I was a small child during the Cuban Missile Crisis, amidst the GOP fears that a Democratic President [John Kennedy] would give away the store to the Soviet Union or ensnare the U.S. in a world-ending nuclear conflict. I remember the older siblings of my friends recounting ‘duck and cover’ in schools. Lurking in the backdrop as the Republican Party railed against the hammer and sickle was the Party’s claiming of the racist south following the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That GOP was confusing for African Americans; they had been the party of Lincoln and had contributed significantly to both the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act(s).
I knew lots of older Black Americans who had praised the accomplishments of the Republican Party. Former Republican President George W. Bush’s Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, often brings up her southern upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama and her parent's devotion to the elephant. So, what happened to the loyal Republican opposition—CRAVEN POLITICS! To the credit of former Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson and disputes over his motives, and despite the warning of losing the southern vote forever, Johnson stood before Congress in his push for civil rights, the day after my ninth birthday, and uttered the phrase, “we shall overcome.” This, of course, had been the clarion theme song of the civil rights movement and signaled to the old south and the rest of the world, that Democratic leadership was trying decency.
Unfortunately, the Republicans were willing and able, under the strategic leadership of people like Lee Atwater to usher in the new [Old] South. Atwater had been a slick, race bating operative in South Carolina and was introduced to the nation as the strategist for former President Ronald Reagan. Atwater is widely credited, in political circles, with weaponizing “the dog whistle” in modern politics. In a 1981 interview, Atwater revealed how he primed the canvas that has displayed the abstractions of Republican politics at a growing and alarming rate ever since. It might be said if Atwater prepared the palette, Trump has become Picasso. Donald Trump was preceded by pretenders, but his artistry has no match. From the day he descended the escalator in Trump Tower declaring, Mexican and Muslims as the enemy, the vitriol has only escalated. White Nationalist and Klan groups have grafted onto him like a scab over a burn, insulting misogyny has become his stock and trade. The saving grace is their dwindling demographical numbers.
That fear, and loathing were avenged in the Alabama Senate seat election this past Tuesday. Republican Roy Moore who publicly praised America’s slave history as the best of America’s family era, was rejected by 96 percent of the Black community in Alabama. In contrast, the election of Doug Jones, famous for his prosecution of the vile murderers of four little Black girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, was the recipient of that vote. Moore blew all the whistles and lit flares to signal the old South that he supported the White House, its occupant, and his racism. We have a chance to continue the push toward civility. The Democrats are not perfect but as the first African American President of the United States and a Democrat was famous for saying, “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” or in this case the decent.
Vote in 18’ for Change