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October 11, 2011

Racist Republicans Flocking to Cain

Either a lot of Democrats have been slandering millions of American voters as racist, or the Tea Party hasn’t gotten the word that Herman Cain is African American.  That is the only conclusion that can be drawn after a slew of recent polls shows that Cain is picking up the ‘teavangelical’ vote as former favorites like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry fade.

In particular, this morning we get the word from my native state of South Carolina that Cain is the leader in the Republican primary there.  According to this American Research Group poll, Cain has a small and statistically insignificant lead over Mitt Romney: 26 percent to 25 percent.

Unless there has been a heretofore unnoticed surge of Black voters into the ranks of the South Carolina GOP, this means that one out of every four voters in the most conservative electorate in the United States are now ready to vote for a Black candidate for president.  This should not be all that surprising; the conservative backed governor in South Carolina is of Indian descent, and the voters of Charleston have sent a Black Republican to Congress.  It would be hard to find a district of liberal whites who have such a consistently cosmopolitan voting record.

Racism is not dead in this country; anybody who edits blog comments knows that we still have plenty of hot headed haters and racist fools running around.  That’s not surprising; any time you have 300 million eggs in a basket, a few of them are going to be addled.

But when GOP conservatives from South Carolina have a Black Congressman, a non-white governor and are lining up to vote for a Black presidential candidate, I think it’s time we reconsidered the slur and defame policy.  Whatever their parents and grandparents may have thought, and whatever atavistic creeps still snipe from the fringes, the mass of white southern conservatives today have moved on. They clearly and incontrovertibly are judging political candidates by their character and their views, not by the color of the skin.

It would be nice to see a few more voices in the establishment media take note of that.  Who knows? An end to the constant drip-drip-drip of accusations that American conservatives are racist thugs longing for the days of Jim Crow might just do something to restore civility in our political discourse.

It’s just a thought.

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  • Kenny

    “Racism is not dead in this country.”

    No, it isn’t. Racism is alive and well the the hearts of all the affirmative action proponents which is to say the ruling elite and the leaders of the Democratic Party.

  • Admonkey

    100% of SC’s Congressmen are Republican, and voters in a single Congressional District have recently elected one Republican black congressman, the first since Reconstruction.

    SC voters elected as Governor, at the strong urging of Sarah Palin, a light-skinned female of Sikh descent, yet still hears the occasional “rag head” comment from other of their elected officials like Sen. Jake Knotts.

    While I believe that racism is slowly dying (or, as you state, people are moving on), I think it’s a little premature, based as you are on polling data and scant evidence elsewhere, to state, “the mass of white southern conservatives today have moved on” or that, “they clearly and incontrovertibly are judging political candidates by their character and their views, not by the color of the skin.”

    Let’s see how Cain’s polling numbers hold up at the one place that matters in South Carolina: the ballot box. Because, as Rick Perry’s surrogate Robert Jeffress commented when talking about Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion, what one is willing to say to a reporter or a pollster does not always align with what one is willing to do inside the voting booth.

  • nathan j

    And let’s not forget that here in Florida we have a hispanic senator and that Herman Cain recently won the straw poll. Does it mean much, yes and no. Yes in that the liberals do not have a corner on the pro-race market, no because conservatives are more interested in what the person has done and not so much about the culture or color or their skin.

  • Vader

    “It would be nice to see a few more voices in the establishment media take note of that. Who knows? An end to the constant drip-drip-drip of accusations that American conservatives are racist thugs longing for the days of Jim Crow might just do something to restore civility in our political discourse.”

    What makes you think these voices in the establishment media have any interest in in restoring civility to our political discourse? Stirring up incivility makes for better circulation, and they’re desperate for readers.

  • CatoRenasci

    The minute the average black voter really understands the phenomenon that conservative and classical liberal/libertarian mostly Republican whites don’t care if the candidate is black, white or green, but the care only about character and the policies supported, you will see the end of the Democratic coalition’s chances for presidential victory for a generation or more, as well as the diminution of the power of the ‘race industry’.

    There will still be many blacks (just like the other Democratic pillar, the unions) who want handouts and will support the Democrats as the party who will provide them, but a substantial number of blacks will start to vote their values. It won’t be immediate, but a lot of blacks who are struggling to keep families together, believe in God, and to raise decent children who are honest and hardworking, will see their interests and ultimately, independence for blacks as equals in our society, are far better off in a color blind world than on the Democratic plantation.

