It's time to play the race card.

I'm seeing a lot of letters to the editor lately explaining how the GOP is the best party for blacks in America. This is a bold faced lie and we need to start fighting back before they are successful in perpetrating this fraud on our country.

I won't even get into the racism records of Lott, Ashcroft, Thurmond, Helms and the other Republican icons. I won't get into Bush's staunch opposition to Affirmative Action. Let's talk about things we can actually win on.

The GOP's economic policies leave blacks behind. A higher proportions of African Americans live in poverty than any other racial group. We need to explain how the GOP's opposition to an increase in minimum wage hurts the people- black, white or hispanic- living below the poverty line.

The GOP's cuts in education spending in the name of "reducing the deficit" hurts children of all races, but minority children more than whites because the schools that need the funding are the schools with high percentages of minority students, ie inner city schools.

Millions of Americans, black and white, live without adequate healthcare. Again, the percentage of African Americans without healthcare is out of proportion to that of whites. African Americans have a lifespan that is significantly less than that of whites. Could this be related to the lack of healthcare for these Americans? The GOP has targeted Medicare and Medicaid as "social entitlements" that need to be "reformed".

Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 no Democratic candidate has won the White House with a majority of white votes. That means if we allow the GOP to con black voters into believing that the GOP is the party for African Americans the Democratic party may never win another presidency.

The time is now to fight the GOP on race. Church groups all over the country are beginning to realize that George Bush and "compassionate conservatism" is a scam. Poverty is becoming a big issue with religious voters. We need to do what the Democratic party has done for the last half century, which is to look out for the poor, the needy, and the minorities.

If we don't do it, we might as well give up.

I wish more minorities would get out to vote. I think the majority of minorities would vote Democrat if they got out to vote. The minority vote is still one of the largest, if not the largest, demographic of non-voters in the US. The sad part, is that where thier votes would count the most, they face the toughest challenges. Many are intimidated, ridiculed, of flatly shut out from voting when heading to the polls to cast thier votes. Thier district's are notoriously underfunded, and understaffed. These are key problems out there that do need to be addressed.

In the sixties, we had Dr King. He was a great motivating factor. Who do we have today? We need to be able to explain to minorities that if they don't vote, they will be intentionally left behind by the GOP.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and it's discouraging. We need to do something soon or we will lose the one constituency that really stands to gain through Democratic values.

alot of grassroots work, and election reform. That would be a good start. At least if they know that they can go to the polls and thier votes would be counted, that they wouldn't need to be standing outside for hours on ends. Would be a bug plus! Its going to take alot of community action and awareness. Doing voter registration drives in minority neighborhoods. Political awareness groups. Unfortunately, minorities and not the only ones suffering without a leader in the molds of the great civil leaders of yesteryear. Even as a white male in a blue state, I find that there is no one I can look to, to lead the charge. Willing to stick his or her neck out and risking thier careers, their livelyhood, and even thier lives to lead the people. So, in that respect, its up to us, as individuals, to do our part.

Why should they vote? Remember when no senator would stand with the CBC?

We earn the black vote by not only standing up for disenfranchisement but the black communities most important issues. Start thinking about federally funding all public schools, nationalizing curriculum, free college education, and universal health care. And watch as the black community comes out and supports our cooperative effort in numbers unseen.

many white people talking to white people." I purposely did all my GOTV in the African American community. One thing that occured to me was that every African American community has a group of older black men who stand on some street corner shooting the breeze. I was constantly saying to these men, if you see these young guys standing on the corner on Nov. 2, kick them in the behind, grab them by the ear, do whatever it takes to get their butts to the polls. This is where we should focus.

but list the three things that John Kerry said during the campaign that actually showed he truly coveted the black vote. I think Kerry was afraid of being portrayed as "for the minorities." That's what they say about Democrats here in the south. But what made Clinton so popular with us is that he embraced that label.

We wouldn't bite him. (LOL!) I think that's why so many like Clinton because he never compromised the issue of race. I think the campaign made a huge mistake of ignoring the South period.

Earlier this month I was watching the 2000 Selma voting rights memorial act thing they had and Clinton went there with some of his people and he was mingling and hugging and paying attention to every single person there. Black and white and in between. He was compassionate about all of us. He listened to every person who spoke at the event and paid attention to what they said when someone talked to him and looked them in the eyes. I do believe Kerry is that way as well but for whatever reason they forgot about us in the south a little bit.

Johnson knew when he worked so hard to pass the Civil Rights Act that it would cost the Democratic Party the South for at least a generation. But he did what needed to be done. He did what was morally right.

It makes me ashamed when I read the posts about we can't bring up race because white people will run away. That's just crap. True progressives with real progressive values will not run away. And we're not going to win the votes of those who vote Republican based on race, anyway.

It's one more case of us against them. The GOP is great at framing it like this and we fall into the trap. Good vs Evil. Gay vs Straight. Pro-abortion vs Pro-Life. Red vs Blue. Black vs White. And we let them get away with it. It's got to stop.

We need to start standing up for what is right or the GOP will win. If you think the state of the union is bad now, wait until they pick up enough seats in the Senate and Congress to lock up control of the government for our lifetimes.

