Loading ...My Brother From Another Mother
I’m wrapping up my business trip to St. Louis this morning, but I had to share this story from dinner last night.
My old law school friends and I got together and started talking about the Presidential race. One of my good friends who is a true-hearted conservative from Kansas asked me who I thought was going to win the Presidency? I told him, with the appropriate caveats included, that I thought the race was Barack Obama’s to lose. Two main reasons that came to mind was first the national trends; the polling data shows him ahead in five of the seven key battleground states and winning the Electoral College, 331-221. Second, John McCain doesn’t work weekends.
My friend told me he was disgusted with the GOP at the national level, but couldn’t bring himself to vote for Barack. He was also somewhat hesitant to share his opinion because he didn’t want to come across as racist. I told him genuine disagreements don’t make a person racist. Although I think some of the attacks against Obama can be construed that way when they have nothing to do with policy.
However, I told my friend if he really wanted to fight bigotry, he should vote for Barack, because if Barack was elected President, Blacks would have nothing else to complain about and could no longer point the finger at white people for their troubles. I told him when someone calls him racist he can say, “Hey, I’m not prejudiced, I voted for Obama.” Barack can’t win the Presidency without white voters so what better way to get people to shut up about racism.
In addition, Blacks can no longer complain about the man, because as one comedian put it, President Barack Obama means we are the man.
The same people who complain about white rice being “enriched” and brown rice being “wild” will have to go somewhere and sit down.
The same people who complain about white cake being called “Angel Food cake” and black cake called “Devil Food cake” will have to shut up.
And the best thing about electing a Black President, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will have to go find real jobs.
My friend from Kansas is giving Barack a second glance. I’m back in town tomorrow.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:57 am
You’re smoking something if you think that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will stop crying racism every chance they get just because Barack is President.
How about “Barack’s economic plan didn’t pass because so and so doesn’t want a black President to succeed.”?
June 29th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Abdul, I normally like your “takes”, however, you are way out on a limb with this one. I happen to know that I am not a racist (although I belong in that “detested” category of people called…white males). I don’t need to “vote” for anybody to prove it. The idea that you can “cure” racism by casting a vote for President is naive and foolish. Your attitude about this issue promotes the kind of “while race guilt” that is harmful to race relations because it deals in generalities and stereotypes instead of specifics. I hope you re-think this one.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
If only life was so simple.
June 29th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Obama is a Marxist—We should vote for that?
June 29th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
John Sydney McCain is a Sesquipedalian - we should vote for that?
June 29th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I’m going to disagree with Abdul’s take on this one. “Kurt” is absolutely correct and “What” asks a great question … I have been shocked at how many people (generally planning to vote for Obama) don’t know what a Marxist is.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
If we were at the beginning of Bush’s administation, economically and geopolitically, I might be up for this gambit. However, as appealing as it is to have a (potentially) more demographically unifying leader, to negate some of the foolishness, it’s offset by dire economic reality. I believe McCain is the better crapshoot if you care about an ecomonic future for your kids & old age. A vote for Barr potentially gets us Obama, as enough votes for Fred Peterson would have gotten us more of Bart.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
“Marxist”? How lah-dee-dah! The GOP has been using that tired old attack line since forever: Commie pinko.
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Why just say it the good old-fashioned Capehart and Jenner way: “Barack Obama is a conscious, dedicated agent of the world-wide Communist conspiracy!” Spiro Agnew, John Birch and J. Edgar Hoover would be so proud of you!
June 29th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Ahh the great thing about Abduls post is it once again shows his whit for being an entertainer. I think some of you missed the humor. It’s like listening to Rush Limbaugh and forgetting he is a political entertainer and taking everything he says as gospel.
Peace
June 29th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I know people who are voting for Obama for 2 reasons only aand those reasons are 1: he is by appearance black and 2 he is a Democrat. The fact that he is called black is racist itself as it adheres to the racist premise that if you have one drop of black blood you are black. When I try to talk policy they only know he has the best plan but do not know what that is. During the Indiana primary they actually said I hope Obama wins Indiana or at least it is close so we are not seen as racists like West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. When are we going to even consider what the color person’s skin is?
