Both parties have contributed to the racial divide in the nation today, to just about an equal extent. Yes, I do mean by that the Democratic party. For all their lip service to the cause of eradicting racism, what have they really done that is truly constructive? Once you get past the Voting Rights Act, and the Civil Rights Act, for which they do for the most part deserve immense credit for remarkable political courage, the ugly truth is they have done remarkably little since then, and in a good many ways have, in fact, done more harm than good.
First you have the monstrous welfare system, which, despite the good intentions with which it was formulated, turned into more of a device to insure continued and steady employment among social servide employees than it did in actually helping blacks and the poverty stricken in general. In fact, it is generally now conceded by the majority of people that the welfare system actually did the reverse of what it porported to attempt, in that it actually kept blacks, more than any other single group, mired in poverty and transcended three generations in doing so. Had it not been reformed, it would doubtless have only gotten worse. The whole system was geared in such a way that welfare recipients were actually inadverdantly discouraged from getting off the system, and yet at the same time kept them at a base subsistence level at the same time.
But even this abject disaster pales in comparison to what the liberal movement did to the nation's education system, on a variety of levels. It started off with a reduction of the emphasis on basic educaton skills-the old three R's debate-and redirecting that emphasis on feel good social surdies which were based on assertions that had and have little if any validity. In the meantime, discipline was strongly undermined and replaced with a politically correct assumption that all kids, especially minorities, are basically good, and need only to be shown compassion, concern, and caring, and that their natural inclinations, shared by all humanity, to better themselves, would magically shine through, perhaps despite the myriad social problems and drawbacks with which they were in contention on a peer as well as an economic level.
To this end, true and honest history was replaced with the history of wishful thinking, as though the belief in theory as fact would somehow make it fact, and thus change the world for the better. Why bemoan what should have been but was not, when you can insist that it actaully was, but was covered up and disguised for some nefarious racist reason? To this end, Native Americans once again became the noble though unsophisticated victims of the white mans evil abuse, who further, in their lust for domination, fought an unjust war of aggression against the valiant Mexicans. And so, of course, these same evil white people just had to repress the black race, they had no other choice, it was almost a genetic predisposition, and any attempts by others among the white race to fight against the monstrosity of slavery had nothing whatsoever to do with their heartfelt oppossition to the practice-in fact, they probably had some other ulterior motives. And so, the animosity of blacks toward whites even to this day was not only justifiable and understandable, it was in fact to be encouraged. Whitey had it coming to him.
Discipline was severely undermined, and patriotism, once a given, was loudly decried. And liberal grading policies were assurred to guarantee that no child would be left behind when their other peers graduated. They would be passed on, and through, and graduated, and the exit door ponted out to them, in those many cases where they couldn't read the sign.
When drugs and crime and sexual promiscuity and even pregnancies and rape and violence, and finally murder, became widespread, this was a result of the social environment and the poverty in which they were raised and mired, and required understanding, but certainly not discipline-ceretainy not the passing of value judgements.
Bill Clinton was the first Democrat who actualy got it, and started making great strides toward beginning a truly comprehensive racial dialoque toward the understanding of racism in a very real way. And he made concrete strides towards addressing the issue. Welfare reform became a priority of his administration, as did the reform of the much abused system of Affirmative Action, with the rallying cry of "mend it, don't end it". And while urging furhter dialogue, understanding, and tolerance, he nevertheless addressed the need for discipline and responsibility among the black population, which was perhaps best illustrated by his chiding remarks aimed at the black female rapper "Sister Soljah" during a campaign appearrance at the black event in a joint appearrance with the reverand Jesse Jackson and other luminaries of the black civil rights movement. This was unheard of and no other democratic politician would have had the political courage to take such a stand.
Unfortunately, Clintons work and intentions in this regard, as in so many other things, was sadly derailed by his unfortunate incident with Ms. Lewinsky, which was cynically grasped by the Republican Party in such a way that almost guaranteed turning the clock back in so many ways-including fo rth eDemocratic party, which seemed determined to reverse course, and resume it's former defeatist path.
If the Democraticic party wants to start winning agian, and make a contribution to the undertanding and healing of racial divisions in America, in additions to the problem of poverty in general, and other issues, they would be well advised to take a page from the Clinton playbook. It's all well and good to pounce on such ill-advised comments and attitudes as those of Bill Bennett. Indeed, they should do this. But they can't just pile on this and assume that it will be enough. They have more they need to do-much, much more-to undo the damage done not only by decades of Republican misrule and cynicism, but in fact, they need to clean up their own house as well.
