In the 1950s, my father was a young boy growing up in rural Tennessee near Memphis. He picked cotton and strawberries, slaughtered hogs, hunted rabbit, and swam in the mud creeks filled with water moccasins. Everything he ate came either from the ground or from a round from his shotgun. Suffice to say he is a certified “country boy.”

In his community, there was this particularly generous man. He was godly. A man of honor, dignity, and humility. A man that would tend to the needs of others with selflessness and sincere love. He lived in a big white house with plenty of crops the community could pick. He would transport people in his car to town and to church on Sunday. They called him “Tick man.” There was one problem about “Tick man” that many of his fellow neighbors didn’t like. He was a black man, but he was a Republican. They did not like the “Republican” part. His neighbors believed he was a good man and they had the same values as he did, but somehow, some way, they became affronted by his political persuasion.

Although Black Americans began their political prowess within the Republican Party, with the first black senators being Republican, there was a shift in their political perception and loyalty over time. It started in June 1933, with Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiating The New Deal. This “deal” appealed to the immediate financial regression of Americans brought about by the Great Depression. Unfortunately, FDR’s attempt to save the economy only sent it further into depression, but the black vote was emotionally dedicated to FDR. Then, you had Democrat President Harry S. Truman, who de-segregated the military during the reelection year of 1948. Truman had no interest in black men in the military. However, he was convinced by his special counsel that the Republicans would seek to regain the black-voter loyalty that the party of Lincoln lost to the party of FDR. Truman won the black vote by landslide after Executive Order 9981 was issued.

Fast forward to 1966, when Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson convinced minority Americans that the government was the way out of poverty. Again, President Johnson had no qualms about the progress of the racial minority of blacks until he needed their vote. He was purported to say, “I’ll have those n—ers voting Democratic for the next 200 years!” LBJ’s policies over the past 55 years took the poverty rate from 14.7% in 1966 down to a whopping 13.5% in 2017 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s 1.2 percentage points of progress over half a century. The Welfare State incentivizes and subsidizes poor behavior, work ethic, and family structures. Contrary to popular belief, the minority family has been decimated by the very policies said to be a “helping hand.” Additionally, the black vote turned even further toward the Left as LBJ’s agenda work to “perfection.”

Even staunch Abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote, “I am a black, dyed in the wool Republican and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom.” Although, his own people ostracized “Tick man” for his political affiliation, he embraced what K. Carl Smith calls Life-Empowering Values of Frederick Douglass: (1) Respect for the Constitution; (2) Respect for Life; (3) Belief in Limited Government, and (4) Belief in Personal Responsibility. These values are the key to supporting any politician.

The political schizophrenia in the minority black community is that it votes for the very platform, policies, and political party that has historically and strategically done everything in its power to use and abuse them. Furthermore, the minority community often votes against their own personal and moral values. This is as sad to watch as a one-car funeral. There is, however, a new breed that is coming to the political forefront seeking to return to the core values that made this nation great! Freedom and Liberty are worth the fight! Make America Great Yet Again.