In January 2019, Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa was removed from his positions in Committees in the House of Representatives over his controversial racist comments about White Supremacy.
In the United States, racism in the U.S. Republican Party are a series of topics of awkward moments, controversial comments, and other events that led to accusations, allegations, speculations, and even rumors that there are racists in the United States, or in this case, closeted White Supremacists who identify themselves as Republicans. GOP silence of events within the party are often, party leaders and politicians who encounter events where a Republican (for example, Iowa Congressman Steve King) who says controversial comments that is critical to immigration, multiculturalism, and diversity, the GOP leaders and politicians' handling is often either rare or modest, leading to criticism that the Republican Party isn't doing enough to address the GOP's alleged or open racist issues.
In elections, Republicans perform poorly among non-white groups, and these controversies are partly a tributing factor, making the Republican Party awkwardly appearing to be a "Party of Old White Men" widely portrayed by American media. Yet, there is no evidence suggesting the Republican Party are a party of racists, but it is the politicians, the candidates, and the recent Party establishment's handling of these events that spark anger and frustration among minority voters and their liberal allies.
This partisan problem began with the 1964 U.S. Presidential Election, when the Republican Party nominated Barry Goldwater to take on the Incumbent Democratic President at this time period, Lyndon B. Johnson, for the White House, Goldwater infuriated the Republican Party's prominent voting bloc, African-Americans, by openly opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, causing black voters to feel alienated by the same party that freed their ancestors from Slavery during the Civil War, and began voting for the party that had an open history of White Supremacy, but was influenced by their Northern Progressive wing to push the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alienating the Democrats' White Southern voters. President Johnson crushed Goldwater in a 486-52 electoral vote landslide, and since 1964, black voters overwhelmingly vote for the Democratic Party because of the party's compromise passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Republicans' birth of their race problem that continues to this day.
The accusations, allegations, and rumors of Racism in the Republican Party have escalated with the campaign and election of Donald Trump in 2016, which inspired White Supremacists to openly coming out of the closet and openly run for office as Republicans in the 2018 U.S. Midterm Elections, but with little success.
Political Realignment of African Americans[]
Political Realignment and It's Origin[]
African Americans were Republicans since the Civil War[]
Historically, since the American Civil War, the Democratic Party was the party of white supremacy and the Republican Party was the party of racial equality, the Republican Party abolished slavery over the Democratic Party's resistance, and the Republicans fought for racial equality and gave Blacks in the South as well as the North the right to vote, and during Reconstruction, blacks voted Republicans to power in the South, but the Republican Party had missteps, their biggest misstep with black people in the South was the Compromise of 1877, a deal to settle the dispute of the 1876 U.S. Presidential Election, in the deal, Republicans offered the Democrats that they would return the defeated South back over Democratic control by withdrawing Union troops that were protecting freed blacks from the South if the Democrats agreed to accept Republican, Rutherford B. Hayes, as President of the United States. The Democrats agreed to the deal and the Republicans kept their word to the Democrats and hand the South over to the Democrats, which means recently emancipated blacks in the south lose military protection from hate crimes and once the Democrats got the South back, they began to legislate against black people, taking their rights away by enacting what would be famously known as "Jim Crow laws", laws that create social and economic inequality based on race.
