"While Black America has been loyal to the Democratic Party, Black America has been taken for granted by the Democrats ... " — Frank Aquila
Martin Luther King Jr., unknown to most, was a Republican. He believed Black America should strive to achieve the most of each opportunity through a dream of equality.
Most black Americans aligned themselves as Democrats through the social programs created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, although Roosevelt appointed a life member of the Ku Klux Klan, Sen. Hugo Black, D-Alabama, to the Supreme Court, and in 1944, he chose Harry Truman as his vice president, who had joined the Klan in Kansas City in 1922. Prior to Roosevelt’s New Deal, a majority of Black America had been Republican, thanks in part to President Abraham Lincoln’s yeoman efforts to end slavery.
While Black America has been loyal to the Democratic Party, Black America has been taken for granted by the Democrats, using racial divisions and pandering from social dependence of government to maintain the base of Black America without providing any substance in return. Even today, the driving force behind policies like affirmative action is the liberal belief that Black America can’t make it in America without assistance from the left. Such government assistance and lowering of educational standards have only weakened Black America. These lower educational standards, such as Ebonics, where English is mixed with slang, only place black American youths at a disadvantage.
The Republican Party believes in standards of aspiration, provided by education, hard work and a strong family to teach inner values to their children. The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln, the first Republican president. It was formed as the anti-slavery party, which believed in a color-blind society, where “all people are created equal.”
The Democrats? They supported slavery and turned water hoses and dogs on black protesters in the 1960s. Remember Gov. George Wallace? Democrat. Bull Connor? Democrat. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, a Democrat, used wiretapping to spy on King. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has commonly used the “n” word. He was not only a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, he was a Grand Kleagle — an official recruiter who signed up members for $10. He joined because it “offered excitement” and because the Klan was an effective force in “promoting American values.”
Although he no longer is a Klan member, Byrd filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act for more than 14 hours. He also opposed the nomination of the Supreme Court’s two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas. During the vote on the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 82 percent of Republicans in the Senate voted for it while only 64 percent of Democrats supported it.
As recently as the 1980s, Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., publicly referred to blacks as “darkies” without suffering any punishment from his party.
In 1983, Republican President Ronald Reagan signed into law Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday. However, in 1985, then-Gov. Bill Clinton, a Democrat, signed Act 985 into law, making the birthdates of King and Robert E. Lee, the general who led the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, state holidays on the same day in Arkansas.
For 12 years, Gov. Clinton did nothing to remove the Confederate symbol in the state flag, nor did he make any attempt to repeal a law that designated Confederate Flag Day as the Saturday immediately proceeding Easter. As president, Clinton was hailed as “America’s first black president” and seen favorably in Black America; but what did he do for Black America? On May 5, 1993, he praised ex-Arkansas Sen. J. William Fulbright, as “my mentor” as he gave the nation’s highest civilian award — the Presidential Medal of Freedom — to Fulbright, who spent the vast majority of his public career and life as a proud segregationist and who voted against the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts.
Republican President George W. Bush has appointed more black Americans to higher positions than any other American president. If President Bush were a Democrat, many, if not most, in Black America would find his record commendable. But since he is a Republican, he gets no credit for the positive initiatives he has undertaken that would benefit Black America, including a voucher program for disadvantaged students in predominately black areas who are mired in underperforming schools, allowing parents a choice where they can send their children to school. However, Democrats have blocked this program.
If anyone in Black America votes or runs for office as a Republican, he or she is characterized as a traitor by the Democratic Party, which often slanders and uses fear tactics to hold on to a base it has taken for granted.
In 2006, Ken Blackwell and Lynn Swann each ran for governor in Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively, while Michael Steele ran for the senate in Maryland. Each faced racism as Oreo cookies were thrown at them, portraying them as black on the outside, but white on the inside.
While there are racists on the right and the left, a Yale University study says white Republicans are more likely to vote for a Republican candidate who is black than white Democrats are likely to vote for a black Democratic candidate.
Does the Democratic Party take advantage of black Americans? Black America cannot gain political leverage if the Democratic Party is not forced to compete. The traditional solutions of the Democratic Party have not truly served Black America. Black Americans should believe that they can do better and achieve the dream envisioned by King.
