Actually, if you are talking the city of Atlanta, you are right – it is liberal, but if you are talking metro Atlanta – another story. Metro Atlanta has graced the world with Bob Barr and Newt Gingrich (and, well, Cynthia McKinney). North Atlanta is solidly conservative Republican. Sen Isaakson is from these parts. I don’t know about the Alabama constitution issue – but I won’t challenge your take on it. I could easily cite the current Clayton County sheriff fiasco and or the Fulton County library fiasco as a counter anecdotal arguments. So I say there are a few bad apples and a few bad incidents here and there, but my life experience has been that racists come in all colors and from all places. And the fact that blacks vote by a much larger percentage for Ds does not mean Rs are racist or even wrong (or right). BTW, the worst racist I ahve ever met in my lifetime was a white Air National Guardsman (FANG) from upstate New York.

Dugger

In case you didn’t know, members are elected by the people to the House and Senate. The ratio of minorities, then, in Congress is a function of democratic principals – not one party or the other’s atavistic impulses. Actually I think gerrymandering has affected the racial make-up of Congress also. I have lived in the south (presently Atlanta ) all my life except when Uncle Sam sent me elsewhere, and I don’t see what you and the excitable TomY see. Put two kids thru college not long ago. Yes I see some racism (actually on both sides – there are court cases here in Atlanta that have been won by whites against black officials), but it is no where near as deep (to me) as you guys make it out – on either side. And I’ll say again, I have never encountered racism in the party structure – and personally wouldn’t tolerate it if I did (I know that sounds preachy) . If you argue that certain programs the party supports are not favored by a majority of minorities, I would agree, but in no way do I believe that constitutues racism or, necesssarily, anything wrong at all. Its called “democracy” with freedom of thought.

Dugger,

No one’s saying that Republican leaders are segregationists; just that they depend on the votes of racists for their margins in the South. So in ’68 you weren’t a Wallace supporter, Dugger? I find that hard to believe. Was your family from the South or were you carpetbaggers?

All of those posts and still no explanation of the Democratic leadership problem. Why no minorities? Surely you can dash off a quick answer to that one. The cyber silence is getting a little embarrasssing. America wants to know!

And White Whale, I betcha I have been in the south longer than you and, if you had read, I said both parties have rotten apples, including some in the south. My objection is the wholesale smear of large group of people. When I see that, I expect such a hateful, drastic attitude to be supported wiith specifics. Which prominent Republican leader is racist? Bush, Cheney, Condi Rice, Colin Powell? How many others? Documentation? After all, it is alleged here that the electoral goal of the Republican Party is the wholesale disenfranchisement of minorities. Thats funny. I’ve been a Republican since 1968, gone to meetings etc and never once heard about the grand disenfranchisement strategy.

Dugger

Good, then we’ll both ignore what you wrote, because it’s just stupid to compare some black appointees (which are great, by the way) to black elected officials. I didn’t say the GOP is racist. I mean to say that it made a deal with racists, who now are a substantial part of their base in the South. The deal was this: “We won’t discuss race except in very coded indirect ways, and in return you vote for us and can have your defacto segregation in the South.” I most certainly think that Southern conservatives are responsible for racism in a way that national conservatives aren’t. I think the Civil RIghts movement represents the clearest moral victory of liberalism over conservatism that this country of the last 100 years. And I think any Southern conservative who tries to turn the civil rights struggle into D vs. R, rather than what it should be, liberal vs. conservative, is lying about history.

Alert, TomY! Alert! Take Cover! Incoming lightening bolt. Sen Byrd is still a Democrat; repeat still a Democrat.

BTW, you didn’t say why there are no blacks in key Democratic leadership positions. Why would that be? I suggest you check out what Kweisi M’fume has been saying recently.

I look at the Democratic party leadership and see no minorities. I look at the Bush cabinet and see many more.

That was the evil alternate – universe, goateed Dugger talking. I really don’t believe the Democratic party is racist. Nor the Republican Party. Merely demonstrating how the morally smug and intellectually dishonest can irresponsibly twist random bits of data into erroneous, nasty conclusions.

Dugger, Non Acknowledged Brother of those Loveable Doublemint Trips

Mississippi – 85-14 (34%)
Alabama – 80-19 (25%)
South Carolina – 78-22 (30%)
Georgia – 76-23 (25%)
Louisiana – 75-24 (27%)
North Carolina – 73-27 (26%)
Texas – 72-16 (12%)
Virginia – 68-32 (21%)
Tennessee – 65-34 (12%)
Kentucky – 64-35 (8%)
Arkansas – 63-36 (15%)
Florida – 57-42 (12%)
Nationally – 58-41 (13%)

I don t see how you explain this except with race. Note that I don t think all southern conservatives or republicans are racist, just that if you are a southern racist, you are almost certainly going to vote with the party that promises not to give your hard earned money away to welfare moms and  inner city schools, rather than the party of Jesse Jackson. That s the Southern strategy: speak in coded language to the racists, and never explicitly bring up the subject of race, even though it’s clearly the region of the country most in need of discussing it. That s in contrast to Democrats, who are more likely to make you feel guilty, or worse  responsible for it, even to the point of enacting social programs  taxes again! Moderate white republicans, because their party never actually discusses race, get to believe that they must not be the party of racists, blacks who are suspicious of the GOP get called paranoid, and actual racists get a basically de facto segregated school system, neighborhoods, cities, etc., that never really goes questioned. It s really quite brilliant.

And speaking as someone who lives in a strong union town (Philly), i can tell you there are numerous outright bigots who vote Democrat because of their union, but are racists nonetheless.

And while i have no love for the South, you’re painting with a pretty broad brush, unless you think the fact that since it was white Democrats beating the hell out of black kids during the Boston Bussing riots in the 70′s, that makes it okay.

But Reagan most certainly knew what he was doing in Philadelphia, MS. I don’t think he personally was a racist, but he knew he needed their votes. States rights was a perfect way to get the message across without having to explicitly appeal to them. Anyway I don’t think MS was a tossup in terms of presidential elections at that point. I’m pretty sure it had gone either Republican or Wallace every time since 1964. Where did I say that racism is only a Southern problem, or that white Democrats in Boston or Chicago or wherever can’t also be racists? Refer to my post above, please. Race and party are most linked in the South, the Republican party took advantage of it, and now the South is the base for the party, it’s strongest pillar. It’s no accident.

It was Southern conservatives who filibustered civil rights, Dugger. True, they were Democrats then, but once the Republicans made the anti-civil rights act Barry Goldwater their nominee, they showed Southern conservatives that they could be a better party of racial oppression than the Ds, and so the South flipped to the R column for the first time since the Democrats nominated a Catholic. And that’s how Republicans won the South. The amazing thing is that they utterly reversed 150 years of total party domination by the Democrats in the region in only 30 years. But that’s the power of racism for you. And the South remains, as it always has been, the part of the country where your race most determines your vote, where black and white are most starkly pitted against one another. And naturally, Dugger chooses the party of the white man, the party of Reagan’s Philadelphia, Mississippi states rights speech, and tells himself the lie that racism is just a myth propagated by Democrats for electoral gain. “Didn’t you know? The New South is free of racism, except when it’s practiced by demogogues like the NAACP.” Through the looking glass, indeed.