Republicans in the South: A Different Kind of Supremacy
Published in La Presse
(Canada) on 8 December 2014
by Richard Hétu (link to original)
(Canada) on 8 December 2014
by Richard Hétu (link to original)
Translated from
by Adam Yeomans.
Edited by Nicholas Eckart.
"We just lost the South for a generation," Johnson is reported to have confided in his aide, Bill Moyers, on the evening of July 2, 1964. John F. Kennedy's successor had just approved the historic Civil Rights Act, calling on his countrymen to "close the springs of racial poison" during a televised speech.
At that time, the Democratic Party controlled all governmental orders in the Southern states, adhering to the almost total unanimity of whites opposed to repealing the segregationist laws. Since the abolition of slavery, these laws had guaranteed their supremacy over black people.
Their elected officials fought tooth and nail to defend this institutionalized racism. No less than 20 of the 21 Democratic senators in the South voted against the law that Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists desired. Shortly after the adoption of the Civil Rights Act, Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond from South Carolina left the party to join the Republicans. This began a realignment of regional politics similar to that which has recently happened in Louisiana.
On Saturday, in the second round of Louisiana's elections to the Senate, Democrat Mary Landrieu suffered an irrevocable defeat at the hands of Republican Bill Cassidy. This setback, which was expected, means that starting in January 2015 the Republicans will have the majority of Senate and gubernatorial posts in every state in the Deep South — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina — as well as in three neighboring states — Texas, Tennessee and North Carolina.
The Republicans' political supremacy will be equally heard in the legislative assemblies in all the former confederate states, including Arkansas, Florida and Virginia.
The massive shift white people in the South have made toward the Republican Party is not solely due to the racial question. Far from it. The Democrats in this region have always been more conservative compared to the average party member. Moreover, a lot of them no longer identify with their party's position on issues such as abortion, gun control and other social questions.
Elected Officials of Color
For some years now, the Republicans in some states in the Deep South have shown themselves to be otherwise willing to vote for black candidates.
On Nov. 4 last year, Republicans in South Carolina made history by electing Tim Scott, the first ever black senator in a Southern state. They had already elected Nikki Haley, a woman from an Indian family, to the post of governor in 2010. Three years earlier, the Republicans in Louisiana had equally placed their trust in Bobby Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants, to occupy the post of their state's governor.
However, these elected officials of color do have one thing in common. They are die-hard conservatives who, notably, are opposed to the measures taken by the federal government to reduce socioeconomic inequality.
Just like all the Republicans elected in the South, they refused to extend Medicaid coverage to millions of people with low income. Medicaid is Barack Obama's public medical insurance program and a key aspect of America's health care laws.
The majority of those who would have benefited from Medicaid, in which the state funds 100 percent of medical costs for the first three years and then 90 percent for each subsequent year, would have been black people working as cooks, nursing assistants, cashiers or janitors. Such peoples' salaries would not be high enough for them to afford private medical insurance.
They must continue to rely upon God for such things.
A Longer Term
In Louisiana, Senator Mary Landrieu will have survived longer than other Democrats in her region by counting on an electorate composed, for the most part, of African-Americans and Cajuns whose religion and culture has long set them apart from the white Protestants living in their state. The election of Barack Obama as president, however, only served to accelerate a mass exodus of white Democrats from the party, leaving to join the Republicans.
On the eve of the midterm elections, Landrieu attributed a portion of her problems to Mr. Obama, whose very name is mentioned in every Republican speech and advertising campaign.
In a conversation with Chuck Todd, from the NBC television channel, Landrieu declared that "the South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans."
Republicans were up in arms, rejecting this allusion to the South's racist heritage. What effect, however, will their political supremacy have in the region?
At that time, the Democratic Party controlled all governmental orders in the Southern states, adhering to the almost total unanimity of whites opposed to repealing the segregationist laws. Since the abolition of slavery, these laws had guaranteed their supremacy over black people.
Their elected officials fought tooth and nail to defend this institutionalized racism. No less than 20 of the 21 Democratic senators in the South voted against the law that Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists desired. Shortly after the adoption of the Civil Rights Act, Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond from South Carolina left the party to join the Republicans. This began a realignment of regional politics similar to that which has recently happened in Louisiana.
On Saturday, in the second round of Louisiana's elections to the Senate, Democrat Mary Landrieu suffered an irrevocable defeat at the hands of Republican Bill Cassidy. This setback, which was expected, means that starting in January 2015 the Republicans will have the majority of Senate and gubernatorial posts in every state in the Deep South — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina — as well as in three neighboring states — Texas, Tennessee and North Carolina.
The Republicans' political supremacy will be equally heard in the legislative assemblies in all the former confederate states, including Arkansas, Florida and Virginia.
The massive shift white people in the South have made toward the Republican Party is not solely due to the racial question. Far from it. The Democrats in this region have always been more conservative compared to the average party member. Moreover, a lot of them no longer identify with their party's position on issues such as abortion, gun control and other social questions.
Elected Officials of Color
For some years now, the Republicans in some states in the Deep South have shown themselves to be otherwise willing to vote for black candidates.
On Nov. 4 last year, Republicans in South Carolina made history by electing Tim Scott, the first ever black senator in a Southern state. They had already elected Nikki Haley, a woman from an Indian family, to the post of governor in 2010. Three years earlier, the Republicans in Louisiana had equally placed their trust in Bobby Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants, to occupy the post of their state's governor.
However, these elected officials of color do have one thing in common. They are die-hard conservatives who, notably, are opposed to the measures taken by the federal government to reduce socioeconomic inequality.
Just like all the Republicans elected in the South, they refused to extend Medicaid coverage to millions of people with low income. Medicaid is Barack Obama's public medical insurance program and a key aspect of America's health care laws.
The majority of those who would have benefited from Medicaid, in which the state funds 100 percent of medical costs for the first three years and then 90 percent for each subsequent year, would have been black people working as cooks, nursing assistants, cashiers or janitors. Such peoples' salaries would not be high enough for them to afford private medical insurance.
They must continue to rely upon God for such things.
A Longer Term
In Louisiana, Senator Mary Landrieu will have survived longer than other Democrats in her region by counting on an electorate composed, for the most part, of African-Americans and Cajuns whose religion and culture has long set them apart from the white Protestants living in their state. The election of Barack Obama as president, however, only served to accelerate a mass exodus of white Democrats from the party, leaving to join the Republicans.
On the eve of the midterm elections, Landrieu attributed a portion of her problems to Mr. Obama, whose very name is mentioned in every Republican speech and advertising campaign.
In a conversation with Chuck Todd, from the NBC television channel, Landrieu declared that "the South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans."
Republicans were up in arms, rejecting this allusion to the South's racist heritage. What effect, however, will their political supremacy have in the region?