    It is indeed ironic that the (mostly Northeastern and Midwestern) Democratic left whose forebears fought against slavery and for decent treatment for the freedmen, are now the ones who want to keep blacks dependent of a government master.

  • Walter Russell Mead

    @Admonkey. You lost me at the start; 100% of SC Congressmen are NOT Republican; James Clyburne is a member of the House Democratic leadership and is the highest ranked Black member of Congress in US history. He was also a good friend of my aunt.

  • PhilR1

    No chance. The Democrat Party, MSM, education establishment, and political left are too heavily invested in the idea that “Republicans and conservatives are RACIST!”. It’s the air they breathe, the blood that flows in their veins. It’s the “rock” upon which rests their conscience. To accept that conservatives/Republicans are no more racist than they are would be to rip asunder the ramparts protecting their sense of self-righteousness. You’d have an easier time convincing them the earth is flat, with moon, sun and stars “orbiting” our home planet. To those on the left, racist Republican/conservative is an article of faith. It goes with the territory. It cannot be questioned.

    I’m certain it will not be long before you are suspected of racism for simply asking this question. Blasphemer.

  • Lexington Green

    Herman Cain is very Jacksonian in style and substance. Crabgrass Jacksonianism is the default ideology of the America suburbs. Jacksonians have long ago decided to judge based on ideological conformity rather than race. A person of color, whether Black like Mr. Cain, or the more exotic Sikh governor, will be judged on words and deeds not ethnicity. This has been going on for a long time. For example, Gen. Powell would have gotten the nomination and beaten Bill Clinton in 1996 if he had run, with lots of conservative and Souther votes, largely because of his military background. But it is a guilty secret to the liberal media and the Democrats and their allies. Hence we see preposterous scenes like lily white lefty TV hacks telling Mr. Cain to his face that he is not genuinely Black enough. But reality has a way of asserting itself, and Mr. Cain’s candidacy is a strong bracing gust of reality that will blow away the fog and let the sun shine down. They are going to throw everything they can at him, much like they did to Clarence Thomas. Mr. Cain seems to be made of strong stuff. I think he will prevail over the lies and the hate. God bless him, he will need it.

  • http://aretae.blogspot.com aretae

    I’m a libertarian in a mixed race marriage, who travels for work. My personal experience says that the Southern locales are the least race conscious places in the country. Old Midwestern cities like Chicago tend to be atrocious. California, not so bad…but not good either.

    I got the same results via an informal survey of my black friends.

  • Koblog

    Racism is alive as long as anyone says, “I’m voting for him or her because of skin color.”

  • http://eternityroad.info Francis W. Porretto

    The escape hatch for left-liberals determined to see conservatives and Republicans as racist is to say: “Cain is a TOKEN. He’s there to ‘prove’ they’re not racists, but they can’t fool us!”

    Yes, it’s ridiculous. No, that won’t impede it for a moment.

  • Admonkey

    @RWM: you are correct; my apologies. Not only did I overlook Rep. Clyburne, the cause of the oversight was my reapportioning a district away from the State. My comments regarding the premature nature of your statements and the ballot box being the only poll that truly matters still stands.

  • Luke Lea

    WRM – “Racism is not dead in this country; anybody who edits blog comments knows that we still have plenty of hot headed haters and racist fools running around. ”

    In a country of 300 million, when you can count the racists by the number of comments on a few dozen blogs, I would argue that that is evidence that racism is dead in this country — as dead as young earth creationism, communism, Nazism, the John Birch Society, and similar mass (or semi-mass) movements of the past. Show me a white racist mob and I will change my mind. It’s time we stop flagelating ourselves with the mantra, “Of course there is still a lot of racism in this country.” Manifestly there is not.

    move among white, working- and lower-class whites all the time and hear ‘nary a racist or anti-Semitic remark. Perhaps it is different on Ivy League campuses. I don’t know.

  • Dave

    W talked about racism as “the bigotry of low expectations.”

  • Richard

    Yes, as those of us who have spent time in academia know, the real racists in America look a lot like Keith Olbermann and Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC) They talk as if they were on the bus with Rosa Parks or at the march in Birmingham with MLK, but they were still safely in junior high school along with Cain and me.Ha ha ha.