June 29th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
The black community votes overwhelmingly Democrat regardless of the candidtate’s skin color. The fact that anyone would vote(or not vote)for someone based on his pigment demonstrates how little we’ve evolved as a society. The Dems have sold black Americans down the river, but continue to get their vote. Those on the left have empowered themselves by perpetuating the racial divide. They demonize the GOP and are especially brutal to any black Americans who dare to call themselves Republicans or conservatives.
I believe Obama has a good chance of winning in November. I also believe that his presidency will be a disaster. The first black president doing such damage to this fine nation won’t be great for race relations, Abdul. While I believe you are afraid to admit it, you will be voting for this man for one reason. I think we all know what that reason is.
June 29th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Blacks dont necessarily vote on skin color. Jackie Nytes has about the blackest City Council district — Evan Bayh creamed Black Republican Marvin Scott in 2004 in the inner city. Eric Dickerson swayed no votes away from Julia Carson. Jocelyn Tandy ran as a Democrat in 1999 in the Primary against Bart Peterson: Peterson skunked her.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Jesus Christ people, do you not recognize satire when you read it?! Relax and have a cocktail!
June 29th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Those of us who listen to you, Abdul, know that you are not giving an objective, critical analysis of Obama’s candidacy. Your attempt at ‘tongue-in-cheek’ commentary is thinly-veiled. It sounds more like a way to defend your support of him.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:02 am
Fact: If I recall the Mayor’s race in 1999 was about race relations in the city of Indianapolis at the time which was Ms. Adande’s platform. She didn’t expect to win but had the guts to put this key issue on the front burner which was needed at the time during the Primary Election.
Peterson readily embraced her platform to garner more support from the black community as most white democrat candidates. Look at Hillary and Bill Clinton, even Evan Bayh is attempting to improve his image in the black community these days by supporting Obama.
One of the first actions by Peterson was to hold a race relations conference at the IU Conference Center in January 2000 immediately folowing his election to office. It was a well attended conference by the way by white leaders. Indianapolis can’t afford to have a race riot like other cities did in 1960s. Often, too many black people including their so-called leaders are afraid to address this issue head on in mixed company.
Blacks as well as whites are uncomfortable discussing the subject out of ignorance. You can not legislate acceptance of another person’s race or color.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Peteron lost in November to Mayor Ballard because black democrat voters stayed home. He did not deliver on his promises like so many of the white democrat candidates they have voted for in the past. Evan Bayh as governor ignored the black community after he was elected and has been more visible now that Obama is the front runner. Obama would be making a big mistake if he selected either Clinton or Bayh as his vice presidental running mate. Both are phonies.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:50 am
My God another clear thinking Hoosier Democrat who is not in Love with Evan? I saw through Evan and his clones back in 1992 when I needed a job and was told there was a state hiring freeze only to see Evan and Company hire less than qualified people for state jobs in spite of the hiring freeze. That was about the same time that I discovered as a Missouri transplant that the Marion County Democratic Committee was a club of little thinking people whose sole ambition in life was to give themselves jobs over helping the people.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:32 am
MizzouDem: Glad to see your input & hope health is doing as well as can be.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Wow. In one post, Abdul, you’ve had a limp redefinition of Marxism, an explanation of the 1999 Peterson vote, and an over-boiled revisionist view of Bart Peterson’s loss last year.
One by one, with the first thing first:
1. Sean and “What” evidently need some historical connotation on Marxism. It is:
“…Marxism is a theoretical-practical framework based on the analysis of “the conflicts between the powerful and the subjugated”. And that’s all that needs to be said about that. Obama is not and never was a Marxist. Please, omit the hysteria. Or we’ll start calling you Birchers, who, for those paying attention, would constitute a far greater threat to our nation.
2. Bart Peterson’s 2007 loss was due, in some part, to the low turnout in Center Township. But it was no lower historically than it typically is in a mayoral election. The tired old line of of “blacks stay home when they’re pissed” is really, really overused and inaccurate.
3. Rico, how has the “left” (please define that, by the way) “demonized” the GOP? Seems to me the GOP has done a decent job on its own of destroying its brand, starting with Ronaldus Maximum and continuing through the idiotic nonsense perpetuated by George W. Bush.
