats had better be willing to stand up UNITED against them, calling them on their racism.

Now let's remember Trent Lott's glowing, gushing, loving speech about Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential run. Remember, that Trent Lott was the LEADER of the Republican Senate, yet he said that had Strom Thurmond won the presidency in 1948, America wouldn't have the problems it has today.

What was the focus of Thurmond's run for presidency? His central platform was segregation, upholding the "right" of, in his words, "Southern People" to keep "niggers" out of "our theaters...swimming pools...homes and...churches." Trent Lott in 2002 was praising one of the most blatantly racist campaigns for president in the 20th century. (Note: remeber that Thurmond was a "Dixiecrat" who left the Democratic Party BECAUSE of the Democratic fight for Civil Rights, finding the Republican Party more accepting of his racism).

Now let's remember that in election after election, Republicans (including Bush's brother, Jeb) have led efforts to suppress the black and Hispanic votes through out the nation (see, for example, this statement from the NAACP Voter Fund regarding Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 and this transcript of a DemocracyNow! radio program).

Racist ads, opposition to every piece of civil rights legislation in the last 40 years, use of racial slurs in public, praise of Strom Thurmond's segregationist campaign for president, and voter supprssion focused on minority districts. I mean, THIS IS RACISM folks! Plain and simple. Intentional, widespread racism by the Republican Party. I am in no way saying that every Republican is racist and no Democrats are racist, but the leadership and strategists of the Republican Party see racism as a legitimate tool for winning elections and we as Americans just should not stand for it!

Is America ready for a black (Hispanic, woman, Jewish...) president? Of course it is! But is the Democratic Party ready for the racist (or sexist, if Hillary is our nominee) attacks the Republicans will use to win? I sure as hell hope so!