By Bobby E. Mills, Ph.D.
The Grand Ole Party of Abraham Lincoln evolved into the Ole Dixiecrat Party of the Southern Confederacy. The question of questions is what happened? Sadly, Texas has become the strongest GOP state in the nation. Why is the question of questions? For over 100 years the GOP was not a viable force in Texas politics because Blacks controlled the GOP. In fact, historically Blacks controlled the GOP, and were 90 percent of the delegates at the first GOP Convention in Houston, on July 4th, 1867. In attendance were (150) Blacks and (20) Whites.
The Second State Convention was chaired by Norris Wright Cuney (1883-1887). In fact, Cuney Homes is named in honor of Norris Wright Cuney. In 1978, William P. Clements became the first Republican Governor in over 100 years. In 2023, the GOP control all three branches of state government.
In American politics a political party philosophical ideological switch has occurred. The Republican Party of Lincoln has become the Southern Dixiecrat Party of the Confederate states, and the Democrat Party has become the inclusive multicultural party of Abraham Lincoln, because a nation divided against itself cannot stand. This is only a brief factual synopsis of the history of political partisanship in Texas. The reality behind the synopsis is simply the ugliness of institutional racism. The truth behind the political switch-a-rue (changing of the guard) is simply the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965). When these legislative Acts were passed President Lyndon B. Johnson emphatically declared that: “the Democrat Party has just lost the South”.
America, President Lyndon Johnson did not lie! The Republican Party of Lincoln believed in freeing the slaves. However, the true reasons for the Civil War were not slavery, but economic advantages and state rights. The Emancipation Proclamation Act of (1863) tragically became the basis for the political assassination of President Lincoln by a Southerner, John Wilkes Booth, in cooperation with Northern Sympathizers. The political assassination of Lincoln was initiated and precipitated because the Vice President, Andrew Johnson, a southerner, but Johnson believed in the Lincoln doctrine of preserving the Union, because a nation divided against itself cannot stand.
President Johnson did desire to reconstruct the south and he removed the Union soldiers from the South and did not have the South pay reparations to Blacks (forty acres and a mule). Now we know why the voting stronghold of the GOP is Southern states. The 21st century GOP because of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act is far more politically asinine and destructive to multicultural democracy. The Democratic Party in conjunction with the Dixiecrats in the Democratic Party, such as the KKK and other White Nationalists groups brought their racist talents to the GOP, and that alliance has brought absolute madness and chaos to Grand Ole Party (GOP).
Presently, we are witnessing political leadership madness in the House of Representatives, because the GOP has no real multicultural democracy-oriented policies, only theocraticals and hypotheticals based upon alternative facts and White Privilege Autocracy. The Golden Escalator experience of Donald J. Trump in 2016, only aerobated the existing socio-economic racial confusion in the GOP. The Trump experience took the GOP to the depths of midnight, and now the GOP is grouping in spiritual and political darkness. What a hellish predicament America is in simply because of the inability of the GOP controlled House to govern effectively and democratically. What a Shame! Even more sadly is the spiritual fact that Christian Right Evangelicals are trafficking in alternative spiritual truths (lying on God).
The Grand Ole Party (GOP) has become a political personality cult, without a moral conscience. White Nationalists Militaristic Organizations believe whole heartedly that all things can be settled by guns, guns, and more guns (militaristic actions). Pathetically, the chairman of the Texas GOP associates with a known high profile White Nationalist. Fox “FAKE” News has boldly proven that they traffic in lies, lies, and more lies, not factual news reporting (The Dominion Lawsuit). Spiritually Confused Blacks and other minorities say it all, confused. Vivek Ramaswamy obtained an IVY LEAGUE education to become a political fool. America, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8: 31). Amen!