Can Republicans Win Back the Black Vote?

“Why Is the Black Vote in the Democrats’ Pocket?” That is the title of an article by Juliette Ochieng which provides an analysis of why Republicans are having very little success attracting more blacks into the Republican Party. The article can be found on the Internet at: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/why-is-the-black-vote-in-the-democratic-pocket/

Ochieng opines that blacks have been trained by Democrats to expect political parties to provide quid pro quo. In other words, while Republicans want to help blacks pursue happiness (teach blacks how to fish so they can feed themselves for a lifetime), Democrats want to provide happiness to blacks (give them a fish so they can eat for a day).

The Democratic Party’s strategy of using handouts to garner the black votes, while working to keep blacks mired in poverty, was described as “plantation politics” by President Barack Obama on page 147 of his book “Dreams From My Father”. As a result of the politics of poverty practiced by Democrats, including Obama, the firm belief is now deeply rooted in the black community that the government must "do something” for blacks.

Democrats have been running black communities for the past 40+ years and turned those communities into economic and social wastelands with their failed socialist policies. Yet, Democrats have the gall to blame Republicans for the deplorable conditions caused by the Democrats. Democrats also accuse Republicans of doing nothing to help poor blacks – a charge that resonates with victim mongers.

However, since the beginning of the so-called War on Poverty, over $ 9 trillion has been spent on poverty programs. According to the Washington Post, in one year alone under President George W. Bush, over $500 billion was spent on over 80 poverty-related programs, with little movement in the poverty needle. The problem with black poverty is not money – and it is not the Republican Party.

Notably, only 25% of blacks are poor and living in those dilapidated neighborhoods run by Democrats. The remaining 75% of blacks are prosperous and living in the larger society. Shamefully, Democrats consistently fight efforts of Republicans to help poor blacks living in Democrat-controlled neighborhoods get out of poverty. Most egregious is the fight by Democrats to keep Republicans from providing school choice opportunity scholarships so that black parents can get their children out of failing schools. The money belongs to the people, not the buildings controlled by the teachers’ unions that are supporters of the Democratic Party.

Further, Democrats, aided by liberal journalists and teachers, hide information about black poverty that is embarrassing to Democrats. For instance, after the Civil War, blacks left the plantations run by Democrats with little more than the ragged clothes on their backs. Today, the combined wealth of blacks is over $1.4 trillion – up from the $644 billion in 2005 – a staggering figure that is equivalent to the GNP of the world's 16th largest economy. This is an incredible, historic achievement.

Whenever Republicans attempt to point out that it is the Democrats who are keeping those inner-city blacks mired in poverty, Democrats resort to playing the race card, falsely accusing the Republican Party of being the party of the racists who denied blacks civil rights during and prior to the 1960’s .

The blatant use of race-baiting by Democrats to win the black vote is why any strategy to attract blacks back into the Republican Party must include not only a focus on economic and social issues, but also information about the true history of civil rights.

The NBRA Civil Rights Newsletter that is posted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info provides information that helps set the civil rights record straight. Referenced in the newsletter is an article published by the Claremont Institute entitled "The Myth of the Racist Republicans" that can be found on the Internet at: http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.928/article_detail.asp

Included in the newsletter are additional references such as "Unfounded Loyalty" by Rev. Wayne Perryman, "Wrong on Race" by Bruce Bartlett and "A Short History of Reconstruction" by Dr. Eric Foner, a renowned liberal historian whose biography can be found on the Internet at: http://www.ericfoner.com/

Perryman wrote his book after conducting years of research and then sued the Democratic Party, demanding an apology for that party’s 150-year history of racism based on the Democratic Party's “States Rights” claims. The Democrats admitted their racist past under oath in court, but refused to apologize because they know that they can take the black vote for granted.

It is frustrating to observe how most black Americans continue to support the Democratic Party, in spite of that party’s reprehensible history of racism and socialism that have caused so much harm to blacks. As author Michael Scheuer stated, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism.

At one time in our history, almost all blacks were Republicans because, since its inception in 1854 as the anti-slavery party, the Republican Party has always been the party of freedom and equality for blacks. Studies show that today, still, most blacks share the values of the Republican Party. Those same studies demonstrate that most blacks are very conservative and do not share the values of the Democratic Party that supports same-sex marriage, partial-birth abortion and banning God from the public square.

In order to keep blacks from voting their values or for Republicans, every election cycle, Democrats preach hatred against the Republican Party and get blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans, and not a vote for Democrats.

The message that Democrats gives to poor blacks is despicable. If you remain poor, uneducated and vote for Democrats, we will celebrate your victimhood. If you get a good education, get a good job and vote for Republicans, we will denigrate you as "acting white”, a "sellout”, an "Uncle Tom”, a "House Negro”, a "House N-word", a "Lawn Jockey”, and worse.

Democrats talk tolerance, but practice intolerance, castigating any black person as a “traitor” to his or her race who does not toe the liberal agenda line.

When black Democrat Juan Williams wrote his book entitled "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-end Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America" that exposed the deplorable conditions in black communities, Williams was denounced on national TV by another black Democrat as a "Happy Negro".

Brazenly, on the left-wing Internet website called "The News Blog," Democrats posted a doctored photograph of then Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele (now chairman of the RNC) when he was running for a Senate seat, depicting Steele as a "Simple Sambo" with a blackened minstrel-style face, nappy hair and big, think red lips. The cartoon caption read: “Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house”. This contemptible racist stereotype is the same one Democrats used to demean black men during the era of slavery and segregation.

In addition to other outrageous racist images of Dr. Condoleezza Rice produced by several Democrats, cartoonist Jeff Danziger depicted Dr. Rice as an ignorant, barefoot "mammy", reminiscent of the stereotyped black woman in the movie “Gone with the Wind” about the slave era black woman who remarked: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies". This is the type of racist stereotype Democrats used to demean black women during the era of slavery and segregation.

Democrats now love Gen. Colin Powell, but spewed out racist attacks on Powell before he endorsed Obama and embraced the liberal agenda of higher taxes and a bigger government to provide poverty-producing handouts to blacks.

A video was shot by WKRN Video Journalist Beau Fleenor at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee that shows Al Sharpton demeaning Gen. Powell and Dr. Rice, when Sharpton was asked to give his opinions about whether Powell and Rice were “House Negroes". That video can be found on the Internet at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdVjrBY5-F0

An article that appeared in a Portland, Oregon paper was one of many exposing how hardly a ripple of protest was made by black Democrats when Harry Belafonte publicly denounced Gen. Powell as a "House Negro". It can be found on the Internet at: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2002/10/27103.shtml

The denigration by Democrats of blacks who identify with the Republican Party makes it nearly impossible for the Republican Party to attract blacks into the party, and for black Republicans to get elected to office in black communities. Yet, Democrats have the temerity to point a finger of blame at the Republican Party for there being so few blacks in the Republican Party and for there being so few black Republican elected officials. Notably, the few black Republicans who get elected to public office do so in largely white Republican districts.

Those black Americans living in the Democrat-controlled neighborhoods who want to get out of poverty should seize control over their own destiny and stop voting monolithically for Democrats who use “plantation politics” to buy their votes while keeping blacks in poverty.

Democrats will forever maintain a ”lock” on the black vote, for as long as black Americans – including prosperous blacks who sympathize with poor blacks – continue believing the myth that the Republican Party is a racist party and clinging to the false notion that poor blacks are “victims” who need government handouts to survive.

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She can be contacted at: www.NBRA.Info
(Article reprinted with permission)