White Conspiracy: The New Republican Strategy to Court Black Votes

Increased competition for the black vote amongst Democrats and Republicans is undoubtedly constructive, and in past years Republicans have made modest headway in attracting black voters. However, if the recently unveiled ads by America’s PAC targeting African American voters in the upcoming election are any indication, Republicans are headed in a completely wrong (and frankly, a little scary) direction.

When conservative Human Events blogger Ivy Sellers (Values Ads Target Black Americans) says that these ads differ in their tone from previous such ads aimed at encouraging blacks to break ranks with Democrats, she couldn’t be more right. But when she says they are aimed at “values” issues and “concepts,” rather than candidates, she couldn’t be more wrong in her interpretation and assessment. The ads – a total of 24 of them produced by America’s PAC and are airing in Ohio and a handful of other states – turn a dangerous corner, mixing talk of policy issues with persuasive suggestions of white (Democrat) conspiracy, and even hints of the hope for black superiority.

Take their ad called “Black Choice,” which wraps the issue of school choice in with the charge that it’s not just a party issue, but a racial (white) one. The ad begins with the statement, “Every year some white Democrat politician (we’ll ignore the fact of the party/racial slur in using Democrat instead of Democratic, for now)…and ends with, “I’ve got one question for these white Democrat politicians,” after which the narrator suggests that white Democrats have a problem with black people (not all people who presumably are effected by being against school choice, despite racial identification) making decisions about black children.

Another ad, “Martin Luther King,” reeks of the same stench of tone, adding the suggestion of a day of hope when blacks will not just “have a seat” or the equal opportunity to excel in the workplace, but that black sons (we’ll ignore too, the patriarchal reference here) will one day be “kicking butt and taking names”; the earlier parts of the ad suggest these are white butts and names.

And then there is the ad titled “Abortion”: it alleges that Democrats are not only responsible for killing babies through their pro-choice stance on abortion, but that there is, and has been since its inception, a Democratic conspiracy of genocide targeting black babies. The same message is echoed in their ad, “Eugenics.”

In “Truth Hurts,” the narrator compares the shift of black loyalty from the Republican Party when Democrats championed slavery, to the Democrats when they “proved MIA on our issues.” Again, rather than talking about the ways that the Democratic Party may not meet the interests of African Americans, the highpoint of the ad is the exclamation that “Our old friends (the Democrats) have gone off on us.” In the vernacular, the ad again charges a Democratic Party-led conspiracy aimed at the violent, personal destruction of black people.

These examples are by no means exhaustive; the same connotations, insinuations, and assassinations are found in virtually each of the 24 ads.

There was a time when Republican attempts to court African American votes were based on citing the issue differences between the parties and their consistency or inconsistency with black interests. There was a time when their efforts were fueled by deeds (like actually appointing more blacks and minorities to positions of high authority than had Democratic-led administrations). But now their appeals sidestep rational consideration of the issues, and their rhetoric sounds more like that of Louis Farrakhan – quite odd when coupled with a political party and institution that hardly believes racial inequality even exists, much less that it is a legitimate issue for political consideration.