Local and national priorities clash in Democratic Party
Local Democratic Party leaders have ruined the party in Charlotte, Bailey believes, because they cleaved too closely to the national party's message, ignoring local priorities.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Allen Bailey, [date unknown]. Interview B-0066. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- BILL MOYE:
-
Now, sort of to change a little bit. I believe you have said at one time
that maybe the Boy Scouts are probably as influential as the local
Democratic party. Something like that. Indicating that the party is
rather inept.
[unclear]
. . . so much splintering (maybe?).
- ALLEN BAILEY:
-
Well, it is. There really is no Democratic party. Whenever I speak of
party, I'm talking about organization as such in Mecklenburg County.
Now, there're a great number of people who are interested in politics
and interested in the Democratic party. But there is no one, or has been
no one at the helm of the Democratic party who either has the ability or
the desire, he may have the desire but doesn't have
the ability or vice versa . . . to pull the groups together, work toward
a common goal. That is the way that it has been. That's the way that it
is.
- BILL MOYE:
-
Who do you see as . . . pull the groups together . . . Who are the
competing groups? I presume there must be sort of a conservative side
and something of a more liberal side . . . Is it that crystallized, or
is it sort of a nebulous . . .
- ALLEN BAILEY:
-
I don't think it's necessarily that crystallized. I think this about the
failure of the Democratic party in Mecklenburg County. I think that
there is, and has been, a great difference between the Democratic party
on the national level and the Democratic party, or the thinking of the
people on the state level. I think, by and large in Mecklenburg County,
those that have been within the framework of the Democratic party, who
are it's so-called leaders, have destroyed the Democratic party by
trying to follow the philosophy of the national Democratic party to
which the people on the local level cannot be led, would not be led.
And, instead of remaining loyal to the Democratic party, they have
become disorganized, disenchanted . . . little or no faith in the
leadership of the Democratic party. Many, many of them, all you have to
do is look at the vote, find out how many Republicans are registered
here and find out how many Republicans vote. (M: A lot more Republicans
vote in the general election . . . ) Than there are registered,
certainly. So, there's no question but what a tremendous amount of
Democrats are and have been voting Republican. Now, you can criticize
those people all that you want to. You can say that the Republicans
register Democratic. I've heard that! (M: So they can vote in the
primary?) So they can vote in the primary. Well, that's not true. There
are people who would like to be loyal to the philosophies of the
Democratic party that they knew and that does not exist anymore.
- BILL MOYE:
-
It's moved away?
- ALLEN BAILEY:
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It's moved away from them, and they do not and have not followed it. They
have found the Republican party and its candidates more palatable, and
for that reason, they've been voting Republican. They have seen the
Republican candidate as more representative of their views than they
have the Democratic candidates. It's just that simple.
- BILL MOYE:
-
Who are some of these people that you see as pushing the national line?
Are they . . . I presume there are whites as well as blacks in the part
of the party that push . . .
- ALLEN BAILEY:
-
Yeah. Well, 'course, all you have to do is go back and find out who the
leadership of the Democratic party, the so-called leadership of the
Democratic party has been over the last several years. I hate to name
names and so forth, but that is in fact the case.
- BILL MOYE:
-
The primary in '64 seems to have been quite a . . . perhaps a turning
point. I'm wondering, maybe both locally and statewide in a way because
you had a fairly liberal candidate, you had a pretty much
middle-of-the-road, and you had a fairly conservative, and it seemed to
sort of split the party pretty much. I know here in Mecklenburg Mr.
King, Ray King, who had been chairman of the Democratic party, (B:
Quit.) resigned that and ran the Preyer campaign.
- ALLEN BAILEY:
-
Which was a . . . you know . . . In so far as the Democratic party was
concerned is . . . I think the party was forgotten. Any man that . . .
elected to leadership in a party and then resigns in the middle of an
election . . . to take on a candidate, in my humble judgment, forsakes
his party. I think that, as much as anything else, struck the death
knell of the Democratic party in this county, and it's been going down
ever since.