My latest at PJ Media:
The controversy over Joe Biden saying, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re voting for me or Trump, then you ain’t black” isn’t dying down, but as much political damage as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is sustaining, one much-overlooked fact amid the brouhaha is that even though Donald Trump has made historic gains in support from black Americans, most will likely agree with Biden and vote for him or whomever the Democrats put up this November, no matter what, no questions asked. This is how it has been for a long time, but it wasn’t always thus. Historically, the strongest defenders of the civil rights of black Americans were Republicans.
Now, it is generally known that the Republican Party was founded as an abolitionist party and that a Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, is responsible for freeing the slaves. Generally known, that is, among those who care to know it. Some prefer politically correct fantasies, like the Northeastern Illinois University plaque honoring “Abraham Lincoln Democrat.”
However, even those who admit that the Republicans freed the slaves while most Democrats were fighting a civil war to keep them enslaved then fast forward, in their potted history of civil rights in America, to the 1960s, when the parties supposedly switched places as the Republicans embraced a “Southern strategy” that involved taking up the racism that the Democrats were in the process of discarding.
There are two things wrong with this scenario: Republicans didn’t forget about black Americans after Lincoln was shot, but actually stood up for the civil rights of black Americans consistently from the Civil War on, and there was no “Southern strategy.” It is a historical myth like so much of what is taught as American history today, designed to ensure that students will grow up to be convinced and loyal leftists. But like all propaganda initiatives, it founders on the facts.
The forthcoming book Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look At Who Was Best, Who Was Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster tells the real story. In the wake of the Civil War, while Southern states resisted Reconstruction measures, denied blacks the right to vote, and allowed the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize black populations, a president sent federal troops to restore order and enforce the law. A Democrat, of course, no? No. It was a Republican, Ulysses S. Grant.
Grant also engaged in serious negotiations to annex the Dominican Republic as a haven for black Americans from the South, so that, he said, “the Southern people would learn the crime of Ku Kluxism, because they would see how necessary the black man is to their own prosperity.” Grant sent Frederick Douglass to Santo Domingo as part of a commission to study the matter; this commission returned with a report saying that most Dominicans favored annexation, but nothing came of it….
There is much more. Read the rest here.
gravenimage says
Hey, Joe Biden: The Biggest Defenders of Black Americans Throughout U.S. History Have Been Republicans
…………………
*So* true. Biden’s saying that anyone who does not vote for him “Ain’t Black” is simply grotesque–but we’ve heard this smearing of Conservative Blacks before. This was especially ludicrous in this instance, in any case, since I very much doubt that host “Charlamagne tha God” would be apt to vote for Trump.
He was just asking what Biden had done for Black people, and Biden wanted to deflect this question with what he perceived would be a slur.
James Lincoln says
gravenimage says,
“Biden’s saying that anyone who does not vote for him “Ain’t Black” is simply grotesque…”
True.
And I would add that it is truly both racist and dehumanizing…
gravenimage says
Agreed, James.
eduardo odraude says
Speaking of black conservatives, there’s a really outstanding movie out about the life of Justice Clarence Thomas, a great conservative on the supreme court. I watched it free online a couple of weeks ago, at PBS I think. Even those opposed to Thomas’s judicial philosophy will have difficulty not being extremely moved and impressed by the man and the film, narrated almost entirely in Thomas’s own words. He’s an American classic.
Wellington says
The Democratic Party has retarded opportunities for black Americans. Historically, it was the party that upheld slavery, contra the Republican Party, which was the third anti-slavery party, the first two being the Liberty Party and the Free-Soil Party—but unlike the first two the Republican Party “stuck” and prevailed.
The Democratic Party was also UNIVERSALLY the party of the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow, and more specifically which party made numerous successful efforts to find ways around the 14th and 15th Amendments (examples being prejudiced all white-juries, so-called literacy tests, grandfather clauses and poll taxes), all of which “efforts” guaranteed pure second-class status for blacks, if even this.
A hundred years ago or so, any black American who was registered to vote (which was, to put it mildly, quite unlikely in the South after Reconstruction ended in 1877) was a Republican, the party of Lincoln and the party which was dead set against slavery.
But something happened. Here it is: By the 1920’s, the Republican Party began to take the black vote for granted, much as the Democratic Party has done for many decades now. So, a very shrewd American politician (few shrewder), one FDR, saw an opportunity to garner the black vote and said to black America it was time to turn Lincoln’s picture to the wall, i.e., register as Democrat. And FDR’s approach worked, immensely so.
But now, considering how the Democratic Party has taken the black vote for granted—and has done so little for black America after landmark legislation was enacted in the 1960’s, an example being the 1964 Civil Rights Act (which, btw, a greater percentage of Republicans in Congress voted for than Democrats, a key statistic conveniently overlooked by almost all historical textbooks today), I say it is time for black America to turn FDR’s picture to the wall and COME BACK to the Republican Party, which offers far more opportunities, replete with the absence of a victim oriented mentality which is always a guarantee of perpetual grievance mongering followed by no real advancement.
