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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / Kiss My Black Ass / Fun With Numbers

Fun With Numbers

by Tom in Texas|  January 17, 20084:18 pm| 34 Comments

This post is in: Kiss My Black Ass, Republican Stupidity

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I was commenting on another thread, and I took the time to research how bad the Republican Party’s record on electing African Americans really was. It’s far worse than I thought. In the last 110 years (in other words Post Reconstruction), there have been 4 elected black Republicans in Congress (5 if you count the non voting member of the US Virgin Islands). There are now 93 African American Republicans elected to office at all levels of government, from School Board Vice President to Mayor or State Senator. On the plus side, that’s up from 57 (I think) last time I checked. On the other hand, there are still so few African Americans representing the GOP’s elected preference that Red State would be able to treat every one of them to a steak dinner with their own bottle of Caymus (a restaurant will charge 2-3 times that by the way) for the amount of money they are asking.

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34Comments

  1. 1.

    Andrew

    January 17, 2008 at 4:38 pm

    Clearly, African-Americans are just waiting for someone like Michael to tell them who to vote for.

  2. 2.

    myiq2xu

    January 17, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    You can bet the rent money that at the GOP convention this summer every one of them will be up on the stage.

  3. 3.

    jh

    January 17, 2008 at 4:46 pm

    You can bet the rent money that at the GOP convention this summer every one of them will be up on the stage.

    And then the camera will pan to the audience and the illusion will be shattered.

  4. 4.

    r€nato

    January 17, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    You can bet the rent money that at the GOP convention this summer every one of them will be up on the stage.

    how pathetic for those who submit to that enormously cynical act of tokenism.

  5. 5.

    r€nato

    January 17, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    I recall that a couple-three years back, during one of the GOP’s fits of trying to reach out to black folks, the RNC put out a calendar which documented the various accomplishments of the GOP on behalf of black people.

    Most of it was things Lincoln had done. Really, do they even have any concept how lame they look with these stunts?

  6. 6.

    Incertus (Brian)

    January 17, 2008 at 5:16 pm

    And then the camera will pan to the audience and the illusion will be shattered.

    Don’t you believe it. You think the cameras will go anywhere they want? Please–they linger on the other handfuls of people of color out there on the floor for precisely the same reason.

  7. 7.

    Jake

    January 17, 2008 at 5:17 pm

    how pathetic for those who submit to that enormously cynical act of tokenism.

    The doctrine of “Fuck the proles, I got mine,” knows no boundaries.

    You want pathetic, take a drive through the hills of southern Indiana in October and count the number of pro-Republican signs in yards.

  8. 8.

    Jake

    January 17, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    Most of it was things Lincoln had done. Really, do they even have any concept how lame they look with these stunts?

    The thing I don’t get about the “Look, Lincoln’s one of us!” (aside from the lameness) is a lot of GOPers (especially in the South) revile Lincoln and they’re not very secretive about it so the real message is: “Hey, vote for us because a guy we hate was in our party!”

    But I’ve got on better. During the last election cycle a local GOP group ran a ad that claimed Dr. King was a Republican.

    The response was … about what you’d expect.

  9. 9.

    Mr Furious

    January 17, 2008 at 5:23 pm

    So, Tom, that “Black Republican” magazine you link to…do they just print one of those out and pass it around?

  10. 10.

    Bubblegum Tate

    January 17, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    Oh, there’d be lots more elected Black Republicans–thousands of them!–if only those damn liberal fascists hadn’t somehow subverted the process.

  11. 11.

    sidereal

    January 17, 2008 at 5:35 pm

    Don’t forget Hispanics! I count 9.

    You really don’t even need to say anything. The numbers pretty much speak for themselves.

  12. 12.

    Jay

    January 17, 2008 at 5:35 pm

    You can bet the rent money that at the GOP convention this summer every one of them will be up on the stage.

    At the 2004 Republican convention, 17 percent of the delegates were minorities.

    That will be a crowded stage.

  13. 13.

    Dulcie

    January 17, 2008 at 5:45 pm

    So, Tom, that “Black Republican” magazine you link to…do they just print one of those out and pass it around?

    Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

  14. 14.

    4tehlulz

    January 17, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    And then the camera will pan to the audience and the illusion will be shattered.

    Why would they pan out to empty seats?

  15. 15.

    Zifnab

    January 17, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    But I’ve got on better. During the last election cycle a local GOP group ran a ad that claimed Dr. King was a Republican.

    The response was … about what you’d expect.

    They had one of those guys sitting near Michelle “Horray for Interment Camps” Malkin during some GOoPer pro-war-for-people-who-aren’t-in-the-military event. It’s always so much fun to hear about how Lyndon Johnson was a closet mega-racist, how Robert Byrd is KKK, and how John Conyers is a cynical puppet of the DC system. I got an even bigger kick out of Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s run for Governor of Mass, when he passed out the “Steele Democrat” flyers.

