[NYTr] Bob Herbert on The Racist G.O.P.

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Ed Pearl

The New York Times - Sep 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/opinion/25herbert.html

The Ugly Side of the G.O.P.

By BOB HERBERT

I applaud the thousands of people, many of them poor, who traveled from
around the country to protest in Jena, La., last week. But what I'd
really like to see is a million angry protesters marching on the
headquarters of the National Republican Party in Washington.

Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how
anti-black their party really is.

The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and
otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans. Last week, the
residents of Washington, D.C., with its majority black population, came
remarkably close to realizing a goal they have sought for decades - a
voting member of Congress to represent them.

A majority in Congress favored the move, and the House had already
approved it. But the Republican minority in the Senate - with the
enthusiastic support of President Bush - rose up on Tuesday and said:
"No way, baby."

At least 57 senators favored the bill, a solid majority. But the
Republicans prevented a key motion on the measure from receiving the 60
votes necessary to move it forward in the Senate. The bill died.

At the same time that the Republicans were killing Congressional
representation for D.C. residents, the major G.O.P. candidates for
president were offering a collective slap in the face to black voters
nationally by refusing to participate in a long-scheduled, nationally
televised debate focusing on issues important to minorities.

The radio and television personality Tavis Smiley worked for a year to
have a pair of these debates televised on PBS, one for the Democratic
candidates and the other for the Republicans. The Democratic debate was
held in June, and all the major candidates participated.

The Republican debate is scheduled for Thursday. But Rudy Giuliani, John
McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson have all told Mr. Smiley: "No way,
baby."

They won't be there. They can't be bothered debating issues that might
be of interest to black Americans. After all, they're Republicans.

This is the party of the Southern strategy - the party that ran, like
panting dogs, after the votes of segregationist whites who were
repelled by the very idea of giving equal treatment to blacks. Ronald
Reagan, George H.W. (Willie Horton) Bush, George W. (Compassionate
Conservative) Bush - they all ran with that lousy pack.

Dr. Carolyn Goodman, a woman I was privileged to call a friend, died
last month at the age of 91. She was the mother of Andrew Goodman, one
of the three young civil rights activists shot to death by rabid
racists near Philadelphia, Miss., in 1964.

Dr. Goodman, one of the most decent people I have ever known, carried
the ache of that loss with her every day of her life.

In one of the vilest moves in modern presidential politics, Ronald
Reagan, the ultimate hero of this latter-day Republican Party, went out
of his way to kick off his general election campaign in 1980 in that
very same Philadelphia, Miss. He was not there to send the message that
he stood solidly for the values of Andrew Goodman. He was there to
assure the bigots that he was with them.

"I believe in states' rights," said Mr. Reagan. The crowd roared.

In 1981, during the first year of Mr. Reagan's presidency, the late Lee
Atwater gave an interview to a political science professor at Case
Western Reserve University, explaining the evolution of the Southern
strategy:

"You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger,' " said
Atwater. "By 1968, you can't say 'nigger' - that hurts you. Backfires.
So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights, and all that
stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about
cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally
economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt
worse than whites."

In 1991, the first President Bush poked a finger in the eye of black
America by selecting the egregious Clarence Thomas for the seat on the
Supreme Court that had been held by the revered Thurgood Marshall. The
fact that there is a rigid quota on the court, permitting one black and
one black only to serve at a time, is itself racist.

Mr. Bush seemed to be saying, "All right, you want your black on the
court? Boy, have I got one for you."

Republicans improperly threw black voters off the rolls in Florida in
the contested presidential election of 2000, and sent Florida state
troopers into the homes of black voters to intimidate them in 2004.

Blacks have been remarkably quiet about this sustained mistreatment by
the Republican Party, which says a great deal about the quality of black
leadership in the U.S. It's time for that passive, masochistic posture
to end.