The Democratic Party wants blacks to feel alienated and also very dependent on the federal government, thus substituting government, in effect, for the white plantation master in antebellum days, which is a recipe for permanent alienation and dependency and which is exactly what has transpired over the past half century. This helps explain why a very knowledgeable, contemporary black American, one Jason Riley, wrote a book whose title says it all—“Please Stop Helping Us.”
The best interests of black America are aligned with Republican policies and not Democratic ones. History, sundry results, statistics aplenty and common sense all bespeak to the truth of this contention.
gravenimage says
+1
commonsense says
Fine post, Wellington. I wish it were widely disseminated and read by the mainstream.
Henry Mansfield says
I’ve known many black businessmen, and a word they use is ‘infantilization’.
Democrats and their excusers in media have created a system where blacks are both victims and unaccountable for their own actions, and too many will never ‘think outside the box’ enough to make necessary changes in their lives.
The formula for success in the USA remains the same for everyone. Work smart, work hard and hope for at least a little luck.
gravenimage says
+1
Westman says
Well said, Wellington. Today’s minorities are faced with the Democrat Party’s soft bigotry of low expectations that create government services to keep them dependent. Government has valid functions such as the nation’s safety that do not include the wealth transfer and forced PC that are now in advanced failure as minority advancement tools.
Allowing foreign cheap labor, a product of bad corporate citizens, is another travesty of greed that should be curtailed or those corporations booted out of the US and then not allowed to do business in the US.
There is no way to have real opportunity for minorities without writing social responsibility, within the home nation, into corporate law. Maximizing return to shareholders without regard to its effect on the home nation cannot continue as the sole legal guiding principle.
Eisenhower was wrong. The complex that is dominating the world is congress-corporate-global-business and the government Big Brother of “1984” is instead the Big Brothers tech firms that spy on the world. The government can’t even catch its breath, let alone catch up to these bad actors and their legal teams.
Belfast says
Well said, Wellington, but you seem to imply that when they come back to the Republicans, then the Republicans will take them for granted again.
Margaret Thatcher got it right when she said there is no ‘society’ it was only Mrs Jones and Mr Smith, all equals in opportunity.
The Catholics of Belfast, Ireland, know what it is like to be an underclass, herded and despised; their struggle to be regarded as good as the next seems to be coming to an end, but I think African-Americans are where the Catholics were 30 or 40 years ago and I can only pray that Donald Trump gets another four years. There is nothing to give a man or woman self-worth than a job, a job is almost like a badge of acceptance as well as its material benefits and from my distance of thousands of miles I think that continuing rising employment for them will benefit African Americans and the USA greatly,
Wellington says
Belfast: I meant no such implication. The Republican Party should never take any constituency for granted. It is not only unethical to do so but also politically very stupid.
And what about Northern Ireland? Think eventually it will be 6+26 equals one? Always, you know, I like to hear from someone who has “boots on the ground.”
James Lincoln says
Wellington says,
“I say it is time for black America to turn FDR’s picture to the wall and COME BACK to the Republican Party, which offers far more opportunities, replete with the absence of a victim oriented mentality…”
Brilliant!
Black Americans – we want you back!
Some kind of play on this would make a great campaign slogan for Republicans during the upcoming 2020 election.
Al says
Facts are stubborn things.
The Democrats (as a party) have long claimed credit for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – notwithstanding that the bill passed in spite of strong opposition from the Democrats (Al Gore Sr. and others).
This somewhat dubious claim can still be found on the official web site of the DNC, where it has been featured prominently for years:
https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/the-issues/civil-rights/
While the wording is technically accurate (a number of Democrats were in fact in favor of the Act), a casual reader would assume that Democrats were more likely than Republicans to vote for the bill. In reality, the opposite happened by a sizable margin.
Granted, the percentage of nay-voters from the South was greater among Republicans than among Democrats, but it is also true that the South had elected significantly more Democrats than Republicans.
Henry Mansfield says
I couldn’t help Charlamagne Tha God’s reply to Biden.
“I wanna know what you are going to do for my community.”
I would want Biden doing as little as possible in my community, hair-sniffing creep that he is.
Tim Carlo says
The information has always been out there. The leaders of the black community have spoke louder and diverted this information with the help of evil white leaders with promise of prosperity with lies.
LB says
“…most [blacks and other non-whites] will likely agree with Biden and vote for him or whomever the Democrats put up this November, no matter what, no questions asked.”
