THE CIVIL WAR

Retro Notes on America’s Racial Politics

The more things change, the more they remain the same

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act as Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders look on; President’s Room, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC. LBJ Library, photo by Yoichi Okamoto

For 20 plus years now, I have written for the Progressive Media Project (PMP). I have regularly written essays about how the Republican Party has no chance to expand their share of the Black vote. People scoff at me and send me hate emails. I am accused of being a race baiter by some. And then, this line: the Democrats treat Black people like slaves. And the Democrats are the true historically racist party. I remind them the article is about the GOP.

They never get the point. It is not an either/or. Here is an op-ed from 2004 I wrote on Ronald Reagan after Reagan’s death. Yes, the responses were kind of nasty:

Nostalgia for Reagan distorts his policies against blacks

A few years ago, I wrote about the latest incarnation of Ronald Reagan — Donald Trump. I should note it is being stated again Trump will get a significant piece of the Black vote. I have my doubts. (Reagan, for the record, got 14 percent of the Black vote in 1980, which is impressive by modern standards; Trump received 8…