Republicans are racist
From dKosopedia
Contents |
Status
Widely Held (and widely denied)
Origin
Hard to say. Here are possibilities:
- Nixons "Southern Strategy"
- Resistance to Civil Rights and 1964 Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater's opposition to the Civil Rights Act (but note that some Republicans did help pass the Act)
- Migration of Racist Dixiecrats to shelter in the Republican Party
- David Duke's near-win in his 1990 Louisiana campaign for governor.
- Infamous race-baiting ad campaigns - Jesse Helms "White Hands" ads and the 1988 "Willie Horton" ads used against Michael Dukakis being the most notorious examples.
- Then Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's racist comment at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party in 2002. At first ignored by the majority of the press, it is believed to be the first news item that the blogosphere successfully pushed into the mainstream media.
- Excessive immigrant-bashing for political gain, such as California's much-ballyhooed Proposition 187, which got Pete Wilson reelected in 1994 but drove countless, outraged Latino voters to the Democratic Party.
- Continual race-baiting over the Confederate flag, the most recent, successful example being Georgia in 2002.
- Republicans running Haley Barbour, who has strong ties to white supremacy groups, in the 2003 Mississippi gubernatorial election.
- The fact that blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
Sightings
- Setting back GOP/Latino relations 200 years - DailyKos story about alarmist GOP primary radio ad. Also interesting to note are some [other ads]. The quotes from these ads are beyond belief. He will "stand between the homosexuals and your children". Also it says that he was hired by President Bush.
Rebuttals
It's an error to polarize issues on race, and it's dangerous to perpetuate this. It's an unfair sweeping generalization, although Republicans have trouble on race and civil rights, and they harbor racists for which they should be criticized, the fact is, they are not ALL racist. This meme is demeaning to public discourse. The grain of truth in it should be dealt with with laser-like precision, not gross sweeping generalizations.
Racist Republican after bigoted Republican have pointed to respected Democratic senator Robert Byrd's one-time Ku Klux Klan leadership as a shield for their own prejudices. However, Sen. Byrd has repeatedly repudiated his past racist beliefs, whereas the Republicans continue to pander to politicians and organizations which continue to support racist beliefs.
Analysis
The modern incarnation of the Republican party has a long history of exploiting American racism for political gain. For the 1968 election, Nixon advisor Kevin Phillips devised a "southern strategy" in which Republicans sought to break the Democratic hold on the south by opposing the regionally loathed civil rights movement. The strategy worked - Nixon beat Democrat Hubert Humphrey by over 100 electoral votes. Along with the more visibly racist 3rd party candidate George Wallace, he shut Humphrey out of most of the south and helped to affirm the foundation of today's cultural divide.
In recent years, Republicans have attempted to change this perception by adopting a platform entitled "compassionate conservatism," and by appointing African-Americans to top government positions. These efforts have done little to change perceptions of the Republican party among African-Americans. However, they have managed to convince some moderate white voters that the Republicans have moved beyond their racist, Nixonian roots.
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