# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/121 "2010-06-16T00:12:59Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > The Republican party has very few black members. I’ve also sometimes heard the sentiment that blacks voting Republican are voting against their own self interest. I would humbly submit that everyone voting Republican are voting against their own self interest. ---
**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, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/122 "2010-06-16T00:18:05Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > It’s interesting that Democrats would continue to stereotype Republicans in this manner. The last time a Klan member tried to run in the GOP he was chased down the street with pitchforks and torches. That is in contrast to a still sitting Democrat who was a high ranking member in the Klan. I don’t know how much more “code” you can get running for office in the state of Virginia than someone who went over 14 hrs straight filibustering the civil rights act of 1964. When you look at the voting record for that vote it was overwhelmingly Republicans who voted it into law with an 82% Senate vote and 82% House vote versus a Democratic vote of 69% in the Senate and 63% in the house. Dude, it doesn’t bother you that you have to reach back 46 years to find glory for the GOP in race relations? The irony of ironies is that your (and too many people like you) dogged refusal to accept anyone’s opinion that these things occurred is also a contributing factor on why we don’t vote Republican. ---
**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, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/123 "2010-06-16T00:41:19Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > Dude, it doesn’t bother you that you have to reach back 46 years to find glory for the GOP in race relations? The irony of ironies is that your (and too many people like you) dogged refusal to accept anyone’s opinion that these things occurred is also a contributing factor on why we don’t vote Republican. Actually, it’s the Democratic party that has to go back that far and as I pointed out, it was Republicans who carried the day. The GOP goes back much further. We are, and will always be the party of Lincoln. If you look at black support for politics it started with JFK’s courtship of MLK for votes. Prior to this he did not have support of the black community nor did the Democratic party. He essentially bought a large voting block with his famous phone call to MLK in prison. ---
**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, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/124 "2010-06-16T00:42:46Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Being anti illegal immigrant is not racist. Did I say that? I don’t know a lot of people that are pro-illegal immigration but I would suggest that if the Arizona state legislature were Democrat, they would have found some way to address the concerns regarding violence coming from across the border that didn’t reek of racism. ---
**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, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/125 "2010-06-16T00:45:21Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > It’s interesting that Democrats would continue to stereotype Republicans in this manner. The last time a Klan member tried to run in the GOP he was chased down the street with pitchforks and torches. That is in contrast to a still sitting Democrat who was a high ranking member in the Klan. I don’t know how much more “code” you can get running for office in the state of Virginia than someone who went over 14 hrs straight filibustering the civil rights act of 1964. When you look at the voting record for that vote it was overwhelmingly Republicans who voted it into law with an 82% Senate vote and 82% House vote versus a Democratic vote of 69% in the Senate and 63% in the house. Where did all those Southern Democrats end up by the Carter administration? So fine, back in 1964, Republicans were not the party that was most hospitable to racists, that changed before most people were born. ---
**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, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/126 "2010-06-16T00:53:09Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Why would you think they do? [Some data fer ya.](http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1024/exit-poll-analysis-hispanics) Over 2-1 for Obama in 2008. yeah… and? Why are hispanics voting for Republicans even half as often as they vote for Democrats considering the low regard with which Republicans obviously hold Hispanics. I am suggesting that abortion is probably the biggest reason. If the Democratic party were pro-life, I suspect that Latino support for the Republican party would shrivel. ---
**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, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/127 "2010-06-16T00:55:24Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The Republican exploitation of the issue is patently racist, and is the 21st Century version of the Southern Strategy. “Illegal immigration” is code for Hispanics in general. It is not use by demagogues to refer to Canadians. The focus is more on Hispanics because they’re the largest group of illegal immigrants. We in America are apathetic about problems until they can finally no longer be ignored. Airplane hijackings had been going on for decades, but it took 911 to finally start