Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead
I get the sense that rightward movement is occurring in
the African American community. This is more than anecdotal. It’s not random.
It is for good reason.
At least since the ’60s, the Democrats have had a lock on
the black vote, which they’ve nurtured and protected like leftists guard their
copies of “The Communist Manifesto.” Their conquest was cynical in its
inception and has grown more so through the years.
You’ve probably read President Lyndon Johnson’s overtly
racist remarks concerning his support for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the
1965 Voting Rights Act — remarks that are in such poor taste I won’t repeat
them here. Suffice it to say that Johnson allegedly bragged his support would
secure African American allegiance to Democrats for decades to come. Even those
who unconvincingly dispute Johnson’s despicable statements don’t deny that he
habitually used racist language.
Johnson must have known what he was doing, though I doubt
that the Democrats’ monopoly on the black vote is based solely on the
misperception that Democrats have been the sacred guardians of blacks’ civil
liberties. Democrats have also shrewdly cultivated the fiction that only they
care about the economic plight of minorities.
More recently, they’ve gone further and portrayed
Republicans as not just indifferent but affirmatively racist. This slander is a
special kind of evil, violating on a grand scale the Mosaic Commandment against
bearing false witness — and causing immeasurable damage to race relations.
In some cases, Republican policies have been easy for
Democrats to mischaracterize. Republicans have historically opposed excessive
welfare programs. While supporting some level of safety net, they believe that
fostering long-term dependency on government is devastating to the recipients
and to society overall because it diminishes the work ethic and human dignity,
and sabotages the nuclear family.
Democrats have often depicted principled conservative
opposition to these programs as evidence of their lack of compassion and
outright racism. A more modern version of this smear is Democrats’ attributing
Republican support for a border wall to their racism. If they’re racist toward
blacks, they’re surely racist toward Mexicans — and everyone else who “doesn’t
look like them.”
If anything borders on racist, it’s this constant
pandering and condescension toward minorities. The suggestion is that they’re
incapable of helping themselves and benevolent politicians must do it for them.
Opposition to voter ID laws is a perfect example. Why isn’t it offensive to
suggest that minority voters will be disadvantaged if required to present legal
identification at the polling place? This is a modern case of what some call
“the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
As insulting as that is, what’s worse is many Democrats
assume the minority vote is a given. It’s no secret that in national elections,
Democrats depend on the overwhelming majority of black votes. The failing — and
thus, less circumspect — Joe Biden cavalierly displayed this presumption when
he said if blacks don’t vote for him over President Donald Trump, they “ain’t
black.”
Some seemed shocked at Biden’s remark; others dismissed
it as just another instance of weird Joe shooting off his harmless mouth again.
Nonsense. This attitude is not unique to Biden. The left
has been treating black conservatives like second-class citizens for years.
From Condoleezza Rice to Clarence Thomas to Thomas Sowell to Walter Williams to
Larry Elder, conservative blacks have been egregiously mistreated and
dehumanized by those, ironically, who claim to be the most egalitarian and
least racist.
But as I said, it seems a movement is underway in which
African Americans are increasingly rejecting the Democrats’ identity politics
and exploitation and treatment of them as part of a group rather than as
individuals.
Rhetoric eventually rings hollow if it doesn’t match
reality. President Trump’s economic policies objectively resulted in
historically low records of black unemployment and a real increase in their
standard of living. Disingenuous denials of these facts are not lost on African
Americans.
There’s something else going on as well: the torching of
our cities, the movement to defund the police, and the overall breakdown of law
and order. Democrats are miscalculating if they assume minorities are less
desirous of safe streets than everyone else. A recent Rasmussen poll showed that
64% of Americans worry about “cop shortage and public safety,” and “Blacks
(67%) are the most concerned about public safety where they live, compared to
63% of whites and 65% of other minority Americans.” Yet Democrats, until recent
polling began to scare them, conspicuously refused to denounce the violence.
I am encouraged when I see Candace Owens and countless
other young black conservatives courageously standing against the narrative
that has been shoved down our throats since the ’60s. I am encouraged that
former outspoken Democratic attorney Leo Terrell offered to campaign for
President Trump in all the swing states between now and the election, saying
the Democratic Party no longer represents him or the interests of the black
community. I am heartened by a YouTube video of four upbeat young black men
with MAGA hats saying that the rioters don’t speak for them, that they don’t
want to be treated as victims, that they appreciate American liberty, and
enthusiastically support President Trump. I am thrilled about polls reporting
double-digit support for Trump among blacks.
Even apart from the election, ideological diversity is
immensely gratifying. For too long, the Democratic Party has taken for granted
the African American vote. We shall see if it comes to regret that in November.
David Limbaugh is a writer, author and
attorney. His latest book is “Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Why the Democrats
Must Not Win.” Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com.
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