  • Person of Choler

    Admonkey points out, “Because, as Rick Perry’s surrogate Robert Jeffress commented when talking about Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion, what one is willing to say to a reporter or a pollster does not always align with what one is willing to do inside the voting booth.?”

    I wonder if this is true of Obama’s polling as well. He would be in even deeper trouble if it is so.

  • J

    This is nothing new; Democrats have always been far more racist than Republicans.

    “It is indeed ironic that the (mostly Northeastern and Midwestern) Democratic left whose forebears fought against slavery”

    Umm, no they didn’t. Geez, even Wikipedia admits the Republican party was founded by anti-slavery activists whose primary opponent in that fight was…the Democratic party. Democrats are racists, pretty much by definition, and always have been. The way that racism manifests itself has changed over time, but the Democratic party is and always has been racist.

    “just like the other Democratic pillar, the unions”

    Let’s be specific; union leadership and members of public sector unions are Democratic pillars. Rank and file private sector union members are at best evenly split, if not slightly more Republican.

  • equitus

    Here’s the spin:

    “Cain got 25% in a Republican poll? That simply means that 75% of them are still racist.”

    QED

  • Mike

    admonkey, you seem mired in the old, discredited, “conventional wisdom” that Republicans are “racist”, because you qualify your statement as to SC voters having all GOP congressmen and the resultant rancid inferral of race hate. Then you mention the “light skinned” Governer, as if her shade of skin is somehow qualifying or dis-qualifying. Seems to me, the Republicans and especially Tea Partiers, are consistent in their preferrences for CONSERVATIVES, regardless of their melanin content. I wish Democrats were just as color blind as are Tea Partiers. But then, The Democrats were and are the Party of the Civil War Copperheads, and the old southern, racist white senators and of course Bull Conner and Lester Maddox standing in the classroom door. Johnson had to bribe and threaten DEMOCRATS, not Republicans to allow black kids access to schools.

  • teapartydoc

    How come we have to keep dealing with Cain’s race when it is his policy ideas we like? Note who it is that keeps raising this issue. I thought we were supposed to be beyond this now that we have a post-racial president.

  • HuNgu

    One of the curiouser dimensions of race relations
    in America, since oh about 1970, is the inability
    of Nice White People to defend themselves against
    spurious charges of racism. Decade after decade
    Nice White People are rocked back on their heels
    and are cowed into silence at the threat of this
    scurrilous epithet hurled their way. So where are the
    witty wordsmiths or the learned linguists who will
    formulate the snappy comeback to the ever increasing
    howls of “Racism!”

  • Kyle

    You do realize you just pulled out a variant of the “black friend” fallacy, right? The only thing more embarrassing than your hacky logic is your swampy commenters. Unsubscribed dude… You’re better than this.

  • Admonkey

    @Mike: to the contrary, the only conventional wisdom I subscribe to is, “the proof is in the pudding.”

    I always prefer confirmed results to contrived speculation.

    To my eye, the paucity of confirmed results in South Carolina do not yet support the speculation.

    As always, and in regards to everything, I am always more than happy to reevaluate as the data are accumulated.

  • Kris

    “the Tea Party hasn’t gotten the word that Herman Cain is African American”

    But… but… but… he’s Blek!

  • CatoRenasci

    17 @Jay

    Of course those who fought slavery were (mostly) Republicans — the irony is that their descendants in the Northeastern and Midwestern elite, who attended the elite universities and colleges which produced so may men who were Union officers during the War, are now progressive Democrats.

  • Corlyss

    It’s been downright heartening to watch the media response to Cain’s “brainwashed” comment. As long as the media produces reflexive responses like that, they continue to lose credibility. As a body they react as though they haven’t learned a bloody thing from 50 years of manufactured black dependence on the dole or the racism inherent in the plantation mentality of both urban and nation Democratic pols. They haven’t stopped for a nanosecond to analyze results. They look only at Democrats’ intentions: if the intentions are good, they get a pass, if not an enthusiastic endorsement. If the Republican results are good, they are ignored because their intentions in the MSM world, “everyone knows Republicans are really the KKK in disquise.” Makes me absolutely crazy!

  • dave72

    All condescending liberals are racists at heart.

