Trump is one of the reasons why I didn't support Obama in the '08

[Beet]

primaries. I knew that it would exacerbate racial polarization. When you have Democrats nominating a black man when Democrats are already getting 90% of the black vote, and then have him be the face of the party for 8 years, it's playing with fire. This is not an attack on Obama. It's not his fault he's black, obviously. It's just a commentary on political dynamics. During the Obama years you had increasing racial polarization by party, and now it's opened up the door for someone like Trump, who has the backing and uses memes from racist groups that were once considered fringe. Prior to Obama, the GOP was diversifying... you had them start to run candidates like Michael Steele in 2006, who was a relatively high-profile candidate; and from the statistics, the share of black delegates to the GOP convention peaked in 2004.

My ideal would have been for the first minority president, particularly a black, to be a Republican. With a black as the face of conservatism for four to eight years, the racists would have been banished from the GOP, and race would have been removed as a polarizing factor in American politics, as much as it could have been. In a way, conservatism represents the American's Americanism, the heartland ideology, and if that could have been represented by someone black, it would have been even more transformational than just having a black president.

Basically what has happened is what I feared. And this goes for Clinton to, to a lesser extent. We've now had two nominees in a row in the Democrats, where the winner of the white vote in the primaries didn't get the nomination. The black bloc vote is a problem because, when you have 20% of the primary electorate going 90% for one candidate, any other candidate needs to win by landslide proportions just to stay competitive. So blacks have just enough pull to decide Democratic primaries, but the actual swing group in the Democratic party, whites, have less pull. The result is the Alabamization of America, or at least forces pushing in that direction.

That's why I'm going to strongly support the Sanders' calls post-primary for open primaries, rather than closed, in the future. That goes for all levels of government. We need more whites and other non party dedicates deciding our primaries. Those loosely attached to the party having more sway would be better in General Elections.

[Beet]

So you didn't support Obama in 2008 because he was black. And you think black voters should have less power in Democratic primaries. Okay. 

It's Beet so...

How does it help blacks, or any minority, for our nation's politics to be sorted so that there are two parties who differ only on race, and a 60% white majority always outvotes a 40% party composed of minorities?

[Beet]

Bump. My point was not that whites would not vote for Obama, but that having a black as the face of the party for 8 years would result in racial polarization. In retrospect, I was right. The GOP has now built a race-based majority and future elections depend solely on whites. Minorities will not need to be courted by anyone now because the GOP doesn't need us. America is Alabama now.

[Beet]

I think there's a lot of truth to your analysis, Beet, but the conclusion that the solution is for the Democratic party to avoid nominating minority candidates is indeed racist by definition.

The racial polarization of American politics along black vs. white lines goes way beyond Obama. It's a trend that has been evolving since at least 1964, and actually more like the 1940's if you drill down further in the election results. And going further back American politics has always had nationalist elements and polarization by ethnicity.

And of course you can also look abroad and find similar themes in plenty of other countries, none of which have had black Presidents recently if ever.

The Democrats certainly need a more sustained and direct message to the concerns of white non-college educated voters but that's a completely separate issue from the race of our candidates/presidents.

It's not racist to acknowledge the impact of race. Black people were on the verge of a breakthrough in the GOP prior to Obama. In 2004, the percent of black delegates to the RNC reached an all-time high:



It subsequently plunged to record lows during the Obama years.