Should African-Americans remain loyal to the Democratic Party?

No

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by S.M. Ross

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African-Americans have been loyal to the Democratic Party since the administration of FDR. Their loyalty came in response to the overhaul of the Republican Party for the sixty years following Reconstruction. Instead of continuing to support Republicans, the newly enfranchised black voters became disillusioned and forgotten under the weight of Jim Crow and Plessey vs. Ferguson, a court case which legitimized the "separate but equal" mantra.
As immigrants came to New York and settled across the nation, southern black migrant workers came to the North and the dynamics of political loyalties shifted.

The Democratic Party began to transform in the early 1900s and were envisioning how to capitalize on the new influx of people. However, African-Americans were an afterthought, not originally part of the equation. Even as FDR and his infamous Brain Trust pushed forth and created programs during the first 100 days of his administration, it was not enough to secure the loyalty of African-Americans. Most of the early implementation of the programs was discriminatory. It wasn't until he developed his Black Cabinet, did African-Americans become loyal to the Democratic Party. His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt solidified the bond between the Democrats and African-Americans.

Over the next seventy years, the Civil Rights movement was a championed cause by the Democrats such as the Kennedy family. The Republican Party became a hostile place for African-Americans to be. The Democrats created and spearheaded programs to ensure or at least assist urban populations (mostly Black and Latino) to reach their potential. The Republicans maintained a very hostile world view based upon the emergence of Communism, often, attacking its own citizens.

Republicans became the enemy of the Black America, and so was born the blind allegiance to a party who in actuality had political motives rather than altruistic ones for gaining the support of blacks. As the sixties faded into the seventies, and the stigma of racial prejudice was lessened by some measures, the need to question the Democrat's methods, purposes or agendas became less important. Democratic candidates based their political campaigns on the social programs which assisted numerous Black Americans, and thereby default guaranteed the Democratic support from the African-American community.

As the Reagan era gave way to the first Bush, the progress of the Civil Rights movement became a fleeting memory. Affirmative action created opportunities, but also created a Pandora's Box of other problems. For those blacks confused and disillusioned by the social program focus of the Democrats, the party became an anathema. They were able to become a part of an emerging black middle class. No longer was their loyalty based upon the things it once was. They became more educated, had more opportunities presented to them and achieved more than their predecessors could ever have imagined. Suddenly, there was a shift in many middle and upper class African-American households.

According to many African-Americans, Bill Clinton was the first black president; it seemed an unlikely occurrence that the Democrats would lose their African-American base. For eight years, people prospered and then were met with the aftermath of the market corrections in the early 2000's. While the government's response to Hurricane Katrina reinforced the idea to some the Republicans were out to get African-Americans, some Blacks looked at the situation as a classic example of what has gone so terribly wrong in the Black community. Blame was sufficiently placed on the shoulders of both parties. As a result, many African-Americans have taken a second look at the Democratic Party. With people like Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and numerous other successful African-American figures have redefined what loyalty to a political party means to African-Americans. Some have begun to take a second look at the ties to the Democratic Party and have openly questioned the motives of leadership within the Democratic Party as well as those leaders associated with the Black community.

With the current election, there is an unhealthy assumption that race triumphs issues. Unfortunately, unquestioning loyalty to the Democratic Party has crippled huge segments of the Black citizens of this nation. There is an inner turmoil for many Blacks; where do we assign our loyalty? Should we choose the issues, we are labeled Uncle Toms. Should we choose racial loyalties and party ties, we are compromising our beliefs.

The question should not be whether or not they should remain loyal to either party, but what are they looking for in a candidate? Both parties are shells of their former greatness. They are both on the edge of destruction. Loyalty should only rest in the politician that will further the best interests of the nation, not based upon superficial things like race, religion, gender or economic status. The world doesn't see black, white, brown, or any other color American. All they see is an American. And it is high time people be able to fully embrace their rights as citizens of this nation, without guilt placed upon them by others.

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