Stuff like this ought to frighten the Dems

[makattak]

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/310202-jim-brown-ray-lewis-talk-of-fantastic-meeting-with-trump

But most of them have been blowing it off as "they were suckered" or "they're just a bunch of idiots".

Trump appears to be serious in his outreach to the black population.

Imagine what would happen to the Democrat governing coalition if black people started voting like hispanics. Not even actually supporting Republicans, but going 33%-40% for Republicans.

It ought to scare the Democrats. But, just like the previous election, it seems they're convinced that could never happen.

This is the one area that I actually have hopes on what Mr. Trump can do.

[MechAg94]

Well, in their defense, I am not sure it has happened for quite some time.  At best, more blacks just stay home. 

If we were talking of other Republicans, I would be concerned what they were giving up to try to gain support from the black population. 

[DittoHead]

He also met with Kanye West.  
I feel like Trump could have skipped that meeting.

[makattak]

I have been thinking about this more.

What happens if the Dems have to DELIVER for the black vote? They've been screwing them over and ignoring them while trying to court the hispanic vote because blacks vote almost monolithically for the Dems.

What happens to the rest of the coalition if they have to start providing concrete benefits to the black populace? (Keeping in mind that the Democrat version of politics is a zero sum game.)

[roo_ster]

I have been thinking about this more.

What happens if the Dems have to DELIVER for the black vote? They've been screwing them over and ignoring them while trying to court the hispanic vote because blacks vote almost monolithically for the Dems.

What happens to the rest of the coalition if they have to start providing concrete benefits to the black populace? (Keeping in mind that the Democrat version of politics is a zero sum game.)

Nah, the Dems will just amp up the "Hate Whitey" noise.  That is all they've got with their Coalition of the Fringes.  And it usually works just fine.

[KD5NRH]

He also met with Kanye West.  

Sometimes I suspect The Donald isn't above summoning someone to his office just to pee on their shoes and have security escort them out the back door with a WalMart gift card to cover the shoes.

[K Frame]

Nah, the Dems will just amp up the "Hate Whitey" noise.  That is all they've got with their Coalition of the Fringes.  And it usually works just fine.

Ding ding ding.

Winner.

[Hawkmoon]

I have never understood why so many blacks support the Democrats. When you understand that the Democrats were the party of the Klu Klux Clan and George Wallace, it makes no sense at all.

[Perd Hapley]

I have never understood why so many blacks support the Democrats. When you understand that the Democrats were the party of the Klu Klux Clan and George Wallace, it makes no sense at all.

That's a familiarity with history that few voters possess.

[DittoHead]

I have never understood why so many blacks support the Democrats. When you understand that the Democrats were the party of the Klu Klux Clan and George Wallace, it makes no sense at all.

Because the condensed version of 1960s American political history that's generally taught is:

• Democrats JFK/LBJ push the Civil Rights Act (anti-racist)
• Republican Goldwater votes against the Civil Rights Act (racist)
• southern strategy / political realignment
• racists vote republican now, blacks don't
• *Footnote: Democrat George Wallace renounced racism for a happy ending to the story

[Jocassee]

For a hilarious rebuttal to the "Southern Strategy" BS, take a look at which states went democrat in which years. Blows it right out of the water.

[K Frame]

I have never understood why so many blacks support the Democrats. When you understand that the Democrats were the party of the Klu Klux Clan and George Wallace, it makes no sense at all.

In part it started with Richard Nixon in 1960.

Nixon and Martin Luther King were actually friendly, if not friends, and Nixon had a good record on working towards equal rights legislation.

King, as can be imagined, was a staunch Republican supporter.

Then, in the middle of the 1960 presidential campaign (October 19, 1960), King was arrested and sentenced to 4 months in prison on an old, and quite specious, charge. Coretta King and others in his circle were afraid that it was a pretext to have King killed in prison, so they reached out to Nixon.... who did nothing, apparently because he didn't want to alienate Southern whites. Basically, he cowarded out and hung a friend out to dry. 

Kennedy aides got JFK to call Mrs. King and express support, and then Bobby Kennedy called the judge and read him the riot act. King was released on October 27.

It's debated how much this call affected African American perception in the run up to the presidential election, but Kennedy did get more than an expected share of that voting block.