Historical Ingredients for African-American Realignment[]
Progressive Era[]
President Theodore Roosevelt was a prominent figure for the Progressive Era
In the Progressive Era, so-called "Progressives" are a group of people and they still exist today, of people who are campaigning for social and economic change that benefits almost everyone in a society, and that's eventually going to mean in a few decades, racial equality before the law. Prominent Progressive leaders (or icons), Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson arrived to the Presidency, however, these Progressives grew out of the Republican Party (Theodore Roosevelt is a perfect example), and there was a connection between Progressive Republicans and pro-Civil Rights Republicans, but something happen in one presidential election in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt left office in 1909 to William H. Taft, and he turned out not to be a Progressive at all, he governed Conservatively, which alienated Roosevelt and decided to primary Taft, which wasn't successful, once Roosevelt lost the nomination to Taft, he and his Progressive supporters stormed out of the Republican convention in anger, prominent Chawosaurian politicians, Prime Minister Garfield Lucas Webster, future Prime Ministers, Theodore McClellan, and Jonathan Davgon Bismarck X, and future Chawosaurian Senator, Walerian I. Boleslaw, participated in the 1912 GOP Convention, and joined Roosevelt in the creation of a famous third party, the Progressive Party of 1912, commonly known as the "Bull Moose Party". The party had a big impact on the outcome of the 1912 election, not the way the Progressives wanted, but a big impact, Woodrow Wilson and his Democratic Party were swept to power in 1912 and enacted much of the Progressive agenda into action, which influenced Progressives to move from the Republican Party and into the Democratic Party, and that's gonna have a major key impact on the Democratic Party's worldview of race, and that is why Historians, Politicians, Voters, and especially those three groups who are African Americans, should know about the Progressive Era.
African-Americans in the New Deal Era[]
President Roosevelt is a very important figure to study why a majority of black people realigned from Republican to Democratic.
Twenty years later, in the 1932 presidential election, the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression that affected all Americans regardless of race, the Democratic Party blamed the Depression on the Republicans and it worked tremendously, Franklin D. Roosevelt presented his plan to restore the American Economy from the Depression and once he was elected more than single-handedly, he forged the New Deal Coalition, which led to the beginning of African-Americans' realignment from Republican to Democrat.
African-Americans in the North benefited well under FDR's new deal policies, but blacks in the South still suffered under the tyranny of jim crow laws. However, President Roosevelt hinted to Black Americans that a changing Democratic Party is coming, but not intentionally, but FDR did modest reforms for African-Americans, Roosevelt signed an executive order, Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in the defense industry based on race, but Roosevelt didn't do everything for blacks, FDR feared the collapse of the Solid South if FDR becomes too radical on racial equality, FDR limited his approach to Civil Rights to keep the racist Southern Democrats on his turf, but Roosevelt set up a group of black advisors to help him address African-American issues, his ban on racial discrimination in the defense industry, and his Socially Progressive wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, and African Americans in the North doing well under the New Deal have all become key to Black voters becoming primarily Democratic. After Roosevelt passed away in 1945 while still in office, Harry S. Truman reversed fellow Democratic President Woodrow Wilson's racist policy on segregating Blacks in the military, which helped him in Northern Black voters in the 1948 presidential election.
A Divided Democratic Party[]
.png){kind=link}
Results of the 1948 presidential election show the example of a changing yet divided at this time Democratic Party on race relations.
By the time FDR passed away in 1945, the Democratic Party was slowly moving away from their racist history, the party became divided between Progressive Northern Democrats and Conservative Southern Democrats, and this split was seen in the 1948 U.S. Presidential Election. Southern Democrats were getting suspicious about the Democrats' unusual changing policies on race relations, remember, the Democrats were the party of racism, but since the Progressives became Democrats under the Wilson administration, the Democrats' racist sheet began to rip apart, the Southern Democrats set up a minor party called the Dixiecrats, led by its presidential nominee, Strom Thurmond, unfortunately for the Democrats, the Progressives were dissatisfied with President Truman's centrist policies, leading to the Progressives to set up the Progressive Party of 1948 led by former FDR-era vice president, Henry A. Wallace, this Democratic Party breakup had the American media speculated that this division will politically destroy Truman and enable a Republican landslide, but on election night, that turned out not to be the case, Truman won a surprise victory and the third parties had little effect than expected. Progressives and Segregationalists went back to support the Democratic Party.
After eight years of President Eisenhower, the 1960 presidential election rolled its weel, the Democratic Party nominated a Progressive Northerner, John F. Kennedy, and the Republicans nominated Richard Nixon, the Vice President of that time period. The Civil Right Movement was already roaring the South, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was imprisoned for his political advocacy, the Southern establishment trying to silence him to keep Blacks down on their luck. Since Nixon had greater access to the President of the United States, Nixon attempted to get Dr. King released from prison, but was unsuccessful, John F. Kennedy tried his turn and succeeded, leading to Kennedy and Nixon narrowing in the African-American vote.
