The straits in which the Democratic Party is drowning can be traced to the monumental decisions of Truman and Johnson both of whom initiated civil rights for blacks — long ago abandoned by the Republican Party. It hit home in D.C. when Hubert Humphrey was elected to the senate in ‘48 and promptly sat down in the Senate dining room with his black legislative aide. Not only did he alienate southern senators but northern colleagues as well for his brashness. By the time Humphrey became the majority whip in ‘64, he effectively consolidated — including northern Republicans — Johnson’s civil rights bill which later became the law of the land. The final thick straw that broke the donkey’s back was Johnson choosing him as his running mate in the ‘64 elections. Though a landslide — owing more to Goldwater and the Kennedy legacy — Johnson’s victory decimated the vestige of the solid south support.
To this day the term “rights” is taboo in the Republican Party; it claims to champion “values” and those laying claim to rights are without values. The once proud GOP, the party of Lincoln, with diminishing exception, has — implicit or explicit — become racists toward minorities. Moreover, the red states above the southern line because they are predominantly of the self-styled pioneer generation have joined in to endorse the perception that Democrats are nothing more than the party of African-Americans, Hispanics, and misguided liberals.
To make matters worse, they have lost, as a sign of contemporary weakness, compassion and acknowledgement with respect to the values of others such as gays, unions, gun control, family planning, choice, and war opponents. Weirdly they have transvalued rights into values to mean laissez-faire, ownership, big business, anti-affirmative action, the nation’s wars always right, women’s rights as wholesale abortion, gays as an abomination, and war heroes and church-goers the exclusive domain of Republicans.
Damn that Humphrey!
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: August 29, 2004.