His Story
Can America Have A
Non-Racial Election?
By Emmanuel Brown, Stsff Writer
.
Will racism ultimately tilt the outcome of the race between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain? Let’s take a brief look at how race has effected previous Presidential elections.
1964
Lyndon Johnson (Democratic - Winner) vs Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater, conservative Republican that he was, agreed with Lyndon Johnson, in 1964, to keep the race issue out of the Presidential contest. Goldwater supported the Arizona NAACP, desegregation of the Arizona National Guard, and the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and
1960, all unpopular with party leaders. However; Goldwater boosted his standing among white southerners by reversing his position and opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - CRA - Title VII - Equal Employment Opportunities - 42 US Code Chapter 21. An about face that may well have cost Barry Goldwater the election.
1968
Richard Nixon (Republican - Winner) vs Hubert Humphrey & George Wallace
Richard Nixon decided, in 1968, to completely abandon the Republican Party's anti-slavery roots in hopes of slowing George Wallace’s growing popularity. The 4 term Governor of Alabama was well know for his pro-segregation attitudes and fervent State
Rights’ stand during the American desegregation period. The drama surrounding the Black Freedom Movement coupled with, often violent, in cities across the country was swelling support for Wallace’s, American Independent Party, run for the White House.
1972
Richard Nixon (Republican - Winner) vs George McGovern
By 1972, Richard Nixon had twisted the new GOP racial conservatism into the so-called
'Silent Majority.’ The manipulation earned Nixon a mandate; he defeated liberal Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, winning more than 60% of the popular vote.
1976
Jimmy Carter (Democratic - Winner) vs Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter sent mixed messages during his push for the White House. The most controversial were his remarks about busing and use of the phrase 'ethnic purity' to describe white-ethnic enclaves and neighborhood schools. . . Follow-up questions . . .
led to warnings from the candidate about 'alien groups' and 'black intrusion.' 'Interjecting a member of another race', 'a diametrically opposite family culture' or a 'different kind of person' into a community threatened what Carter called the admirable value of 'ethnic purity.'
1980
Ronald Reagan (Republican - Winner) vs Jimmy Carter & John Anderson
Reagan officially kicked off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, at a Neshoba County fairground favored as a meeting place by the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. Neshoba County is infamous as the part of the state where, in 1964, civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney were assassinated, about which, Reagan said nothing. The Great Orator never used blatantly racist language; he didn't have to.
1984
Ronald Reagan (Republican - Winner) vs Walter Mondale & Reverend Jesse Jackson
The Reagan administration used it’s power to pass several bills extending prison terms, allowing for seizure of property without conviction, and ordering the CIA to become active in the domestic ‘drug war’. Ronald Reagan declared the “War on Drugs” to be among the major achievements of his administration. The great Reagan legacy is doubling the federal prison
population, deep erosions of civil liberties, hundreds of thousands of families destroyed, and waging the “War on Drugs” that continues to tear Black America apart. There are thousands of African American men and women still incarcerated by the excessive punitive sentences mandated by Ronald Reagan's war.
1988 Presidential Election
George Bush (Republican - Winner) vs Michael Dukakais
Michael Dukakis followed Reagan's example and went to Neshoba County, Ms. in early August, soon after the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. Like Reagan, he did not mention Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney. He did this despite the strength of Jesse Jackson's Presidential primary campaign and the existence of the National Rainbow
Coalition. But it was George Bush's campaign manager in 1988, Lee Atwater, who came up with probably the most infamous, modern use of racism during a Presidential campaign, the outrageous linkage of Michael Dukakis to William Horton.
Horton, who though sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for a crime against a white couple, was released through a furlough program Dukakis did not create but did support. Atwater used Dukakis’ support of the rehabilitation (furlough) program to “swift-boat” the Dukakis campaign. Michael Dukakis remained silent for the three months it took Lee Atwater to make Willie Horton his running mate, a boomerang effect of Dukakis’ failure to mention Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman in his August 4th speech at the Neshoba County Fair.
1992
Bill Clinton (Democratic - Winner) vs George Bush
Bill Clinton realized that he could not win in 1992 without using Sister Souljah to bait Jesse Jackson. Clinton was scheduled to speak before the national convention of the Rainbow Coalition when, without informing Jackson, he decided to distance himself
from the black community. Although the speech was to focus on issues such as urban enterprise zones and the earned-income tax credit, Clinton unexpectedly attacked the Rainbow Coalition's invitation to rap artist Sister Souljah to speak the previous evening. 'You had a rap singer here last night named Sister Souljah,' Clinton stated. 'Her comments before and after the Los Angeles riots sparked by Rodney King verdicts were filled with a kind of hatred that you do not honor today and tonight. Clinton went on to use a black chain gang in a crime control ad, golf at a segregated club with TV crews in tow, and fly home to Arkansas, mid campaign, to punctuate his support of capital punishment by attending Rickey Ray Rector's execution.
1996
Bill Clinton (Democratic - Winner) vs Bob Dole
Clinton vehemently criticized the lack of 'personal responsibility' of Public Assistance recipients, to gain the support of white males. Only days before the 1996 Democratic National Convention, Clinton signed the 'Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act,' with the goal of “ending welfare as we know it.”
2000
George W. Bush (Republican - Winner) vs Al Gore & Ralph Nader
The most memorable thing about their three Presidential debates and their campaigns in general was how similar they were on the issues, how little Democrat Gore tried to draw out major areas of disagreement with Republican Bush. 'The greatest tragedy of the 2000 presidential race was that the black vote would have
been substantially larger if the criminal-justice policies put in place by the Clinton-Gore administration had been different. More than 4.2 million Americans were not allowed to vote in the 2000 presidential election because they were in prison or had in the past been convicted of a felony. We can not forget to mention that George W. Bush also had the help of Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris.
2004
George W. Bush (Republican - Winner) vs John Kerry
There were again concerns about suspicious activities during and after the 2004 vote, but John Kerry decided not to dispute George Bush's win in the state of Ohio, even though the state held enough electoral votes to determine the Presidency.
George Bush was transformed into, and has remained a wartime president, since the September 11, 2001 tragedy. Within a month, a coalition force, led by the United States invaded Afganistan, which had been sheltering Osama bin Laden, and removed the Taliban rulers of Kabul. All of this happened in 2001, but our troops are still fighting and Osama bin Laden still has not not been found.
By the way, Obama wasn't mistakenly called or Osama or was he?
Emmanuel Brown is the creator of Seeing Growth and Voices and Visions. He currently resides In North Chicago Illinois.
