In a New Orleans Advocate commentary of July 19 titled, "Cassidy is right, the democrats need a name change" republican ditto head Fagan makes reference to a letter sent by Senator Cassidy to Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez evidently trying to brand the democratic party as racist. This writer has not seen Cassidy's letter but quotes by Fagan from the letter tries to establish the following.
That the democratic party is racist and not the republicans because the democratic segregated south had slaves; many democratic members of congress from the south in congress voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964; It was President Eisenhower who sent federal troops to the south for the integration of public schools and that democratic governors fought integration of the public schools and public services.
To set the record straight, it was not the democratic party who owned slaves but individuals of various political beliefs. It was individual segregationist southern governors who stood in the school doorway to block integration and not the democratic party. It was also individual segregationist southern representatives in congress who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and not the democratic party whose majority members voted for the act which passed. And it was passed by democratic President Lyndon Johnson and the democratic controlled congress. President Kennedy, a democrat also sent federal marshals to the south to integrate public schools.
Trump and his ditto head republicans like Fagan and Cassidy will try to use race to divide the country only months before the Presidential election because they have failed to earn the African American vote the democratic way. It is telling because the republican party has a problem of earning the vote of any minority group and it shows after the election results come in. And it shows up in the make up of congress.
The U.S. House has 434 members including 235 democrats and 199 republicans. There are 50 African American democrats and 2 African American republicans in the U.S. House total count. There are 100 members in the U.S. Senate including 51 republicans, 47 democrats and 2 independents including in the Senate count. There are two African American democratic senators and one republic African American senator in the count. The numbers tell us that African Americans believe the democratic party is where they should be and where they prefer to be. It is a position where they also have a broader say so in policy that they lack in the republican party.
So it may be a election year but trying to put a racism tag on the democratic party because of a segregated time in the south's past will not wash. It does confirm what PolitiDose has commented on in the past years. Republicans have no record of accomplishments to run on or articulate to the people so it is their extreme ideology that plays out. Personal attacks, division and the non stop rhetoric of fake news. The blatant racist history of the democratic party as Fagan states is so fake it leaves little to wonder why his party is still trying its best to make it even harder for African Americans to vote in the twenty first century.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
