The Grand Old Party: Getting Back to Our Roots

by walterm on July 15, 2010

In May of 1854, a number of anti-slavery Democrats in Congress, along with anti-slavery members from other political parties, formed a new political party to fight slavery and secure civil rights for black Americans.  The party was called the Republican Party because these brave men wanted to return to the principles of freedom and equality set forth in the Constitution prior to the time that pro-slavery members of Congress had perverted its principles.  Charles Sumner, one of the founders of the new Party, was beaten unconscious to the delight of many Democrats, and it was three-and-a-half years before Sumner was able to recover and rejoin Congress.  The man who attacked him, Democrat Preston Brooks, was proclaimed a southern hero and easily won another term to Congress.

In 1856, the Republican Party entered its first Presidential election, running Republican John C. Fremont against Democrat James Buchanan.  In that election, the Republican Party issued is first-ever Party platform consisting of nine planks, with six of them setting forth declarations of equality and civil rights for black Americans based on principles of the Declaration of Independence.  On the other hand, the Democrat Party platform strongly defended slavery and argued that ending slavery would be dangerous and also ruin the happiness of the people.  The Republicans lost that election.  The following year in 1857, a Democrat-controlled Supreme Court delivered the Dred Scott decision, which declared that blacks were not persons or citizens but were property and therefore had no rights.

In almost a century and a half hence, Democrats have consistently taken the stance that human life is disposable, and fought vehemently against civil rights through segregation and Jim Crow laws until no longer palatable to society.  Today, we see this in their position on unborn human life, as 35% of all abortions today are performed on black Americans, who represent only 12% of the total population.  Democrats have encouraged this, and although black Americans are solidly pro-life, 80 percent of congressional Democrats are decidedly pro-abortion.

The Republican Party has always been about equal rights and the dignity of human persons.  It was the Republican Party that started the NAACP on February 12, 1909, which marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.  Republicans also founded the HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), in order to blunt Democrats who were trying to deny blacks from getting a quality education.  During the civil rights era of the 1960’s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought to stop Democrats from denying civil rights to blacks.  Dr. King, a Republican, would not have considered joining the Democrat Party, because this was the party of the Ku Klux Klan and segregation.

Minority groups began to stray from the Republican Party when the ideals of the party were usurped by the promise of government handouts from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrat Party during the Depression era, even though it was the Republican Party that continued to lead the charge for civil rights against white supremacist Dixiecrats. FDR started blacks on the path to dependency with his “New Deal,” which turned to be a raw deal for blacks.  Even though Roosevelt received the vote of many blacks, he and Democrat members of Congress did little to protect or promote civil rights.

The transition of blacks towards the Democrat Party continued after the New Deal, accelerating in the late 60s with the signing of landmark civil rights legislation in 1964 by Democrat President Lyndon Johnson.  However, it was Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois, not President Johnson, who pushed through the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Dirksen was instrumental in the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964, 1965 and 1968.  The chief opponents of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were Democrat Senators Sam Ervin, Albert Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd, a former official in the Ku Klux Klan who died recently as a member of Congress.  None of these racist Democrats became Republicans.

Democrats squarely condemn Republican President Richard Nixon for his so-called “Southern Strategy” in 1968, which was supposedly a strategy to woo disaffected white racists by supporting states’ rights. Yet these same Democrats expressed no concern when the racially segregated South voted solidly for Democrats for over 100 years, yet now disparage Republicans because of the thirty-year trend of the South switching to the Republican Party that began in the 1970’s.  In truth, Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” according to co-architect Patrick Buchanan, was an effort to get fair-minded people in the South to stop voting for Democrats who did not share their values and were discriminating against blacks.

The Republican Party’s reputation in the eyes of minorities has been considerably damaged over the past four decades, as it has been painted as a party that is largely white, male and southern.  This perception may not be accurate, but perception is often reality.  Though the party is hesitant to wade into identity politics, the classic principles of individual freedoms and equality under the law are not garnering support from minorities as would be expected, since blacks and Hispanics poll even more conservatively than whites on most social issues.  So the question is if this alienation of blacks and Hispanics can be overcome, and how the party would go about remediating what is now a pivotal issue, as Democrats attempt to define conservatives as racist and out of touch with minority communities.

Though the Republican Party’s reputation in minority communities is undeserved, the party has indeed failed to reach out to minorities over past decades. One thing I hear from conservatives is that the conservative message should be sufficient within and of itself. Yet even though minorities are naturally attracted to conservative values, most don’t feel welcome in the Republican Party, so the message itself has not been sufficient in overcoming the siren call of the Democrat Party. With Hispanics and Blacks factoring heavily in the passage of Proposition 8 (a ballot measure which opposed the redefinition of traditional marriage), we see in California the importance of the minority vote. And with the tremendous growth of the Hispanic population, concomitant with a general “browning” of America, it is imperative that we deliver the empowering message of the Republican Party now drowned out by Democrats and the liberal media, who have demeaned our message. Our task is to regain our voice by defining ourselves and connecting with our natural constituencies, independent of race, creed, or color.

Now the problem (and the opportunity, in my view), is that the Democrat Party does not reflect the largely conservative values that are inherent within black communities, which have always relied heavily on faith and family since the days of slavery and Jim Crow. Unfortunately, blacks have yet to realize that even though the Democrat Party appears more welcoming by offering government programs in exchange for blind loyalty, this “free lunch” comes with a price. That price is the loss of freedom, self-reliance, and traditional family values. Indeed, blacks have made a Faustian bargain, having little to show for their loyalty other than a trail of hundreds of billions of dollars wasted on destructive policies and programs.  Blacks are no more economically empowered by the Democrat Party today than during the days of Jim Crow and segregation at the hands of Democrats.

The Republican Party now has an opportunity to bring minorities back into the fold as voters and candidates, and time is of the essence.  When the Republican Party reaches out to minorities, we should do so because of shared values, hopes, dreams and aspirations.  The Republican Party must return to its conservative roots through fiscally conservative policies of limited and Constitutional government, support of family values based on the Judeo-Christian ethic, and a clear message of economic empowerment to minorities through conservative principles. This is a positive, winning message that will require time, patience, and a persistent outreach in order to demonstrate that our party is a serious and viable alternative to the Democrats.  The Democrat Party has no message and no platform that advances the American dream while upholding the ideals of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, as codified in the brilliant documents that are our Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

References:

Barton, David.  Setting the Record Straight:  American History in Black & White, Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 2004.

Steele, Shelby.  “Why the GOP Can’t Win With Minorities.”Wall Street Journal, 16 March 2009.  Available from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123716282469235861.html.Accessed on 3 July, 2010.

Rice, Frances.  “In Commemoration of Juneteenth – The Celebration of Black Freedom.” Red County, 18 June, 2009.  Available from http://www.redcounty.com/commemoration-juneteenth-%E2%80%93-celebration-black-freedom.Accessed on 3 July, 2010.

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