# Blacks and the GOP **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 13, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057 "2010-06-13T22:53:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/181 "2010-06-16T18:35:18Z")
A properly-trained dog doesn’t even know he’s been trained. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/182 "2010-06-16T18:36:37Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It was a fake problem which served to play right into the most base and hateful instincts of the voters (something conservatives have always been experts at, and which liberals have no idea how to do). Class envy and stirring up hatred against “the wealthy?” I think the Left has a pretty good resume on that, as some tens of millions of victims of communism could attest (if they weren’t dead). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/183 "2010-06-16T19:21:22Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Class envy and stirring up hatred against “the wealthy?” I think the Left has a pretty good resume on that, as some tens of millions of victims of communism could attest (if they weren’t dead). Dropping the “Left=Communism!!” bomb to sidetrack the conversation, I see. More of a BBQ Pit tactic, but whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/184 "2010-06-16T19:52:58Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The violence is a consequence of our own stupid drug laws. Not true. These particular stupid drug laws (and I agree that at least the laws relating to pot are stoopid) have been around for 30 years and yet the violence is fairly recent. I would say that the blame may lie with our stupid gun laws (or lack thereof) except those have een around since about 1776. I think the blame lies on the Mexico side. For some reason, violent drug smugglers have come in and replaced sneaky drug smugglers. Someone suggested recently thatg it might e the growing pains of a more vibrant democracy in mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/185 "2010-06-16T20:04:46Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Uh, you do know that he ran as a Democrat for most of his life don’t you?.. If you were alive during that time you would have remembered how hated he was and denounced by the [Republican] party. Are you seriously trying to argue that the Democratic party TODAY is more racist than the Republican party TODAY? THe Democratic party? You do know we have a black president and he has a (D) next to his name right? Perhaps you are saying that neither party is racist and ceratinly neither party yells racial epitaphs anymore but the Republican party is still where racists find their political home these days. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/186 "2010-06-16T20:10:08Z")
You won’t get an answer. An e-mailed (or Fox-broadcast) list of talking points is all he’s got. Pity. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/187 "2010-06-16T20:10:31Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Then what the hell did you mean by > > Their Republican vote is far lower than the national average, How much lower do you think is appropriate? Well, I think that aside from the abortion issue, hispanic voters would be voting Democrat in roughly the same proportion as blacks. I look at national hispanic candidates and I just don’t see too many Hispanic Republicans outside of Florida. My point is that nearly a third of Hispanic voters are effectively single issue voters. I think that Democrats spent too much political capital catering to abortionists and are now paying a political price for it (just like Republicans spent too much political capital catering to segregationists and are paying a price). On the other hand, we have effectgively gotten rid of all the whacko religious nutjobs and held on to the plain old religious nutjobs (and I say taht as a proud religious nutjob). ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/188 "2010-06-16T20:11:43Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > My point is that there is a double standard. I could pick on more Democratics with a bad voting record. You don’t see threads started about how racist The Democratic party is. The whole meme of Republican racism is nothing but political swill catering to a minority vote that is nothing short of the pot calling the kettle black. It gets old. Did you miss the aprt where the pot elected a black president? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/189 "2010-06-16T20:19:18Z")
> [@Damuri Ajashi](#): > > I think that Democrats spent too much political capital catering to abortionists and are now paying a political price for it :dubious: If by “catering to abortionists” you mean “supporting women’s reproductive rights”, then speaking as a Democrat, I think we’ve made the right decision. And I think that as time goes by, more and more black and Hispanic voters will agree with it. Latin America, after all, has the second highest abortion rate of all regions in the world, even though abortions are illegal throughout most of it. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/190 "2010-06-16T20:24:26Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Even though you don’t believe it, there are plenty of people who are against illegal immigration who aren’t racists. The problem is that too many of them are in fact racist. It is racist to try to deny citizenship to babies born in the US when Americans do it just like it is racist for Israel to deny Israeli citizenship to Palestinian babies born in Israel (even if one of the parents is an Israeli). Its not Democratic Arizona legilstors propsing these kinds of laws. > [@](#): > > Even though I think it goes to far, you do realize that there are plenty of brown skin people who support what Arizona did, right? And as for Arizonan’s being a bunch of red necks who hate brown skin people, do you know a large amount of people from there, or are you just painting them with a broad brush based on your opinions of them rather than facts? And there are a lot of Asians that think affirmative action is unfair now that its working against them but probably didn’t mind so much when it opened the doors of the Ivy league to them. I’m not accusing all these latinos of selfish motives, just a change in perspective. They think they are one of “US” and not one of “THEM” anymore. It doesn’t help that recent illegal aliens have been bringing so much vipolence with them. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/191 "2010-06-16T20:26:25Z")
