AOTL Series On Race - Part VIII Why Is The Republican Party Primarily White?

This is a question that most people know the answer to, but do not discuss because it gets a little too sensitive. Currently, it is a boilerplate question asked on the floor every four years during Republican National Conventions by news journalists. I recall the answer always being something along the lines of “Well, we’re a big tent party. We think the message of smaller government and lower taxes is one that everyone can embrace. We just need to work a little harder to get the word out.” Four years later the word has not gotten out, the question is posed again, and the same pledge to get the word out is made.

The historically ept will recall that the Republican Party emerged out of the gate with a minority outreach program known as Emancipation or Abolition. At the time of its founding in 1854 the Republican Party vehemently opposed slavery, bucking the wealthy and powerful Establishment that had at the very least tolerated human bondage. In defending freedom, Republicans were among the first true progressives in American history as a group organized to improve the treatment of others under the law.

White Southern resentment of the Republican Party was so high following the Civil War that white Southerners swung unanimously in favor of the Democratic Party while Blacks overwhelmingly favored the Republican Party for obvious reasons. Before words like “liberal” and “conservative” were commonly used as American political signposts, it was the Republican Party that had Blacks’ backs. Out of the eight civil rights acts that have passed and been signed into law five have been passed by Republican presidents (three in the 20^th century). Meanwhile the Establishment abided by the social changes brought about by the Republicans, not penalizing the Republicans, but splitting its vote fairly evenly between the two parties.

It was the Great Depression that helped cement the reputations by which we know the two major parties today. After beating Herbert Hoover with accusations of taxing and spending too much, President Franklin Roosevelt spent unprecedented amounts of money in the name of creating a social net for a nation experiencing 25% unemployment. Roosevelt worked his New Deal like Crazy Eddie passing on savings to the voter. This was the first leg of the emerging Democratic Party.

Roosevelt also passed the most sweeping Civil Rights measure since Emancipation by establishing the Fair Employment Practices Commission. He had done so in alliance with A. Philip Randolph, a trade unionist and a Neeeeeegro. In spite of overseeing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, Roosevelt’s profile as a friend of civil rights became legendary. In a different approach from Republican Hoover who had purged the Republican Party of black leaders to appeal to Southern voters, Roosevelt had worked with black leaders to attract black voters to his coalition. This was the second leg of the emerging Democratic Party.

In response to Roosevelt’s move of making the underdog the priority the Republican Party positioned itself shamelessly as the last defender of the Establishment. If the Democrats were going to spend time, energy, and money on looking out for those with the most against them, then the Republicans would look out for those with the most. The wealthy and powerful interests were, demographically speaking, white.

As a way of bolstering support for their base in a shifting environment the Republican Party began selling the idea that what was good for the wealthy and powerful was best for the not so wealthy and powerful. They also played up civil rights as distasteful and wrong which appealed to bigots and to those whites who were oblivious to the depth of American racism.

As support for black civil rights grew so did resentment among Whites. When Lyndon Johnson ushered sweeping civil rights legislation through Congress without the support of the Southern Democrats he admitted aloud that it would cost the Democrats votes for a generation. What he meant was that angry bigots would stop voting for Democrats and in that he was correct. Where he was wrong was that it would be for more than just a generation.

The current Republican Party is not made up of all bigots, but let us just say that by now, most white bigots who were Democrats are no longer affiliated with the Democratic Party. Between the two, it is still the Democratic Party that is more responsive to such issues as housing discrimination, New York cop-on-innocent brother shootings, driving while black, etc. The Democratic Party has also been the party more responsive to the concerns of other Americans who demand equal access. Meanwhile the Republican Party has been consistent in playing down those complaints.

In an encouraging sign, some Republicans seem to be sickened by their peers’ knee jerk to opposition civil rights. They are done with fellow Republicans who claim that extending protection under the law to others makes them the victim. Perhaps realizing how they lost the black vote, Republicans like Ted Olson are undercutting Democrats’ position as underdog champions by vigorously defending the rights of gays to marry. Thus far most of the support Olson has found among his party has been from gay Republicans. While his bold move is not causing any conservative groundswell at the moment, his civil rights stance is concurrent with the swing of the bigot arm of the Republican Party to the Tea Party wing.

If the Tea Party broke off and became its own separate entity, I have a feeling that in a few years we would be seeing more Neeeeeegro faces at Republican National Conventions. : )