  • mark l.

    that statisitical tie…

    two key factors-
    intensity. would one rather have romney supporters, or cain supporters, all things being equal.

    second choice candidate-
    by the time the primaries roll around, the people who are picking lower tier candidates will have had ther hopes dashed.

    i can draw a map for the people who will switch from their ‘lost cause’ to cain. romney? maybe he can pick up a huntsman endorsement, or preemptively beg him ‘not’ to endorse him…

  • Kris

    In Kyle’s world (#22), Whites who choose to hand political power to Black people are nonetheless racist. I wonder what one has to do to be cleansed of the stain of racism.

  • thisisforhatemail

    “the mass of white southern conservatives today have moved on”

    Has the author of this blog ever BEEN to the South?

  • Russ

    @HuNgu: as opposed to “oh, don’t you play the card on me…”

  • Luke Lea

    Really, the only overt racism left in this country is strictly a minority phenomenon: formerly discriminated against minorities indiscriminately discriminating against the European gentile majority. Think African American flash mobs, SNL skits portraying Appalachians (and Southern white Protestants generally) as idiots and bigots.

    I guess we have to include among the guilty here the faded remnants of our old Anglo-Saxon, New England based, Ivy educated elites as well — the ones who deliberately plumb for the vast over-representation of some ethnic minorities, affirmative action for others, and gross under-representation of the majority population of plain old Americans with no ethnic hyphens to their names or self-identity as anything else than citizens, the ones who are losing their jobs, their incomes, their middle-class way of life to big money in the new global economy.

    It’s really pretty disgusting when you think about it, and a big reason behind of the economic and political troubles we are in. The disuniting of America.

  • Mike

    #23 admonkey. The results in SC seem to be in, Republicans and Tea Partiers vote for people of color for high office whenever they are conservative. They just don’t seem to be the results you desire, so you wait for different results, hoping they will justify your preconceived ideas. Apparently, you will reserve judgement until those hoped for and desired results come in. I think that is intellectually dishonest.

  • geokstr

    “Luke Lea says:
    October 11, 2011 at 12:06 pm
    In a country of 300 million, when you can count the racists by the number of comments on a few dozen blogs, I would argue that that is evidence that racism is dead in this country — as dead as young earth creationism, communism, Nazism, the John Birch Society, and similar mass (or semi-mass) movements of the past.”

    And I would agree except where you mention “communism”. It is decidedly not dead, nor even dormant nor diminished. It has just changed it’s name(s), that’s all.

    Variants of Marxism are what drives most of the left – Progressivism, socialism, feminism, environmentalism, et al. It has taken over the soft science and humanities departments of most universities. And it is alive in Hollywood, where it is conservatives who are still routinely blacklisted.

  • http://TheAmericanInterest James

    Mr. Cain is a welcomed breath of fresh air and he’s certainly got my attention.

    I think Romney and Perry will waste valuable time beating up each other on religion while Cain shows them all a clean pair of heels. The rest are just hangers-on hoping for an invitation to run as vice-prezzy.

    By the way, I’m conservative, in an interracial marriage, support the Tea Party, and I’m so white I’m actually clear. He-he!

  • Bonfire of the Idiocies

    The truth of the matter is that racism is no longer about skin pigments or ethnic heritage, it’s about whether or not one votes for liberal Democrats. That’s what the Hollywood hacks, the media, the CBC and rest of the Democrats have been tacitly trying to tell us. It’s now up to normal people if we want to buy that pile of baloney or not.

  • http://davidscommonplacebook.wordpress.com/ David Hoffman

    It would, if the Democrats were actually interested in restoring civility in our political discourse. They aren’t.

  • james wilson

    Here’s a little aside. Many a poop (stronger term deleted – ed) -kicker will vote for Cain enthusiastically before he will vote for another waffling white man of either party, much less Obama. I already have two close relatives, one of which is a self-described racist and the other who will raise your hair with plain talk, who have mailed their first political checks ever to Cain after his Florida primary.

    For what it’s worth.

  • JAY

    Cain is the only guy who can stop Romney. It is time for the Perry people, the Bachmann people and the rest to step up.

  • Luke Lea

    @ geokstr – “better to attack drug addiction through the demand side, by increasing the social stigma surrounding drug use”

    Communism is not an all-purpose metaphor for whatever misguided political ideology you happen to disagree with.

    It was an illegal, well-organized attempt, supported by the Soviet Union, to subvert the United States government and seize power all around the world.

