-----Original Message----- From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Actually, it was the Democratic Party that drove the wedge between black >and white workers in the 19th century. Check David Roediger's "Wages of >Whiteness" for good history on this. Also, keep in mind that there was >something called the Dixiecrats. The Democrats were allied with southern >white racists for the greater part of the 20th century. The only thing that >caused this to break down was the Republican strategy of recent years. The first part of your history is absolutely correct. As to the last sentence, Roosevelt's agreement to desegregate war industries in World War II (under pressure from A. Philip Randolph), Truman's desegration of the army, and Johnson's support of the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights bills also had something to do with the racial realignment of the parties. The fact is that there has been a profound racial realignment of the parties with the heart of the old Dixiecrats migrating fully into the leadership of the Republican Party. The Democratic Party in the South is now largely, often by full majorities in primaries, a black-dominated party. Most Southern Democratic Congresspeople are black. In California, latino politics were often mixed across the parties historically, but again we have seen a massive realignment in recent years as issues like Prop 187 have created clear divisions between the parties and latinos have voted overwhelmingly Democratic - leading to the first Latino Speaker of the California Assembly in 1996. Structurally, and largely because of this racial realignment, the Democrats are more progressive than they have ever been in history. They don't have the majorities they once had, but it's worth noting that up to seventy Democratic Congressmen voted against the minimum wage in the late 1970s, while almost every Democrat supported it in the most recent votes on the issue. Folks with ideological blinders can massage reality to pretend their is no difference between the parties, but it gets silly when we have the party of Maxine Waters and David Bonior against the party of Dick Armey and all the folks who thinks he's a liberal. --Nathan
