Black Americans Corralled to Vote Democrat for 200 years   

By Alexander G. Markovsky

Martin Luther King Jr., in his famous speech, envisioned: “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” But the evolution of the relationship between the sons has been complex.  

Since its inception in January 1828, the Democratic Party was the Party of slavery governed by Plato’s philosophy that it was right for the ‘better’ to rule over the ‘inferior.’  

Neither the Emancipation Proclamation nor ravages of the Civil War changed the slave owners’ moral convictions. Although the war had settled that blacks were human beings with souls — hence eligible not just for physical freedom but also for constitutional equality, the Democrats would not allow the former slaves to get too far from their plantations. 

All the Democratic Party’s efforts thereafter would be devoted to a series of elaborate political maneuvers to forestall the nightmarish scenario of blacks voting. Since the Republican Party was formed for the purpose of abolishing slavery and was the driving force in the liberation of slaves, it was expected that blacks would overwhelmingly vote Republican. At a moment of greatest weakness, the Democratic-dominated state legislatures passed the Black Codes followed by Jim Crow laws that enacted racial segregation and the host of discriminatory measures that prevented the former slaves from voting. As Alabama Governor George Wallace Jr., infamously proclaimed in 1963, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” There was no need for any other political or moral justification.   

However, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s made it abundantly clear, even to the most zealous racists in the leadership of the Democratic Party that segregation had run its course. In a 180-degree turn, the Democrats, unembarrassed by the reversal of their previous position, launch themselves on the road to a new approach — their newfound conviction was that if they had to let blacks into the voting booth; they needed to create a political process ensuring that blacks would vote Democrat forever. The emphasis began to shift toward dependence. A slave doesn’t necessarily have to work on a plantation to have his existence dependent on a slave owner. Government entitlements would have the same effect of dependence on the sons of slaves as slavery had on their fathers. 

In a virtuoso ploy, the white supremacists stigmatized the sons of slaves as intellectually inferior and portrayed them as victims of slavery who needed help and were entitled to redemption. The Democrats created government entitlement programs, such as the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 that included the “affirmative action” provision, which conveniently swapped civil obligations with rights and marked the beginning of a system of privileges for the sons of slaves. 

The sons of slaves, in the act of historical failure and defiance of its own morality to “sit down together at the table of brotherhood,” took the bait and unconsciously accepted the concept of inferiority and with it the most grotesque kinds of freedom — freedom from responsibilities, freedom from work, and freedom from liberty. The Democrats cunningly substituted the banner of “Segregation forever” with “Redemption forever.” 

The endless bounties, subsidies, and benefits have demoralized the black community — crime, hereditary welfare, and subsidized unwed pregnancy became a way of life. Consequently, black family — the cell of a society, which had survived centuries of slavery and segregation, began rapidly disintegrating. Steel chains of slavery have been replaced with although invisible but even stronger bondage of dependency. 

History punishes political frivolity — dependent on the government handouts too many blacks lost control over their own destiny, they entrusted their fate to the decisions of the others and thus far have fulfilled Lyndon Johnson’s prophesy, “I’ll have these N—ers voting Democrat for the next two hundred years.” 

Although the blunt-speaking Texan has been widely quoted by the historians, the author was not able to confirm its authenticity. Nevertheless, the quote accurately reflects the sinister intent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

Back in 1965, highly intelligent and well-informed Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in his eloquent testimony, adumbrated the Democrats:

The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States. (“The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” March 1965)

Though from LBJ till present, the circumstances have changed, the strategy has remained extraordinarily consistent and successful. Over the years, the Democrats have corralled millions of black voters within the Democratic Party by adroitly exploiting the source of grief. Whether it is slavery, segregation or redemption, the doctrinal objective of the Democratic Party has always been in line with Goethe’s famous observation, “The triumph of despotism is to force the slaves to declare themselves free. It may need no force; the salves may proclaim their freedom quite sincerely: but they are none the less slaves.” 

So, when the current Democratic Party presumptive nominee, Vice President Joe Biden, during the 2012 Presidential campaign speaking at a rally in Danville, Va., insinuated that the Republicans want to put black voters back in chains, he obviously did not realize that he was talking about Democratic chains. 

The Democratic policies and the Trump economic prosperity place the black community at the intersection of two worlds; continuing dependency or Martin Luther King’s vision that “….the Negro and his compatriots for self-respect and human dignity will not be denied.” Yet, the overriding reality is that dependency for most people is an incurable disease and given a choice between working for a living or voting for a living most people chose the latter.    

Alexander G. Markovsky is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, a conservative think hosted at King’s College, New York City, which examines national security, energy, risk-analysis and other public policy issues. He is the author of Anatomy of a Bolshevik and Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It. Mr. Markovsky is the owner and CEO of Litwin Management Services, LLC. He can be reached at info@litwinms.com