I'm frustrated...

:grr:

BTW, scbluevoter, nice to meet you.

:)

No issue has hurt the Democratic Party as much as the issue of race. This issue cost the Democrats the south in the 1960's, and cost the Dems middle America in the 1970's. A lot of white people feel that whatenever a policy benefits black people that it necessarly hurts whites.

Working class white males have left the party in droves because of the issue of race; they fear that liberal economic reform is aimed solely at blacks, and therefore fear that blacks will take their jobs (and their status in society).

While Democrats have to return to a policy of economic populism, they cannot mention the issue of race, when doing so (sadly). Talking about economic issues for the poor and working class has the potential to galvanize not only black voters, but also to get the white working-class, voting for the Democrats again.

I've seen numerous LTTEs in the local papers about how the Democratic Party has abandoned blacks and how the GOP is going to "take care of them." We can't ignore this. If we do, they will succeed in winning away enough African American voters that we won't be able to ever regain control of Congress, the Senate, or the White House.

Never mind that the LTTEs are lies. There is nothing in the GOP's policies or plans that benefit the poor or needy, regardless of race. The GOP is turning it into class warfare, racial warfare, whatever. We can't ignore it.

We ignored it when they started labelling us as evil in the late nineties and the Gingrich-led GOP took control of Congress by winning the religious votes, which, by the way, have historically supported progressive issues such as racial equality, poverty, etc (the only way we lose the religious vote is with abortion, and that's because we allowed the GOP to label us as Pro-Abortion).

There are two reasons we lost the south. The first is that many of the so-called Dixiecrats jumped parties because of the Civil Rights bill. Do you want to be on the side of racism or on the side of equality?

The other is that the GOP has had four decades to paint social programs that benefit African Americans as "entitlements" and "free rides." They ignore the fact that more whites benefit from social programs than all other racial groups combined and vote against them because they see it as rewarding blacks and taking away from whites.

How many times have you heard a white guy repeat the following GOP catchphrase verbatim:

"A black guy got a job I that I should have had because he was black. Affirmative Action sucks!"

The fact is, in most cases it's just not true. They believe it because they've been told by the GOP that blacks are getting a free ride and are getting jobs that should be going to whites.

If we ignore race as an issue, we lose.

I agree that the GOP has historically been able to reshape the issues (when we ignore them), so as to portray the Dems in a negative light. However, for many of the reasons which you stated, I don't think that the Dems need to focus on race (you admitted above that race cost us the south).

Whenever Democrats have related liberal economic policies to how they effect black people, there has inevitably been a backlash from working-class whites. The biggest detriment to liberal economic policy since the mid-60's has been that white people (falsely) see liberal policy as being harmful to their economic interests.
If Democrats had not focused much of the rhetoric for economic reform on aiding blacks (as opposed to the entire lower and working-class) during the late '60's and early '70's- then Republicans would have had a much more difficult time convincing whites that Dems were interested in promoting minority groups at their expense.

It is because of race that Republicans have been able to win on the issues of welfare, taxes, and have generally turned the word "liberalism" into a negative. If Democratic policy ceases to be viewed as a racial issue, and begins to be correctly viewed as a class issue, then the Democrats can win back the working-class vote.

Democrats lose elections because the vast majority of voters in the country are white, and the vast majority of whites vote Republican. Until the Democrats can close that gap amongst white voters, they aren't going to regain control of gov't. Blacks will generally continue to vote for us as long as our economic policies continue to appeal to them- even if we don't always call them out by name.

As long as we specifically talk about race, the Republicans will make every election about social issues; when the election is about social issues, lower class whites see the Democrats as being the party of elitests (and thus vote Republican). However, if the debate is becomes about economic issues then the Republicans can't use their fake-populism, since their support of big business clearly makes them the party of elitests. If the Republicans begin to be correctly seen as the party of the elites, then both poor whites and poor blacks will vote Democrat, and that will give us a majority.

The "divide and conquer" strategy the Repubs have used since the 60s works all too well. Poor and working-class whites see themselves as competing with AAs and immigrants for crumbs (and are often so stuck in hierarchical thinking it's important to them to have someone to feel superior to; it's nasty but true. Repubs encourage this mindset).

It's important to take over the terms of the debate. It's important to get people--white people especially--to realize that black and white working-class people have a hell of a lot more in common with each other than either does with the rich. But since CLASS has become a taboo for some Democrats to talk about, this point can't be made at all, much less made effectively. I agree with you completely on this. Economic populism is Democrats' best hope for bridging the racial divide.

But we can't let it make us afraid to talk about race either. We can't afford to cede anything--any talking point, any issue, any cultural sore spot. We just have to find the right ways to talk about it. They've spent decades honing their "marketing" so that all the right people get the code words.

'Framing' issues is not a magic wand. Sometimes, all it amounts to is different shades of lipstick on the same pig.

