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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob who wrote (367359)	3/6/2003 3:51:31 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Dan Hofrenning: Democrats have shown duplicity on race, too Dan Hofrenning Published December 30, 2002 HOF30 NORTHFIELD, MINN. -- For most of this century, the Democrats have practiced racial hypocrisy more successfully than the Republicans. Trent Lott's resignation shows how much the world has changed in Strom Thurmond's lifetime, and how much it has stayed the same. Seventy years ago, Franklin Roosevelt won the presidency by combining a New Deal that captivated the nation with conservative racial politics that ensured a solidly Democratic South. As president, Roosevelt worked for progressive economic policy, but he refused to advocate civil rights bills, including federal antilynching legislation and laws that would repeal the poll tax. He did issue some progressive executive orders, but his overall record on race was conservative. Harry Truman began to end the Democrats' duplicity. He sent a civil rights bill to Congress and ordered the desegregation of the military. With the help of Northern liberals like Hubert Humphrey, the Democrats adopted a pro-civil-rights platform in 1948. This was the moment at which Strom Thurmond bolted from the Democratic Party to form the States' Rights (or Dixiecrat) Party. Thurmond sought not the presidency, but only the restoration of Southern influence in the Democratic Party. If he could win traditionally Democratic Southern states, he could throw the election to the Republicans and force the Democrats to retreat from their support of civil rights. Although the Dixiecrats did capture four Southern states, Truman won a narrow victory. In 1960, the Democratic platform contained a strong civil rights plank, but President John Kennedy -- like Roosevelt -- was cautious. While making supportive gestures to the nation, he appointed segregationist judges in the South and resisted introducing civil rights legislation. Only when confronted with a quarter-million citizens demonstrating at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial did he push aggressively for civil rights. After Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson, a Southerner, ended the Democrats' pretense and led his party to support civil rights irrevocably. Reportedly, Johnson worried that his advocacy of civil rights might cost the Democrats the presidency for a quarter-century. The party of Lincoln moved in the opposite direction by nominating Barry Goldwater, who opposed civil rights. At the time, most congressional Republicans advocated civil rights and Trent Lott was still a segregationist Democrat. Richard Nixon continued the Republican transformation with his "Southern strategy." Nixon had advocated civil rights in 1960, but he expressed reservations in his later campaigns. He questioned federal intervention, opposed busing, nominated segregationist judges -- and swept the South in 1972. While Jimmy Carter slowed the Republican Southern advances in 1976, Ronald Reagan successfully renewed the Republican Southern strategy. Bill Clinton stemmed the Republican tide with some double-dealing on race. In 1992, he distanced himself from Jesse Jackson and also orchestrated a public moment in which he could rebuke the African-American rap singer, Sister Souljah. In office, he nominated Lani Guinier, an innovative civil rights reformer, to a Justice Department post. Amidst conservative criticism of Guinier's racial views, Clinton quickly withdrew her nomination. In 2000, Al Gore carried only one state below the Mason-Dixon line. Like Democrats of an earlier age, the Republicans now seem to have a decisive electoral edge in the South. In part, the Republicans are practicing a different version of the tactics used by the Democrats. They combine a broadly popular economic message with occasional appeals to racially conservative Southern whites. Trent Lott has made those appeals. Even before his infamous comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday party, Lott's record on civil rights was weak. He opposed making Martin Luther King day a federal holiday. He supported allowing Bob Jones University to keep its tax-exempt status even as it banned interracial dating. President Bush has worked to make the Republican Party more inclusive. He appointed several African-Americans to key Cabinet posts. He has sought minority voters and spoken openly in support of racial tolerance. Yet Lott remains in his party and in the Senate. The haunting question is whether racial double standards are an essential element of electoral success. Or have we moved to a new era? -- Dan Hofrenning, of Northfield, is chair of the Political Science Department at St. Olaf College and president of the Minnesota Political Science Association startribune.com