Several weeks ago, Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote a column with the headline “We Are Starting to Enjoy Hatred.”
Her point was that, in our divided and polarized country, each side is no longer trying to “win over” those with whom they disagree. Sides are now just entrenched in hatred for each other.
It is impossible to not wake up and read the news, or simply walk out into the street into a demonstration, which is becoming business as usual in Washington, D.C., where I work, and not appreciate the truth of Noonan’s observation.
As a Christian Black conservative, as I happen to be, dealing with personal attacks is something I accept as part of my business.
Now Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, also a Black conservative, and someone whose name has been floated on Donald Trump’s “short list” of possible VP running mates, is getting a taste of this unpleasantness.
At a recent Republican gathering in Philadelphia, Donalds observed, “During Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — because Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively. And then … Lyndon Johnson — you go down that road, and now we are where we are.”
Any person endowed with the brain he or she has received from God, a willingness to use that brain and a modicum of good will to use reason in the pursuit of truth would grasp the point that Donalds was making that day.
Yet, Al Sharpton accused Donalds of saying Jim Crow was a “good” or “better” time for Blacks. Liberal MSNBC commentator Joy Reid said Donalds suggested Jim Crow was a “golden era” for Blacks. Soon the Biden campaign and Democratic leadership picked up with similar shameful distortions of Donalds’ remarks.
Donalds, of course, was not praising Jim Crow. He was lauding the strength and resilience of Black Americans to live their lives as productively as possible during those horrible times.
And he suggested that big government ushered in by Lyndon Johnson after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 hurt rather than helped Blacks.
Regarding Blacks voting more conservatively during the Jim Crow years, the data is clear.
From 1965, the first presidential election after the Civil Rights Act, to 2020, the average percent of Blacks voting Republican was 10.2%
But from 1936 to 1960, the average percent of Blacks voting Republican was 30%. In 1956, Republican Eisenhower received 39% of the Black vote.
Donalds’ observation that Blacks voted more conservatively during the Jim Crow era is clear and correct.
Regarding the state of the Black family, Donalds’ point that the Black family was healthier during the Jim Crow era is also crystal-clear.
Per data compiled by Pew Research from Census and American Community Survey data, in 1960, four years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, 61% of Blacks age 18 and above were married. By 2021, this was down to 31%.
In June 1965, after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Johnson spoke at prestigious Howard University to say that despite the new national civil rights law nullifying Jim Crow, and making racial discrimination unlawful, this, per Johnson, was not enough. Blacks were not ready, per Johnson, to be free.
In Johnson’s words then, “But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want and do as you desire and choose the leaders you please.”
Donalds tells the truth that things went in the wrong direction after the Civil Rights Act — more rather than less government.
Those on the left are free to challenge his arguments. But that is done through rational and logical discussion.
But they choose not this path, because they will lose.
Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” Her recent book, “What Is the CURE for America?” is available now. To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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