    Likewise socialism was an ideology that advocated public ownership of the means of production, as distinct from social democracy as practiced in Europe or the mixed economy we have in this country.

    If we don’t call things by their right names it is impossible to have an intelligent discussion.

  • R.C.

    Old news.

    Of course the Tea Party has as few, or fewer, bigots in their ranks than other political movements (including especially the Democratic Party and those craven, functionally illiterate “Occupy”-ers).

    It comes from having so many Southerners and Evangelicals in the Tea Party, you see.

    The American South, and such folk as populate the smarter Evangelical congregations and the more orthodox, vaguely-evangelical Catholic parishes, have been less racist than other parts of the country for a good quarter-century now…if you were only counting the folk under 30 back then.

    The “folk under 30″ 25 years ago means, of course, “the folk aged 25-55″ right NOW; which is to say, all the people who run things and have influence in the modern South and especially its churches.

    Age and time, of course, was always the problem: The remnant of the folk who had ever been accustomed to segregation as a social norm needed to die out. That’s the folks in the 75-and-up crowd.

    Well, they’re dying. Most are already gone; those still above ground have zero societal influence.

    And, while their baby boomer children are the worst generation of Americans in many ways — shallow, selfish, brainless, irresponsibly ripping up their own families in pursuit of second and third childhoods — they do have this in their favor: Their uniform negative reaction against the bigoted tendencies of many of their parents caused them to consciously raise their Gen X children in entirely color-blind ways. And because of their sensitivity to the special historical guilt of their parents, folk raised in the South have done this better than anywhere else.

    This is why Herman Cain’s a rock star among the Gen X crowd, especially in his hometown of Atlanta and everywhere within an eight-hour drive of Atlanta. To the Georgian Gen X-ers, Cain’s race is irrelevant. But his optimism is infectious — he’s a Reaganesque “happy warrior” — and his underlying philosophy sounds like a breath of adult fresh air in comparison to the adolescent leftism of their parents.

    And these “Gen-X Cainiacs” mostly don’t even realize that the irrelevance of Cain’s skin color in their psyches is among the few things their parents got right in raising them: One of the few moral lessons the baby boomer generation didn’t completely flunk.

    So: Of course the Tea Party is colorblind. Look who’s in it.

  • Corlyss

    @ Luke’s “Really, the only overt racism left in this country is strictly a minority phenomenon:”

    If memory serves, #1 in Larry Elder’s list of the 10 things you can’t say in America is “Blacks are the most racists people in America.”

    http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Things-Cant-America-Revised/dp/0312284659/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318397900&sr=1-2

    As far as the media is concerned, they believe what Holder’s DoJ has ruled: minorities can’t be guilty of racism.

  • richard40

    But dont you realize, Cain is not really black. As a conservative with black skin he is actually an uncle tom and a traitor to his race. We just support him because we know he will help us keep the black folks downtrodden. Only leftists dems can really be black. Of course now, with double digit unemployment for blacks, some black people may be starting to doubt that.

    Seriously, I suspect one reason why the left fears Cain so much is that he will finally neutralize the race card. I’m not certain yet that Cain has enough political experience to survive the primaries without making a fatal mistep, but so far he is doing pretty well. The main thing that might hold him back is the big money boys still dont think he can win, and thus haven’t yet swelled his war chest, but if he starts winning primaries, or even taking a strong 2nd, that will change quick.

  • Brett Tiernan

    If you are constantly looking for Racist, I am sure you will always find them and just because I DONT like what somebody is doing to the United States and the way they avoid the Constitution and the way obama always LIES, I dont like the way he does things.
    on the other hand, I do like the way that Cain handles himself. I like his ideas and the way he STANDS UP for what he Believes in. I want Herman Cain as MY next President.

  • Jones

    This is UNREAL. For years we have listened to the good ol boys of the GOP spew racist crap at black people. This party was largely responsible for criticizing most civil rights movements in the past, and the parties ties to lynchings in the late 19th, and early 20th century are known full and well. And you only have to be with Republican people AWAY from the ears of any black folks to know what they REALLY believe. And they don’t want a black person telling them what to do. If they are for Cain, it’s only to remove another hated black man – Obama. It’s a systematic move. This is what the Republicans are all about they work very much like the Sith from Star Wars – Utilize any and all means at your disposal for the end result. They used to lie, then they denied, now they just “forget”. Cain is a tool to get the Republicans back the White House. Like many of my Republican friends told me while rolling their eyes after hearing Cain speak, “this negro is only for the short time”

  • Mike

    It’s a Shame racism exists. As an American, I have seen it shape into less of a Posture, but the buTT still remains!! For a little History on Political Parties, though, I submit:

    HERE IS A LITTLE HISTORY LESSON ON REPUBLICAN vs DEMOCRAT and RACISM..

