A serious question: Why are Republicans so uptight around black people?

[kentuck]

I don't wish to generalize but I see Democratic leaders, from Jimmy Carter to Ted Kennedy to Bill Clinton, and they are not uptight. They feel right at home. They feel part of the family. They feel equal. But, for whatever reason, when Republicans like George Bush or Dick Cheney or John McCain get together with black folks, they act defensive, guilty, unnatural...? Why is that? But on second thought, I don't think I have ever seen Dick Cheney in the same room with a black person??? :)

[PVK]

1. On that same note, why are there so many black conservatives?

What is up with that?

[kentuck]

2. Do you have to take off your shoes..?

and count them on your toes, also? :)

[PVK]

3. I might have to use my fingers too. n/t

[goodboy]

4. LOL! thanks, I needed that. (nt)

[Canuckistanian]

8. I liked Michael Moore's interview with Armsrong Williams

Armstrong was telling MM about how good he felt after Ronald Reagan got in as president, and how that changed his life... blah, blah.

Meanwhile, the camera pans to MM sitting there slack-jawed who suddenly says "And you've never taken illegal drugs before...?"

[PVK]

13. Exactly.

I'd think you'd have to be nuts, delusional, bought off or on drugs to be a black conservative.

[bliss_eternal]

17. As far as I'm concerned, it's a contradiction in terms--

kind of like being a vegan that works as a butcher. But that's just me.

[BigYawn]

39. and also if you are a rich black who hates paying taxes

to subsidize those not so successful folks.

[snowbear]

18. There AREN'T --- the handful you see are on the media

"Not all Republicans are racists, but all racists are Republican"


Don't remember who coined that phrase.. but for the most part - it still rings true.

[joe_sixpack]

42. I'm not too sure of that,

Having grown up in Chicago.

[EC]

31. I always figured there were Black Nerds, too... n/t

[PVK]

32. Like that gay cross-eyed guy who comments on MSNBC sometimes?

Used to work with Cheney? Ron Christie?

http://64.207.154.178/backend/speakers/310/Christie,%20Ron.jpg

[EC]

34. He is the one that comes to mind.... n/t

[Voltaire]

5. Because one hates what one wrongs

Their collective guilt is what makes them uncomfortable. Well, some of them have guilt...the flat out sociopaths like Cheney and Bush and Rove don't give a fuck.

[Mythsaje]

6. I wish I knew...

speaking for myself, I'm uncomfortable around ANY people I don't know, except for the few rare exceptions (certain people have good vibes that make me comfortable right off), but it is interesting that professional baby-kissers and glad-handers should feel uncomfortable around people who are just people.

[goodboy]

7. because they're used to being around 'black' people who are only

black on the outside. And they're closeted (and sometimes not so closeted) bigots and racists.,

[The Magistrate]

9. Guilty Conscience, Sir

It will out, even in those apparently without that ordinary human feature. Republicans know full well the real root of their voting strength is racism. The rest of it is just window dressing, and things someone can point to to say, "Hey, I'm no racist...."

[kentuck]

10. Bingo!

I think you may have it Sir ! :)

[madeline_con]

14. Wow. What an epiphany for me.

Thanks for the insight.

[The Magistrate]

19. If You Do Not Mind A Little History Review, Ma'am

The matter is one that cannot be stressed sufficiently, as it is a key to our present political situation.

The seminal event of modern Republicanism was the candidacy of Sen. Goldwater in 1964. Sen. Goldwater fought against the Civil Rights acts, on the technical grounds that they were un-Constitutional, owing to violating the right of free association, and unwarentably extending Federal power into local matters. He may well have been sincere in this belief, and not arguing from racuist support of segregation and Jim Crow. But to the southern racists such caveats did not matter: he was a candidate who opposed an end to segregation. They voted for him in droves, and for the first time since Reconstruction, states of the Old Confederacy puit their electoral votes in the Republican column.