If an effective anti-poverty program is to be started, it has to be done without reference to race. This is just political reality. If programs were started in inner cities and Appalachia, claims of 'handouts' would lose at least half of their underpinning. Also, any anti-poverty program has be in conjunction with broad social spending aimed at the middle class. If both of these are done, the chances of the program having an effect, and longevity, greatly increase. While it's not possible to silence all ideological criticism, it is possible to fashion the programs in such a way that critics look both mean and stupid (Social Security).

the needs of poor people (mostly AA and other people of color) in the cities are not necessarily the exact same needs of poor people (mostly white) in Appalachia. They're not necessarily poor for the same reasons and certainly the local picture of what jobs, child care, health care, etc. are even available to them are widely different. We have to watch out for regional differences and the urban/rural divide substituting as code words for race--but we also need to acknowledges differences in people's situation. I don't imagine either whites or blacks want to be spoken of, or for, as sort of generic poor people without attention paid to their specific situations. Framing isn't a magic wand, but it's very important when it comes to making each different audience feel you're speaking to them and are aware of their specific concerns.

This is the best:

<Do you want to be on the side of racism or on the side of equality? >

That's right. That should be what our people talk about. What the right doesn't do for all people. I was watching the DNC winter meeting when Dean was made the new chairman he was talking about how we are the people party and all you have to do is look at who's in our party. People of all racists. We don't ignore people. Look at our parties meetings and compare them to the right and look at the people there. Anybody who thinks the democratic party ignores people are the Bush supporters.

So are we going to buy into that shit? The GOP has more than it's share (if one is a share) and they seem proud of it. Byrd never denied it and has publicly said it was wrong and he made a mistake. Has Ashcroft (Southern Partisan Magazine)or Lott (support for Thurmond's segregationist presidential run) or Thurmond (who raped a young black woman) ever admitted to being wrong? Well, maybe Lott, but since he said the exact same thing twenty years earlier it's hard to believe his sincerity.

History shows that there is no way that Democrats can win without heavy African American support. The only two Dems elected since the Civil Rights Act are Carter and Clinton and both enjoyed great popularity among African Americans. If it were not for blacks they would not have been elected because in both cases they did not win a majority of white votes.

If we give up on race and allow the GOP to convince voters that the Dems have given up on blacks because they don't vote, then we're screwed. If we do that I'll never give another penny to a Democratic candidate. You don't abandon one of your core constituencies because it's not convenient.

"Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 no Democratic candidate has won the White House with a majority of white votes."

While I agree that Democrats should not take minority voters for granted, what's up with the white vote?

Whites are still a majority of voters and will be for a long time. Why aren't we working to get more white voters? If we only rely on minority voters we will be in big trouble.

Let's not concede the white vote to the Rethugs either. If we could only make inroads in the fight for white voters then we could win a lot more elections and the country would be a lot better off.

The point is the GOP is making a move to sway African American voters to vote for them. They will lie, cheat and steal to get those votes. We cannot let them do it.

Yes, we need to work on white voters as well. But we cannot afford to lose black votes and blacks cannot afford to allow the GOP to decide what is best for them. With the GOP the corporations win and normal people lose every time. That's why the GOP is so against raising the minimum wage. It doesn't benefit the corporations.

You have to ask yourself, if black votes are not so important, why does the GOP go to all the trouble to purge black voters from voter records and to carry out voter suppression operations? It matters to someone. It should matter to us.

and I'm sure he's grown up a lot. How old was he then? I'm not saying what he did was right (it wasn't) but you can't hold people to their past actions all the time.

Its not like he was a tad racist. He was their leader... He can say what he wants. I do not care if he is a Democrat, I would not spit on him if he were on fire.

Then why is J.C. Watts the only elected federal official who is a black Republican? Why, also, does Watts refuse to work with the Congressional Black Caucus?

(I'm fairly sure I'm right about this, correct me if I'm wrong.)

Do we allow the GOP to start pulling a con on people or do we stop it now? I see these letters to the editor almost daily.

Here's one from the local Durham, NC website:

Social Security system unfair to women, blacks

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/

President Bush's campaign to create personal investment accounts, as part of the Social Security tax, would permit workers to really own and invest part of the tax, for the first time. Although the impending bankruptcy of the Social Security system is a compelling reason for reform, there are other reasons: the present system is unfair to women workers; unfair to blacks who have shorter life spans; unfair to those who die before retirement, since the government keeps the taxes that have been paid in, except for a token death benefit, while the heirs get nothing.

Add to this the attacks against Senator Byrd, the GOP playing the race card when people said Clarence Thomas wasn't the best man for Chief Justice, and on and on.

There is a pattern here. The GOP has decided to put another nail in the coffin of the Democratic party by going after the black vote. We can't allow this to happen.

Where's the republican black caucus? Where on the Senate are the blacks? Shouldn't that tell people something?

see if they will or even if they know how to fight anymore. In as much as all this is relative to the voting machines it may not matter whether Blacks vote/not, the machines will do the picking.

and the worst thing the dems can do is remain passive about race. We need to stop waiting until an election to go to the black churches and communities.

Blacks now know a snake oils-man when they see one. It doesn't matter if he/she is riding on a donkey or elephant. This is probably why bush is making a dent in the churches.

I guess some of the preachers have reached the point where at least the repubs are giving them something in return for their votes unlike the dems. Its sad, but true!