Posted on 01/05/2014 11:48:57 AM PST by Starman417
"What do you mean 'Democrats are the real racists'"?
How often has someone asked you this question? I get it all the time from younger people-- 30 and below especially. I used to recite the many instances of institutionalized racism Democrats authored and enforced to keep blacks slaves, then sharecroppers and segregated when it suited whites. I recite all the common talking points of Democrats voting against voting rights during the civil rights movement, rescinding voting rights 2 decades after Republicans gave blacks voting rights following the Civil War, the KKK being created by an elected Democrat as an enforcement vehicle against blacks and Republicans, etc...
The eyes of my audience remain blank and unimpressed. These people have been raised to believe the Democrats are blacks' best friend in government and Republicans are hostile to blacks. While most know Democrats in the south fought to continue slavery, they believe that the racists in the south became Republicans and those opposed to racism became Democrats. They don't know how or why such a thing happened, but they know it did. The fact that blacks vote for the Democrats over 90% of the time reinforces this belief.
This level of misunderstanding must be overcome through a rather lengthy explanation:
Democrats use fear as a tool very effectively. Southern whites were convinced that if blacks could own guns they would immediately shoot every white person they saw. If a black man could look at and speak to a white woman without being beaten or hung, they would rape every white woman they saw. If blacks drank from the same water fountain the water would carry disease. If blacks ate from the same food counter, the food would make whites sick. As crazy as this may sound, people believed it. (If your listener(s) have an incredulous look on their face ask them if they would drink water or eat food in close proximity to a rat, they'll get the idea).
Then Republicans forced desegregation in the south causing the myths about blacks to begin fading.
Suddenly the main tool of control was lost to the Democrats. They could no longer sell them selves as the party of the white man and win elections. The Democrats went to the class warfare that served them well in the north and west. The Democrats sold themselves as the protector of the working man and the poor, fighting to stop the "repression" of the rich.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Don’t you see it’s the present that matters? Maybe the Democrats USED to be the party of bigots, but now they’re the one’s that aren’t and the Republicans have become the party of white rich racists. That’s what the young people and many others believe. History means nothing.
Well written.
I love the part where southerners respect history over change, northerners not, and the examples of the restaurants.
Worth a read, and worth reminding people of the history of the races and the big switch.
History means nothing to liberals. They think every generation can write its own rules.
I saw an interesting “After Word” on cspan with an author who traced the origins of the liberal mindset to Thomas Paine. He also described the origins of conservatism to Edmund Burke.
According the author, conservatives recognize the preceding generations’ obligations and the civilization that we inherited. Conservatives work to improve on that existing culture. Liberals on the other hand, recognize no obligations to the past and seek to create a new world. This radical outlook of the left seeks to replace the family with the state.
It was a pretty interesting conversation.
An accurate summary of the real history, marred by bad spelling and grammar.
Little things like that detract from the story.
PS: the New South Republicans did not start in Marietta with Newt Gingrich as is intimated here. The Unionist South - early Southern Republicans - were very much involved in the War, and operated in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. They opposed secession, although being relatively neutral on the Slavery issue.
Some of us out here are descended from those people.
The truth is there are racists in both parties.
However, only democrats can be racists, because republicans believe each person is an individual and should be treated as such, while democrats believe only in communal groups and they should be treated as such.
I fear not the republican racist because I will be fairly judged as an individual.
I do fear the democrat racists because I may be guilty of something that I have not done but my communal group has done.
Something that remains unexplained is what made blacks switch all at once, their vote didn’t change over time or have a transition period, it totally and suddenly and permanently, reversed itself in 1936.
Thanks for posting - a pretty thoughtful and insightful article! “Pinging” to follow up later...I’m one of those who think “history matters”!
I'll have to look up the Burke conversation...
Ditto. Very well done.
The author’s name is Yuval Levin. He was being interviewed
by Jonah Goldberg of the National Review on CSPAN “After Words”
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Yuva
Blacks have become more racist and whites have become less racist in general.
Liberalism’s power structure, embodied in the Democratic Party, could not survive without successfully selling victimhood to certain groups.
Therefore, the Democratic Party is racist by necessity.
It’s not that history means nothing to Democrats. It’s that truth means nothing to them. They sell lies.
Democrats are still the party of bigots and they are still the party of rich whites who see blacks as less than human.
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