With Kennedy in power, he started pushing equal rights legislation, including the voting rights act. After Johnson took office, he doubled down and helped ramrod the voting rights act and other legislation through Congress, which led to a number of hardcore segregationist Congressmen switching party affiliation from Democrat to Republic.

When the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, King and Rosa Parks were behind Johnson.

In 1960, Kennedy won 68% of the non-white vote, which was really in line with how the non-white vote had trended since the Roosevelt days of the New Deal.

But in 1964, after he came out strongly for civil rights legislation (and created a perception that Goldwater was an oldtime Southern racist), Johnson took 94% of the nonwhite vote.

In 1968 and 1972, despite Nixon's record supporting equal rights legislation, the Democratic candidates took over 85%+ of the vote, a trend that has largely continued to this day.

[Monkeyleg]

All true about Nixon and the Kennedy's, but JFK and RFK didn't really want to get involved in civil rights.

[K Frame]

All true about Nixon and the Kennedy's, but JFK and RFK didn't really want to get involved in civil rights.

I guess that's why he made a major policy speech in June 1963 in which he called for sweeping civil rights legislation that provided equal access to public accommodations and also to end strategies designed to keep non-whites from voting, such as poll taxes and poll tests.

The Kennedy's might not have wanted to get involved in the civil rights movement, but after the incredible violence in Birmingham and its extensive nationwide coverage on live TV, and especially after Kennedy Federalized the National Guard to enforce desegregation of schools in Alabama, they did.

A lot of presidents haven't wanted to get involved in a lot of different stuff during their terms. That's not stopped them...

[Pb]

Blacks usually believe very strongly in the the welfare state.  In my opinion, that is the driving factor.  The average black person has only a small fraction of property that the average white person has, and they tend to want a large safety net.

[roo_ster]

If you study how politics is played back in Africa, it closely mirrors how politics plays out in the black community here in America...since the end of state-sponsored control/oppression of the black community.  Same as with other social behaviors.  (Politics is downstream of culture, you know.)  The end of artificial control/pressure has allowed the black community to seek its natural level/state.

As far as Trump horning in on the black vote, he does it mostly in two ways:

1. Trump the "Big Man" getting black votes.
Call it Big Man, Alpha, whatever; black Americans will respond to that more than the best reasoned economic analysis from a seemingly-weenie-ish Romney or Cruz clone. LOTS written on Big Man Syndrome in Africa.

2. Suppression of black turnout.
Not by any nefarious means, but merely by asking some equivalent of, "What have the Democrats done for you lately?  The Dems have been telling you to vote Dem for 50 years and your community is STILL a disaster.  Obviously this is not your fault, but the fault of the Dems for not delivering the goods."

Trump was able to do better than minority-coddling GOP fools with the above.  Trump or any candidate/party that espouses Constitutionalism or a generalized Western outlook will never get a majority of the black vote.  Best they can do is attenuate the Dem advantage by the outward appearance of power & virility and by pitching rhetoric to insinuate doubt in Dem Party's commitment to the black community.

[MechAg94]

With Kennedy in power, he started pushing equal rights legislation, including the voting rights act. After Johnson took office, he doubled down and helped ramrod the voting rights act and other legislation through Congress, which led to a number of hardcore segregationist Congressmen switching party affiliation from Democrat to Republic.

Did those Congressmen switch parties immediately?  Because from everything I have heard it was Republicans in Congress that got that law pushed through with some help from JKF/LBJ.  I would not have thought any of the segregationists would switch to the party that favored the Civil Rights Act.  Also, I thought the Southern states stayed pretty hard core Democrat until the 80's and 90's.  And there is also the Great Society stuff that LBJ pushed.

[K Frame]

"Did those Congressmen switch parties immediately?"

No, and truth be told, the Democrats who switched did so for a variety of reasons.

Just as there is today, there were significant divides and differences between Northern politicians and Southern politicians in the same party.

When the House bill (proposed by Democrats) reached the senate, the majority leader, a Democrat, used some interesting tactics to keep it out of the judiciary committee, which was chaired by a Democrat from Mississippi who was quite vocal about how it would never get out of his committee.

When the bill came up for debate, Southern Democrats filibustered the bill.

The biggest opponent of the bill was Democrat Strom Thurmond.

The final bill had substantial support from both parties, but more so in the Republican party (to be expected), while most of the no votes came from Southern politicians.

Wikipedia has an in depth rundown of the history of the Act.