Hi folks! A question that I've had for a few years now that no one has been able to answer is...What happened to the relationship that African Americans and the Republican party had for so long? Why is it that the Republican party now seems like the "racist party"? Historically up until about 40 + years ago, we (African Americans) voted Republican. I tend to vote for whoever I think will benefit the country but I lean more towards the right but.... I get spam from Anne Coulter and I've read her message board and I'm shocked at how hateful and racist those people (Republicans) are.... Can any of you history buffs explain to me what happened? This is the same party that fought to end slavery, right? I've E-mailed Ann a few times asking her to explain (since she seems to have so much insight into everything <and every one>) but I think she has me on ignore. Thanks in advance for your time.
I don't have an answer for you, but i can think of worse things to happen to you outside of Ann Coulter ignoring you.... infact i would count that as a blessing
Once the Republican Party succeeded in abolishing slavery, they had to find something else to unite around. So, after the Civil War and Reconstruction were over, they became the party of big business. Meanwhile, the Republicans retained the black vote by "waving the bloody shirt." Then, from the Great Depression to the Great Society, the Democrats became the party of the poor and the oppressed. After the liberals took over the Democratic Party, the Republican Party became more conservative and dixified as they picked up many of the old conservative Southern Democrats. So, your answer is that the parties are not at all what they used to be.
From an outside (Canadian) perspective and what I know of American history, the current "Republican" party shares little in common with its roots. The closest to come to a true Republican would be Ron Paul, and he is considered a Libertarian by most.
I totally agree with that! Libertarian's are what the republicans claim to be. As for Ann Coulter, she makes her money by being confrontational kind of like Bill Maher on the left. I find it interesting that they are friends in real life. I would not look toward either one of them for any answers. Susanna
Thanks for your responses! I think that Ann is about the equivalent of Bill...I really don't care for either of them. I don't want to be demeaning so I'll keep my opinion of them to myself. Please don't think that I'm bothered by Ann ignoring me either, I count it a blessing. I lean more towards the right and I think it's mainly because despite what the pundits say, I like President Bush and I think the world of Dick Cheney. Dick was my boss when I was in the Navy and he helped me out tremendously...I have many friends that are still at the White House and they tell me he's still the same great guy with them that he was with me. Them aside, the more I am exposed to these other Republicans, the more I dislike them. It is literally like they have become the Democrats of old. I can't attach myself to the DNC because I have a hard time believing that after generation and generation of oppression, that leopard has changed its spots in just over forty years. I want to like Mike Huckabee because our belief systems are so similar but he's probably a closeted bigot as well...I heard about his speech in South Carolina concerning the confederate flag. I think highly of conservatism but I'm starting to think it's a codeword for "racist" in the GOP. Three years ago, I would have never thought that I would feel the way that I'm starting to feel about the party that freed the slaves but...I guess that's the power of education. I have some really good history books that I've enjoyed reading (for school) but I only read them because they were required. I'll go back and dissect them when I graduate (4 more classes!!).
Would I trust Dick enough to go hunting with him? Now you're going too far! Look what happened to his friend that went hunting with him...I'm a former subordinate so....no thanks on that one. lol
I think that perhaps the best way to conceptualize how the two major political parties evolved after the Civil War is to imagine them as two broad coalitions: The Republicans being the Insider's Coalition, the Democrats the Outsider's Coalition. What define them is basically whether people identify with whatever they perceive as the American mainstream, or whether they feel alienated from it. In the wake of the Civil War, the victorious Northern business interests identified with the party that had led the victory. The defeated South was seriously alienated and turned into a solid Democratic bastion for 100 years. In the North the waves of new immigrants in the late 19'th century arrived feeling alienated and naturally gravitated to the Democrats, leading to the often Irish big-city political machines. The more nativist Anglos in smaller cities and rural areas naturally gravitated Republican. Diaspora Jews are history's paradigmatic outsiders and overwhelmingly became Democrats. The growing urban industrial working class and their labor movement leadership identified with the Democrats in their opposition to the bosses, while both small and large business owners identified with the Republicans. That insiders-outsiders thing was well established by the 1960's, when the 'outsiders fighting the evil system' mythology motivated many young Northern Democrats to join the civil rights movement and predisposed the big city media to support it. The South was ripped to shreds in the national press while blacks enthusiastically rallied to the side of those that supported them. And feeling betrayed, many white Southern Democrats cut their ties to the Democratic party and crossed the aisle. In the space of a single generation, the once solidly Democratic South became the Republicans' new bastion and a cornerstone of their national power. But that dramatic change opened up some big divisions in the Republican party, divisions that are still driving events as we speak. The Republicans suddenly found themselves very imperfectly dixified by the horde of new Southern white arrivals in their ranks. So we see Arkansas' Huckabee appealing to these new-style Southern Republicans with his fundamental Christianity and his slightly revolutionary cultural conservatism. (Bring God back! Ban abortion!) And we see McCain and Giuliani (and Bob Dole before them) representing the older Northern Republicanism with their relative disinterest in religion, their pragmatic pro-business orientation, law-and-order instincts, pro-military patriotism, and a personal and national security emphasis on protecting what exists rather than replacing it. It's interesting how the Bush clan tried to straddle that difference. George Bush senior was an upscale Northern preppy through-and-through, summering in Kennebunkport Maine. But George Bush junior moved himself down to Texas, bought a ranch, (sorta) found religion and Nascar-ified himself. Meanwhile the Democrats are struggling themselves to keep their own race-class-gender militancy in check and to appear as mainstream and non-threatening as they can. It's not an accident that their two leading candidates are a black and a woman.