    DEMOCRATS NOMINATE A RACIST FOR PRESIDENT
    October 13, 1858 During Lincoln-Douglas debates, U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas (D-IL) states: “I do not regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever”; Douglas became Democratic Party’s 1860 presidential nominee

    DEMS BLOCK FREEING SLAVES IN DC
    April 16, 1862 President Lincoln signs bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia; in Congress, 99% of Republicans vote yes, 83% of Democrats vote NO.

    DEMS BLOCK FREEING ALL SLAVES
    July 17, 1862 Over unanimous Democrat opposition, Republican Congress passes Confiscation Act stating that slaves of the Confederacy “shall be forever free”

    DEMS OPPOSE 13th AMENDMENT
    January 31, 1865 13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. House with unanimous Republican support, intense Democrat opposition

    April 8, 1865 13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. Senate with 100% Republican support, 63% Democrat opposition

    REPUBLICANS DENOUNCE (Dem created) INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
    November 22, 1865 Republicans denounce Democrat legislature of Mississippi for enacting “black codes,” which institutionalized racial discrimination

    DEMS OPPOSE “40 ACRES & A MULE”
    February 5, 1866 U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-PA) introduces legislation, successfully opposed by Democrat President Andrew Johnson, to implement “40 acres and a mule” relief by distributing land to former slaves

    REPUBLICAN CONGRESS OVERRIDE DEM PREZ RACIST VETO
    April 9, 1866 Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Johnson’s veto; Civil Rights Act of 1866, conferring rights of citizenship on African-Americans, becomes law

    DEMOCRATS OPPOSE 14th AMENDMENT
    May 10, 1866 U.S. House passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the laws to all citizens; 100% of Democrats vote no

    June 8, 1866 U.S. Senate passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the law to all citizens; 94% of Republicans vote yes and 100% of Democrats vote no

    January 8, 1867 Republicans override Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of law granting voting rights to African-Americans in D.C.

    DEMOCRAT PRESIDENT TRIES TO BLOCK EQUAL RIGHTS
    July 19, 1867 Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of legislation protecting voting rights of African-Americans

    March 30, 1868 Republicans begin impeachment trial of Democrat President Andrew Johnson, who declared: “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government of white men”

    GA DEMS EXPEL ALL BLACK REPUBLICANS FROM OFFICE
    September 12, 1868 Civil rights activist Tunis Campbell and 24 other African-Americans in Georgia Senate, every one a Republican, expelled by Democrat majority; would later be reinstated by Republican Congress

    DEM PARTY CAMPAIGN SLOGAN “LET WHITE MEN RULE”
    October 7, 1868 Republicans denounce Democratic Party’s national campaign theme: “This is a white man’s country: Let white men rule”

    October 22, 1868 While campaigning for re-election, Republican U.S. Rep. James Hinds (R-AR) is assassinated by Democrat terrorists who organized as the Ku Klux Klan

    REPUBLICAN 1st TO GRANT WOMEN VOTING RIGHTS
    December 10, 1869 Republican Gov. John Campbell of Wyoming Territory signs FIRST-in-nation law granting women right to vote and to hold public office

    DEMOCRATS OPPOSE 15th AMENDMENT
    February 3, 1870 After passing House with 98% Republican support and 97% Democrat opposition, Republicans’ 15th Amendment is ratified, granting vote to all Americans regardless of race

    REPUBLICANS SET STRICT ENFORCEMENT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATORS
    May 31, 1870 President U.S. Grant signs Republicans’ Enforcement Act, providing stiff penalties for depriving any American’s civil rights

    June 22, 1870 Republican Congress creates U.S. Department of Justice, to safeguard the civil rights of African-Americans against Democrats in the South

    September 6, 1870 Women vote in Wyoming, in FIRST election after women’s suffrage signed into law by Republican Gov. John Campbell