    The sad shit is I’m sure the poor sods down in Arkansas or Alabama who are getting bottom-of-the-barrel educations might actually get sold this horse crap. But at the end of the day, historical rape like that is on par with holocaust denial. It’s just nice to know that the same bigots and race-baiters who give us these bold faced lies run off and botch Katrina or pull a Jena 6 and properly ruin the illusion.

    So, Tom, that “Black Republican” magazine you link to…do they just print one of those out and pass it around?

    PotD

  16. 16.

    superdestroyer

    January 17, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    Since the Republicans have no hope of appealing to blacks (or Hispanics or Asians) and those groups are growing relative to whites, it is only a matter of times (and a relatively short period of time) before the Repulican Party becomes irrelevant.

    However, one of the question everyone should ask is what happens in a one party state where blacks, instead of being an important bloc in the ruling party, becomes just one of many blocs in the one party. My guess is that the importance of blacks to the poltical system will decline as the Democratic Party becomes the only relevant political party in the U.S. Even the former Republican social conservatives will become more important once they cross over and start voting in the Democratic Party after the collapse of the Republican Party.

  17. 17.

    HyperIon

    January 17, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    Shelby Steele on Bill Moyers’ Journal last week said something along the lines of: “when someone asks me if i know any black republicans, i reply that i know ALL of them.”

    At the 2004 Republican convention, 17 percent of the delegates were minorities.

    minority stockholders?
    could you provide a link substantiating that statement?

  18. 18.

    rachel

    January 17, 2008 at 7:12 pm

    r€nato Says:

    I recall that a couple-three years back, during one of the GOP’s fits of trying to reach out to black folks, the RNC put out a calendar which documented the various accomplishments of the GOP on behalf of black people.

    Most of it was things Lincoln had done. Really, do they even have any concept how lame they look with these stunts?

    The phrase: “What have you done for us lately?” comes to mind.

  19. 19.

    Jake

    January 17, 2008 at 7:43 pm

    I got an even bigger kick out of Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s run for Governor of Mass Maryland, when he passed out the “Steele Democrat” flyers.

    When that story started to break I knew exactly where it was happening. The problem for those dicks was 1) They’d tried it before. 2) People who live within 100 miles of DC tend to be a bit more politically alert because a lot of our news is political news.

    Meanwhile, on the south side of DC, in Virginia people in predominantly Democratic neighborhoods (incidentally ones with high ethnic populations) were getting anonymous phone calls saying the cops were at the polls waiting to arrest people with outstanding warrants.

    And every year the GOP scratches its head and wonders why it is so hard to get non-H/W/ voters.

    Gosh. I wonder why.

  20. 20.

    Jay

    January 17, 2008 at 8:10 pm

    could you provide a link substantiating that statement?

    LINK

  21. 21.

    bob

    January 17, 2008 at 8:11 pm

    I just wonder how anyone with a synapse that still functions cannot see that the Republicans are the party of freebooters who use idiot christians and idiot libertarians to vote for them by flat out lying to them. These are white racist colonialist imperialists, kind of just like what the Russians used to say about us during the cold war. At that time it was mainly the Dulles brothers causing the trouble. Now it’s the whole damn republican party.

  22. 22.

    Jay

    January 17, 2008 at 8:12 pm

    The phrase: “What have you done for us lately?” comes to mind.

    What have the Dems done lately?

  23. 23.

    cleek

    January 17, 2008 at 9:06 pm

    What have the Dems done lately?

    IIRC, the guy running a close 2nd in the Dem primaries is black. on the other hand, the Reps do have Alan Keyes. so i guess it’s even.

  24. 24.

    Jay

    January 17, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    IIRC, the guy running a close 2nd in the Dem primaries is black.

    I heard Andrew Cuomo say the other day that he was good at Shucking and Jiving.

    IIRC

    With little fanfare and not much credit, President Bush has appointed a more diverse set of top advisers than any president in history. link

    IIRC That when the Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education ruling against segregation, 100 Democrats (19 U. S. Senators and 81 Congressmen) issued a public denunciation of that ruling, declaring that desegregation was “certain to destroy the system of public education”

  25. 25.

    Enlightened Layperson

    January 18, 2008 at 12:15 am

    You can bet the rent money that at the GOP convention this summer every one of them will be up on the stage.

    All denouncing affirmative action, of course. Although actually these “black conservatives” the Republicans are always putting forward make the case against affirmative action better than they could ever imagine.

  26. 26.

    Jake

    January 18, 2008 at 7:32 am

    How do you define lately?

