so this is working very well for them
September 24, 2006 9:41 AM   Subscribe

"Democrats passed those black codes and Jim Crow laws. Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan." The National Black Republican Association airs a radio ad (mp3).
posted by four panels (41 comments total)
 
Must be an election year!
posted by Operation Afterglow at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2006


That is an odd way of denying that those things were done with zeal in the current red states, most of the former Democrats switching parties after civil rights.
posted by Brian B. at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2006


"Steele, the first black candidate elected statewide in Maryland, faces a white Democrat in a heavily Democratic state with the highest percentage of black residents -- 29 percent -- of any state outside the South."
posted by my homunculus is drowning at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2006


Well, no one ever went broke underestimating the public's grasp of the complexities of the Dixiecrat schism.

At least the black Republican the ad was supporting has disavowed the message. Good for him.
posted by Iridic at 9:53 AM on September 24, 2006


Let's see, what else did democrats do 150 years ago? Oh, I know -- nothing that should have any effect on the current election.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:54 AM on September 24, 2006


Republicans also dislike islamic fascism. Just saying.
posted by Artw at 9:54 AM on September 24, 2006


We're your friends. Honest.
posted by carter at 9:58 AM on September 24, 2006


Yeah, I'm sure this will pull Bush's approval ratings out of the under 5% he has among African Americans. Republicans are dicking black people right now.
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:00 AM on September 24, 2006


"The spot begins with one woman telling another, "Dr. King was a real man. You know he was a Republican.""

Your favorite civil rights leader hates you and your beliefs.
posted by bodega at 10:00 AM on September 24, 2006


Maybe they should just run a big notice that reads: IN EVENT OF HURRICANE FUCK YOU.
posted by Artw at 10:03 AM on September 24, 2006 [4 favorites]


Really couldn't they have just been the Black Republican Organization?

I predict this blacklash attempt will blackfire on them.
posted by srboisvert at 10:06 AM on September 24, 2006


*cough*Strom Thurmond*cough*
posted by boo_radley at 10:07 AM on September 24, 2006


Red States
posted by matteo at 10:09 AM on September 24, 2006


I have a memory of Dr. Mrtin Luther King Jr. speaking out in support of democratic socialism. Where did I get that?

Oh, yeah. Every single thing I have ever read about the man. Apparently, this plank has been dropped by the Republican party.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:12 AM on September 24, 2006


Not to mention how anti-war King was.

(In all the years of black history month I went through in school, this facet of his personality was never mentioned, I didn't hear any of his excellent anti-Vietnam speeches until years after I had graduated.)
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:16 AM on September 24, 2006


Yeah, King was a socialist, and there is no evidence that he was ever a republican.

Also the republican running in the race has said that the ad "insults the intelligence of Marylanders". or something like that.
posted by delmoi at 10:21 AM on September 24, 2006


I think the key word left out here is SOUTHERN. As in SOUTHERN Democrats; however, Democrats eventually led the way in passing the Voting and Civil Rights Acts. That's also why LBJ said he, "gave the South away." As for Southern Republicans? They were just as racist, and have since 1964, become even more racist when compared to Democrats. 1964 is the year everything changed. Many Southern Democrats actually joined the Republican party after LBJ signed the acts. There are still a few Southern Democrat holdovers even today (state of Georgia, I'm looking your way).
posted by j-urb at 11:01 AM on September 24, 2006


Why do i hide it? ZELL MILLER is a freaking Segregationist.
posted by j-urb at 11:04 AM on September 24, 2006


Of course Dr. King was a member of the Republican Party. Guys, it's the party of inclusion! Jeez!
posted by duffell at 11:14 AM on September 24, 2006




* parties
posted by j-urb at 11:39 AM on September 24, 2006


Great title Four Panels.
posted by nonmyopicdave at 11:42 AM on September 24, 2006


That ad is embarrassing.

Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, the black Republican nominee for Maryland's open Senate seat, disavowed the ad Thursday as "insulting to Marylanders".

You know, these ads seem disturbingly like a massive attempt at reverse psychology on Maryland. Either that, or the National Black Republican Association is, let's say, "severely underfunded" in the political intelligence department. Martin Luthor King is not a name dropped lightly in these parts. Most of those who associate the name with something positive would be a tad miffed that to see it invoked for what amounts to a political hate ad, if not outright offended that the label of "Republican" was applied to it. This state did go to Al Gore, back in th' day.

But Michael Steele condemns the Republican group's ads, and incidentally sides with the people who are defending Martin Luthor King. Hey, after this, who can question whether he supports social and racial equality?

Prevriously, Michael Steele was "caught" as the anonymous Republican who said, "I've got an 'R' here, a scarlet letter." Lately he's been running ads showing himself as the Nice Guy Who Loves Puppies and Wants to Fix Washingon. His campaign materials don't mention the fact that, as Lieutenant Governor, he's the second highest ranking Republican in the state. In fact, you won't see the word Republican.