**Magiver** , I’m writing this post with the hopes you’re still reading, and for reasons of your own are not responding to my question. I’d like you to consider the following: For just a moment, let’s leave alone whether or not you heard the dog whistle, for the purposes of this post only let’s assume it happened. Which is better for moving the debate forward? Acknowledging it happened and marginalizing that position. Pretending it didn’t happen, thus implying I’m lying or somehow oversensitive. Now, lay that to side a moment and go back to assuming the statement was made. Again just for the purposes of this single posting; imagine it was a campaign ad. Now, think about any particular ad that annoyed you this past primary season. How many times did you hear it? More importantly, did anyone insist to you that _the ad does not exist_? Last one, now again assuming for the purposes of this post only, again taking it as a given that the dog whistle happened. That post was one of 125 post made to this thread at the time. Now again assume there was just one ad like it for every election, how many such ads do you think I would have heard in since 1986 (the first year I voted). Now go back and re-read my first two posts to you. I ask you again, are you trying to win a debate, or are you trying to understand? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/192 "2010-06-16T20:27:03Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Illegal immigration is neither here nor there. I’m not talking about the issue _per se_, but the exploitation of the issue by the Republican Party as a coded way to gin up racial resntment and fear. > > Percentage-wise, no. No there aren’t. > > I didn’t say that. I said the REPUBLICAN BASE was a bunch of rednecks. There are a few terms, the use of which really bother me. Grandfathering is one of them (it has escaped its racist origins) and Redneck is the other (it has lost the meaning given to it by the blood of exploited miners who stood up to corporate security guard that beat them when they tried to unionize), but taht’s neither here nor there. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/193 "2010-06-16T20:31:02Z")
> [@Enfant Terrible](#): > > The question at hand, I believe, is why black people do not vote in great number for the GOP…You want black votes, Republicans? Call out this despicable conduct whenever and wherever you see it. Make it clear–and not with easily deciphered lip service–that you are committed to an America where all are treated equally and anyone in need is considered someone to be helped, and not a problem to be solved. > > I won’t hold my breath. Well the prolem is that the Republicans have backed themselves into a corner. They have cobbled together a winning coalition but it requires them to sell their souls to corporate interests even more tahn the Democrats have and it requires them to pander to at least wink and nod to the racists. I have no doubt that if they could win elections witjhout the racist vote, they would drop them in a second but they can’t so they don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/194 "2010-06-16T20:31:15Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > And there are a lot of Asians that think affirmative action is unfair now that its working against them but probably didn’t mind so much when it opened the doors of the Ivy league to them. I’m not accusing all these latinos of selfish motives, just a change in perspective. They think they are one of “US” and not one of “THEM” anymore. It doesn’t help that recent illegal aliens have been bringing so much vipolence with them. I have not studied the statistics about how much crime is caused by illegal aliens, so I won’t speak to that, but as for why there are minority members who are against illegal immigration or agree with Arizona’s laws, or whatever, is because they played by the rules to become citizens or resident aliens, or what-have-you, and they don’t appreciate others sneaking in here breaking the law in order to live here. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/195 "2010-06-16T20:33:04Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > If I were to go to a tea party and see a sign like that you would know what I look like because I would in the news standing over a body. > > Duke was treated by derision by the GOP. That is in marked contrast to a Democratic presidential candidate who once called New York city Himeytown and was heard off mike saying he wanted to cut President Obama’s balls off. > > Apologies are great but shouldn’t be necessary in the first place. So does the fact that Trent Lott and Strom Thrumond never apologized make them less racist? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/196 "2010-06-16T20:45:50Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Accusations of racism are often used by the Left to avoid discussions of uncomfortable truths about core Democratic constituencies. As we’ve seen in this thread, and others. I totally agree but that doesn’t make those accusations untrue. Its a bit like having an argument with a fat person and then saying" Oh yeah, well you’re fat" when you can’t figure out what else to say. Its not a legitimate form of debate but its not untrue either. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/197 "2010-06-16T20:52:25Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > The repubs have pandered to the bigots and racists for generations. They would be kidding themselves if they think blacks will forgive and forget easily. Like Phil Ochs said" some of the best negroes are our friends". They trot out Steele and a couple others and declare they are not anti-black . But these guys are not acting in the interests of the blacks. They are seen as traitors. You mean nominating Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court didn’t win them any points? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/198 "2010-06-16T21:12:53Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Well the prolem is that the Republicans have backed themselves into a corner. They have cobbled together a winning coalition but it requires them to sell their souls to corporate interests even more tahn the Democrats … Here is yet another myth that involves rock throwing from the glass house crowd. [Obama was the largest recipient of money from BP in 2008](http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/05/05/bp.lobbying/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/199 "2010-06-16T22:28:04Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Class envy and stirring up hatred against “the wealthy?” I think the Left has a pretty good resume on that, as some tens of millions of victims of communism could attest (if they weren’t dead). There are two ends to that spectrum, but you knew that. BTW, do you think the Democratic party is advocating a communist revolution? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/200 "2010-06-16T22:37:01Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > :dubious: If by “catering to abortionists” you mean “supporting women’s reproductive rights”, then speaking as a Democrat, I think we’ve made the right decision. No, by catering to abortionists I meant supporting partial birth abortions and abortion on demand generally. If we had a more balanced approach to begin with instead of being forced into the more balanced position we have today perhaps we wouldn’t have pushed religious moderates into the arms of the religious right. I have no problem with first trimester abortions and i think sex education is critical to reducing the number of abortions among teenagers (well pregnancy generally among teenagers whether the baby is aborted or not is something that I think we should try to reduce and trying to do that by reducing teenage sexual activity simply tells me that you are too old to remember what it was like to be a teenager) but I also think that the notion that the right to abortion trumps almost everything else really turned off a lot of people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057.md?page=11)