Blacks and the Democratic Party; It Just Doesn't Make sense!!  

There are many reasons Blacks support the Democratic Party. The number one reason is because of Democratic Party's Civil Rights record at the state and local level.

In 1960 President John F. Kennedy promised an executive order barring racial discrimination in federal housing programs "with a stroke of my pen." 2) Made a phone call to Coretta Scott King after Dr. King's Oct. 1960 arrest in Atlanta Sit-In. The Segregationist Response was to use Congressional and State Power to Block Civil Rights Reforms.

After the Alabama Governor Refused to Act and Accused Black Riders of Fomenting Violence, John and Robert Kennedy were forced to Use Federal Marshals and Troops to Protect Riders. The Freedom Riders were eventually attacked and their bus burned in Anniston, AL.

During Summer '61, 300 Riders Sentenced to MS's Parchman Prison. The Kennedys Negotiated the Mississippi Deal. The Governor Guaranteed No Mob Attacks, but Arrested the Riders for Using Segregated Facilities in Jackson Bus Station. The Kennedy's eventually Convinced the Interstate Commerce Commission to Rule Segregated Facilities (Buses & Stations) Illegal.

This is why up until today you can go into many Black households and see pictures of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King hanging on their living room walls.

Now let's move to present day politics.

Since 1981, the Republican Party has adopted a strategy of suppressing the black vote in closely contested states in order to win elected office. The political calculus is simple: For the past forty years, blacks have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in statewide and presidential elections, and Democrats have required high black turnout to win closely contested elections, particularly in the South.

One way to ensure Republican victories in closely contested states, then, is to suppress the black vote. Thus, for the past twenty-five years, Republican Party functionaries and Republican Departments of Justice have administered "vote integrity" and "vote security" initiatives aimed at purging blacks from the rolls and intimidating those that come to the polls.

More recently, the Bush 2000 and 2004 campaigns have worked with Republican Secretaries of State - Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 are the most noteworthy examples - to create voting system crises where large numbers of newly registered blacks are anticipated at the polls. The results have been a lack of voting machines in high turnout precincts resulting in long lines that act as a disincentive to vote, understaffed election helplines that lead to busy signals for voters and election workers, arbitrary election administration rulings that disqualify prospective black voters, and a number of other preventable problems that disproportionately effect new black voters.

Once in office, the Bush Administration simply enlisted the Justice Department, Civil Rights Division in this ongoing campaign.

Can you now see why Blacks may not be trustful of the Republican Party? It was not until the 1965 Voting Rights Act that blacks could vote in a truly democratic way. And that was not that long ago.

Lastly I like to say that those who haven't walked in the shoes of a Black person shouldn't be so quick to attack their voting preferences. In the end, it's a private matter.

I can't find any posts here at myLot asking why White people support a particular Party or Candidate. Let us enjoy our Democratic right to vote for the person or party of our choice without just like any other American.

Lloyd

what i am trying to say, is that even if democrats win, usa will still stand strong. i would love to live in america. i hope the people vote republican though.

First, Agfarm, these are not my words but the words of DEMOCRAT elected officials from presidents on down! I don't know what tone you are talking about but if the truth hurts your head maybe you have been truth deprived too long!

And yet the truth still remains--blacks consider the democrats their saviors! I'm sorry, I just don't get it!

LadyLuna,

I will have to do a little more research on this and get back to you! I'll bet it is just out there for the plucking. Not intending to sound so gleeful but I never knew this about the great FDR!

Hello Rodney,

Oh yes, the 'real' FDR has been buried in scores of 'undesireable' books and periodicals, while the fabricated FDR legacy has been shoved down the throats of America's school children for better than half a century, by way of fully erroneous and deceptive textbooks.

FDR was a megalomaniacal tyrant, with as ugly a history of bigotry as anyone, ever.

Some years ago I stumbled upon this web-site. Not so unlike you, in your comment that you did not know such things about FDR, I initially recoiled the 'history' as it was presented by this website. I spend many months researching and subsequently corroborating the sources, and quotes. And, by golly, the mere mention of FDR as a 'hero' has made my stomach turn since.

Here is the FDR scandal page.

http://www.whatreallyhapp...

As mentioned, I have already done the corroborating leg-work. FDR was an embarrasment to America. Yet, as the website begins with the famous words of JFK:

"The greatest enemy of truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. --JFK, June 11, 1962"

LadyLuna,

Very Very interesting reading! I will have to start a discussion or two from here later!

