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Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past

by Bruce Bartlett

Price:

$17.79

Available:

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Sales Rank:

90990

Studio:

Palgrave Macmillan

Binding:

Hardcover

Number Of Pages:

288

Publication Date:

January 08, 2008

Publisher:

Palgrave Macmillan

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description

In Wrong on Race, Bruce Bartlett sets the record straight on a hidden past that many Democrats would rather see swept under the carpet. Ranging from the founding of the Republic through to today, it rectifies the unfair perceptions of America's two national parties. While Nixon's infamous "Southern Strategy" is constantly referenced in the media, less well remembered are Woodrow Wilson's segregation of the entire Federal civil service; FDR's appointment of a member of the KKK to the Supreme Court; John F. Kennedy's apathy towards civil rights legislation; and the ascension of Robert Byrd, who is current President pro tempore of the Senate, third in line in the presidential line of succession, and a former member of the KKK.
For the last seventy years, African Americans have voted en masse for one party, with little in the end to show for it. Is it time for the pendulum to swing the other way? With the Republican Party furiously engaged in pre-2008 soul searching, this exhaustively researched, incisively written exposé will be an important and compelling component of that debate as we head towards November.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 8 reviews)

Tracking down hypocrisy

Bruce Barlett states that his investigation of race found that virtually all of the virulent racists were Democratics. This countered the legend of them being the paragons of race. He succeeds in backing his view.
The book starts with Jefferson and ends at the present time. He provides a fair assessment of individuals and provides the notes to back up his assessment.
His section on Woodrow Wilson was eye opening. Definitely tarnishes the image of this former president.
He also explodes the the myths of FDR and JFK. Mostly flash and no action.
I find his explanation of the Southern Strategy plausible. There are many factors to former Democrats becoming Republicans and saying it is purely racial is a sign of obtuse thinking.
The book provides a good review of the racial policies since the founding of this nation. It is a key component to help in our understanding of our nation's history in regards to race.
June 17, 2008

"Wrong on Race" Very Revealing

I found the book to be an excellent read. Up until the mid-1960's, the Democratic Party was the party of slavery and segregation. One Democratic politician in the late 19th century referred to the Democratic Party as the "white people's party" and the Republican Party as the party of "equality." He meant it as a derogatory remark against the Republicans.

Frankly, I had to stop reading this book at night because it made me so angry that I had a hard time falling asleep. Bartlett hit a "home run" with this book. It is quite an "eye opener."

Dennis Figiel
June 15, 2008

Today's Republican is Yesterday's Demo/Dixi-Crat

Bartlett wrote a fascinating history lesson that is needed. And I'm a liberal independent. Bartlett certainly tries to be reasonably balanced. Heck, he actually supports the principal behind giving reparations to the decendants of slaves - which of course, most conservatves run from.

Yet, Bartlett is disingenuous as he was on C-Span when he tries to underplay the Southern Strategy and how the **modern** day GOP played the race card and enticed many Democrats of the 1960s to switch party affiliations. Remember, many whites were Democrats in the South BECAUSE the GOP was the Party Of Lincoln, The North, and Reconstruction. They disenfranchised blacks and of course went Democratic out of spite.

Not coincidently, after LBJ signed the 1964 Civil Rights Bill, blacks got the vote in the South, whites switched in droves to the GOP, as did the Strom Thurmonds, Jesse Helms, Trent Lotts, and other segregationists. Look, if you took the Boston Red Sox, put them in Yankee uniforms and still had them play in Fenway, do they become the Yankees (pun not intended)? Change the label, the contents remained the same.

To ignore or downplay this by saying, "Well whites switched to vote their economic interests..." flies in the face of common sense and history. As Bob Herbert said, it is like some historians trying to claim that the Civil War wasn't really about slavery at all.

In spite of this, the book has value as a historical guide. Many black people do not (in spite of what some white people would have you believe) have a naive view of Democrats - past and present. This pulls back the curtain on them.

May 14, 2008

A Real Eye Opener

Prior to writing this review, I went to the web sites of both the Democratic Party & the GOP to check their records on civil rights & women suffrage. Here's what I found:

The GOP's history page talks about its founding to oppose slavery & the passing of a number of civil rights bills, & its later support for women suffrage.

The Democratic history page (which is older then the GOP) only talks about civil rights & women rights cica post-1960.

This in itself is an eye opening. This books exposes the ugly racism in the Democrat Party's past. Starting with Thomas Jefferson personal views on people of color to President Jackson defying the US Supreme Court in order to force Native Americans to move West (the Trail of Tears).

Even 20th century Democratic heros had a failing grade on these issues. From the overrated Wilson (who in my book is a true racism who barred Blacks from coming to Princeton University while he was President there. Despite the fact that other Ivy League schools were opening their doors to people of color.), to FDR who appointed a klanman to the US Supreme Court & did little to help people of color. (In fact it took A. Philip Randolph who will planning a march on Washington in 1941 to force FDR to sign Executive Order 8802, barring racial discrimination in the national defense industry.) And let's not talk about him forcing Japanese Americans into internment camps...

Truman faired better, but I shocked to find out that he wanted to join the klan. He was denied because he wasn't willing to not hire Catholics. Nonetheless, he as President desegregated the armed forces & was willing to take political risk in backing civil rights. Thus causing Strom Thurmond (who a Democrat then) to ran on State's Rights on a 3rd. party.

In truth, the party never really supported civil rights until they saw the writing on the wall, that most Whites want to see Blacks get fair treatment under the law. Sadly, most Black Americans don't know this & still vote 90%+ for a party that never really were looking out for them. Even today, on issues like school choice, tradition marriage, & immigration, the party's of the opposing side of what most Blacks believe.
Also, when it's known that a Republican gets support from White Nationalist groups like 9 years ago when some were members of the Council of Conservative Citizens, it made national news while racist views by Dems (Black & Whites) are underplayed a la Obama's former pastor.

Personally, I'm not in either party, but this is a great read on the Democratic Party's buried past.
March 25, 2008

History is fun

Great background on how the truth gets hidden by dogma. If you tell a lie long enough, it does become the truth in this country. While that fact is truly pathetic, this book at does it's best to shine a spotlight on what factually happened. Great ammunition to pass around to anyone wants to claim to be a Democrat, and is too lazy to realize what they are saying. While the end arguements are debatable in how wrongs could be righted, it is still a very well written book that should hopefully make anyone who reads it actually think for themselves for once.
February 08, 2008

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