Saturday, April 15, 2006
Republicans are Racists
Jonathan Singer of MyDD has a post about the upcoming Maryland race for governor and the entrenched racism in the Republican party.
He predicts that Maryland GOP voters will leave their party by the droves; and vote for the Democratic candidate if he's white.
Right now, conventional wisdom gives Rep. Ben Cardin (who is white) the edge over former Rep. Kweisi Mfume and former NAACP president and chief executive. Both are running for the Senate seat, but Mfume left political office in 1996, political eons ago.
Back in 1964, losing presidential candidate Barry Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights bill of 1964 and then campaigned that fall with the catchy slogan, "Because in your heart, you know he's right."
And before the ink on the landmark bill had a chance to dry, the Deep South started voting for what used to be the party of Lincoln (he must be weeping a river by the Lincoln Memorial grounds).
Yes, for the first time since reconstruction, Dixie went Republican; after that, it's been Katie-bar-the-door for racial politics from our GOP friends; and of course, beloved Barry Goldwater was annointed author, leader, god of the so-called conservative movement; he figured out how to turn race into an attractive wedge issue for Republicans.
From Willie Horton, 'truth in sentencing' bullshit and now, the 'rule of law' for undocumented workers, the racial wedge issue has been nothing but barefaced, shameless racism very thinly disguised as tough on crime.
Republicans are tough on crime except when it's one of their own; and right now their party is brimming with felons and would-be felons, giving the nation corrupt Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, Scotter Libby, Robert Taft, David Safavian, Tom Noe and Claude Allen, all within a mere few years.
Republicans love to higlight their token black members; and Republican voters will go along as long as you don't try to actually elevate one of them to high office where they'll actually have direct power over their lives.
The record is clear. A little walk down history lane shows that racial wedge issues have worked out quite well for Republicans at the polls; however, the record is also very clear that when Republicans are given a choice to vote for the white guy or the black one, they'll vote for "whitey" almost every single time.
Not good news for Michael S. Steele (who is a black Republican). Or possibly for Ken Blackwell of Ohio.
// posted by Howling Latina @ 5:39 PM 