Despite Sen. Goldwater's crushing defeat nationwide, this was an epiphany for the more ruthless Republ;ican figures. Nixon in particular understood the full implications, and realized that "When it comes to Negroes, the whole country is Southern." His "Law and Order" campaign imaugurated the uise of coded speech to veil racism and make response to it respectable again: no one was under any illusion that the import of the phrase was Black unrest and Black ctiminals. With further siphoning off of formerly Democratic voters by the segregationist hero Wallace on a third party ticket, and left agitation against Vice-President Hunphrey as a surrogate for L.B.J. and the Viet Nam War, Nixon took the White House, albeit rather narrowly.

Reagan took up the banner in his 1980 campaign, speaking at Philadelphia, Missisippi in defeense of "states' rights", an old code phrase for the right to segregate. By then, "conservativism" had come to mean effectively racism, couched as dismay at "welfare cheats" and "crime" and the "unfairnes to whites" of affirmative action. All these themes can be seen continued into the present day, and they are continued because they are effective.

[madeline_con]

21. Very informative. Thank you. n/t

[geckosfeet]

24. Thanks for the history. eom

[bobbieinok]

35. so very true.....yet some still want to deny this

[jobycom]

30. Exactly! Lee Atwater's highly disgusting comment should be remembered

I apologize in advance for the word used, but I think it's important to understand EXACTLY what they are about.

From Wikipedia: Bob Herbert reported in the October 6, 2005 edition of the New York Times of a 1981 interview with Lee Atwater in which he explains the GOP's Southern Strategy: "You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' - that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.

"And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me - because obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'Nigger, nigger.' "

------------

Lee Atwater, for those who don't remember, was Reagan's man, and was Karl Rove's mentor, and the architect of the Bush Daddy attacks that destroyed Michael Dukakis. Atwater died of a brain tumor soon after that campaign, and had a deathbed conversion, apologizing to Dukakis and a number of others he had slandered over the years. It's not Democratic fantasy that the Republican Party is built on racism--it's their explicitly stated strategy.

[The Magistrate]

33. It Should Indeed, Sir

In my view, anyway, thos should be read by all, and straight, without any varnish on the actual language the wretch employs....

[SmileMaker]

11. Because many white people are uncomfortable with passion

Did anyone see the documentary on Bonheoffer last night? He was really inspired by the sense of passion for God and community that he felt in the black churches he went to in Harlem. The lynchings in America inspired him to go back to Germany and help the Jews. I haven't been able to stop thinking about his story. More people need to see this documentary. I think it could help build bridges.

[madeline_con]

12. It's guilt. And fear. And stupidity.

And elitism and racism from the old colleges they come from, too.

Dick was at the Crawdad ranch with Condi when they all came out for the photo op and not address Cindy Sheehan, who was about a mile away.

[punpirate]

15. Uh, perhaps because they are...

... surprised that real black people move and talk and think, unlike the jockeys on their lawns? :)

[bliss_eternal]

16. Fear--

not just of the obvious, like of being robbed, or a victim of a crime, but fear of the unknown. Fear of what they've been told to fear their entire lives.

Think about it. If your entire life you've been told constantly that a certain group of people are______(fill in the blank)____, in time some of the brainwashing seeps in and takes hold. If your family, moved you away from where you lived, to get you away from 'a certain group' stating that they wanted you to be safe, what message does that send?

But sadly, I don't believe it is just a republican thing. There are also Dems that are 'uptight' around those of other races and ethnicities.

[kentuck]

20. True...

I was mostly referencing Democratic leaders vs. Republican leaders... But, I do believe, Bill Clinton was the first black President. :)

[PVK]

22. Jefferson was the first Republican.

And he was pretty comfortable with blacks.

[kentuck]

23. Jefferson was like one of the founders of the Democratic Party....

as we know it today. I think the Repubs were the Federalists or Whigs or some bastardization thereof??

[PVK]

27. Nope. Jefferson founded the Democratic-Republican party.

Their opponents were Adams' Federalists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic-Republican_Party_(United_States)

[kentuck]

28. That's why we Democrats celebrate Jefferson-Jackson Day...

dinners. We celebrate our founders.

[The Magistrate]

26. Actually, Sir

Mr. Jefferson was the first Democrat. The name of the "faction",a s they were called then, was the Democratic-Republicans, and by the demise of the tory Federalists, it had droped the last portion to become the Democratic Party.