History will not be kind to W. Hell it already isn’t.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Abdul,
Relaxing and will have a cocktail at Ricks on the reservoir later this evening. As the Joker once said: “This town needs an enema” and I would extend that to the rest o’ this fine land.
An unintended consequence of this election is that we’ve seen the great discrimination quadfecta play itself out: race, gender, age and religion. Clinton was too “girly” or “too ballbusting” (take your pick); McCain “too old and set in his ways”; Romney and Huckabee were “too religious” (or just batshit crazy, as some would posit, for their religious beliefs and how they would extend to their running of the country); and Obama “not authentically black,” “too black,” “not black enough” — oh, and the “wrong” religion” (a reference to his made-up muslim faith). At the same time, we can still hear the candidates talk about their commitments to their take on national defence, the economy, healthcare and jobs over the din.
We have some work to do, to be sure. All of us, I would dare say. But where else in the world could we have these kinds of conversations? What a process we have! What a country!
June 30th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Just revisited and what do I find regarding my Obama is a Marxist comment–Good ol’ Wilson’s comments: (June 29th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
“Marxist”? How lah-dee-dah! The GOP has been using that tired old attack line since forever: Commie pinko.)”
The truth hurts, Wilson. I shall let all of you research Marxist in the current sense and you will see that Obama fits the bill by everything he says and what he has voted for.
I’ll tune in on how his election will change America.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Timely quote: “We can’t expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism.” ~ Nikita Krushchev.
Kind of fits the Democratic party doesn’t it?
June 30th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Lalita…
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“Quadfecta”? Sounds like something that requires either a plumber or a proctologist.
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But it’s no wonder - the four talking points you refer to were presented and played out to the American people by ABCBSNBCNNFOX Inc. Before the propagandists started their manipulation, 99.99% of the rest of the nation had nothing whatsoever to do with those those talking points. But the propaganda machine kicked into gear and the trusting, naive audience simply followed them, adopting whatever points that are acceptable under their media-fabricated political umbrella. Then, they guarded the corporate-provided opinions as if they were their own.
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Which brings us back to the “quadfecta”. If I could define it with utmost clarity, it would be:
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“QUADFECTA: The manipulation of public opinion and perception by corporate media in order to benefit the long-term objectives of private interests. Nothing short of a complete colon cleansing and piping replacement by experienced professionals will prevent further damage. NOTE: Those who refuse to recognize the corporate “quadfecta” strategy will be doomed to live with ever-increasing excrement in their lives and communities, always seeking a solution but never seeming to find it as they continue relying upon corporate media as a bais for their flawed opinions and solutions.”
June 30th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
“What”–you can definitely have your own opinion, and I’ll defend your right to express it.
But you cannot have your own facts. Marxism is not the potential byproduct of an Obama presidency.
It doesn’t make any difference if you repeat it over and overe…it’s just not historically accurate or true.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
“Marxisim”, per ‘Dictionary of Philosophy and Relegion’ by W.L. Reese (trying to make a fair summation of a two-column passage: “There is a generalized verion of Marxism fixed in the popular mind, but whose full set of theses was held neither by Marx nor Engels… These theses include: A)Dialectiacal materialism, B)Primative Communism and Class Struggle, C)Elimination of Capitalism and Triumph of the Working Class, D)International Revolution
during the Capitalist-Proletarian Conflict, E)Dictatorship of the Proletariat, F)Withering of the State, G)Dominance of the mode of Production.”
I’m guessing Senator Obama might be more of a genuine, mainstream socialist. If the vast preponderance of our behavior was that of a productive, responsible citizenry, we wouldn’t be in this mess and I might support him as well. Unfortunately…..
June 30th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
FROM THE RECORD
Whitewash
The racist history the Democratic Party wants you to forget.
BY BRUCE BARTLETT
Monday, December 24, 2007 12:01 a.m.
In his new book, “The Conscience of a Liberal,” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman makes a strong case for his belief that the political success of the Republican Party and the conservative movement over the past 40 years has resulted largely from their co-optation of Southern racists that were the base of the Democratic Party until its embrace of civil rights in the 1960s. A key piece of evidence for Mr. Krugman is that Ronald Reagan gave his first speech after accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 near Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964. In the course of this speech, Reagan said he supported “states’ rights.” Mr. Krugman says this was code declaring his secret sympathy for Southern racism.