This is the key line right here! It all comes down to demographics and statistics. Statistics say that a large majority (in some cases over 90%) of “minorities” (PC slang for non-whites, even though whites are already below 50% of population in USA) will vote democrat no questions asked, as Mr. Spencer put it. Demographics say that the number of “minorities” will continue to increase exponentially because they have much greater birthrates than whites, and that’s without counting all the immigrants which are arriving by the thousands every week.
It’s simple math: more “minorities” = more Democrat votes. Why? Free welfare and unobstructed illegal entry at the borders. It really is as simple as that.
Americans need to face the truth. Up until now, the USA has jumped around between Left and Right, but it always managed to bounce back to the “reasonable” side (the side that seems more appealing when the other side was in power for a while). You could argue that that pendulum swing is what kept the political equilibrium between the Left and Right in check. However, that balance is looking to be forever thrown off as many political experts and analysts are predicting that Trump is the last republican president and that the USA is soon to become one party state. Why? Well… I could tell you but I don’t want to be called racist 🙂
Daniel Triplett says
Yes, the writing on the wall is clear. The demographic shift will put politics and power squarely and permanently in the hands of Democrats. Of course, they know this too, which was the whole point of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, and other such measures as open borders, amnesty, DREAM Act, etc.
Consider also that heavyweight Ted Cruz only narrowly defeated Beta O’Dork in the 2018 TX US Senate race, by less than 2 points. Lots of libs moving to TX to escape the high taxes they self-imposed in their native states. This, along with illegal immigration, the progeny of whom are entitled to vote, and it’s easy to see where this is all going. When TX turns Blue, it’s game over. We’ll never have another Republican POTUS again.
Now consider the Islamic Manifest Destiny problem. There’s no way any Democrat president is going to confront Islam anytime soon. Maybe after an Islamic nuke strike he would, in a “Pearl Harbor” type call to arms, but when the Ummah starts amassing and hitting Kafirs with nukes, we’re in big trouble and are going to sustain staggering levels of damage and casualties.
In the meantime, if Trump won’t do it, who will? I’d say we have another 4 years to begin a kinetic campaign to win this war before the whole problem gets shelved indefinitely until the Islamic Nuke Genie is liberated from the bottle to give us a well-earned, humiliating, painful wake-up call and penalty for our pacific ignorance.
mortimer says
The pro-slavery Democrats, the pro-KKK Democrats and the pro-segregation Democrats are now telling their former slaves to STAY ON THE PLANTATION.
grandpahalfdime says
People forget that until LBJ needed some votes all of the CIVIL RIGHTS ACTS were brought and even the LBJ/JFK CRA would not have passed without the majority of Republicans voting for it.
Civil Rights Acts in the 20th Century:
1957: Written by Republicans, Signed by Eisenhower:
• Senate NAY votes: 18 Democrats (36.73%); 0 Republicans;
• House NAY votes: 107 Democrats (45.53%); 19 Republicans (9.6%);
1960: Written by Republicans, Signed by Eisenhower:
• Senate NAY votes: 18 Democrats (27.69%); 0 Republicans;
• House NAY votes: 82 Democrats (29.5%); 12 Republicans (7.95%);
1964: Written by Democrats, Signed by LBJ:
• Senate NAY votes: 21 Democrats (31.34%); 6 Republicans (18.18%0;
• House NAY votes: 91 Democrats (35.97%; 35 Republicans (19.66%)
FDR’s “NEW DEAL”:
• Separate housing for Blacks, created areas like Watts, South San Francisco, East Palo Alto, etc.
• Best jobs saved for Whites
LBJ’s “GREAT SOCIETY”:
• Housing projects for low-income Blacks originally for single parent families
• Welfare for life for single parent families
• Abortion clinics located on periphery of low-income Black communities
History tells the truth, Democrats have pushed Blacks away from opportunities. Then, when Bussing came, they bussed a small percentage of Black students to good schools for show when they should have required teachers to rotate schools & all schools to get same money. Affirmative Action was created to tell Blacks “you don’t have to work hard to get the perks” and then “see, you are inferior, you can’t compete and you need government help to get good schools & good jobs.” Schools & housing remains racially diverse.
And speaking of Diversity, it is being used to re-create segregation under the mantra “they will be more comfortable with their own kind.” You don’t have to like what I’m saying, just think about it. Grouping people by race or religion is SEGREGATION.
OLD GUY says
Scary Joe is running for president of the United States and has been a long term politician and he is that dumb. I think his brain and mouth are on different channels. Can you imagine him in a one on one with Chinas Communist leadership , they would eat him alive.
vlparker says
I’m trying to figure out what the big deal is. Biden didn’t say anything that black leftists haven’t been saying to black conservatives for decades. Larry Elder, Diamond and Silk, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and Candace Owens have been told by other black people that they aren’t black for years. Now a bunch of black leftists turn on Biden for saying the same thing. Strange.