Not long ago I asked why Jews vote for Democrats. Perhaps even a more confounding question to ask is why do blacks vote for Democrats – and in such overwhelming numbers?
Part of the reason is that large portions of the black community have been propagandized by a racist white establishment within the Democratic Party and the news media. They perpetuate a false narrative that the Democratic Party serves the interests of the black community. This is nothing less than propaganda that has been reinforced by our school systems, the news media, the entertainment industry and book publishers — all overwhelmingly controlled or influenced by the elitist liberal Democrat establishment.
Within the segregated and impoverished black communities, millions of people are denied access to education – especially the true history of race relations in America. They are led to believe that the racist masters of the Democrat urban machines are their benefactors – not their oppressors.
A cadre of black politicians beholding to the political machine — who Malcolm X referred to as “house negroes” — are empowered by the bosses in the big-city city halls to keep the black community – meaning the vote – in line by constantly casting the Republican Party as the enemy of the Negro. It is achieved through a false narrative of both black and Republican history — AND by distracting from the prevailing racist policies of the Democrat machines that are negatively impacting the daily lives of those trapped by poverty in the segregated slums of the American cities.
The role of the Democratic Party as the primary vehicle of oppressive institutional racism in America throughout history has been politically sanitized. Because the Democratic Party’s role in defending slavery is irrefutable — and the brutal and deadly racism of the 100 years of Democrat occupation of the states of the old Confederacy — many willingly (or reluctantly) concede that Democrats were the true villains of racial equality and justice and the Republicans were the courageous heroes. That perception was strategically changed over the course of 30 years by the creation of the false racial narrative that persists to this day.
It began with the Great Depression. Blacks, like most Americans, lost confidence in the economic policies of the Republican Party. In 1932, the dominance of the Republican Party – and the loyalty of the black community – dramatically shifted. But it was a precarious realignment. Throughout the 1930s, most blacks remained registered as Republicans – and appeared that many were returning to the GOP fold.
To prevent this, the Democratic Party engaged in a scheme to maintain its hold over the black vote. It was hatched in Chicago by black Democrat Congressman William Dawson. He was a machine hack –one of those “house Negroes” who Malcolm X railed against. Originally a Republican, Dawson pursued his political power with all the zeal of a convert.
Dawson was the political machine’s overseer for the black community in the Windy City – in charge of what was known as the as the “submachine.” The black newspaper, The Chicago Defender, wrote that Dawson, as a civil rights leader, was “non-committal, evasive, and seldom takes an outspoken stand on anything.”
Facing the potential loss of the black vote for the Democrats, Dawson perfected a variation of an old political theme – make voters financially dependent on the political leaders. In other words, the services and benefits of government would be dependent on political loyalty.
What this did was to set aside the traditional constitutional rights of equality in education, jobs, public safety, and other government services – all the rights of which segregated urban blacks have been deprived for generations – replaced by welfare dependency. It was that simple.
President Franklin Roosevelt liked the idea enough to have Dawson named vice chairman of the National Democratic Party – commissioned to sell his scheme throughout the nation. The concept was consistent with FDR’s overall racist New Deal policies (a subject that will be covered in a future Black History Month commentary).
The welfare-as-civil-rights was greatly advanced with malice of forethought by President Lyndon Johnson. In telling a number of southern Democrat senators the unstated – at least publicly – benefit of his so-called war on poverty, Johnson proudly claimed that it would “keep the n*****s voting Democrat for 200 years.” It has done that for more than 50 years, already. What the war on poverty has NOT done is to uplift the lives of those trapped in the urban segregated ghettoes. It has not provided them with quality education, upward mobility, equal justice, safe streets, economic development and access to America’s opportunity society.
There is a grand inconsistency and incoherence in the fact that anger and frustration so often drive the oppressed urban blacks to demonstrate, protest and riot against the very political leaders that they vote into office every Election Day. The race riots that resulted in death, injury and extensive property damage since the passage of the civil rights legislation in the 1960s shows that they virtually all occur in cities that have been on the almost exclusive control of the Democratic Party for more than half a century – and some even longer.
This grim truth has remained a constant even when black politicians assume the leadership of a city. The paradigm does not change because most of those black politicians have the same vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Baltimore would be an example of a city which has had black Democrat leaders for decades – a city in which billions upon billions of federal dollars have flowed supposedly for the benefit of the poor. And what has changed – and where did all that money go? It is simple. Nothing has dramatically changed – except, perhaps, that the streets are less safe – and the money flowed to the powerful and wealthy political establishment. It certainly has had little impact on the poor or the communities in which they live.
Some try to differentiate the racist policies of the urban Democrat machines from the national party. In fact, it is the national Democratic Party that has always spoken in support of civil rights while the racist elements were allowed to influence – and even dictate – policy. It was seen in the old segregated south. It was seen during the Roosevelt years as the powerful southern congressional Democrats set the agenda. It was even seen in the era of civil rights with the likes of Lyndon Johnson, as Senate Majority Leader, and then-Senator Jack Kennedy pontificating about civil rights but voting to defeat or water down civil rights legislation. It was seen when national Democrats gave lip service support to Martin Luther King’s call for equality, while President Kennedy conspired with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to investigate and harass the civil right leader and conduct a campaign of character assassination – and as the national party yielded to Chicago’s racist Mayor Richard J. Daley as a Democrat “powerhouse.”
Rarely has an interest group voted so overwhelmingly for political leaders who did NOT represent their interests.
So, there ‘tis.