Beginning in 1865 the Republican Party had nearly 100% of the black vote in this country. With the exception of some post war votes that went to Democratic candidates, they keep that minority constituency until the early to mid 1960’s. After all who else would blacks vote for? Certainly not the party that fought a war to keep them enslaved, right? Right?
Not right. The democrats discovered that the American Negro liked two things better than his freedom. Welfare checks and entitlement spending. Oh sure democrats eventually got on the Equal Rights bandwagon, but when they did they made sure the blacks knew that the money would stop if the votes ever did.
You didn’t think the Democrats came up with the civil rights movement did you? They didn’t, it was a Republican led initiative. The War on Poverty and the Great Society weren’t programs to improve equality; they were and are programs to buy votes. The same holds true on other issues like the environment. This was a Republican strong hold until the 1960’s too. Ever hear of a guy by the name of Teddy Roosevelt, if you like national parks and large stretches of public land, thank him.
The point is that the Republicans have lost nearly every political constituency that they have ever held in the name of expediency and neglect. “We can always count on the black vote”, they reasoned, “Who else will they vote for?” The Republican Party held the “liberal” view on almost every “progressive” issue since about 1872 until the late 1950's. They also represented the desires of the business community and used the public treasury to fund the interests of their supporters, ala railroads and Tea Pot Dome.
GWB and the NeoCom’s, (Com isn’t a misprint, it’s a more descriptive and accurate term than the “Neocon” label) thought that they could buy off the constituency that brought them to power the same way Republicans always have, by tossing a few crumbs from the pubic treasury. That’s why so many “faith based” initiatives received federal funding. GWB got his votes and the Christians got some cash. In the republican mind the debt was paid.
As the battle for the cherry blossom throne begins to heat up, the Republican Party leadership is looking to reign in its base. They need everyone to rally round the GOP banner once more. There’s a problem. The NeoCom’s have betrayed everyone except those who bought their line about the war being the single most important issue.
The Christians are threatening via James Dobson to take their votes start their own party. Does this scare the Republican leadership into making changes in the platform or running more conservative candidates? Nope. Instead they are using the Lizard Queen as a scare tactic. “A vote for us is better than her!”
Unless we manage to get Ron Paul on the ticket, I think Christian groups should vote for someone else. Some will say that such a policy will elect Hilary. They’re probably right. But they’re not offering anything that is significantly different. I see two possible outcomes from such a strategy, both good. One, (unlikely) we could end up with a decent third party. Two, Republican Neo-communists might wake up to the fact that the evangelical Christian voting block ain’t their nigger no more. As long as the party leadership can say “boy come vote for me, or else you’ll get someone even worse” and then beat us up after, nothing will change.
No comments:
Post a Comment