getting serious about airport security. Granted they sometimes went overboard. And illegal immigration was mostly ignored until the number of illegal immigrants got to big to ignore. And the vast majority of those are from Mexico or other South American countries. I’m guessing if vast amounts of Canadians started coming into America to live here without going through the proper channels we’d eventually start hearing complaints about that too. ---
**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, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/128 "2010-06-16T00:56:06Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > I would humbly submit that everyone voting Republican are voting against their own self interest. Even Frank Mozillo and the heirs to the mars fortune? ---
**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, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/129 "2010-06-16T00:59:15Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Actually, it’s the Democratic party that has to go back that far and as I pointed out, it was Republicans who carried the day. The GOP goes back much further. We are, and will always be the party of Lincoln. If you look at black support for politics it started with JFK’s courtship of MLK for votes. Prior to this he did not have support of the black community nor did the Democratic party. He essentially bought a large voting block with his famous phone call to MLK in prison. I think you misunderstand what you are talking about. The democratic party is doing a lot better than Republicans in race relations, I recall when they even nominated a black Presidential candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/130 "2010-06-16T00:59:45Z")
A lot of Latino support for Republicans comes from Cubans in Florida. It’s a misguided, "anti-Communist’ thing. Speaking of social issues, though, Republicans would have a lot better shot at the youth vote if they dropped the gay bashing, and the religious, social issue issue harridans in general (including the anti-abortion cranks). ---
**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, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/131 "2010-06-16T01:01:21Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > The focus is more on Hispanics because they’re the largest group of illegal immigrants. We in America are apathetic about problems until they can finally no longer be ignored. Airplane hijackings had been going on for decades, but it took 911 to finally start getting serious about airport security. Granted they sometimes went overboard. And illegal immigration was mostly ignored until the number of illegal immigrants got to big to ignore. And the vast majority of those are from Mexico or other South American countries. I’m guessing if vast amounts of Canadians started coming into America to live here without going through the proper channels we’d eventually start hearing complaints about that too. Its not the number of illegal immigrants that is getting hard to ignore, it is the violence they have been bringing with them lately. If they were simply cheap labor then the only people bitching about it would be the unions. ---
**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, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/132 "2010-06-16T01:03:43Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > A lot of Latino support for Republicans comes from Cubans in Florida. It’s a misguided, "anti-Communist’ thing. > > Speaking of social issues, though, Republicans would have a lot better shot at the youth vote if they dropped the gay bashing, and the religious, social issue issue harridans in general (including the anti-abortion cranks). It is the fatal flaw of the conservative movement in America that they will always be appealing to yesterday’s voters. When yesterday’s voters are also todays voters then they do fine but when you have demographic shifts, they tend to struggle. The ONLY thing they had going for them was that they used to be fiscally prudent. Now they don’t even have that and all they have left are histrionics, tax cuts and demagoguery And for some reason this seems to be enough to win elections in some places. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/133 "2010-06-16T01:14:30Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > The focus is more on Hispanics because they’re the largest group of illegal immigrants. The only reason anyone CARES about it is that they’re not white. > [@](#): > > We in America are apathetic about problems until they can finally no longer be ignored. Airplane hijackings had been going on for decades, but it took 911 to finally start getting serious about airport security. Granted they sometimes went overboard. And illegal immigration was mostly ignored until the number of illegal immigrants got to big to ignore. And the vast majority of those are from Mexico or other South American countries. I’m guessing if vast amounts of Canadians started coming into America to live here without going through the proper channels we’d eventually start hearing complaints about that too. Illegal immigration is a phony issue. It doesn’t really cause any significant problems (comparing it to 911 is ridiculous), and undocumented workers are an essential part of the economy. Politicos gin up hysteria over it simply to exploit racial resentment. The issue is not really illegal immigration, it’s too many Mexicans. That’s what dog whistle politics is all about. Talking about one thing as code for something else, then feigning innocence when called on it. The real crisis – the thing that is scaring Republicans to death at the moment – is that the numbers of Hispanic voters are growing larger than the numbers of their traditional redneck base. That’s why Arizona is trying to find ways to target legal immigrants and citizens (the Nazi “papers” law, trying to deny citizenship righst to babies born in Arizona with brown skin) to at least make the state an inhospitable place to live. It won’t work. The politics of playing to white racism no longer has the numbers to be effective. The problem for the Republicans is that they are currently enslaved to a voting bloc that can no longer win national elections. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/134 "2010-06-16T01:15:47Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Its not the number of illegal immigrants that is getting hard to ignore, it is the violence they have been bringing with them lately. If they were simply cheap labor then the only people bitching about it would be the unions. The violence is a consequence of our own stupid drug laws. ---
**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, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/135 "2010-06-16T01:17:23Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Are you referring to David Duke? He was elected to the House, got over 43% of the vote in his Senate race, and 32% for Governor. Where do you see pitchforks? Uh, you do know that he ran as a Democrat for most of his life don’t you? 1975 Democratic run for state senate - baton rouge district 1979 Democratic run for 10th district senate 1988 Democratic run for presidential primary 1988 switched parties to run for a vacated republican state seat in Lousiana where he won. His Republican opposition candidate was endorced by the party and specifically by Bush and Reagan. If you were alive during that time you would have remembered how hated he was and denounced by the party. > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Are you referring to Robert Byrd? A **low** -ranking member, who repudiated it and apologized long ago, like many young-idiot members who grew up. But you knew that, of course … right? He wasn’t some naive kid who stumbled past a rally, he was the ranking member of his unit. He wasn’t a misguided Senator sitting on a fence post when he spent 14 hours straight filibustering the 1964 civil rights bill. There is no comparison to how Byrd or Duke was treated by their respective parties. When Duke tried to cross over he was openly challenged. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/136 "2010-06-16T01:22:09Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Uh, you do know that he ran as a Democrat for most of his life don’t you? > 1975 Democratic run for state senate - baton rouge district > 1979 Democratic run for 10th district senate > 1988 Democratic run for presidential primary > 1988 switched parties to run for a vacated republican state seat in Lousiana where he won. His Republican opposition candidate was endorced by the party and specifically by Bush and Reagan. If you were alive during that time you would have remembered how hated he was and denounced by the party. He ran for every national office as a Republican, and the Democratic Party in Lousiana in the 70’s (even well into the 80’s) was conservative, not liberal. I know, I’m from there. It was “yellow dog” Democrats from way back. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/137 "2010-06-16T01:30:34Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I have an older friend who works as a school nurse in a poor district. One of the questions often asked by young girls is how to get family aid money. This is not something that happened in the past tense, it continues to this day. You could not be more wrong. No kidding. Back in the mid-90s I attended at cookout at my aunt’s in southern MA. Her best friend’s son was there with his girlfriend, and they were talking about how it was time to have another baby because the youngest was about a year from school-aged and they didn’t want to be kicked off welfare (or have their benefits severely cut). They were white, though. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/138 "2010-06-16T01:34:17Z")
Wow, 15 year old anecdotes. How convincing. ---
**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, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/139 "2010-06-16T01:37:35Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > No kidding. Back in the mid-90s I attended at cookout at my aunt’s in southern MA. Her best friend’s son was there with his girlfriend, and they were talking about how it was time to have another baby because the youngest was about a year from school-aged and they didn’t want to be kicked off welfare (or have their benefits severely cut). They were white, though. nowhere did I mention race in my comment. Welfare is what it is. ---
**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, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057/140 "2010-06-16T01:41:55Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > He ran for every national office as a Republican, and the Democratic Party in Lousiana in the 70’s (even well into the 80’s) was conservative, not liberal. I know, I’m from there. It was “yellow dog” Democrats from way back. He was repudiated by the national Republican party. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-and-the-gop/543057.md?page=8)