Others, including Mr. Krugman’s Times colleague David Brooks and Reagan biographer Lou Cannon, have come to Reagan’s defense, denying that he was a racist or had any racist intent in his 1980 speech. That’s fine but unlikely to change the minds of those like Mr. Krugman who are determined to smear the Republican Party with the charge of racism, and who are adept at finding racist code words like “law and order” by Republicans that are completely convincing to liberals and Democrats in support of this accusation, even though they are invisible to those with no political ax to grind.
However, if a single mention of states’ rights 27 years ago is sufficient to damn the Republican Party for racism ever afterwards, what about the 200-year record of prominent Democrats who didn’t bother with code words? They were openly and explicitly for slavery before the Civil War, supported lynching and “Jim Crow” laws after the war, and regularly defended segregation and white supremacy throughout most of the 20th century.
Following are some quotes from prominent Democrats largely drawn from my new book, “Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past.” Even with the exclusion of all quotes that contain the N-word, it is clear that many of the Democratic Party’s most important historical figures have long made statements that reduce Reagan’s alleged transgression to a drop in the ocean. If we are going to hold him and his party accountable for a single mention of states’ rights, then the party of those listed below is far more culpable in promoting and defending racism.
Blacks “are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both of body and mind.”
–Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Co-founder of the Democratic Party (along with Andrew Jackson)
President, 1801-09
“I hold that the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good–a positive good.”
–Sen. John C. Calhoun (D., S.C.), 1837
Vice President, 1825-32
His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.
If blacks were given the right to vote, that would “place every splay-footed, bandy-shanked, hump-backed, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, woolly-headed, ebon-colored Negro in the country upon an equality with the poor white man.”
–Rep. Andrew Johnson, (D., Tenn.), 1844
President, 1865-69
“Resolved, That the Democratic Party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1852
Blacks are “a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race.”
–Chief Justice Roger Taney, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1856
Appointed Attorney General by Andrew Jackson in 1831
Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Andrew Jackson in 1833
Appointed to the Supreme Court by Andrew Jackson in 1836
“Resolved, That claiming fellowship with, and desiring the co-operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under the Constitution as the paramount issue–and repudiating all sectional parties and platforms concerning domestic slavery, which seek to embroil the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to law in the Territories; and whose avowed purposes, if consummated, must end in civil war and disunion, the American Democracy recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the ’slavery question’ upon which the great national idea of the people of this whole country can repose in its determined conservatism of the Union–NON-INTERFERENCE BY CONGRESS WITH SLAVERY IN STATE AND TERRITORY, OR IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA” (emphasis in original).
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1856
“I hold that a Negro is not and never ought to be a citizen of the United States. I hold that this government was made on the white basis; made by the white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and should be administered by white men and none others.”
–Sen. Stephen A. Douglas (D., Ill.), 1858
Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1860
“Resolved, That the enactments of the State Legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1860
“The Almighty has fixed the distinction of the races; the Almighty has made the black man inferior, and, sir, by no legislation, by no military power, can you wipe out this distinction.”
–Rep. Fernando Wood (D., N.Y.), 1865
Mayor of New York City, 1855-58, 1860-62
“My fellow citizens, I have said that the contest before us was one for the restoration of our government; it is also one for the restoration of our race. It is to prevent the people of our race from being exiled from their homes–exiled from the government which they formed and created for themselves and for their children, and to prevent them from being driven out of the country or trodden under foot by an inferior and barbarous race.”
–Francis P. Blair Jr., accepting the Democratic nomination for Vice President, 1868
Democratic Senator from Missouri, 1869-72
His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.
“Instead of restoring the Union, it [the Republican Party] has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten states, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and Negro supremacy.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1868
“While the tendency of the white race is upward, the tendency of the colored race is downward.”
–Sen. Thomas Hendricks (D., Ind.), 1869
Democratic nominee for Vice President, 1876
Vice President, 1885
“We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the United States . . . demand such modification of the treaty with the Chinese Empire, or such legislation within constitutional limitations, as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mongolian race.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1876
“No more Chinese immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and that even carefully guarded.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1880
“American civilization demands that against the immigration or importation of Mongolians to these shores our gates be closed.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1884
“We favor the continuance and strict enforcement of the Chinese exclusion law, and its application to the same classes of all Asiatic races.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1900
“The repeal of the fifteenth amendment, one of the greatest blunders and therefore one of the greatest crimes in political history, is a consummation to be devoutly wished for.”
