Comparison Of Southern Strategy And The Tea Party Strategy

The 15th amendment gave African American men the right to vote by saying that the” right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Sadly, African American men wouldn’t be able to exercise this right for almost a whole century. Using literacy tests, poll taxes, and other methods Southern states could prevent African Americans from voting. It took the passing of Voting Rights Act of 1965 before most African Americans in the South could vote. Woman went

The United States first began to deal with the issue of voter suppression during the Reconstruction. During Reconstruction freed slaves earned their right to vote and hold office through the fifteenth amendment in 1870. In 1877, Democrats, known as Dixiecrats, began to impose laws that were designed to suppress the African American vote or better known as Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow voting laws required the freedmen to pass literacy tests that they were unable to pass because of no formal education because of their status of slaves. Many states created poll taxes, which many poor Americans, white and black, were unable to pay. Many precincts made their voting precincts “white only” so that blacks would have nowhere to cast their votes. The Jim Crow voter suppression tactics were so successful that only three percent of African Americans in the south were registered to vote in 1940. Although African American males were given the right to vote in

Even after the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment, African Americans were “disenfranchised in the South by intimidation and electoral trickery, including whites-only primaries, rigged literacy tests, and poll taxes” (Patterson 2011, p. 180). The Freedom Riders rode through the South, enduring harassment and imprisonment to encourage other African Americans to vote. Voter turnout in African American communities is greatly encouraged. Personally, coming from an African American family, I was strongly encouraged by my parents and grandparents to vote when I was of legal age. My family instilled the importance of voting in me at a very young age. Although voter turnout among African Americans is still fairly low, in the 2008 presidential election African Americans had the second highest voter turnout, behind non-Hispanic Caucasians (African Americans, n.d.). Race can influence voter turnout because with African Americans specifically, although rates are getting better, they are still not high.

As the documentary continues, Republican strategist, Lee Atwater outlines the idea of the Southern Strategy. The Southern Strategy is a political strategy used by conservatives in which Republican politicians choose their language wisely to “speak in a kind of racial code designed to turn white working class voters against government programs (Wise, 2007).” According to John H. Bracey, this type of racism indirectly hurts the interests and well-being of working-class whites too. When aid is in question for whites, it also means that blacks would benefit from it as well and since some white people are so racist, they refuse the aid all together. For example, in Mississippi, there are people who won’t expand Medicare because they have such a dysfunctional political system that they would rather turn down aid for white people because the same aid would also help black people.

There have been many indications that lead to conclude that African Americans vote differently than those of the Caucasian race. From past knowledge and own understanding, many black citizens have a tendency to vote democratic, especially in the recent presidential elections. On page three of a ProQuest Dissertation done by Leonard David Thomas, he states, “… that for blacks there has been a long term and consistent struggle (i.e. social movements)” (Thomas 2010). Based on self interpretation, these struggles may have a reason on the way they vote and identify as a race. In America, there have been many issues with slavery and racism, creating a “race-based” ideology platform with more democratic views, wanting the government to have less social order on their lives. Leonard David Thomas also explained, “Racial domination means that based on race, individual and group movement are controlled. For the controlled, full participation in society is restricted. Roles and activities are determined by stereotypes and norms that sort people of color into less powerful positions. In addition, dominated groups organize to oppose their domination. By interpreting the social system as radicalized, the focus must be on the social structure” (Thomas 2010). This statement explains that, since the African American race has been oppressed and made feel lesser in politics, usually creating them to be Democratic and more liberal, or even making them less likely to vote in elections

The Voting Rights act of 1965 was established on August 6, 1965. This law was set to outlaw discrimination of voting practices adopted in many Southern States after the civil war, including literary test as a prerequisite to voting. The act was signed into law by former president Lyndon Johnson after a century of deliberate and violent denial of the vote to African- Americans in the South and latinos in the Southwest as well as many years of entrenched electoral systems that shut out citizens with limited fluency in english. The voting Rights act of 1965 has traced back to the 14th and 15th Amendment where it grants citizenships to all persons born in the united states including former slaves and provided all citizens with equal protection