The man's policy views are nearly identical to the President's, and most Marylanders wouldn't exactly be ecstatic about that. The remaining question is, are Marylanders that oblivious? That letter R is still going to be on the ballot... right?
posted by zennie at 11:49 AM on September 24, 2006


DEMOCRATS WILL PANDER TO WHATEVER CONSTITUENCIES WILL GET THEM ELECTED (and ... um ... so will Republicans)
posted by ZenMasterThis at 12:10 PM on September 24, 2006


zennie: sort of similar the Coulter/Malkin tactic, huh?

Get some technically unrelated parties to say things in public that you can't.
posted by sonofsamiam at 12:18 PM on September 24, 2006


Is there a Black Republican organization that isn't run by white men? Could swear that I've seen stuff tracing the money and the leadership to the same white neo-cons who brought us the war in Iraq, which, as we all know, is just so good for young black men.

Clinton isn't sometimes called the first Black president for nothing.
posted by QIbHom at 12:40 PM on September 24, 2006


I think there's been a shift right in the USA. The Republicans today bear no resemblence to Republicans of a half-century or more ago; rather, the Democrats have taken that role.

Which is unfortunate, because you needed to head left, not right. More equality of opportunity, not less.
posted by five fresh fish at 1:19 PM on September 24, 2006


a heavily Democratic state with the highest percentage of black residents -- 29 percent -- of any state outside the South."

Umm, I don't remember anyone moving the Mason-Dixon line.
posted by dhammond at 1:47 PM on September 24, 2006


dhammond, it hasn't moved, but many people lump Maryland into the North because it's north of DC, and because even though it was a slave state it wasn't in the Confederacy. But that's because those people haven't had Maryland fried chicken!
posted by zennie at 2:35 PM on September 24, 2006


Ah Maryland, my former home. The political winds there have been pretty crazy since Ehrlich, a Republican, became governor of this very blue state. (In no small part due to an incompetent woman named Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who couldn't find her ass when she lost to him as the (D) candidate.)

By Rove's calculations ca. 2003, MD was going to be only of these wonderful new Blue to Red transition states, along with Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and a few others. But it's hilarious to watch Republicans across the nation now distance themselves from Bush and his failed occupation of Iraq. To wit, Steele has campaign posters that advertise him as a Democrat.

You can't make this shit up. Not indpendent, but actually presenting himself as a Democrat in order to get votes through obfuscation.

But clarity and principle have never been strong points for Republicans since, oh, Reconstruction.
posted by bardic at 3:01 PM on September 24, 2006


Republican strategist/Karl Rove mentor Lee Atwater:
You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' 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.

And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me - because obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'Nigger, nigger.'
posted by kirkaracha at 3:07 PM on September 24, 2006


I'm against Democrats, Mobocrats, and every other type of rat.
posted by blue_beetle at 3:40 PM on September 24, 2006


In Steele's "I love puppies" ad, he's holding a Boston terrier. So he's either pro-sodomist or pro Boston University hockey. Or maybe both. So be careful, Marylanders, because you might be electing a man who wants to bugger Keith Tkachuk.
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:09 PM on September 24, 2006


Is this "National Black Republican Association" related to the African American Republican Leadership Council? Y'know, the one whose core membership consists of such Black Republicans as Sean Hannity, Grover Norquist and Gary Bauer, and whose "honorary chairman" (an actual Black Republican) has disavowed any knowledge of or participation in the organization?

Because I notice that this NBRA doesn't appear to list its board on its website...
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:35 PM on September 24, 2006


Looks like they share at least one board member, Sherman Parker.
posted by sonofsamiam at 4:39 PM on September 24, 2006


When I hear "Black Republican" and the name Sherman, I can't help but think of Sherman Helmsley.
posted by bardic at 5:05 PM on September 24, 2006


Does that come up a lot? :)
posted by sonofsamiam at 5:40 PM on September 24, 2006


To be sure, African Americans were being dicked around by both parties as early as the turn of the century, and probably sooner.

But yeah, anybody who buys this BS needs to be sent back to high school US history class.
posted by Skwirl at 10:29 PM on September 24, 2006


Seriously. This is just sickening; blaming Dems for something their own party did by taking advantage of what's essentially a change in semantics.
posted by hoborg at 9:03 AM on September 25, 2006


Clinton isn't sometimes called the first Black president for nothing.
posted by QIbHom at 12:40 PM PST on September 24


"Bill Clinton? BLACK. His high yellow ass ain't fooling nobody."
--Dave Chappelle as Paranoid Brother
posted by oats at 4:19 PM on September 25, 2006


To wit, Steele has campaign posters that advertise him as a Democrat.

Bardic, I'd think it's clear that a yard placard or bumper sticker (not a poster) saying "Steele Democrat" iidentifies the driver of the car or owner of the house as a Democrat voting for Steele.

Ehrlich had similar stickers when he was running for governor. I think they may have had a few more words on them ("Another Democrat for Ehrlich" or something)

Of course the Democrats have a problem with Steele's new bumper stickers, but it's their job to do so...
posted by bugmuncher at 9:28 PM on September 26, 2006


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