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Southern history oversimplified; Elizabeth Asche “Betty” Douglas; Beaver County Times; August 29, 2012.
Mrs. Douglas is a local artist and, according to previous letters, “is a retired Geneva College professor.” Previous letters from Mrs. Douglas are here, here, and here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“In response to Don Villella’s grossly oversimplified and inaccurate survey of Southern political history, he omits an essential development that shaped today’s conditions.”
[RWC] As you will read, Mrs. Douglas is in no position to accuse someone of omitting something.
“True, segregationist Democrats, often called ‘Dixiecrats’ were long in control in the South. They were the ‘conservatives’ of their day, the ones opposed to the Civil Rights Act. However, civil rights activism and Supreme Court rulings against segregation turned things around. The Dixiecrats abandoned the Democratic party in droves, creating the ‘new’ conservative Republicans of the so-called ‘solid South.’”
[RWC] In case you missed it, Mrs. Douglas smeared conservatives by apparently claiming conservatism originated with disaffected segregationist Democrats.
Mrs. Douglas omitted the fact then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) watered down President Eisenhower’s 1957 Civil Rights Act. This was possible because Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for all but one early session during Eisenhower’s presidency. Mr. Johnson was worried Mr. Eisenhower’s more expansive proposal would prove divisive for the Democrat Party. As we learned in 1964, his concerns were well founded.
Mrs. Douglas also omitted the fact Republicans delivered the votes for cloture of the Democrat-led filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In the Senate, 82% of Republicans voted for the act while only 69% of Democrats supported it. Of the “nay” votes, 78% were by Democrats. In the House, 80% of Republicans voted for the act while only 61% of Democrats supported it. Of the “nay” votes, 74% were by Democrats.
Mrs. Douglas’ fairytale makes no sense. Mrs. Douglas wants us to believe Democrats who switched parties were racists and the “good” Democrats stayed Democrats. Since Republicans were historically and currently stronger on civil rights than Democrats, why on Earth would segregationist Democrats think the Republican Party would take up their racist policies?
“With the ballot newly available to them, African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans built the ‘new’ Democratic party of the South. I was in Baton Rouge, La., in 1952-53 when barriers to voting were broken down and African-Americans got to vote for the first time since Reconstruction. I was in Little Rock, Ark., when the Supreme Court handed down the Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling that was the death knell for school segregation, and among those who had to take shelter from roving bands of shooting and Molotov cocktail-throwing racists. I was living in Texas in 1956-59, when we successfully integrated lunch counters and other public places and facilities.”
[RWC] This is a nice story, but FactCheck.org reports black voters have been voting overwhelmingly for Democrat presidential candidates since at least 1936. If Mrs. Douglas wants to vote for leftist candidates, that’s her right. Mrs. Douglas should not, however, claim black voters vote for Democrats because the Republican Party took up the cause of disaffected segregationist Democrats.
If Mrs. Douglas “was in Little Rock, Ark., when the Supreme Court handed down the Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling,” she should remember the Republican Eisenhower administration sided with the NAACP (Brown v. Board of Education – separate is not equal) for school integration. Mrs. Douglas also omitted the fact President Eisenhower sent the U.S. Army to enforce civil rights when Democrat Governor Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to block black students from attending a Little Rock high school.
“The so-called ‘Southern strategy’ of Richard Nixon set the pattern for appealing to the barely suppressed racism hiding under the cover of Republican conservatism in the southern states. This strategy led to making a ‘new,’ now red area on the political map.”
[RWC] If racist Democrats became Republicans in hopes of furthering racist policies, the strategy was a horrible failure for them. Mrs. Douglas didn’t provide one example of a Republican policy that was remotely racist. Perhaps more telling, Mrs. Douglas doesn’t mention any policy opposed by Republicans but supported by Democrats that truly helped minorities.
How does Mrs. Douglas explain U.S. Rep. Allen West (R-FL), Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC), U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Lynn Swann, Michael Steele, Ken Blackwell, Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Rep. candidate Mia Love (R-UT), Gov. Susana Martinez (R-NM), and on and on. Condoleezza Rice lived in Birmingham, AL, from her birth in 1954 to 1967. When she spoke at the 2000 Republican Convention, Condoleezza Rice said, “The first Republican that I knew was my father John Rice. And he is still the Republican that I admire most. My father joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did.”
You may recall all “concerns” about Mr. Obama’s skin color came from Democrats - not the right - during the 2008 Democrat primary. And when did the “birther” movement start? Yep, you guessed it; Hillary Clinton supporters started the birth certificate stuff during the Democrat primary campaign. Other than as a figment of the left’s imagination, Mr. Obama’s skin color was not an issue during the general election, except perhaps for black voters. National exit polls indicated 96% of black voters voted for Mr. Obama. That said, FactCheck.org asserts “No Republican presidential candidate has gotten more than 15 percent of the black vote since … [President] Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.” What does that slavish (Yes, I meant to use that term.) loyalty to Democrats get black voters? Other than with meaningless gestures, Democrats ignore black voters because they know they’ll always get the overwhelming majority of black votes. Republicans can more or less ignore black voters because they know they can win without support from black voters. Further, true conservative principles like individual liberty and limited government preclude special treatment of any group and black voters have been taught to believe equal treatment is really discrimination.
In a recent campaign speech, VP Joe Biden told us what he sees when he sees black Americans. While campaigning in Danville, VA, before “a heavily African-American audience,” Mr. Biden was speaking about what he claimed was the Romney position on financial industry regulation. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Biden said Romney had pledged in his first 100 days as president to ‘let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street! They’re [Republicans] going to put y’all back in chains.’” Mr. Biden even threw in the “y’all” so common in Scranton, his hometown. When Mr. Biden sees black faces in an audience, he sees slaves.
“Mr. Villella needs to study history more closely and talk to people who have lived through it.”
[RWC] Mrs. Douglas should take her own advice and “study history more closely” before she writes another letter on this topic. Mrs. Douglas could start by reading “Lefty race baiters,” “Democrats – The party of civil rights – not,” and “Republicans – Civil Rights.” Then again, she’s an intelligent woman; perhaps Mrs. Douglas already knows the truth.
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