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You can't drive a car effectively with your focus on the rear view mirror. History is history, and we can't change the past. But if we are ever going to move forward, we are going to have to cease focusing on things that divide the country.
Over the last half of the century the Democrats solidified control over the city's coffers and education system. They supported big labor at ANY cost. The decay of Detroit is not the outcome of the decline of the automobile industry. The automobile industry is thriving in the U.S. ATM but not in Detroit. They didn't do enough to keep the jobs in the city. What killed Detroit was white flight and corruption. They didn't budget properly and they fell through. 10 of the poorest cities in the U.S. are run by Democrat. Surprise. Surprise. Not trying to say Republicans are better but at least give it a chance.
How do you figure that the auto industry is not thriving in Detroit currently? Detroit would be a dead city if the Big 3 were still not there.
The Auto Industry in Michigan
From the article:
Quote:
Not only is the Detroit region the birthplace of the automotive industry, it currently produces more cars and trucks than any other state in the country. In 2014, more than 2.3 million cars and trucks rolled off Michigan assembly lines – over 1.5 million at assembly plants located in the Detroit region. The state is home to 13 original equipment manufacturer (OEM) assembly plants and 35 OEM component plants. Including suppliers, there are over 1,700 automotive-related manufacturing establishments in Michigan.
And FWIW, I live in NW Ohio and the area I live also has a high amount of auto and auto parts manufacturers. We are less than an hour from Detroit.
Also, Detroit had corruption before white flight occurred. The main thing that caused a decline for the city of Detroit was a lack of commercial/industrial diversity. They depended too heavily on the auto industry and the American auto industry itself lacked innovation and quality designs for many years, which let foreign auto makes (primarily the Japanese and the Germans) come in and acquire a huge amount of dissatisfied American auto buyers from the "Big 3."
Republicans IMO would not have done a "better" job in the city. The riots in 1967 was a major catalyst for the decline of the city and the Republicans IMO would not have handled it any better than the white Democratic mayor at the time. FWIW, by 1967, white flight was already in full swing in Detroit, it started to occur in the 1950s due to suburbanization. Middle class blacks would also have fled if they had been allowed to leave the inner city after the riots but many suburban communities were only for whites. The riots further pushed whites out of the city. However, the economic collaspe didn't start to occur in a serious way until the 1970s and the lack of innovation of the auto industry. If a Republican had been in office he/she would also have courted the Big 3 to get them to stay, just like the Democrats cow-towed to them. Contrary to what people believe, I personally do not think that any specific political party has much of an affect on the economy of a specific city. Atlanta GA comes to mind since I lived there. They have had Democratic mayors as well since the 1970s straight, just like Detroit. Yet, they do not have the economic issues that Detroit faced, primarily due to having a diverse economy. Even the city of which I live, which is not far from Detroit, did not face the severe economic conditions that Detroit did due to there being more industries here that contribute to the economy and drive the workforce.
"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference... I'll have them ******s voting Democratic for the next two hundred years".
- LBJ
That's why OP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AguaDulce
That quote can be traced back to a book by Ronald Kessler, called Inside the White House, and it has allegedly never been corroborated by anyone else.
On the quote, I agree with Agua.
FWIW, I do find LBJ to be one of my favorite presidents based in part on his "colorful" language lol. He was a character.
But even with his colorful language (he actually was known to regularly drop the N-bomb) he was smart enough to realize that the Civil Rights Act of 1968 had to pass in order to keep the country from having another all out Civil War and this time on the streets after the assassination of Dr. King.
Also, it would behoove the posters to read the other thread about why whites vote Republican. It gives a good historical rundown of the conditions which lead to the majority of black Americans leaving the Republican party. It was due primarily because of the GOP abandoning the cause of Civil Rights after Eisenhower (who is my favorite Repbulican president of the modern era and who I consider the last "great" Republican president).
And it's worked out soooo well for them. They're a pawn for the democrats and don't even see how racist they are. What does Clinton think about Obama? “A few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags.” - Bill Clinton
The OP asked when did blacks start voting Democrat, not why. Since the Republican Party was responsible for ending slavery, obviously blacks would have originally gravitated toward the GOP. For almost 100 years after the Civil War, Democrats controlled the southern states and kept in place segregation and Jim Crow laws. Things started to change in the 50s, and by the 60s the Democratic Party had embraced the cause of civil rights. Noted segregationist Strom Thurmond for example switched parties in 1964 because of his opposition to the Civil Rights Act. First Goldwater, then Nixon, capitalized on a backlash among southern whites. By 1968, there was almost a complete inversion, with Republicans now dominating the South, and with blacks overwhelmingly in favor of Democrats.
And it's worked out soooo well for them. They're a pawn for the democrats and don't even see how racist they are. What does Clinton think about Obama? “A few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags.” - Bill Clinton
Ummm....I'm black. I'm doing very well as are the majority of black people in this country.
The OP asked when did blacks start voting Democrat, not why. Since the Republican Party was responsible for ending slavery, obviously blacks would have originally gravitated toward the GOP. For almost 100 years after the Civil War, Democrats controlled the southern states and kept in place segregation and Jim Crow laws. Things started to change in the 50s, and by the 60s the Democratic Party had embraced the cause of civil rights. Noted segregationist Strom Thurmond for example switched parties in 1964 because of his opposition to the Civil Rights Act. First Goldwater, then Nixon, capitalized on a backlash among southern whites. By 1968, there was almost a complete inversion, with Republicans now dominating the South, and with blacks overwhelmingly in favor of Democrats.
That's mostly correct. However, the Republican Party--which began as a proudly and self-professed "progressive" party--changed substantially when Teddy Roosevelt (who was so progressive his platform 100 years ago reads like today's Democrat platform, minus only the sexual orientation plank) pulled the progressives out of the Republican Party to form the Progressive Party.
That left the Republican Party with just the libertarian-ish industrialists. That's pretty much what it was for most of the first half of the 20th century--primarily libertarian-leaning. But the Civil Rights Act offended Goldwater's libertarian bent (although he personally practiced integration in government and his own businesses and opposed southern mandatory segregation laws) and he found a strange bedfellow in the southern Democrats who hated the Civil Rights Act for racist reasons. You have already stated the rest.
Please review post #23. That quote has never been corroborated as being true to LBJ.
Corroborated or not as a quote, the outcome was exactly what LBJ supposedly said.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HumpDay
Over the last half of the century the Democrats solidified control over the city's coffers and education system. They supported big labor at ANY cost. The decay of Detroit is not the outcome of the decline of the automobile industry. The automobile industry is thriving in the U.S. ATM but not in Detroit. They didn't do enough to keep the jobs in the city. What killed Detroit was white flight and corruption. They didn't budget properly and they fell through. 10 of the poorest cities in the U.S. are run by Democrat. Surprise. Surprise. Not trying to say Republicans are better but at least give it a chance.
Basically every big city in America is run by Democrats. Are they all giant failures?
Not to say that the system in Detroit wasn't/isn't corrupt, but to ascribe those failures to every city in America is ridiculous.
Anyway, Detroit's failure was the decline of it's almost singular industry. The same happened in smaller steel dependent cities in the 80's. The lack of a diversified economic base, lack of an educated workforce and and little in the way of an active philanthropic community is what made recovery next to impossible.
Last edited by Mr. Mon; 04-15-2016 at 10:32 AM..
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