Racial Politics and the 2014 Midterm Elections

Like Millenials mentioned in a post yesterday, black voters too often stay home in non-presidential elections.  The result?  Here in Virginia we have a Republican controlled legislature that basically longs for the days of segregation or worse, seeks to disenfranchise minority voters, and panders to Christofascists and hate groups like The Family Foundation whose ancestors - and many current members - used the Bible to justify slavery and segregation.   The phenomenon is not unique to Virginia and, in fact, is even worse the farther one ventures into the Deep South.  As the New York Times reports, Democrats seem to have finally waken up to the need to galvanize blacks to get out and vote with ads that use race to underscore the agenda of the modern day Republican Party where white supremacists are welcomed with open arms.  Here are some article highlights:

In the final days before the election, Democrats in the closest Senate races across the South are turning to racially charged messages — invoking Trayvon Martin’s death, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and Jim Crow-era segregation — to jolt African-Americans into voting and stop a Republican takeover in Washington.

The images and words they are using are striking for how overtly they play on fears of intimidation and repression. And their source is surprising. The effort is being led by national Democrats and their state party organizations — not, in most instances, by the shadowy and often untraceable political action committees that typically employ such provocative messages.

In North Carolina, the “super PAC” started by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, ran an ad on black radio that accused the Republican candidate, Thom Tillis, of leading an effort to pass the kind of gun law that “caused the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.”

In Georgia, Democrats are circulating a flier warning that voting is the only way “to prevent another Ferguson.” It shows two black children holding cardboard signs that say “Don’t shoot.”

Democrats say Republicans need to own their record of passing laws hostile to African-American interests on issues like voting rights. The decision to use such overt appeals reflects just how much they are relying on black voters in the states in the old Confederacy, where key Senate races could decide which party controls the chamber.

One way to hang on is to increase the share of the black vote that typically turns out in a midterm election. To do so, Democrats are seizing on racial mistrust and unease, the same complicated emotions often used against them in the South.

The attacks have been most aggressive in North Carolina, where Democrats have said they need to raise the share of the electorate that is African-American to 21 percent, from 19 percent in the last midterm election in 2010, to prevail over Republicans . . . 

Ms. Hagan’s campaign has often referred to remarks in which Mr. Tillis appeared to equate reparations for slavery with social welfare programs. Governments created such public assistance programs, he said in 2007, based in part on the “belief that we should provide additional reparations” to those whose ancestors were enslaved.

In Arkansas, voters are opening mailboxes to find leaflets with images of the Ferguson protests and the words: “Enough! Republicans are targeting our kids, silencing our voices and even trying to impeach our president.” The group distributing them is Color of Change, a grass-roots civil rights organization.

In Georgia, the state Democratic Party is mixing themes of racial discrimination with appeals to rally behind the only black man elected president. “It’s up to us to vote to protect the legacy of the first African-American president,” one flier reads.

For many African-Americans, feelings of persecution — from voter ID laws, aggressive police forces and a host of other social problems — are hard to overstate. And they see no hyperbole in the attacks.  “It’s not race-baiting; it’s actually happening,” said Jaymes Powell Jr., an official in the North Carolina Democratic Party’s African-American Caucus.

My late father-in-law was a retired Baptist minister.  As a result, Republican and far right groups inundate the mail with mailings which are overtly racist and anti-black and anti-minority in general.  We thrown the foul materials in the trash.  I for one am happy to see the Democrats calling out the GOP for what it has become.  Better late than never.