The Final Realignment Ingredient: The 1964 U.S. Presidential Election[]
.png){kind=link}
Results of the 1964 presidential election in the United States.
In 1963, a big year for the Civil Rights movement, Kennedy publicly endorsed Civil Rights legislation, which alienated the racists in the Democratic Party. Although Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson, the Vice President, took over and began continuing Kennedy's work fighting for the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which earned him support from Civil Rights leaders, which was unusual for a Democrat because of the party's race history.
Barry Goldwater explains his vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Firing Line (1966)
Republican nominee Barry Goldwater stating his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Democratic Party controlled 88th United States Congress successfully passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with bipartisan support between Northern Democrats and Northern Republicans supporting it despite Southerners of both parties opposing it. In the 1964 elections, the Republicans nominated the paleoconservative, Barry Goldwater, who, unlike any Republican, announced his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which didn't do his potential black voters any favors, and since the Democrats in the North were the ones who passed the Civil Rights Act, on election night, Lyndon B. Johnson crushed Barry Goldwater in a 486-52 electoral vote wipeout, losing the African-American vote to Johnson and since the 1964 election, black voters primarily vote Democratic all the way up to this day.
Events leading to Rumors of Republican Racism since 1964[]
Background of GOP Racism Allegations[]
Donald Trump worsened the allegations of GOP Racism by controversially commenting on Hispanic Immigrants and Americans, Muslims, and connecting himself to White Nationalists.
Because of Barry Goldwater's candidacy, Black voters, now feel alienated by the party that destroyed slavery, now vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Today, black voters vote Democratic mostly in a 90-99% range. Whites vote Republican in a 50-60% range, White Millennials recently voted Democratic in the 2018 U.S. House of Representatives elections, this millennial racial group voted for Trump in 2016. Since 1964, rumors of GOP racism began to circulate. These rumors had been escalating since the presence of Donald Trump, making it even harder for Republicans to win a majority of, even a plurality of minority voters.
The Southern Strategy[]
What was the Southern Strategy?
Hip-Hughes History's explanation of the Southern Strategy.
Since the Democratic Party distanced themselves from their racist history by allowing the Progressive Northern Democrats to steal the weel from the Conservative Southern Democrats, the Republicans, despite not racists, used dog-whistle politics to attract White Southerners to vote for them.
Voter ID Laws[]
Rumors circulate that Republicans use "Voter ID Laws" to suppress or slow down minority voters because minority voters always tend to vote Democratic.
Jeff Sessions[]
Jeff Sessions
In 1986, Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr, wrote a letter to the Senate about Jeff Sessions' voting rights abuses, when Sessions was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to become a district judge, his nomination failed as a result of Coretta Scott King's letter (click this link to view the letter) which warned of Jeff Sessions' Civil Rights abuse.
In 2017, Jeff Sessions was nominated by Donald Trump to serve as Attorney General of the United States, the Democrats attempted to quote Coretta Scott King's letter to campaign against Sessions' nomination, but was censored by the Republican-controlled Senate. This move became controversial.
Roy Moore[]
Judge Roy Moore became famous for his controversial comments on race.
In the 2017 U.S. Senate special election in Alabama to fill the vacancy of Jeff Sessions who was Senator from Alabama, Roy Moore entered the race to get elected Senator, but his revelations on race began to haunt him, audio recordings (view on YouTube) where Roy Moore controversially said "America was great during the time Slavery existed". Another audio where Roy Moore said the United States should "basically legalize Slavery" by suggesting all the amendments after the Bill of Rights section of the U.S. Constitution should be repealed, including the 13th Amendment, an amendment that outlawed race-based slavery.
Role in the Chawosaurian World[]
Prominent Chawosaurians who were Republicans, Chawosaurian Prime Ministers, Garfield Lucas Webster, Theodore McClellan, and Jonathan Davgon Bismarck X (Bismarck was a Republican until 1912) struggled to fight against racism, but Webster and McClellan never hesitated into fighting for the rights of African-Americans, while Bismarck was cautious against fighting for civil rights and desegregation.