Published: January 20, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
Barak Obama is a Better Republican than RNC Leaders
By Nina May, RWNetwork.net
Whatever your opinion is of Barack Obama, he should be congratulated for invoking the memories of two courageous Republicans who helped change the course of American history.
Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president who was elected by a party that had separated itself from the pro-slavery Democrats and formed the radical alternative that boldly proclaimed all men were equal in the eyes of God and slavery was an abomination to that Deity. They were referred to as radical Republicans and were targeted for death by Democrats who found their moral absolutes offensive and a barrier to their thirst for total control and domination.
As Lincoln provides the left flank of moral determination and righteous resolve, Dr. Martin Luther King provides the right flank of those same values. During his long struggle to have the 14th and 15th Amendments properly interpreted by the Southern Democrats who supplanted them with Jim Crow laws and impossible barriers to justice, the opposing forces were self-identified Democrats who reflected the same twisted values of their forefathers.
They still wore the sheets of prejudice that had been handed down from a group of Democrats who formed the KKK after the South fell under Union control at the end of the Civil War. They proudly marched in ghostly array proclaiming their petty discriminatory minds to be superior to that of people with more pigment in their skin. These forces were a throwback to the racists who moved to enslave blacks, segregate a country, and ignore the law of the land after defeat in a battle that could have been prevented.
The irony in wrapping a Democratic inaugural transition in the righteous robes of two Republican heroes who fought to end slavery and the dregs of its consequences is that their history is being rewritten by the very party that opposed their views on the issue. If you ask anyone today which party either Lincoln or Martin Luther King belonged to you will hear a symphony of similar responses all declaring these great men of character to be Democrats.
And when the truth is revealed it is summarily dismissed as being impossible because they have been taught in failing schools that the Democratic party is the source of all justice and liberation "from the evil that the Republicans have perpetrated on minorities for years."
Oddly though, no one can explain how the first 23 blacks elected to congress were all Republican, and how the first three black senators were Republican. The first black Democrat elected to congress in the south was not until over 100 years after the end of the civil war and many black Republicans, even ex-slaves were being elected to congress.
All of the southern governors were Democrats and not only fought integration, but worked to silence Martin Luther King by throwing him in jail and releasing dogs on his peaceful followers. This was a harsh reminder that if the Democrats had not fought so hard to keep blacks from being fully integrated into society at the end of a war they started and lost, then we could have had several Barak Obamas before 2009, and the historical element of the inauguration would not be the color of his skin, but the content of his character.
The sad reality in all of this is that the Republican party has not only forgotten its own rich heritage, relying on modern day revisionists to portray them as racist and out of touch with the rest of the country, but they promote this very theme.
The past two party chairmen have traveled the country apologizing for the Southern Strategy that not only has been mischaracterized, but was a direct response to the embarrassing racial position the Democratic Party historically embraced.
The architect of the Southern Strategy, Pat Buchanan, wrote in a 1966 speech for Richard Nixon that, "We would build our Republican Party on a foundation of states rights, human rights, small government and a strong national defense, and leave it to the party of Maddox, Mahoney and Wallace to squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice."
It was during this campaign that Dr. King personally thanked Nixon for helping to pass the 1957 Civil Rights Act that was endorsed by almost all Republicans and opposed by a vast majority of Democrats.
If you analyze the vote count in the 1968 election between Nixon and Humphrey, it is not difficult to assess the origin and final tally of the racist votes. When the campaign began, Nixon was at 42%, Humphrey was at 29% and George Wallace, the self-proclaimed racist who stood in schoolhouse doors to prevent integration, was receiving 22% of the potential vote. After the election was over, Nixon gained only 1% point to end at 43%, whereas Humphrey gained by 14% due mostly to Wallace voters to also have 43% of the final tally. The racist Democrat, George Wallace still received 13% of the vote.
After he was elected, Republican Richard Nixon raised the civil rights enforcement budget by 800%, doubled the budget for black colleges, and appointed more blacks to federal posts and high positions than any president, including LBJ. He also adopted the Philadelphia Plan mandating quotas for blacks in unions, and for blacks in colleges and universities that became the precursor for the entire Affirmative Action plan.
It would be fitting for Barack Obama to round out his inaugural activities by speaking at the Dirkson Senate Office Building to honor the person who was most responsible for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Senator Everett Dirkson, who also was a Republican.
What most people know about the history of the civil rights movement in America, they learned from teachers who have aligned themselves with the Democratic backed teachers unions who had a greater loyalty to the party than the truth. For adults today, who attended public school, and claim to be civil rights activists and supporters yet deny or reject these truths, are sadly lacking substantial knowledge to make honest and correct assessments of the history of civil rights in the country.
It is encouraging to know that Barack Obama was able to discover these facts for himself, and in spite of being from the party of the loyal opposition, he, as a Democrat, is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the images of the very men who gave their lives for this day to become a reality in the United States. It is just a shame that the party he belongs to fought so hard to prevent this day from coming sooner, denying prior Obamas the opportunity to rise above the schism of a racial divide and unite the country under one banner of justice and equality. And it is also a shame that the party with this rich history either rejects, ignores or is just ignorant of it.
Even if the current Republican party is too tone deaf to hear the voices of their founders and followers through the years, the members of the party today should stand proudly by the origins and moral absolutes of the party that ended slavery, passed the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, fought to overturn Jim Crow laws, end segregated classrooms and give women the right to vote.
To shrink from these historic milestones is embracing an imaginary defeat where the victory of truth and justice should be celebrated and acknowledged ... the way Barak Obama is doing.
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze