Republican Apology to
Blacks on Voting Issue
By REUTERS, from the
NYTimes on the Web, July 14, 2005
MILWAUKEE -- The head of the
Republican Party issued a sweeping apology to American blacks on Thursday for a
decades-old practice of writing off their vote and using racial polarization to
win elections.
Republican Chairman Ken Mehlman said civil rights legislation pushed by
Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s solidified black support for
that party for decades after that "and we Republicans did not effectively reach
out."
"Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the
other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization," he added.
"I am here as Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."
Mehlman was the highest-ranking Republican to address the convention of the
NAACP, the oldest and largest U.S. civil rights organization, an annual meeting
that President Bush has declined invitations to since he took office. He
has spoken to selected black audiences.
NAACP leaders have been critical of Bush for not appearing before them.
While he did speak to the group when he was running for his first term, he has
not returned, something that has not happened with a sitting president in more
than 70 years.
Appeals by Mehlman and Democratic Chairman Howard Dean to the NAACP referenced
next year's congressional elections and the battle for the White House in 2008,
with both party leaders claiming their parties had the power to make black votes
count most.
Dean, who shook up his party with a failed bid for the presidential nomination
last year, said, "We have a Democratic Party that is going to go back to what it
used to be by standing up for right and not being afraid and never deserting the
people who brought us to the dance."
"Never again will we take another African-American vote for granted," he said.
He warned that the one-time Republican "Southern strategy" -- using racial
issues to appeal to white voters in the once solidly Democratic South -- lives
today, but in different forms that plays on issues ranging from gay rights to
anti-immigrant sentiment.
"The one thing we will never do is divide Americans to win elections," the
former Vermont governor said. If the Democratic Party is ever to be whole
again, he said, it needs to use the model of the NAACP to become the conscience
of the nation.
Dean and Mehlman spoke back-to-back. Melhman drew some applause but in
general got a more tepid response, including a few groans and hoots.
Asked by reporters after he spoke whether Bush's presence would have given the
Republican message more weight, Mehlman noted the president was speaking on
Thursday to the Black Expo in Indianapolis. "It's not simply who you speak
to, it's what you speak about," he said.
But Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington branch, said Bush was
"missing a golden opportunity by not being with the NAACP to talk with us about
the issues and concerns that are important to us and our community."
|
