Republicans Court the Bigot Vote

Ah, autumn -- a brisk snap in the air, the deep hues of trees changing colors ...and Republicans telling you that black men are coming to have sex with your daughters.

All right, that isn't completely accurate. Black men are coming to have sex with your daughters, Republicans warn, but gays are also going to turn you into one of them, and if we don't act soon the halls of power will be crawling with sex perverts.

We've all heard about the ad directed against Senate candidate Harold Ford in Tennessee, in which a ditzy young woman squeals, "I met Harold Ford at the Playboy party!" and closes the ad with, "Harold, call me!" -- and you know what they'll be doing if he does. But that isn't even the most racist ad that has been aired in that state, nor is the one that features thumping jungle drums every time Ford's name is mentioned. The most racist ad would have to be this radio spot, aired by a group called "Tennesseans for Truth":

"His daddy handed him his seat in Congress and his seat in the Congressional Black Caucus, an all-black group of congressmen who represent the interests of black people above all others ... Ford's Congressional Black Caucus secretly prepares and presents their own alternative budget to Congress each year to fund aid to black Americans. Discrimination at its worst ... Tennesseans want a color-blind senator, a real Tennessean representing all of us without discrimination."

Ford's opponent, Bob Corker, condemned that ad, as he did the "Call me!" ad (which was produced by the national Republican Party). But there are lots of Republicans in Tennessee who want to make extra sure that voters know that Harold Ford is black, black, black. Faced with a dynamic, skilled candidate in Ford and a mediocre one of their own in Corker, combined with a national mood decidedly unfavorable to Republicans, the GOP decided to hitch its wagon one more time to the bigot vote.

We can look on the bright side and say that what's bad for Ford may in general be good for Democrats. Ford, currently locked in a dead heat, is depending on the willingness of the good people of Tennessee to rise above their past and elect the first African-American senator from the South since Reconstruction. Elsewhere, black Republicans are finding that they have a lot of trouble convincing African Americans that the GOP has mended its ways, and the attention the Ford race has gotten isn't helping. Kenneth Blackwell in Ohio, Lynn Swann in Pennsylvania and Michael Steele in Maryland have all been unable to bring significant numbers of African Americans to their side, and look headed for defeat.

For years, Republicans have been saying they've put their past sins behind them and are reaching out to African-Americans. No one has done this with more enthusiasm and less substance than George W. Bush, whose 2004 campaign website featured a "compassion photo album" consisting of dozens of photos of the president with black and brown people. It was always a strategy aimed not at minorities themselves but at moderate whites who needed to be assured that Bush was different than his Republican forebears.

Since then, GOP chair Ken Mehlman has gone in front of one African-American audience after another to offer a non-apology apology for the way Republicans count on the electoral power of racism every two years. In fact, when Mehlman talks about this topic he puts his party in an absurdly positive light. "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong," he told the NAACP last July.

But the Republican Party doesn't "try to benefit politically from racial polarization," they stoke and exploit racism and hatred. The "southern strategy," Willie Horton and the biennial efforts to prevent black people from voting are something more than "looking the other way." When election time approaches, they just can't help themselves. The GOP is addicted to the bigot vote, addicted to suppressing the votes of people whose skin is not white. Like every addict, they tell themselves they can stop whenever they want -- I'll kick next year, I just need it one more time to get me through this election.