Ari Melber Quotes
Confronting Republicans can definitely mobilize a disaffected Democratic base.
Melber, Ari. "Mobilizing the Base." Reuters, 2012.
Prior to Johnson’s civil rights efforts, the South virtually always voted for Democrats in all elections. The only political competition was for the Democratic Party Primaries. The term “Solid South” meant that it was solid for the Democratic Party. But after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, the racist whites who used to be Democrats switched and joined the genuine traditional conservative and created a Republican Southern majority that was as solid for the GOP as the Democrats had ever enjoyed.
Those who did were ostracized by Delay (who was then the Republican Majority Leader) and some other leading Republicans. His extreme and sometimes illegal partisan tactics got him into criminal difficulty and he was a major part of the great Republican Scandal of 2005-2006. He then was convicted of criminal activity for his extreme and illegal political activities.
On why he joined the Republican party:
The historian was comparing Obama to other historical presidents who either had a majority of both Houses of Congress or had an opposition party that was generally quite cooperative and willing to compromise for the sake of running the country smoothly. At this point in time there was a Tea Party wing of the Republican that was particularly negative and obstructionist. They tended to threaten and intimidate the main stream Republicans who used the filibuster to block legislation the majority of Senators had voted for more times than all the other Congresses in American history. And that was only in Obamas first 6 years.
Ari Naftali Melber is an American attorney and journalist who is the chief legal correspondent for MSNBC and host of The Beat with Ari Melber.