The Republican Party did not come into existance untol 1856, being formed of an amalgam of former Whigs, Free-Soil men, and abolitionists....

[PVK]

29. Technically, yes, but they started off as the hyphenated party.

Democratic-Republican.

Of course, the Republican party of today bears no resemblance.

From the wikipedia article linked above:

In the late 1820s, the party split into factions and dissolved. Along with some ex-Federalists, supporters of Andrew Jackson, led by Martin Van Buren, organized themselves into an offshoot of the Democratic-Republican Party called the Democratic Party. The link between today's Democratic Party and the party founded by Jefferson was a theme emphasized by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and other Democratic politicans throughout the years.

Modern claims to Democratic-Republican heritage
The stature of the presidents who identified themselves with the Democratic-Republican Party during its heyday makes it an enviable institution for modern political parties to identify themselves with. Both major political parties today attempt to identify themselves with old Republican Party presidents. Democrats emphasize the anti-elitism of the early party; Republicans emphasize its belief in states rights. However, only the Democratic Party has a direct link to the original Democratic-Republican Party, and indeed the party notes on its official website that it was founded in 1792 by Thomas Jefferson.<1> The Democratic Party is often called "the party of Jefferson"; whereas the Republican Party, which was founded in 1854, is called "the party of Lincoln."

[Solon]

25. Didn't Chris Rock say that?

I remember a show, and Clinton was President, a late 90s show, shit I don't remember much, anyways, Clinton was in the Audience, and was watching a stand up performance by Chris Rock I believe. Then Chris runs to Clinton and said, to the mostly Black audience, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the First Black President of the United States!" and everyone applauded.

[bobbieinok]

36. some of my black students said their communities in Detroit, etc

said Clinton was the first black president

I watched some of the funeral today at the dr's office but mostly talked with an older black man....he fought in Korea.....he and I essentially knew all the truth about W, so we at once realized we were both getting our news from the internet and not from M$M

I told him about my students' comments and asked him if he agreed......he laughed and said of course it was true

[Peter Frank]

37. You Can Take McCain Out of This Equation!...

McCain is the proud father of an adopted Black child. Rove used this fact to slime & bulldozed him in the 2000 primary race.

After McCain solidly beat Bush in the N.H. primary ("north" country), Rove successfully launched a telephone "push poll" (in "South" Carolina asking, "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?" ...Pure Texas style dirty politics -- the very kind that Karl used to distort the record of Anne Richards (Rove direct mailed church goers with literature falsely portraying Richards as being an actively gay advocate). Bush was elected governor. This the same slimy Rovian politics that attacked Kerry's military record.

Also, the Bush machine attacked McCain as "unstable," because of his time in captivity during the Vietnam War. ...And be warned -- the same machine is now attacking leading Democrats of emotional instability because of angry responses to his "leadership."

[Pithy Cherub]

46. And put him right back in for embracing the author of that bash

against his own child and not demanding a public apology. Mccain's attack on Senator Obama without justification and his non-apology for cutting a damn birthday cake while people, disproportionately people of color, were drowning while he was glad handing with bush.

Or did you just forget your :sarcasm: smiley? :eyes:

[Peter Frank]

48. McCain is smarter than that...

He knows not to take the bait.

Please quote where I used the sarcasm smiley.

[angee_is_mad]

38. Why are White Dems uptight around black people?

Just asking.

[bliss_eternal]

44. Good question...

:hi:

[sendero]

40. Because most of them are racists..

.... and they know it and more importantly, the black people around them know it and they know that they know it.

[Sammy Pepys]

41. I'm guessing Cheney and Condi have been in the same room together....

;)

[bliss_eternal]

45. They don't feel threatened by Condi--

or more specifically, Cheney does not feel Condi is a threat. She drank the Kool-Aid with them.

[Greyhound]

43. They are uncomfortable because they are guilty and pissed off.

They're very ill at ease with any blacks not in a servants uniform.

[leftofthedial]

47. because they ARE guilty

and have every reason to be defensive

unka dick was in the room with Colin and Condi, OH! you said "black person." Never mind.