Daughter of slave votes for Obama

[rah]

And only the weaker repug candidates have kowtowed to the religious right. This has only really happed the last 15 years or so. The repugs didn't need them that much prior.

[chequita guevara]

Uhm, Reagan was of the religious right. The last GOP president who didn't pander to the RR was Eisenhower.

[rah]

But Reagan didn't push it since he didn't need them to win. Tricky dicky didn't pander to them. Ford didn't either. And it's questionable that the older bush did.

Yes, they campaigned to them because they were part of the team, but no different then the dems taking the black vote for granted.

Now the repugs really need the right and the Dems feel they really need the blacks......hence pandering.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Nixon didn't pander all that much to the RR.

[MrFun]

And yet, in spite of Nixon's not pandering to religious right he was still willing to reverse the accomplishments of civil rights movement for political gains. What a racist bigot.

As for Democrats counting on black voters. Since courting the votes of blacks does not endanger other people's civil rights in same way that Republicans courting the votes of religious right fanatics does, I don't see the similarity here.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Comrade Snuggles
Uhm, Reagan was of the religious right. The last GOP president who didn't pander to the RR was Eisenhower.

Yep - Jerry Falwell was pratically in love with Reagan.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Since courting the votes of blacks does not endanger other people's civil rights in same way that Republicans courting the votes of religious right fanatics does, I don't see the similarity here.

You may wish to ask that question of people who are denied spots in schools or the workforce through government mandate as a result of the color of their skin, ie, affirmative action.

[chequita guevara]

That doesn't endanger people's civil rights.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Comrade Snuggles
Voting for the GOP is only in your self-interest if you are very rich. It tends to work against the interests of everyone else.

Shouldn't you add racist whites to that?

I have to admit though that if you raise people up a certain way they will tend to vote conservative although they are not racist or rich.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by rah
And it's questionable that the older bush did.

Well, he did say he didn't consider atheists to be real Americans.

[chequita guevara]

Racism typically is not in the interests of the racist. In general, racism lowers the average wage of everyone, in addition to its numerous other deleterious effects. The only benefit most racists get from racism is a emotional one.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Since courting the votes of blacks does not endanger other people's civil rights in same way that Republicans courting the votes of religious right fanatics does, I don't see the similarity here.

You may wish to ask that question of people who are denied spots in schools or the workforce through government mandate as a result of the color of their skin, ie, affirmative action.

Affirmative action is a program in which the purpose is to reverse some of the sysematic discrimination done in the past.

As long as the program is choosing minority group members who are perfectly qualified for the job over equally-qualified whites rather than hiring unqualified minority group members, I don't see a problem here.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Comrade Snuggles
Racism typically is not in the interests of the racist. In general, racism lowers the average wage of everyone, in addition to its numerous other deleterious effects. The only benefit most racists get from racism is a emotional one.

People compare their wages to that of others. A lot of poor whites don't care if their wages don't increase as long as they get paid more than blacks.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by MrFun
Affirmative action is a program in which the purpose is to reverse some of the sysematic discrimination done in the past.

As long as the program is choosing minority group members who are perfectly qualified for the job over equally-qualified whites rather than hiring unqualified minority group members, I don't see a problem here.

What if the whites are more qualified and passed over as sometimes happens? Doesn't that impact their civil rights? Benign discrimination still deprives them of a spot they would have earned if their skin color was different.

[MrFun]

To be honest, I do have mixed feelings on affirmative action. But I have a question.

What would be a better way to give minority an edge to compensate for decades of past, systematic discrimination while companies continue to discriminate by race in violation of equal employment laws?