Wrong. Blacks couldn't get public assistance during the times of FDR.
That change happened in the sixties. Eisenhower got 50% of the black vote. And that was in the fifties.
$710.96... The price of freedom.
Posted on 06/22/2004 2:35:10 PM PDT by kattracks
(Editor's Note: This is part one of a two-part series examining the relationship between black voters and the Democratic Party, why historically blacks have given almost blind loyalty to Democrats, why their support is unfounded, and how black leaders exploit their own people on behalf of Democrats.)
Few things in politics are certain, but one thing that has rung true for decades is this: Most blacks who vote consistently pull the lever for Democrats. But politics reflect the times, and the times, they are a-changin'. Increasingly, blacks are beginning to realize there is another truth about the ethnic group's loyalty to Democrats: It hasn't been a resounding success.Still, in recent elections - and likely in the 2004 general elections - most blacks could be counted on to vote for Democrats.
Political demographers and analysts know this, and so do Democratic candidates — so much so that black leaders like Kwesi Mfume, head of the NAACP, has complained recently that the Democratic Party, led by presumptive presidential nominee John Kerry, is taking the ethnic group for granted.
Former newspaper publisher and talk show host Rev. Wayne Perryman doesn't understand why blacks support Democrats so blindly.
In fact in his new book, "Unfounded Loyalty: An In-depth Look Into the Blind Love Affair Between Blacks and Democrats," Perryman points out a number of facts that should have turned African-Americans against Democrats long ago.
Instead, blacks largely shun Republican politicians, though historically the GOP has been much kinder to blacks as a whole.
Important Questions
Perryman says his book is a reflection of a question asked of him by "a group of inner-city young people who had an interest in their African-American heritage, history, religion and culture." That question was: "Why are most blacks in America Democrats?"
In a refreshing breath of honesty, Perryman doesn't offer up warm platitudes or tired clichés. Instead, he prods readers to "answer that question yourself."
But to help all Americans in their journey to discover the truth, the former publisher and talk host provides some examples that not only bear repeating, but should be food for thought for all African-Americans. He writes:
- "For 150 years blacks were victims of terrorist attacks by the Democrats and their Klan supporters, including lynchings, beatings, rapes and mutilations" (Editor's note: One of the most widely known Democratic ex-Klansman is Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia);
- "On the issue of slavery, the Democrats literally gave their lives to expand it; the Republicans gave their lives to ban it;"
- Many believed the Democrats had a change of heart and fell in love with blacks. To the contrary, history reveals the Democrats didn't fall in love with black folks, they fell in love with the black vote knowing this would be their ticket to the White House."
History as Proof
Perryman says he researched American history spanning 1832 to 2002 to arrive at his conclusion that Democrats are not real friends or allies of blacks.
". . . I found two familiar strains running through the cultural development of the American Black: the positive and powerful role of Christianity and the little-known and debilitating role of the Democrats — from slavery through the Clinton administration," he writes.
He also notes current black leaders are also not serving the community well. "These conclusions may not be popular, but they are truthful and, as the Bible says, 'You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.'"
Other black pundits and leaders have also noted that historically, Democrats employ a double standard when it comes to race relations and politics.
Writing in his syndicated column, radio talk show host Armstrong Williams pondered why Democrats were outraged when Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., former Senate majority leader, made an off-handed comment about former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond, but didn't utter a word when Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., praised former Klansman colleague Byrd recently.
"There is no one I admire more, there is no one to whom I listen more closely and carefully when he speaks on any subject matter" than Byrd, Dodd said.
Williams wrote, "For obvious reasons, Dodd neglected to mention that Byrd is a former Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan. Nor did Dodd dwell on the fact that Byrd voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or that Byrd broadcast his racial insensitivity by using the N-word during a 2001 appearance on Fox News."
The columnist and talk host went on to note Dodd praised Byrd as a man who "would have been a great senator at any moment. He would have been right at the founding of this country. He would have been in the leadership crafting this Constitution. He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this nation. ... "
"Really? A former Klansman would have been great during the Civil War? Great for whom? I'm not aware of many Klansmen who fought to free the slaves, or to uphold the union, or to protect those basic rights we associate with happiness," Williams wrote, concluding: "It would be nice if the party that demanded Sen. Lott's ouster for praising a former segregationist could be equally outraged when one of their own praises a former Klansman. But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the Democrats to end their double standard on race."
Civil Rights, Poverty and Welfare
Former Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., once called the Democrats' chosen black leader Jesse Jackson and his ilk "race-hustling poverty pimps" for their continual support of Democrat-leftist policies that keep blacks on the government's dole.
Other pundits and analysts have also noted that Democrats who say they are the champions of black civil rights have really only led blacks down a road of poverty.
Syndicated columnist Robert Tracinski says liberal orthodoxy espoused by Democrats has failed, and the "ideological momentum has shifted to the right." He says the gauntlet of conservatism has been picked up by "new black intellectuals" like Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and John McWhorter.
Larry Elder, a noted African-American author, talk show host and columnist, says critics of Williams and Sowell will someday apologize to them because for years they have correctly characterized the damage caused to blacks by dependency on Democrats.
For more than three decades, Elder writes, Sowell and Williams have "led the charge against the 'victicrat' mindset."