–Rep. John Sharpe Williams (D., Miss.), 1903
House Minority Leader, 1903-08
“Republicanism means Negro equality, while the Democratic Party means that the white man is supreme. That is why we Southerners are all Democrats.”
–Sen. Ben Tillman (D., S.C.), 1906
Chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs, 1913-19
“We are opposed to the admission of Asiatic immigrants who can not be amalgamated with our population, or whose presence among us would raise a race issue and involve us in diplomatic controversies with Oriental powers.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1908
“I am opposed to the practice of having colored policemen in the District [of Columbia]. It is a source of danger by constantly engendering racial friction, and is offensive to thousands of Southern white people who make their homes here.”
–Sen. Hoke Smith (D., Ga.), 1912
Appointed Secretary of the Interior by Grover Cleveland in 1893
“The South is serious with regard to its attitude to the Negro in politics. The South understands this subject, and its policy is unalterable and uncompromising. We desire no concessions. We seek no sops. We grasp no shadows on this subject. We take no risks. We abhor a Northern policy of catering to the Negro in politics just as we abhor a Northern policy of social equality.”
–Josephus Daniels, editor, Raleigh News & Observer, 1912
Appointed Secretary of the Navy by Woodrow Wilson in 1913
Appointed Ambassador to Mexico by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933
USS Josephus Daniels named for him by the Johnson Administration in 1965
“The Negro as a race, in all the ages of the world, has never shown sustained power of self-development. He is not endowed with the creative faculty. . . . He has never created for himself any civilization. . . . He has never had any civilization except that which has been inculcated by a superior race. And it is a lamentable fact that his civilization lasts only so long as he is in the hands of the white man who inculcates it. When left to himself he has universally gone back to the barbarism of the jungle.”
–Sen. James Vardaman (D., Miss.), 1914
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources, 1913-19
“This is a white man’s country, and will always remain a white man’s country.”
–Rep. James F. Byrnes (D., S.C.), 1919
Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941
Appointed Secretary of State by Harry S. Truman in 1945
“Slavery among the whites was an improvement over independence in Africa. The very progress that the blacks have made, when–and only when–brought into contact with the whites, ought to be a sufficient argument in support of white supremacy–it ought to be sufficient to convince even the blacks themselves.”
–William Jennings Bryan, 1923
Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1896, 1900 and 1908
Appointed Secretary of State by Woodrow Wilson in 1913
His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.
“Anyone who has traveled to the Far East knows that the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results. . . . The argument works both ways. I know a great many cultivated, highly educated and delightful Japanese. They have all told me that they would feel the same repugnance and objection to have thousands of Americans settle in Japan and intermarry with the Japanese as I would feel in having large numbers of Japanese coming over here and intermarry with the American population. In this question, then, of Japanese exclusion from the United States it is necessary only to advance the true reason–the undesirability of mixing the blood of the two peoples. . . . The Japanese people and the American people are both opposed to intermarriage of the two races–there can be no quarrel there.”
–Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1925
President, 1933-45
“This passport which you have given me is a symbol to me of the passport which you have given me before. I do not feel that it would be out of place to state to you here on this occasion that I know that without the support of the members of this organization I would not have been called, even by my enemies, the ‘Junior Senator from Alabama.’ ”
–Hugo Black, accepting a life membership in the Ku Klux Klan upon his election to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Alabama, 1926
Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937
“Mr. President, the crime of lynching . . . is not of sufficient importance to justify this legislation.”
–Sen. Claude Pepper (D., Fla.), 1938
Spoken while engaged in a six-hour speech against the antilynching bill
“I am a former Kleagle [recruiter] of the Ku Klux Klan in Raleigh County. . . . The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia. It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the union.”
–Robert C. Byrd, 1946
Democratic Senator from West Virginia, 1959-present
Senate Majority Leader, 1977-80 and 1987-88
Senate President Pro Tempore, 1989-95, 2001-03, 2007-present
His portrait stands in the U.S. Capitol.
