Monday, July 18, 2005

"Sorry" doesn't make it ok

Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry:

Today, RNC chair Ken Mehlman will apologize for the Republicans' divisive, racist Southern strategy: "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong.

Wrong, but successful:

From 1880 to 1948, when Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond invented the Southern strategy he would take with him to the GOP, Democrats won every Southern electoral vote in every presidential election except 1928, when they nominated Al Smith, a Catholic. In 2000 and 2004, Al Gore and John Kerry didn't win a single electoral vote in the South.

Not that there's anything especially racist about the South or the GOP, though. It's just a fun coincidence that acting all anti-black payed great dividends in the land of Jim Crow.

In 1964, when LBJ courageously signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress because of the solid South. Today, Republicans control both houses of Congress and all three branches of government because the South is in their column
.

Now, if only the GOP would apologize for things they are doing now.