Frank Rich Is Wrong about Civil Rights

Frank Rich, writing in New York magazine, has taken issue with my pieces on Goldwater, Republicans, and civil rights, calling it part of “the most insidious and determined campaign to rewrite racial history on the right.” If you can dig through Mr. Rich’s characteristically limp and emotive prose, you will discover that his argument amounts to: “Nyah, nyah! Strom Thurmond!”

I'll have to remember the "bang his spoon on his high chair" line. I can just imagine Rich with a baby bonnet in a high chair banging his spoon while throwing his food at his parents. Nevertheless, Goldwater's rejection of the Civil Rights bill put the nail in the coffin as far as reasonable numbers of blacks voting for Republicans. Eisenhower got about 40% and Nixon about 30%.

Yeah, I know...the Democrats have been a disaster for Blacks and other minorities. But the fact remains that since 1964, no Pubbie has managed to get a decent percentage of the black vote. And the rejection of the civil rights bill by the two biggest names in conservatism and the Republican Party, Goldwater and W.F. Buckley, caused the great majority of blacks to view the Republican Party as the party that does not like them.

However, as invested as they now are in government goodies, I doubt it would have made a difference if Goldwater and Buckley had been for the bill. They later changed their minds anyway. But I'm afraid that unless Pubbies are willing to go down the pander road like Democrats, they'll never get the black vote. Or the Hispanic vote. Recent polls suggest Hispanics have come to love gov. goodies as much as Blacks. Bad for them, and worse for America.

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