Mainstream Republicans don't know about the Southern Strategy.

[The Backlash Cometh]

They think it's propaganda being put out by Democrats who want to stay in power. They think people like Jessie Jackson and Sharpton are keeping blacks from voting for conservative black candidates and stopping blacks from progressing.

I countered him and asked him to name a black person in the Republican Senate. He said, if you have a black conservative and a black liberal, the black voters won't vote for the black conservatives. And I replied, I think you missed the point. I have no doubt that the RNC would happily sponsor a black candidate. He said, of course they would. I said, but your white voters aren't voting for them. Why not? It's a conservative agenda. He replied, "Well, there are people who won't vote for a black candidate that's true." I said, the RNC disguises the Southern strategy in very clever ways, by saying that the Republican party won't support welfare queens. Everybody knows that's a code word for "against blacks." And he said, "Well, Republicans believe a person should work and support themselves." And I said, "Well, where are the jobs? For now, they're going overseas."

Then he said I'm reading too much Democratic liberal media. And I said that there are plenty of conservative media to counter any media that I might encounter. On this point, he agreed.

Then we went off on a semi-tangent about how the black community needs more people like Martin Luther King and that Jessie Jackson and Sharpton, unfortunately, don't have the same cross-over appeal.

Bottomline, there are white male Republicans who would listen about how the Southern Strategy has been used to manipulate the vote, if it was explained to them. When you start reporting about it in papers like the Orlando Sentinel, they might begin to see the actions of their leaders in a different way.

[JackDragna]

1. Question..

..who is "he?"

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Fair Question.

I live in a Republican county and "he" is a fellow soccer parent and appears to be typical of the people here. Actually, he's friendlier than most and sincerely appears to want to bridge our differences, but keeps sabotaging himself by making very opinionated, racist comments that will forever keep us at arm's length.

[salin]

2. Thanks for the report...

I have long thought that the only way we are going to be able to overtake the rwing media/money advantage... is by OUR work... in one on one (calm) conversations... talking with people reasonably and countering the ill-logic that has been crammed down the public's throat so long that some of it has become commonly accepted beliefs.

This is part of my beef with how divisive folks have taken the 'war' for the primary nomination - in that alienating whole swaths of folks - will hurt our ability to get everyone fired up an motivated to have hundreds of conversations like the one you recount here before the election.