Why Trump is good for the Democratic Party
Somehow, every time I see and hear Donald Trump, I am
reminded of Barry Goldwater, and how much cold water he poured on the
Republican Party in 1964, and truly doused by that cold inundation, the Republican
Party has not recovered up to this day, as far as the Black Vote is concerned.
Let me go back a bit to the 1860’s, when Abraham Lincoln,
good old Abe, ran on the platform of freeing the slaves and giving them the
right to vote in elections. For those who do not know, women too were
disenfranchised at that time. Lincoln, a Republican, was elected in 1860 and keeping
his promise, he freed the slaves and enfranchised them, in the face of bitter
opposition, mainly from the South the stronghold of the Democrats, which also
led to civil war, Abolitionists Republicans against Anti-Abolitionists
Democrats, though mainly characterized North against South. And let us look at
the sacrifice; 620,000 died in that Civil War almost as many as those who died
in all other wars.
Naturally,
the grateful freedmen, they were no longer slaves, voted for the next 70 years,
until 1933, Republican. By 1933 of course some Blacks did support the Democratic
Party; but support for the Republicans was something like two thirds one third.
Then
came the depression and by 1933 10,000.000 people were unemployed and in dire
need. Naturally, Blacks were included in
that number. In 1933 in response to the crisis in the country Franklin Delano
Roosevelt (FDR) the new Democratic President introduced his New Deal policies
which included help for the needy, which naturally included a large number of
Blacks who subsequently turned in greater numbers to the Democratic Party. But
significantly it was not all blacks who flocked to the Democrats because of
Public Assistance as some would have us believe. For whereas the following
among black before was two thirds Republican one third Democrat, only about one
third more joined the Democrats, which meant the voting pattern was directly
reversed. That remained the numerical pattern up to the 1960’s, perhaps by
which time the division was more like 60% in favor of the Democrats, 40%
Republicans.
Then
something happened, Barry Goldwater. In
the 1964 Republican Convention Barry Goldwater, Bull Dog Goldwater as he is
better known, with overwhelming Southern support, received the Party’s
nomination notwithstanding his vitriolic outbursts against Blacks and other
minorities. He did not become President thank God, but that was it as far as
the Black vote is concerned. Blacks in particular thereafter, turned almost
100% to the Democrats. And there it basically remained. In 2008 President Obama
received 90% of the Black vote and since then the Republicans have been
struggling to woo Black voters.
In 2000
in Florida for example, where the white vote is split almost down the middle,
it was the Black vote, although comprising only 12% of the electorate that
caused the political upheaval between George W Bush and Al Gore. Many argue
that 12000 black votes were improperly rejected mostly through
disenfranchisement which if they were allowed to vote, would have given Al Gore
victory in contradistinction to the meager 567 votes which gave Mr. Bush the
victory.
And
here we go again. Another Goldwater for all intent and purposes grabbing the
Republican nomination. Is this history
repeating itself? The stink coming out of Trumps mouth and the drooling over
his billions as one of his supporters admits, would seem to put the question beyond
doubt. And for the future? Republicans can kiss the Black vote goodbye. For sure a trump nomination is the best thing
that could have happened to the Democratic Party.
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