January 08th, 2021

                                      Let’s Be Clear
 
            What happened on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. may have been shocking in the moment, no one should have been surprised.  And I’m not just talking about Trump.  This was a predictable outcome of the almost sixty years of Republican Party evolution.  From the moment Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 the die was cast.  The “Dixiecrats” (Southern Democrats) began to leave the Democratic Party and, by 1968, were logical allies with Nixon’s Silent Majority.  The unifying factor: Whiteness.  From that 1968 election season, right up to Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol Building, the Republican Party has inexorably moved in this direction.  It was always the party of corporations --- always valuing property over people--- and, as such, had a disproportionate number of Wealthy White Men dominating the party (Not that the Democrats didn’t --- but the mid-Sixties changed the demographics, creating a deep schism between the parties).  Let’s be clear:  the Republican Party has been on the path to Trumpism for more than a half-century.  A brief look down history’s Memory Lane reveals the Road Signs posted along the way.

            By the Election of 1968 the United States was in turmoil.  The Civil Rights Movement’s and the Anti-War Movement’s  strident (and almost daily) demonstrations had created serious division in the United States.  One segment --- committed to “liberation” and “peace” --- was demonstrating for equal rights for minorities, for women, for LBGTQ people and against not only the War in Vietnam but also  the global colonialism of U.S. power. The other side ---  the “establishment,” the “status quo” ---became Nixon’s “Silent Majority” with former Southern Democrats “fleeing” to the Republican Party.  The unifying aspect of that party was Whiteness and, slowly but surely, any of the formerly “liberal” Republicans (yes, there was such a creature once upon a time) were peeled off, sent out to pasture, or expelled from the party (check out John Lindsay, Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, Ken Keating, Everett Dirksen, et al).  What used to be the Democratic “Solid South” now moved into the “R” column.  States that were solidly Democratic for a century --- because Lincoln had been a Republican!  --- left the fold. Once their Party opened its arms to African-Americans (and other minorities) with Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the Southerners fled to a Party that would put their priorities --- the “protection” of White Supremacy ---first.  Let’s be clear: this is where the Road to Trump began.  (And let’s also be clear that Mitch McConnell is a direct descendant of George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, and Trent Lott --- maybe not as overtly racist but certainly someone who will protect property over people, while feathering his own nest.)

            And then, of course, in 1981, the next Republican President is their icon, their nominee for Mount Rushmore: Ronald W. Reagan.  Republicans in the 21st century gush on and on about how “great” Reagan was --- and that makes sense because he pushed the Republican Party so far Right that it led to the Democrats tying their fortunes to “moderate”(right-leaning) Bill Clinton by 1992.  But let’s look at Reagan’s record (as noted by Joe Davidson of NBC News in June of 2007).

• Appointed conservative judges, like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who continue to issue rulings to the detriment of African Americans. Just 2 percent of Reagan’s judicial appointments were black.
• Began his 1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., near the site where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964.
• Supported racism with remarks like those that characterized poor, black women as “welfare queens.”
• Fired U.S. Commission on Civil Rights members who were critical of his civil rights policies, including his strong opposition to affirmative action programs. One of the commissioners, Mary Frances Berry, who now chairs the Commission, recalls that the judge who overturned the dismissal did so because “you can’t fire a watchdog for biting.”
• Sought to limit and gut the Voting Rights Act.
• Slashed important programs like the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) that provided needed assistance to black people.
• Appointed people like Clarence Thomas, who later became a horrible Supreme Court Justice, to the Equal Opportunity Commission and others who implemented policies that hurt black people.
• Doubted the integrity of civil rights leaders, saying, “Sometimes I wonder if they really mean what they say, because some of those leaders are doing very well leading organizations based on keeping alive the feeling that they're victims of prejudice."
• Tried to get a tax exemption for Bob Jones University, which was then a segregated college in South Carolina .
• Defended former Sen. Jesse Helms’ “sincerity” when that arch villain of black interest questioned Martin Luther King’s loyalty.

        I won’t even begin to discuss Reagan’s “policies” regarding  the crack epidemic and the AIDs crisis.  Reagan has been  lionized for so long that it might be hard to recognize just how much his Presidency sowed the seeds to Donald Trump.

            And then we have the Bushes, 41 & 43:  Connecticut Yankees (despite W’s claim of being a Texan), Yale legacies, landed gentry.  I won’t even go into detail about just how White these two are.  I’ll simply list a few names:  Willy Horton, Lee Atwater, Dick Cheney, Clarence Thomas, Katrina.  As far as Bush the First goes: he vetoed a civil rights, nominated Clarence Thomas, a Black man opposed to  affirmative action, to the Supreme Court while expanding the “War on Drugs,” targeting minorities.  George W.’s record doesn’t look quite as bad, but that may be because the expectations for him were so low.  His slow response and racist mishandling of Hurricane Katrina is a dark stain on his record (like 9/11, of course) and, while he was not as egregious as Nixon, Reagan, or Daddy, he did not at all open up the Republican Party to greater diversity or inclusivity and would never be confused for a pro-active warrior against white supremacy.  The Bushes, quite simply, are poster boys for white male privilege.

            That’s the foundation and first floor for the House of Trump.  What accelerated the reality show con man into national prominence, of course, was his blatantly racist claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.  Trump already had a track record as a bigoted racist (is that redundant?) stretching back to 1973 (when he and his father denied rental  housing to African-Americans) and continuing with his haranguing for the death penalty for the “Central Park Five” (5 Black & Hispanic boys) who, of course, have been totally exonerated (and Trump still insists they should be executed!).  The question becomes, then, how is it such an extreme, clearly racist person can become a Presidential nominee of a major political party?  The answer is clear: that party  is in synch with Trump and has spent the last four years not only supporting but also encouraging him!  Only a party that has historically supported white supremacy, that has made no attempt at being inclusive or diverse, that has vilified and demonized people of color for decades would have room for someone like Donald J. Trump.

            That’s why Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol should not entirely shock us.  In supporting a white supremacist demagogue whose sole purpose was to un-do the Obama administration --- to erase any trace of our first African-American President --- the Republican Party showed its true colors.  That almost 150 Republican legislators supported Trump’s ludicrous claims of “voter fraud” and 45% of Republican voters support the attack of the Capitol reveals that the Confederate flag and Old Dixie is alive and well in the Republican Party.  Finally, the mob that attacked the Capitol was overwhelmingly WHITE MEN and were treated deferentially by the WHITE Capitol police in many instances.  Imagine if that mob had been Black Lives Matter demonstrators.  It’s time to recognize that this is the logical development of the Republican Party.  It is the White Male Party.  Period.

            Let’s be clear.