President Truman’s civil rights program “is a farce and a sham–an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I have voted against the so-called poll tax repeal bill. . .. I have voted against the so-called anti-lynching bill.”
–Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1948
U.S. Senator, 1949-61
Senate Majority Leader, 1955-61
President, 1963-69
“There is no warrant for the curious notion that Christianity favors the involuntary commingling of the races in social institutions. Although He knew both Jews and Samaritans and the relations existing between them, Christ did not advocate that courts or legislative bodies should compel them to mix socially against their will.”
–Sen. Sam Ervin (D., N.C.), 1955
Chairman, Committee on Government Operations, 1971-75
“The decline and fall of the Roman empire came after years of intermarriage with other races. Spain was toppled as a world power as a result of the amalgamation of the races. . . . Certainly history shows that nations composed of a mongrel race lose their strength and become weak, lazy and indifferent.”
–Herman E. Talmadge, 1955
Democratic Senator from Georgia, 1957-81
Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, 1971-81
“These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don’t move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there’ll be no way of stopping them, we’ll lose the filibuster and there’ll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It’ll be Reconstruction all over again.”
–Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1957
“I have never seen very many white people who felt they were being imposed upon or being subjected to any second-class citizenship if they were directed to a waiting room or to any other public facility to wait or to eat with other white people. Only the Negroes, of all the races which are in this land, publicly proclaim they are being mistreated, imposed upon, and declared second-class citizens because they must go to public facilities with members of their own race.”
–Sen. Richard B. Russell Jr. (D., Ga.), 1961
The Russell Senate Office Building is named for him.
“I did not lie awake at night worrying about the problems of Negroes.”
–Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1961
Kennedy later authorized wiretapping the phones and bugging the hotel rooms of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’m not going to use the federal government’s authority deliberately to circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods. . . . I have nothing against a community that’s made up of people who are Polish or Czechoslovakian or French-Canadian or blacks who are trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods.”
–Jimmy Carter, 1976
President, 1977-81
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 2002
“The Confederate Memorial has had a special place in my life for many years. . . . There were many, many times that I found myself drawn to this deeply inspiring memorial, to contemplate the sacrifices of others, several of whom were my ancestors, whose enormous suffering and collective gallantry are to this day still misunderstood by most Americans.”
–James Webb, 1990
Now a Democratic Senator from Virginia
“Everybody likes to go to Geneva. I used to do it for the Law of the Sea conferences and you’d find these potentates from down in Africa, you know, rather than eating each other, they’d just come up and get a good square meal in Geneva.”
–Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D., S.C.) 1993
Chairman, Commerce Committee, 1987-95 and 2001-03
Candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, 1984
“I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia [Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan recruiter] that he would have been a great senator at any moment. . . . He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this nation.”
–Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), 2004
Chairman, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
Candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, 2008
“You cannot go into a Dunkin’ Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent.”
“My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state has the eighth largest black population in the country. My state is anything [but] a Northeastern liberal state.”
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African American [Barack Obama] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy.”
“There’s less than 1% of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4% or 5% that is, are minorities. What is it in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with.”
Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., (D., Del.), 2006-07
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, 1987-95
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations
Candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, 2008
Bonus quote:
“It has of late become the custom of the men of the South to speak with entire candor of the settled and deliberate policy of suppressing the negro vote. They have been forced to choose between a policy of manifest injustice toward the blacks and the horrors of negro rule. They chose to disfranchise the negroes. That was manifestly the lesser of two evils. . . . The Republican Party committed a great public crime when it gave the right of suffrage to the blacks. . . . So long as the Fifteenth Amendment stands, the menace of the rule of the blacks will impend, and the safeguards against it must be maintained.”
–Editorial, “The Political Future of the South,” New York Times, May 10, 1900)
Mr. Bartlett is author of “Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past,” to be published next month by Palgrave Macmillan, which is available from the OpinionJournal bookstore.
June 30th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Once again, ‘Think Again’, you haven’t given this(or much of anything else) a lot of thought. The GOP has been painted as anti-minority, anti-senior, anti-environment, etc., etc. for decades. To say otherwise is ridiculous. The socio-economic status of black Americans has inarguably been hurt by Affirmative Action and similar race-based programs. Conservatives would rather teach one to fish than give him fish, which forces his dependence on us, and, in turn, secures his vote. Liberal policies have decimated the black family, and have done nothing for the black community other than keep them culturally segregated. If Barack Obama was a conservative and was a man of character, I think he would be great for race relations. Unfortunately, he’s more of the same BS that has led to our racial problems.
By the way, ‘Think Again’ history will be much kinder to George W. Bush than your friends in the media are today. Fortunately for us, he doesn’t care about popularity. A few generations from now, the people of Iraq will be thanking him for allowing them to realize the freedoms God gave them. Reagan is revered in Eastern Europe for the same reasons.
The Dems continue to amaze me by the heroes they choose.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:19 am
What said: “Timely quote: “We can’t expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism.” ~ Nikita Krushchev.
Kind of fits the Democratic party doesn’t it?”
By and by, it fits the Republicans just as surely. They merely have other, shall we say, areas of emphasis, than Democrats do.
July 1st, 2008 at 5:26 am
DEMOCRATS SMEARED MLK IN THE 1960′S
By Frances Rice
As we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the month of his birth, let us also pause to remember the indignities he endured, who caused his suffering – the Democrats – and how.
Character assassination. That’s the tactic used by Democrats in the 1960’s to discredit Dr. King, a Republican who was fighting the Democrats and trying to stop them from denying civil rights to blacks.
The relentless disparagement of Dr. King by Democrats led to his being physically assaulted and ultimately to his tragic death. In March of 1968, while referring to Dr. King’s leaving Memphis, Tennessee after riots broke out where a teenager was killed, Democrat Senator Robert Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, called Dr. King a “trouble-maker” who starts trouble, but runs like a coward after trouble is ignited. A few weeks later, Dr. King returned to Memphis and was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Prior to his death, Democrats bombed Dr. King’s home several times. The scurrilous efforts by the Democrats to harm Dr. King included spreading rumors that he was a Communist and accusing him of being a womanizer and a plagiarist.
An egregious act against Dr. King occurred on October 10, 1963. With the approval of Democrat President John F. Kennedy, Democrat Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy – President Kennedy’s brother – authorized the wiretapping of Dr. King’s telephone by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Wiretaps were placed by the FBI on the telephones in Dr. King’s home and office. The FBI also bugged Dr. King’s hotel rooms when he traveled around the country.
The trigger for this unsavory wiretapping was apparently Dr. Kings’ criticism of the Kennedy Administration, according to the author David Garrow in his book, Bearing the Cross. The justification given by the Kennedy Administration publicly was that two of Dr. King’s associates, including David Levinson, had ended their association with the Communist Party in order to work undercover and influence Dr. King. However, after years of continuous and extensive wiretapping, the FBI found no direct links of Dr. King to the Communist Party.
The unrelenting efforts by Democrats to tarnish Dr. King’s reputation continued for years after his death. To his credit, Republican President Ronald Reagan ignored the Democrats’ smear campaign and made Dr. King’s birthday a holiday. Under President George W. Bush, a memorial to Dr. King is being built in Washington, DC.
Today, while professing to revere Dr. King, Democrats are still trying to sully his image by making remarks that diminish his civil rights achievements and continuing to claim that Dr. King embraced Communism – a system that is secularist and socialist.
In reality, Dr. King was a Christian who held deeply religious beliefs and was guided by his faith and his Republican Party principles in his struggle to gain equality for blacks. He did not embrace the type of socialist, secularist agenda that is promoted by the Democratic Party today, which includes fostering dependency on welfare that breaks up families, supporting same-sex marriage and banning God from the public square.
An understanding of who the real Dr. King was can be gained from a glimpse of Dr. King as a young man who participated in an oratorical contest when he was 14 years old. The title of his speech was “The Negro and the Constitution” which had the following sentences: “We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance…We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flout the central teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule….”
If Dr. King were still alive, he would be slandered by Democrats in the same way that they smeared him in the 1960’s and demean all black Republicans today.
Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and Chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She can be contacted at: http://www.NBRA.info/ and go to contact us page.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:44 am
Rico - Your comments about the Iraqi’s and Bush are definitely NOT the most naive comments I’ve ever read. You’re close, but I’ve heard worse. No cigar.