It can be said that the South began the Civil War from a winning position. They had declared their independence, formed their own country and government, and they needed only to keep what they already had. But this was a monumental task as the government was required to protect every inch of land within the Confederacy. As a new country, the Confederacy needed to demonstrate the ability to defend its own territory from external threat. Without this ability, the Confederacy could never receive the international recognition and support it needed to survive. Aside from this reason, the South also needed to protect the institution of slavery from outside interference. If the Northern armies took control of a particular Southern area, the Confederates felt that they would free all the slaves, thus destroying the entire structure of society and its economic value. Because of this, Jefferson Davis was forced to devise a flawed war strategy which attempted to preserve the entire Confederacy at the cost of concentrating his forces.

“I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama for the right to vote. I’m not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us [African Americans]” –John Lewis. Within 100 years, African Americans overcame many obstacles such as paying poll taxes, passing multiple tests, and violence to be able to vote. They had to pay taxes, such as poll taxes. They also had to pass multiple tests, such as the Property and Literacy tests. Violence was also an obstacle African Americans had to face in order to vote.

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.” In the 1880’s poll taxes and literacy requirements that afterward advocated African Americans to vote. Meanwhile Klan violence frightens from police and employers, blacks were still “protesting”about voting rights. As a result, there were over two dozen blacks serving in state congress across some

Ever since Lincoln's emancipation proclamation, African-Americans had been Republican. The GOP was the party of Lincoln, the party that had given them the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. The Republican Party supported blacks, whereas the Democrat Party was the party of the South, and the Southern, White plantation owner. To the black community, the Republican Party represented "the high-minded, idealistic, God-fearing people," whereas Democrats "dabbled in influence-peddling and vice" (Weiss 1983: 3). All blacks knew where to lay their loyalties -- with the party

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law by President Lyndon B Johnson, this was to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented Africans-Americans from voting under the fifteenth amendment. The VRA gave African-Americans the right to vote and stating that people are not allowed to do anything to the people of different color or race while they are trying to vote, or forcing them to not vote. The fifteenth amendment was to prohibit states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on race, or color; Still people who do not agree with this were trying to prevent African-Americans from voting.

African-Americans may sometimes wonder at the contradictory facts about their history presented in many standard history texts. These texts state that blacks were given the right to vote in 1870, yet the same texts will acknowledge that this right did not really exist for African-Americans until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Even at this day and age, African Americans aren’t taking pride in the fact that we have the right to vote now. For example, racial minorities, especially black Americans, played a pivotal role in Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential wins. Skip forward to this year’s election of Clinton and Trump. The Census Bureau confirmed what most of us already knew, that both minority and black voter turnout took a decided downturn in last November’s elections. We did not always have a choice or even a say so in most matters, if any. Now we have a voice in the say in how things were governed and now that we do, I would hope to see all African Americans jumping at the chance to be a part of the decision making.

The effects the Tea Party movement has on politics and our democracy are evident. Due to anger over President Obama’s progressive policies and the Tea Party’s rise to national prominence, Democrats suffered devastating defeats over the years. In 2010, Tea Party nominees Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida saw easy wins in their bids for a U.S Senate seat. With the help of The Tea Party, Marco Rubio defeated the sitting governor in a three-way senate race who was part of the republican establishment and a win that surprised many. Republicans picked up 63 House seats, 6 Senate seats, and 6 Governorships. With this new majority, the Republican Party in the House can halt President Obama’s remaining agenda in his first term; threaten

With the 2016 presidential election coming up and the Republican Party showing off all of their bells and whistles. With candidate Donald Trump saying what everyone wants to hear but is coming off racist and cannot connect with the common American. He is making the minority voter hate the GOP even more. The Republican Party has had an awful repetition with minorities’ voters and some of the reason are unjust. The Republican Party was establish to deal with one issue which was if slavery should be allow in America new territories around the year of 1850. The party has change over the course of many years but they still believe in personal rights and everyone should be able to vote. With many people always