Did we just witness a revolution?

At least sixty five seats in the House, at least six seats in the Senate, at least eleven governorships, and at least eighteen state legislative bodies just switched parties.

This is arguably the biggest political shift in the history of the United States—the only competition is 1938 when Democrats lost 72 seats in the House.

Notice that the top two switcheroos in American history both involve dumping Democrats.  Once in a while the big dog stands up and gives a mighty shake, dislodging and scattering ticks and fleas in every direction.

Trouble is, some of the worst pests are too imbedded.  Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown, two of the most crooked, stupid, and cynical politicians who ever lived, both won in California.  Once a tick gets its feeding tube anchored into the skin, I guess the dog needs to do more than just shake.  Good luck with that, California.  Don’t be coming to us for help with your impending bankruptcy.

Harry Reid seems to have won in Nevada, too, and Barney Frank in Massachusetts, so we still have a senile old socialist presiding over the Senate and a gay pimp fumbling in the dark with the nation’s financial health… but both of them will have one heckuva lot less power now, thank you God.

On an über-positive note, the Republican Party is sending two brand new black congressmen from the Deep South to Washington: Allen West from Florida and Tim Scott from South Carolina.

Mr. West is a former Lieutenant Colonel who got in trouble in 2003 for scaring an Iraqi prisoner in order to extract information which foiled an attack.  He was unapologetic, saying, “If it's about the lives of my men and their safety, I'd go through hell with a gasoline can.”  When the Army forced him to resign, thousands of Americans wrote to offer him moral support.

Mr. Scott, long active in Republican politics, is a distinguished business owner who will be representing a congressional district which includes part of the city where the Civil War began.  There’s symbolism in that, I’m just sure of it.

The elections of West and Scott are historic and meaningful for a whole slew of reasons.  The first black legislators in our nation’s history were Republicans.  Black people in general were overwhelmingly Republican until the 1960’s, as you would expect since the Republican Party is the party of Lincoln and the Democrat Party is the party of the Ku Klux Klan.  It’s a no brainer, right?

(Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, George Washington Carver, Jackie Robinson, and oh yeah, Denzel Washington: ALL REPUBLICANS.  How's that for examples?)

In the nineteenth century Republicans in the south fought pitched battles with Klansmen to allow black people to vote.  Thousands died.  Those battles for black voting rights made the civil rights marches of the 1950’s and 1960’s look like social gatherings, and the Klan didn't just lynch black people, they lynched Republicans black and white.  By the twentieth century, Democrats had taken over in the south and systematically excluded and oppressed black people to the point where President Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) sent the 101st Airborne to escort nine black students into Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

Yet with the advent of mass media and incompetent uneducated journalists, somehow the Democrat Party won the public relations battle.  Lyndon Johnson, a lifelong Texas segregationist before he became president, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and even though the act was passed only because Republicans overwhelmingly supported it, the Democrat Party (which filibustered it) managed to garner all the credit… and the black vote has been 90% Democrat ever since.

It’s absurd, it’s unfair, and it’s been remarkably unhealthy for black America but as Andre Agassi used to say, “Image is everything.”  I always hated those Canon commercials.  What a sad commentary on the modern world!

Black conservatives have been trying to flip the script for decades but it’s a hard road trying to get black people to vote Republican.  No matter who you are.  Even Hall of Fame football player Lynn Swann, who ran for governor of Pennsylvania as a Republican in 2006, only received 13 percent of the black vote.  Ouch.

Now we have two black Republicans from the south, both of them backed by the supposedly racist Tea Partiers, heading to Congress.  Allen West and Tim Scott are sending shivers of fear down the spines of Democrats, I guarantee it.

(Assuming that Democrats have spines.)

A whole bunch of people woke up this past year, saw the nation hurtling toward socialism, and realized they’d fallen asleep at the wheel.  The main story of this election was not about Republicans over Democrats, although that happened, nor was it about repudiation of Obamacare and the Obamanation, although that happened, too.  Nor was it about kicking out the incumbents, because that didn’t happen at all—Republican incumbents did just fine.  The main story was about fed-up middle & working class Americans starting their own political movement called the Tea Party and then proceeding to kick butts across the land.

The Tea Party is something brand new in American politics: a political movement so powerful that it dwarfs the two main political parties but is not a formal political party itself.  It is also not a mere source of funding, not a top-down organization run by Washington insiders, and not a group that gets involved in pragmatic wheeling and dealing.  It’s almost indefinable.  The Tea Party drove the professional politicians, both Republican and Democrat, crazy.  (Not a long drive in many cases.)  And they drove the media pundits crazy.  (Even shorter drives.)

“Who the hell are these people?” they kept asking.

The Tea Party is a spontaneous emotional convulsion of the American citizenry, revolted by the naked power grab in Washington.  The Tea Party is the big dog standing up and giving a mighty shake.


From Reno, Nevada, USA

November 4, 2010 - Well said!!! - Jane, Indiana

November 4, 2010 - A great week for the Republican party, and an excellent article! - Samantha R., Michigan

November 4, 2010 - Interesting perspective Jim! - Keith B., Michigan

November 4, 2010 - I thought you had to be bullshitting about all that black Republican stuff but I looked it up and you're telling the truth. Pretty interesting. Now I know how to get my wife to switch to the Republican Party. I'll tell her Denzel is Republican and that'll do it! - Mike K., Detroit