And yet you refer to many things right here in your response that were in fact brought about by republican politics! Do you honestly believe for one minute that the racial attacks in the south were not perpretrated by democrats? Sure JFK and Bobby came to the rescue but at the same time they knew they had to in order to rescue the democratic party! Don't get me wrong, what JFK and Bobby did was right and I respect both of them to this day for their stand but when you look at your politics you need to look a little deeper and you will see the democrats are the ones lying to you!

There are many other reasons I don't support the Republicans. Number one is Fiscal Responsibility. President Clinton left office with a budget surplus. The cost of our debt is now one of the fastest growing expenses in the federal budget.

This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and states of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on

If the Republicans were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we'd see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies.

The Republican policies have devalued the dollar against foreign currencies, thus leading to higher costs for every thing imported, including oil.

You can say what you want, but facts are facts. You would be demonizing any Democratic administration that put our economy in such a horrible position.

Lloyd

Hello Lloydanthony,

Welcome back!

Giving credit where credit is due; Rodney has posted another discussion inquiring about what Black Conservatives think and feel about Obama.

I believe that part of the context of that discussion is beyond relevant in response to your contribution here. You are a very sharp guy. I have agreed with a great many of your conservative observations in the past. As such, I simply don't understand where you are coming from now.

First, you submit controvertable info about why Black America continues to hold an illogical loyalty to the DNC. Then you respond by claiming that GOP fiscal policy explains that misguided Black loyalty to the DNC. Yet, I know that you know full well that the GOP ONLY had control of the country's purse-strings for a scant 10 year period. That vs. the forty plus years of uninterupted DNC conrol over the US pursestrings.

To be perfectly clear, I will not excuse the fiscal irresponsibility of the GOP from 1994 - 2004 (though, most especially since 2001). The GOP lost sight of its roots, and suffered the loss of the House back to DNC control, as a result! So, I'm not just giving the GOP a pass! However, one cannot pin fiscal irresponsibility on the tail of the GOP, when the DNC controlled the House for forty years before 1994, and again since 2006.

Here are the views of Black Conservative Americans:

"Notably, in his speech, Obama mentioned the slavery history of the family of his wife, Michelle. He failed to say one word about the unsavory slave-owning past of his own white relatives. Historical records uncovered by researchers and posted on the Internet at: http://www.freedomsenemie... that Obama's maternal forbearers were slaveholders. In fact, one of Obama's ancestors, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves as is recorded in the Nelson County, Kentucky 1850 Census. The same records show that another one of Obama's ancestors, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves. All of Obama's slave-owning forbearers were Democrats.

Obama, following in the footsteps of his white ancestors, is also part of the Democratic Party that: (1) fought to keep blacks in slavery; (2) started the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize Republicans—black and white; (3) passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws; (4) fought every piece of civil rights legislation from the 1860's to the 1960's; and (5) attacked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights protesters with skin-burning fire hoses and vicious dogs.

While hiding the racist past of the Democratic Party, Obama refuses to give credit to the Republican Party that: (1) started in 1854 as the anti-slavery party and fought to free blacks from slavery; (2) amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom, citizenship and the right to vote; (3) started the NAACP to stop the Democrats from lynching blacks; (4) passed the civil rights laws of the 1860's that were overturned by the Democrats when they took over Congress in 1892; (5) founded the HBCUs; (6) started affirmative action enforcement in 1969 to help blacks get jobs and contracts based on merit; and (7) fought the Democrats for over six decades until Republicans finally achieved passage of the civil rights laws of the 1950's and 1960's under the leadership of Republican Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois.

It defies logic for Democrats to claim that, after Republicans spent over 100 years fighting the Democrats on behalf of blacks and finally won, all the racist Democrats suddenly rushed into the Republican Party. In fact, those racist Democrats declared that that they would rather vote for a "yellow dog" than a Republican because the Republican Party was known as the party for blacks. Facts about the racist past of the Democratic Party can be found in such books as A Short History of Reconstruction by Dr. Eric Foner, Unfounded Loyalty by Rev. Wayne Perryman, Bamboozled by Angela McGlowan, and Wrong on Race by Bruce Bartlett.

Exposed in these books are the facts that the chief opponents of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act were Democrat Senators Sam Ervin, Albert Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Democrat President Lyndon Johnson is applauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, in his 4,500-word State of the Union Address delivered on January 4, 1965, Johnson mentioned scores of topics for federal action, but only thirty five words were devoted to civil rights. He did not mention one word about voting rights.

