Chicago Republicans

Arguing that slaveholders take their slaves for granted is redundant. What is a slave if not one who is used without recognition, thanks, recompense or respect? White Democrats in the south, and their ideological colleagues in the north, took blacks for granted for the first 100 years of our nations history. Democrats not only used blacks to pick their cotton, but they also used them to gain political power in Congress. During the constitutional convention slaveholders argued that slaves should be counted towards a state’s population when determining a state’s political representation in the House of Representatives and a state’s electoral votes in the Presidential races. Despite the fact that slaves were considered non-citizens, were not allowed to vote, and had no political rights, slave-owners audaciously tried to use them to secure their power base in the Washington.

Had they succeeded, this nation might look very different today. The 3/5 Compromise, often held up as an example of black dehumanization, was actually a small victory for the abolitionists. They recognized that if slaves were fully counted in a state’s population, that the south would have an overwhelming advantage in Congress and likely determine every Presidential election. Abolitionists argued that since slaves were non-citizens they shouldn’t be used to bolster the south’s numbers. The 3/5 compromise eventually allowed slave states to count each slave as 3/5 of a person for purposes of national representation. This agreement curbed the influence of slave states in Washington and kept the balance of power from swinging entirely in their direction. Nevertheless, Democrats in the south still enjoyed far more political power as a result of African Americans than they otherwise would have. Black slaves, however, received nothing in return.

After the Civil War, Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and the Presidency. Together they passed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments as well as 19 separate pieces of civil rights legislation. For the first time, a political party gave more to African Americans than they took. Sadly, in 1877 Reconstruction came to an end, Democrats won Congress and the march forward slowly ground to a halt. Since African Americans were now citizens, they were no longer counted as 3/5 of a person for electoral representation. Southern states once again gained clout in Washington. However, Democrats in the south waged an 80-year battle to disenfranchise African American voters. While Democrats reaped the benefits of increased representation, their black constituents received little in return.

From the 1930’s through the 1960’s Democrats switched from beating black voters to wooing them. They realized that blacks would not be disenfranchised forever and sought to hold onto the political power that African Americans had given them for so long. Remarkably, their strategy succeeded. In return for promises of social programs, welfare, and a real say in Party Politics, blacks by in large agreed to vote Democrat. It is absolutely amazing to anyone looking at the history of this country to realize that Democrats have been utterly dependent on the black population of this country for their political power. Take away the faithful black vote and the Democrats would be reduced to irrelevancy.

The question we must ask is whether Democrats are finally rewarding the black community for its loyalty. Or perhaps blacks are being taken for granted by Democrats just as they were during slavery and the days of Jim Crow. There are many different ways to look at this question but we will here examine a few telling statistics. In 1965, black unemployment level was at 8.5% while white unemployment stood at 4.3%. By 2001, after nearly 40 years of voting Democrat, black unemployment stood 12.6% and white unemployment 6.5%. Here in Chicago, the situation is even worse. After decades of Democrat rule, minority businesses as a whole earned 8% of city contracts and a mere 4% of county ones. The number of blacks in the city’s decision-making cabinet positions has reached the lowest point ever under Mayor Daley. The educational situation is even worse. Many African American families are beginning to turn to home schooling in order to protect their children from the appalling violence and ineptitude of Chicago’s public schools. And while Republican Party supports home schoolers, we do not want people to choose it because their other options are so poor.

It is time for African Americans to say enough is enough. As a group, blacks in this country have been taken for granted by Democrats for far, far too long. Democrats use the black population to get in power, but the black community rarely receives anything in return. The Chicago Republican Party wants to fight for the black vote here in Cook County. It is time to recognize that as long as Democrats can count on the black vote without offering anything constructive in return, they will.