[ACC25132]

I'll leave the whys of your question to black posters to respond to, but as a history grad student I couldn't let several falsehoods in what you were saying slip by. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was actually created by John F. Kennedy. (Kennedy was actually something of an opportunist who personally despised Dr. King and considered the Civil Rights Movement an embarassment. But he did push for the act as a way of courting black votes and trying to keep the US from being embarassed in the world press.) The act was pushed through thanks mostly to Lyndon Johnson, (a Southern Democrat) who used the memory of the assasinated president to do that. Most Republicans voted for it because they guessed (rightly) it would cost the Democrats most of their white Southern supporters. Most of the GOP did not vote for it for principle, but for selfish political gain. So really, neither party should be proud of its actions surrounding this act. Practically the only people who acted on principles on this were the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement (who today get blasted by many of the GOP as 'poverty pimps') and LBJ, the Democrat from South Texas.

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[Timothy24604]

Why does it seem blacks dislike Republicans, when Republicans were instrumental in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (a bill they created)? And they had made several attempts to pass previous bills like the aforementioned. They were also the deciding factor in allowing blacks to vote. In both cases, it was Southern Democrats who blocked and voted against the bills. Please forgive the use of the term 'blacks.' I do not agree with the political term 'African-American.' I am a little patriotic and feel you are one or the other.

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[Floyd L.]

Each individual who voted for the Civil Rights Act was instrumental in its passage. But it would not have existed had legions of blacks not suffered and died for it. It certainly would not have passed if President Kennedy had not been assassinated and Lyndon Johnson not stepped up to bat. So Republicans should not be given credit for more than they deserved then, and they deserve credit for little or nothing since. The reason is that the party began to be appropriated or taken over maybe 30 to 35 years ago by the very Southern Democrats and their offspring who had been the most strident opponents of civil rights. It became basically the party of the Dixiecrats.

So it should not be difficult to understand why blacks vote the way they do. Most of us are not likely to vote for something or someone we take to be inimical to our self interests. Even when the choices are effectively choices between evils, we vote for the least noxious of the possibilities.

Indeed, that a person is a black politician, black military expert or a black jurist does not make him, in the eyes of blacks, the least of the evils. At issue is the degree to which that person's views, interests and actions are seen as inimical to blacks. Blacks are at least as capable of deciding their own self interest as someone else is in deciding it for them. When one looks at the present-day Republican Party and all of the flotsam and jetsam collected there, one could conclude the party is rather ecumenical. Most blacks, however, remind themselves that 'birds of a feather flock together' and 'you are known by the company you keep.' Much of the company stamped "Republican" most blacks simply cannot abide, e.g. Jesse Helms, Strom Thurman, Jim Barr, Trent Lott, the NRA, the KKK, the religious right, the Florida elections, etc. What most blacks see when they look at this motley bunch are just too much that blacks judge to be noxious or just plain inimical to their self-interest. Even if their vote is for the least noxious of the possibilities, blacks will not typically see this as Republican. PS: If you prefer 'black' to African American, why do you label yourself color blind?

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[Paul S.]

First, I find the term 'blacks' offensive. Black what? At least conceal your racism enough to say black people. As an African American, I would have to say that our loyalty to the Democratic Party is a case of the lesser of two evils. The Democrats are no angels; however, FDR was a Democrat, and he kept millions of African Americans (as well as non-African Americans) from starving during the Depression. African Americans haven't forgotten that, and have passed that loyalty down to their children. Then there is the fact that Republicans are concerned only with the well-being of big business and big oil. Republicans are anti-working man, and a good percentage of black people tend to be working class, or have working class roots. If it weren't for the obvious anti-black slant of the Republican Party (everything they support, from school vouchers to ending affirmative action to never raising the minium wage, to their opposition to OSHA, negatively affects huge numbers of black people), many more African Americans would vote Republican. African Americans tend to be conservative in most things. We only ally ourselves with the Democrats because the extermination of our race isn't as high on their list of priorities as it is among Republicans.

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[I. Cade]

Many politicians who were once Southern Democrats are now Republicans.

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[Matt]

I don't think Republicans believe many of the things you listed are attempts to 'exterminate' black people or anything of the sort. For example, school voucers are popular with Republicans because they believe many public schools have failed to provide an adequate education to many children, and think (rightly or wrongly) that vouchers would offer many children, especially African-American ones, a shot at a better education and the better opportunities this would offer. They believe that an increase in minimum wage would result in many minimum wage workers losing their jobs. And so on. I'm not asking you to agree with the Republicans' agenda, but please, try to ascribe more rational motives to people you disagree with than claiming the extermination of your race is one of their priorities.

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[alex]

Because parties change their platforms over time....Lots of blacks voted republican because lincoln was repubilican..

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