    IIRC That when the Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education ruling against segregation, 100 Democrats (19 U. S. Senators and 81 Congressmen) issued a public denunciation of that ruling, declaring that desegregation was “certain to destroy the system of public education”

    Yeah, yeah and the Republican party 2008 is identical to Lincoln’s Republican party.

    This will come as a huge shock but the dynamics and focus of both parties have shifted a little bit since then. Remember Strom Thurmond?

    Feeb.

  27. 27.

    Cyrus

    January 18, 2008 at 8:30 am

    My guess is that the importance of blacks to the poltical system will decline as the Democratic Party becomes the only relevant political party in the U.S. Even the former Republican social conservatives will become more important once they cross over and start voting in the Democratic Party after the collapse of the Republican Party.

    I wouldn’t be so sure. Hasn’t a major party only disintegrated once in the history of the country? (Though admittedly, it was over this same issue, so…) There’s no guarantee that things will change as quickly as you seem to think, and even if they do, the Republicans will probably move toward greater diversity to keep up.

  28. 28.

    Pb

    January 18, 2008 at 8:49 am

    What do you think the Republicans of today would think of the values enshrined in the Republican Party Platform of 1856…

  29. 29.

    Barry

    January 18, 2008 at 9:04 am

    Anybody who invokes Dixicrats when discussing the *current* GOP and Democratic Party has revealed themselves to be either a fool or a liar.

  30. 30.

    ChristieS

    January 18, 2008 at 9:16 am

    Jay Says:
    IIRC That when the Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education ruling against segregation, 100 Democrats (19 U. S. Senators and 81 Congressmen) issued a public denunciation of that ruling, declaring that desegregation was “certain to destroy the system of public education”

    And when Johnson bullied the Civil Rights Act past these assholes anyway, they up and jumped ship to the welcoming arms of the Republicans. IIRC.

  31. 31.

    ChristieS

    January 18, 2008 at 9:23 am

    Barry Says:

    Anybody who invokes Dixicrats when discussing the current GOP and Democratic Party has revealed themselves to be either a fool or a liar.

    Exactly, as well as when Republicans invoke Abe Lincoln. The parties today bear absolutely NO resemblance to the parties of the same name in 1862.

    The massive shift in political ideologies that occured between the end of Reconstruction and the end of WW1 saw the complete realignment of the parties to the opposite ends of the political spectrum. They kept the same party names but literally swapped positions on the spectrum.

  32. 32.

    Jay

    January 18, 2008 at 12:33 pm

    It’s pretty funny reading you folks just making shit up.

    And when Johnson bullied the Civil Rights Act past these assholes anyway, they up and jumped ship to the welcoming arms of the Republicans. IIRC.

    Please see the current President pro tempore of the US Senate and ask him if he has seen any white niggers recently. Senator KKK is still a Democrat and he voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

    Also please name of the Dems that voted against the 1964 Civil Right act that moved to the GOP. Thurmond is the only Senator that switched parties after voting against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

    The truth is that most of the Dixiecrats did not become Republicans. They created the Dixiecrats and then, when the civil rights movement succeeded, they returned to the Democratic fold.

    A larger percentage of Republicans voted for the 1964 civil rights act then Democrats. This can be said for ALL of civil rights laws.

    Also note that Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

  33. 33.

    sidereal

    January 18, 2008 at 6:23 pm

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964

    By party and region

    Note : “Southern”, as used in this section, refers to members of Congress from the eleven states that made up the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. “Northern” refers to members from the other 39 states, regardless of the geographic location of those states.

    The original House version:

    * Southern Democrats: 7-87 (7%-93%)
    * Southern Republicans: 0-10 (0%-100%)

    * Northern Democrats: 145-9 (94%-6%)
    * Northern Republicans: 138-24 (85%-15%)

    The Senate version:

    * Southern Democrats: 1-20 (5%-95%) (only Senator Ralph Yarborough of Texas voted in favor)
    * Southern Republicans: 0-1 (0%-100%) (this was Senator John Tower of Texas)
    * Northern Democrats: 45-1 (98%-2%) (only Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia opposed the measure)
    * Northern Republicans: 27-5 (84%-16%) (Senators Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, Edwin L. Mechem of New Mexico, Milward L. Simpson of Wyoming, and Norris H. Cotton of New Hampshire opposed the measure)

    From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don’t need any more than that… but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That’s where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.

    But keep banging that drum and I’m sure you’ll eventually convince everyone that the modern Democrats are the real racists. Clap harder!

  34. 34.

    sidereal

    January 18, 2008 at 6:25 pm

    Whoops. boffed the blockquote there. The second to last paragraph was a quote from Kevin Phillips, Nixon’s strategist, in the New York Times in 1970 laying out the Southern Strategy.

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