Gary Franks: Black people must end ‘eggs-in-one-basket’ politics

I’ll never forget the laughter about my candidacy when I first ran for office in an area in Connecticut that is over 90% white. Political leaders joked that white voters would not vote for me because I am Black, and Black people would not vote for me because I am a Republican. “Good luck,” they would chuckle.

Well, I won six elections and lost three. More importantly, when I won, I carried the white vote and Black vote. And when I lost, I lost the white vote and Black vote. And that was good.

History, if you do not know it, can easily repeat itself.

The alarm I am calling out has to do with the perpetual and overwhelming vote of the Black population for a Democrat, any Democrat.

Elections should be based on merit. Candidates should have to earn your vote by their past performance, actions and vision.

Black people have not always followed this theme. As Booker T. Washington advised in his autobiography, “Up from Slavery,” “See how the white man was voting, and vote the other way.” Back then, maybe it was for good reason. After all, Republican President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and the Republican-controlled Congress pursued Reconstruction, which was helping the newly freed slaves to the dismay of their former slave owners.

However, after the election Compromise of 1877, the northern troops that were stationed in the South to protect Black people were removed in exchange for the Republican (Rutherford Hayes) winning the White House. Soon the South witnessed the birth of Jim Crow, an invigorated KKK and the near eradication of the vote for Blacks, along with the erosion of many of their civil rights.

Years later, after learning the lesson of one-party voting — Black voters putting their eggs in one basket — Black leaders did not openly support either political party, with a few exceptions.

The Black civil rights leaders in the 1960s were apolitical while being far more effective Black politicians than the ones in the 21st century. They realized that it would take both political parties to achieve substantive change. The Black leaders and politicians of the 21st century should understand this fact.

I would argue that the progress made on civil rights (including voting rights, fair housing policies, etc.) during this period provided a bedrock of protections, freedoms, opportunities and fairness for Black Americans.

The liberal media allows Democrats to get away with racial issues that shine a negative light on their party. They dismiss or under-report them.

“I’ll tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or for Trump, then you ain’t Black,” said then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to a Black radio host.

There was no Black Democratic leader in America who pushed back at Biden for that comment.

In like fashion, Democratic Black leaders have accepted a Democratic governor and attorney general who in earlier stages of their lives wore Blackface or a KKK uniform. And then Black voters accepted it as well, because they were toeing the party line.

A Black female Democratic incumbent U.S. representative’s campaign can refer to her Black Republican male challenger as a monkey — calling him Curious George — and it’s not considered racist?

How about revisionist history? Remember then-Vice President Biden saying to an all-Black crowd that Republicans would “put y’all back in chains” if they are elected?

That’s bad. But what’s worse? Not one Democratic Black leader criticized or corrected Biden’s statement. Nor did anyone in the liberal media point out his error.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower integrated the Little Rock 9, President Ulysses S. Grant fought against the KKK, President Richard Nixon put teeth into affirmative action by establishing goals and timetables toward integrating our colleges and corporations, and I could go on. The policies and acts of Democrats Bull Connor and Govs. Lester Maddox and George Wallace against Black people were legendary.

Black Americans must realize that you cannot play a basketball game if nine players are playing against one (90%). You cannot get a grade higher than a 50 if you attend half the classes and read half of the assigned books. You cannot expect the political system to work properly either if 90% are only involved in 50% of the political activity. Simple math. It may work for the political leaders but not for the masses, their constituents.

Can we correct this trend? Yes.

In the mid-1990s today’s heavily Democratic states like New Jersey, New York, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Illinois and less Democratic states like Virginia, Wisconsin and Michigan all had Republican governors during the same period. In these states, a measurable portion of the Black vote went for the Republican governors.

Thus, in America Black tribalist voting can be addressed.

Today, the pendulum has swung too far to the left. Another concern is the fact that Democrats have lost the white vote in the last four presidential elections by approximately 20 points, a landslide according to the Roper Policy Center.