"Through decades of weekly columns, books, speeches and lectures before often-hostile crowds, they long argued that racism cannot be blamed for poverty, crime, illegitimacy and under-performing schools," Elder said in a Jan. 4, 2001 column.
Many of these problems, Elder and other black scholars and pundits note, began under the tutelage of Democratic presidents and congresses.
For example, it was President Lyndon B. Johnson whose "war on poverty" and "Great Society" programs led to today's massive welfare system, which author Perryman and others argue has kept blacks in poverty, in poor neighborhoods with bad schools, and left them with few options to improve themselves.
"Inner-city blacks, who have given their vote to the Democrats for the past forty years, are left wondering what that party has done to remedy the still-prevalent problems within their community," Perryman writes.
He makes a good case. According to government statistics, for example, blacks prospered under the late President Ronald Reagan, though most Americans wouldn't know that, listening to the mainstream media.
"Some blacks in D.C. say he was a 'racist' and see him as the cause for a lot of suffering in the '80s," charged a June 10 headline on Newsday's op-ed pages.
Adds CNN correspondent Adaora Udoji, in an interview with black leader Rev. Jesse Jackson: "As he left office, a Lou Harris poll found nearly 80 percent of blacks considered his administration oppressive."
Jackson readily agreed, saying Reagan's relationship with blacks was "very hostile."
Earlier, Jackson said Reagan "believed in states' rights and Jefferson Davis" while he believes "in the Union and Abraham Lincoln."
But the facts prove otherwise. "Under Reagan, black adult unemployment fell faster than did white unemployment," noted Larry Elder in a 1999 op-ed for the Ethnic News Watch. "Black teenage unemployment fell faster than did white teenage unemployment. And blacks started businesses at a rate faster than that of whites."
"In 1981," Elder continued, "the nation's poverty rate stood at 14 percent. It declined to 11.6 percent in 1988, Reagan's last year in office."
U.S. Census Bureau statistics concur. "A set of minority economic profiles released by the Census Bureau show that black households had a median income of $19,758 at the time of the 1990 census, up 84% from 1980," The Associated Press noted in 1992. "During that period, white median household incomes climbed 84 percent."
The New York Times also reported on the 1990 Census figures indicating blacks did better economically during the Reagan 80s.
High school graduation rates also increased, records indicate.
Dems = Racism
Perryman argues that Democrats are quick to demand Republicans believed to be guilty of racism apologize, but so far have refused to do so for their party's own racist past.
"The Democratic Party has never offered an apology for their racist legislative practices or their terrorist and lethal tactics—both initiated by members of their party and their Klan supporters," he writes.
Speaking of Lincoln, Perryman also notes that some "key traditional black colleges" — such as Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., which was founded in 1865 for Abraham Lincoln — are named after noted white Republicans who funded and supported them, even as "Democrats were trying to destroy them."
Perryman notes the nation's premier black civil rights organization — the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) — was "founded and financed by three white persons" who rose up in opposition of the Democrats' "racist practices and the lynchings of blacks."
"History reveals the Republican Party has a far more impressive track record in Civil Rights legislation than the Democratic Party," Perryman says.
Next in Part II: Black leaders exploit black Americans
Informative and interesting, thanks K.
He leaves out Roosevelt and the new deal which is when the change from Black support for the Republican party began to shift.
The good that Reagan did for black America by Joseph Perkins, June 11, 2004.
-PJ
This needed to be said.Excellent source and brain material as always.Thx.
Wrong. Blacks couldn't get public assistance during the times of FDR.
That change happened in the sixties. Eisenhower got 50% of the black vote. And that was in the fifties.
$710.96... The price of freedom.
As opposed to Republicans getting much more than that prior to FDR.
Library list
I have caught a little grief from some here for stating that I do not like Newsmax. The above "Editor's Note" is an example of why I get a bit tired of Newsmax and their style. The author of the article later points out (para. five of 'History as proof') that Byrd was a Klansman. Newsmax points it out, as soon as it can, in a gratuitous fashion.
This type of comment, which permeates Newsmax, gets a bit tiresome and detracts from an otherwise informative source of information.
BC Ping
Big surprise, Fox and Drudge are about as liberal as the average congressman; the rest of journalism is closer to the average Democratic congressman than to the median of all congressmen.
Unfortunately blacks have put a lower priority on education than other groups, and the bias in journalism would do nothing to help blacks see any advantage in voting Republican.
American Blacks loyalty to the Democrat Party has kept them in the economic chains of slavery for over fifty years. The Democrat Party has thrown Blacks a few crumbs here and there and kept them in their place so they would not climb the economic ladder into the general "middle class" American society. But, there is even a worse fate awaiting Blacks that support the Democrat Party. When John Kerry makes nice with the terrorists, the radical Muslims will have open season on killing American Blacks, just as they are doing to African Blacks in the Sudan. Most Arabs hate Blacks and would suffer no remorse if all Blacks were eliminated from the planet. On top of this, Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the USA. Between Hispanics and Asians, American Blacks have lost a good chunk of their political power. Of course,neither Hispanics nor Asians are so stupid that would ever put all their political eggs in one basket. American Blacks, you have been had, big time!
Could you ping me to part two if possible.
BTTT
bump
Likewise, Could you ping me to part two if possible? I thank you in advance.
this article was written by such a republican who should see for himself that times indeed are-a-changin’ and leave the sounth and see that in 08 even more black people voted democratic and tht republicans are off the charts for a while
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