‘IT’S ironic,” said one black strategist. “Perhaps Strom Thurmond’s final legacy – the reason God kept him alive for so long – is that the fallout from his 100th birthday party may end up forcing the Republican Party to honestly deal with race and racial politics. The Democrats stopped having this discussion 30 years ago. Republicans have largely ducked it.”
As the Trent Lott controversy entered a second full week, outgoing Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles (R-Okla.) declared, “This is bigger than any single senator now,” and called for consideration of new leadership. But while Lott’s fate is played out, people are also pondering the Republican Party’s future.
Nearly three years ago, then-Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile angered Republicans by declaring, “The Republicans bring out Colin Powell and J.C. Watts because they have no program, no policy. They play that game because they have no other game. They have no love and no joy. They’d rather take pictures with black children than feed them.”
This was mainly an assault on the party. But the GOP lashed back by characterizing the comments as an attack on Powell and Watts. Both men released statements detailing their outrage.
Brazile and Gore quickly offered apologies – but the reaction had proved part of their point: Afraid of responding to a charge of racial insensitivity from a black Democrat, the party hid behind its few visible African-Americans.
Lott’s defenders tried something similar last week. On Tuesday, while Lott remained bunkered down, his office referred media inquiries to Rep. J.C. Watts, the only black Republican in Congress, who dutifully came forward with a supportive on-camera statement plus a press release.
Déjà vu: Three years ago, Lott was enmeshed in another flap over his ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens. At that time, House Democrats introduced a resolution condemning the CCC by name. At Lott’s request, House Republicans pushed forward a counter-resolution that condemned “all groups” that preached hatred and intolerance. Watts introduced the resolution.
When Watts was called in once again this time, black conservatives seethed. One asked, “After what happened before, why did J.C. – given that he’s retiring from Congress – have to bail Lott out again?”
Others didn’t. Yesterday’s Washington Post revealed that Lott had requested words of support from Powell and Condoleezza Rice. His entreaties were met with deafening silence.
No black official would speak critically of Lott on the record. But more than privately one wished that he would step down.
One high-ranking black official observed, “He’s in a leadership position – you should be able to demonstrate a minimum of leadership qualities. Whether he is or is not a racist, or shares the values of segregation, doesn’t matter. Neither in his statement or his handling of this issue, has he demonstrated leadership qualities.”
But what about the larger issue? The GOP’s bland talking points of the past – “the Party of Lincoln” – just doesn’t cut it. Neither blacks nor white Southerners think of the contemporary Republican Party in the Lincoln context.
Sure, for nearly 80 years after Lincoln’s death, the South remained solidly Democrat because of the antipathy white southerners felt towards Lincoln’s party. And blacks voted (when they could) reliably Republican.
But that began breaking down with the New Deal. And Thurmond’s 1948 candidacy began unmooring southern, former Confederate, states from the agenda of the national Democratic Party – a separation that continued through George Wallace’s 1968 independent run.
With Richard Nixon’s re-election in 1972, the South moved firmly into the Republican column at the presidential level. In recent years, that transition has been reflected in House and Senate races as well.
That many former Democratic segregationists moved into the GOP doesn’t mean that the Republican Party is racist. But – as Lott’s words over the years in praise of Jefferson Davis and referencing the “War of Northern Aggression” indicate – it’s become increasingly problematic for the GOP to be both the “Party of Lincoln” and the “Party of the South.”
Honestly addressing the tension between the two identities doesn’t mean that Republicans should automatically sign on to the Democrat agenda on affirmative action and other racial issues. But they can do more than just play lip service to the idea that “racism still exists, but . . . “
Of course, they can still put forward what they honestly believe in – whether it is school vouchers and other aspects of education reform, tax relief, Social Security reform – and make the point that their approach is the best for all Americans.
As Karl Rove himself observed in a speech Friday, the party’s problems with black America are “50 years in the making.” They won’t be solved overnight.
Yet like any chronic condition, recovery begins by first admitting that one has a problem.
Whether the GOP can have this conversation with Trent Lott as its Senate leader is, of course, the question of the day.
