BlackGenocide.org | The Negro Project
A myth about conservatism is circulating in academia and journalism and has spread to the 2004 presidential campaign. It goes something like this: the Republican Party assembled a national majority by winning over Southern white voters; Southern white voters are racist; therefore, the GOP is racist. Sometimes the conclusion is softened, and Republicans are convicted merely of base opportunism:
the GOP is the party that became willing to pander to racists. Either way, today's Republican Party—and by extension the conservative movement at its heart—supposedly has revealed something terrible about itself.
Ever since Nixon. They called it the Southern strategy. Previously liberal Republicans were on the forefront of the Civil Rights movement, but that changed in the 70s as they courted racist Democrats and drove the liberals out of the party.
THAT'S history, folks. I watched it happen. I used to occasionally vote for a Republican, but that hasn't happened in a long time. It IS something terrible and something they going to have to deal with and change, if they hope to ever win a national election again. They did it again this year by alienating Hispanics. Will they ever learn? You don't create Reagan's Big Tent by demeaning vast segments of the population
As did many of us.
The intent of the Southern strategy was to break the stranglehold democrats had on Congress and state governments.
To that extent the strategy worked.
And although the GOP and conservatives are not collectively racist, nor do they pander to racism, both the party and ideology attract an inordinate number of racists.
It is therefore incumbent upon republicans and conservatives to explore the root cause of this troubling phenomenon.
Did you just join the board or just recently get interested in American politics?
