CONFRONTING THE GOP'S LEGACY OF RACISM

So I reposted yeststerday's Real Art entry, an obituary for George McGovern, on facebook last night.  Because I talked about the racism inherent in the Republican capture of the South, I decided to post this article in the comment thread underneath:

Southern strategy

In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to the Republican Party strategy of gaining political support or winning elections in the Southern section of the country by implicitly appealing to racism against African Americans.

Though the "Solid South" had been a longtime Democratic Party stronghold due to the Democratic Party's defense of slavery prior to the American Civil War and segregation for a century thereafter, many white Southern Democrats stopped supporting the party following the civil rights plank of the Democratic campaign in 1948 (triggering the Dixiecrats), the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, and desegregation.

The strategy was first adopted under future Republican President Richard Nixon and Republican Senator Barry Goldwater in the late 1960s. The strategy was successful in some regards. It contributed to the electoral realignment of Southern states to the Republican Party, but at the expense of losing more than 90 percent of black voters to the Democratic Party. As the twentieth century came to a close, the Republican Party began trying to appeal again to black voters, though with little success.

More here.

Of course, that didn't sit too pretty with one of my high school troll mates

Jennifer D Do you honestly believe the GOP to be embracing Southern racism? If so, than this is truly a sad time for you. The GOP is highly educated......do you honestly think for one second that either party are highly racist? If anything, Obama and his colleagues hate whites....and so does his church in Chicago........other than that........I really think the above Wikipedia dialogue is BS.

I don't always respond to everything this girl says, but this most recent comment needed response.

Ronald @Jennifer D: Unfortunately for you, this isn't really something that one believes or disbelieves. I mean, of course, you can believe whatever you want, but dismissing the GOP's Southern Strategy puts you into Easter Bunny territory.

Now, to be fair, I am in no way asserting that every single Republican is somehow a racist, or even that all Southern Republicans are racists. Rather, and this is a fact, recorded history, about which numerous Republican insiders have been very up front with journalists over the years, I'm simply observing that in the late 60s, in the wake of the Civil Rights Act, establishment GOP figures made a conscious decision to go after alienated Southern Democrats. And the way they did this was by appealing to racist sensibilities. Again, this is a fact. You don't get to choose whether to believe it because it actually happened, and is still happening to some extent even today. I don't know if this makes the Republican Party a racist entity, but I don't really see much of a difference between stoking racist fears in order to get votes and stoking racist fears because one hates black people. In the end, it's all the same, racial fear mongering.

But you, Jennifer, and all Republicans of conscience, have a choice here. You can accept the difficult reality that your party has consciously brought Southern racism into its tent, and fight against it, or you can continue to live in denial, thereby enabling the long standing race hatred within the party. That is, to do nothing puts you on their side.

I suggest that you accept reality and do something about it. You are, after all, a good person.

'Nuff said. 

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