    February 28, 1871 Republican Congress passes Enforcement Act providing federal protection for African-American voters

    April 20, 1871 Republican Congress enacts the Ku Klux Klan Act, outlawing Democratic Party-affiliated terrorist groups which oppressed African-Americans

    RACIST MURDER BY DEMOCRATS
    October 10, 1871 Following warnings by Philadelphia Democrats against black voting, African-American Republican civil rights activist Octavius Catto murdered by Democratic Party operative; his military funeral was attended by thousands

    October 18, 1871 After violence against Republicans in South Carolina, President Ulysses Grant deploys U.S. troops to combat Democrat terrorists who formed the Ku Klux Klan

    SUSAN B ANTHONY VOTES REPUBLICAN
    November 18, 1872 Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting, after boasting to Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she voted for “the Republican ticket, straight”

    ARMED DEMOCRATS STOP GOVT RACIAL INTEGRATION
    January 17, 1874 Armed Democrats seize Texas state government, ending Republican efforts to racially integrate government

    MORE DEMOCRAT RACIST TERRORISM
    September 14, 1874 Democrat white supremacists seize Louisiana statehouse in attempt to overthrow racially-integrated administration of Republican Governor William Kellogg; 27 killed

    DEMOCRATS 100% OPPOSE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1875
    March 1, 1875 Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteeing access to public accommodations without regard to race, signed by Republican President U.S. Grant; passed with 92% Republican support over 100% Democrat opposition

    DEMOCRATS OPPOSE WOMEN’S RIGHTS
    January 10, 1878 U.S. Senator Aaron Sargent (R-CA) introduces Susan B. Anthony amendment for women’s suffrage; Democrat-controlled Senate defeated it 4 times before election of Republican House and Senate guaranteed its approval in 1919. Republicans foil Democratic efforts to keep women in the kitchen, where they belong

    DEMOCRATS REPEAL CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT
    February 8, 1894 Democrat Congress and Democrat President Grover Cleveland join to repeal Republicans’ Enforcement Act, which had enabled African-Americans to vote

    BOOKER T WASHINGTON PROTESTS AGAINST DEMOCRATS
    January 15, 1901 Republican Booker T. Washington protests Alabama Democratic Party’s refusal to permit voting by African-Americans

    DEMOCRATS REDUCE BLACK VOTES BY 86%
    May 29, 1902 Virginia Democrats implement new state constitution, condemned by Republicans as illegal, reducing African-American voter registration by 86%

    REPUBLICANS CO-FOUND NAACP
    February 12, 1909 On 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, African-American Republicans and women’s suffragists Ida Wells and Mary Terrell co-found the NAACP

    REPUBLICANS PASS WOMEN’S RIGHTS AMENDMENT
    May 21, 1919 Republican House passes constitutional amendment granting women the vote with 85% of Republicans in favor, but only 54% of Democrats; in Senate, 80% of Republicans would vote yes, but almost half of Democrats no

    REPUBLICANS WRITE 19th AMENDMENT
    August 18, 1920 Republican-authored 19th Amendment, giving women the vote, becomes part of Constitution; 26 of the 36 states to ratify had Republican-controlled legislatures

    DEMOCRATS BLOCK ANTI-LYNCHING LAW
    January 26, 1922 House passes bill authored by U.S. Rep. Leonidas Dyer (R-MO) making lynching a federal crime; Senate Democrats block it with filibuster

    REPUBLICANS PASS CITIZENSHIP FOR ALL NATIVE AMERICANS
    June 2, 1924 Republican President Calvin Coolidge signs bill passed by Republican Congress granting U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans

    DEMOCRAT PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE DEFENDS KKK
    October 3, 1924 Republicans denounce three-time Democrat presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan for defending the Ku Klux Klan at 1924 Democratic National Convention

    June 12, 1929 First Lady Lou Hoover invites wife of U.S. Rep. Oscar De Priest (R-IL), an African-American, to tea at the White House, sparking protests by Democrats across the country

    FDR APPOINTS KLAN MEMBER TO SUPREME COURT
    August 17, 1937 Republicans organize opposition to former Ku Klux Klansman and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black, appointed to U.S. Supreme Court by FDR; his Klan background was hidden until after confirmation

    REPUBLICANS WANT TO INTEGRATE MILITARY, FDR BLOCKS IT
    June 24, 1940 Republican Party platform calls for integration of the armed forces; for the balance of his terms in office, FDR refuses to order it

    August 8, 1945 Republicans condemn Harry Truman’s surprise use of the atomic bomb in Japan. The whining and criticism goes on for years. It begins two days after the Hiroshima bombing, when former Republican President Herbert Hoover writes to a friend that “The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.”