Democrat President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a civil rights advocate. In reality, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Senator Al Gore, Sr. After he became president, John F. Kennedy opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph who was a black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King

Some food for thought, eh???

Hello ladyluna. It's very nice to hear from you again.

You wrote:

Yet, I know that you know full well that the GOP ONLY had control of the country's purse-strings for a scant 10 year period.

Between Reagan's 8 years, Bush #1 4 years and Bush #2 8 years, that's 20 years of GOP administration.

The President is the CEO of our government and he gets credit for the good and should be critisized for the bad.

Here are President Clinton's economic accomplishments:

In 1992, the deficit was $290 billion, a record dollar high. In 1999, we had a budget surplus of $124 billion -- the largest dollar surplus on record (even after adjusting for inflation) and the largest as a share of our economy since 1951.

More than 20 Million New Jobs -- more than 92 percent (18.5 million) of the new jobs have been created in the private sector, the highest percentage in 50 years. This is the most jobs ever created under a single Administration -- and more new jobs than Presidents Reagan and Bush created during their three terms.

Under President Clinton, the economy has added an average of 244,000 jobs per month, the highest of any President on record. This compares to 52,000 per month under President Bush and 167,000 per month under President Reagan.

Fastest and Longest Real Wage Growth in Two Decades -- Since 1993, real wages have grown 6.5 percent -- compared to declining 4.3 percent during the previous two administrations. In 1998, real wages were up 2.7 percent -- that's the fastest annual real wage growth in over 20 years.

Can you dispute any of these facts? All you have to do is ask any American this question.

Are you better off today than you were 7 years ago? The majority of Americans would say "NO".

A survey on American consumer confidence indicates that in the last week of March 2008, the average ebb was one of the lowest to be ranked in the past 15 years.

A quarterly comparison indicated a consumer confidence average of 31% during the first quarter of 2008. This is the lowest average recorded since the final quarter of 1993, when it slumped to 33%.

The components of the consumer confidence survey represent a barometer to measure consumer confidence and constitute about two thirds of the American economy’s data. Nevertheless, economists indicate that consumers do not always adhere to their responses in surveys.

American consumers are as pessimistic about their economic future.

My question to you and Rodney is why would anyone, Black or White support the Republican Party?

Hello Lloyd,

Thanks for a reasoned, and reasonable response!

I am however, inclined to point out the obvious -- a president is constitutionally prohibited from controlling the nation's purse strings. The Congress controls the budget, and ALL taxation and spending.

In order to attribute as much credit as you have to the powers of the presidency, the President would have to have the authority of a line-item veto. That power does not exist!

President Reagan's administration was fiscally run by Tip O'Neill, and the Dem Party. Dems. Jim Wright & Thomas Foley ran the House under Bush, Sr. Foley(D), then Newt Gingrich(R) ran the House under Clinton.. The purse strings of the nation remained in Republican control throughout the remainder of Clinton's terms in office. Republicans didn't lose their fiscal compass until the Executive, the House, and the Senate were all single-party controlled.

If anything, this trip down memory lane supports the notion that a division of party control among the executive, and the legislative is the most reasoned course for 'The People' of our nation. 'We' fair much better, and suffer less when the two parties are positioned to check and balance each other!

You asked for one compelling reason to support Republicans over Democrats? How about this one: an all voluntary military vs. a mandatory draft! Republican Richard Nixon accepted the Gates Commission's suggestion to abandon LBJ's rabid draft, and convert to an all volunteer military. Then, Jimmy Carter reauthorized the Selective Service Registration, or Draft Authorization.

To the best of my knowledge, the only Representative so out of touch as to suggest a reinstatement of the Draft, after George W. Bush declared that the military will remain "all voluntary", is Democrat Charlie Rangel.

I have my serious doubts that you even read the article but if you did then you know that even though this an opinion(albiet from a well respected news source)the quotes at the end are actual quotes and a matter of public record! The relationship the blacks and the democrats have reminds me of an abusive husband/wife where the husband is constantly beating the wife but she always refuses to press charges!

you are right....guilty as charged. I didn't read the article and I have no doubt that I'm wrong here. I get on here late sometimes after work and I'm tired and the brain is mush and I'm sure I just misunderstood. sorry rodney.