Here is another one-sorry but its got more of those uncomfortable facts
Armey Needs A Lesson In The Republican Party's Racial History
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
In a letter to NAACP president Kweisi Mfume House Majority Leader Dick Armey accused the organization of "racial McCarthyism." He specifically cited the NAACP's attack on Bush for indifference to the Texas dragging murder of James Byrd by three white supremacists and for inciting racially-divisive protests over Florida voting irregularities. Armey asked Mfume for a meeting. But if he is serious about easing racial polarization, he could start by looking at his own party's shameful record on race. In 1964 the Republican party was practically defunct in the five deep South states. Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater set out to change that by riding the first tide of white backlash. He opposed the 1964 civil rights bill, railed against big government, and championed states rights. At the Republican convention nearly all the Southern delegates backed him. Despite his landslide loss to Lyndon Johnson, Goldwater deeply planted the seed of racial pandering that would be the centerpiece of the Republican's "Southern Strategy" in the coming decades. The strategy was simple: court white voters, ignore blacks, and do and say as little about civil rights as possible.
In 1968, Richard Nixon picked the hot button issues of bussing, and quotas, adopted the policy of benign neglect and subtly stoked white racial fears. He routinely peppered his talks with his confidants with derogatory quips about blacks. He enshrined in popular language racially-tinged code words such as, "law and order," permissive society" "welfare cheats," "crime in the streets," "subculture of violence," "subculture of poverty," "culturally deprived" and "lack of family values."
Ronald Reagan picked up the racial torch by launching the first major systematic attack on affirmative action programs, and gutting many social and education programs. He refused to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus, attempted to reduce the power of the Civil Rights Commission over employment discrimination cases, and opposed the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Reagan Attorney General, Ed Meese complained that the bill discriminated against the South.
In 1988, Bush, Sr., made escaped black convict Willie Horton the poster boy for black crime and violence and turned the presidential campaign against his Democrat opponent, Michael Dukakis into a rout. He branded a bill by Ted Kennedy to make it easier to bring employment discrimination suits a "quotas bill" and vetoed it. He further infuriated blacks by appointing arch-conservative Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Bush and Reagan's thinly disguised racial salvos were too much even for Colin Powell. In his autobiography, My American Journey, the general called Reagan "insensitive" on racial issues, and tagged Bush's Horton stunt, "a cheap shot." Republican presidential hopeful, Bob Dole waltzed through his failed campaign against Clinton in 1996 making only the barest mention of racial issues. He flatly rejected an invitation to speak at the NAACP convention. In 1998, the Republicans had a golden opportunity to loudly denounce race baiting, extremist groups when it was revealed that Senate Majority leader Trent Lott, and Georgia representative Robert Barr had cozied up to the pro-segregation, states rights, Council for Conservative Citizens. They, and that included Armey, were stone silent on the Council. Before, during, and after his campaign, Bush repeatedly promised a total racial makeover of the Republican Party. His appointments of Condeleezza Rice, Powell, and Rod Paige to top level posts supposedly is the signal that he means what he says. But those appointments, and photo-ops at inner-city schools, can't easily wipe away the rotten taste Bush left when he spoke at racially-archaic Bob Jones University, ducked the Confederate flag fight, and racial profiling, refused to support tougher hate crimes legislation and promptly ignited a racially-destructive battle by appointing ultra-conservative, John Ashcroft as attorney general. Undoubtedly there's much more to Armey's extended hand to the NAACP than a burning urge for racial reconciliation. He can do the math. Republicans have lost Congressional seats in every midterm election since 1994. In 2004, 20 republicans and 13 Democrats are up for re-election in the Senate. If black voters are convinced that the Republicans are bent on doing everything they can to damage their interests they will again angrily march to the polls in big numbers. This could wipe out the razor thin edge Bush and the Republicans have in the Senate.
It's no accident why blacks have given the Democrats 80 to 90 percent of their vote since the Goldwater rebuff in 1964. They give them near monolithic support not because they are madly in love with their polices, but because the Republicans have blown every chance they've had to prove that they are friends and not mortal enemies of civil rights. This is a point Armey did not mention in his letter to the NAACP.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the President of The National Alliance for Positive Action. website
www.natalliance.org email:ehutchinson@natalliance.org