    REPUBLICAN WRITES BROWN vs BOARD OF EDUCATION DECISION
    September 30, 1953 Earl Warren, California’s three-term Republican Governor and 1948 Republican vice presidential nominee, nominated to be Chief Justice; wrote landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education

    November 25, 1955 Eisenhower administration bans racial segregation of interstate bus travel

    DEMOCRATS PLEDGE TO CONTINUE SEGREGATION…
    March 12, 1956 Ninety-seven Democrats in Congress condemn Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and pledge to continue segregation

    REPUBLICAN JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF ROSA PARKS…
    June 5, 1956 Republican federal judge Frank Johnson rules in favor of Rosa Parks in decision striking down “blacks in the back of the bus” law

    November 6, 1956 African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President

    REPUBLICAN PARTY WRITES & PASSES 57 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT…
    September 9, 1957 President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republican Party’s 1957 Civil Rights Act

    September 24, 1957 Sparking criticism from Democrats such as Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, President Dwight Eisenhower deploys the 82nd Airborne Division to Little Rock, AR to force Democrat Governor Orval Faubus to integrate public schools

    DEMOCRATS FILLIBUSTER CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1960…
    May 6, 1960 President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1960, overcoming 125-hour, around-the-clock filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats

    May 2, 1963 Republicans condemn Democrat sheriff of Birmingham, AL for arresting over 2,000 African-American schoolchildren marching for their civil rights

    GEORGE WALLACE WAS A DEMOCRAT…
    September 29, 1963 Gov. George Wallace (D-AL) defies order by U.S. District Judge Frank Johnson, appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower, to integrate Tuskegee High School

    DEMOCRATIC KLANSMAN ROBERT BYRD FILLIBUSTERS CIVIL RIGHTS…
    June 9, 1964 Republicans condemn 14-hour filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act by U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV)

    DEMOCRATS FILLIBUSTER ’64 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT…
    June 10, 1964 Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) criticizes Democrat filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act, calls on Democrats to stop opposing racial equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced and approved by a staggering majority of Republicans in the Senate. The Act was opposed by most southern Democrat senators, several of whom were proud segregationists—one of them being Al Gore Sr. Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson relied on Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader from Illinois, to get the Act passed.

    DEMOCRATS BLOCK ’65 VOTING RIGHTS ACT…
    August 4, 1965 Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) overcomes Democrat attempts to block 1965 Voting Rights Act; 94% of Senate Republicans vote for landmark civil right legislation, while 27% of Democrats oppose. Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolishing literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent African-Americans from voting, signed into law; higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats vote in favor

    February 19, 1976 President Gerald Ford formally rescinds President Franklin Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII

    September 15, 1981 President Ronald Reagan establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to increase African-American participation in federal education programs

    June 29, 1982 President Ronald Reagan signs 25-year extension of 1965 Voting Rights Act

    August 10, 1988 President Ronald Reagan signs Civil Liberties Act of 1988, compensating Japanese-Americans for deprivation of civil rights and property during World War II internment ordered by FDR

    November 21, 1991 President George H. W. Bush signs Civil Rights Act of 1991 to strengthen federal civil rights legislation

    August 20, 1996 Bill authored by U.S. Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY) to prohibit racial discrimination in adoptions, part of Republicans’ Contract With America, becomes law

    And let’s not forget the words of liberal icon Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood…

    We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population….

    So the next time any Democrat claims they’ve been supportive of civil rights in America (and been so all along), ask them to explain their past. “We’ve grown” is not gonna cut it, considering they continue to lie about their past to this day, and only someone lacking in common sense would believe two distinct political parties could juxtaposition their stances on civil rights seemingly overnight.

    And I’m tired of the recitation that Southern Democrats became racist Republicans and took those tendencies with them. Even today, it never takes long for a Democrat to play the race card purely for political advantage.

    Source: ~Bob Parks (Black American Journalist) http://www.black-and-right.com/