Yes, Dems have racist past, but what's in GOP's eye?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Sid Schwab / Herald columnist

On Monday, the chairman of Snohomish County Republicans treated us to a letter to the editor, in which he unburdened himself of some deprecatory opinions, along with selected facts well-known to everyone with knowledge of American history. The Democratic Party, he reminded us, once included a bunch of Southern racists (“Democrats have long history of racism,” The Herald, May 25). Which, until several decades ago, it most surely did.

Reaching back almost 200 years, he wrote of times when his party didn’t. Name-checking Abraham Lincoln, he expressed pride in his party’s “rich history,” as he put it, “of supporting African-Americans.” Other than the current, dominant southern faction of the chairman’s party, who doesn’t like what Abe did? Since then, though, along with science, equal access to voting, and preference for leaders who don’t lie about elections and pandemics, his party’s support stopped cold as a polar vortex.

The chairman’s lesson took a recess somewhere around 1965; which all but begs us to provide proper, less-selective updating. Key terms to keep in mind as we try: Southern strategy; “welfare queens”; LBJ; Voting Rights Act; Civil Rights Act; Shelby County vs. Holder.

Our lesson could be condensed, simply by pointing out it’s to the Republican Party those racist Democrats fled after LBJ powered the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts into existence; and that they were welcomed the way Democrats (not Republicans, weirdly) are welcoming vaccines. Understanding he’d be causing Democrats to lose the South, LBJ did it anyway. That kind of doing right for Americans, no matter the impact on party, has gone sadly missing from Republican leaders; especially in, but not limited to, the past thirteen years (MSNBC: tinyurl.com/honestMitch).

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-yes-dems-have-racist-past-but-whats-in-gops-eye/

[bullimiami]

1. the dems have a racist past the reps have a racist present.

[Hoyt]

4. +100000. Like that response.

[brush]

2. Yep, the dixiecrats left the Democratic Party in '65 and...

the joined the republicans. The rest is racist, republican history.

Who does this guy think he's fooling with his glaring omissions?

[moose65]

6. Actually the division started earlier than that

After Truman integrated the armed forces in 1948, the Dixiecrats split off into an almost separate party. Strom Thurmond ran for President that year with the States' Rights party, and he won 4 states and 39 electoral votes.

The split was complete in 1965 after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were passed. Thurmond, Jesse Helms, and many other Southern Democrats became Republicans after that.

Every time I see an article about Confederate statues, I go into the comments and ask the people defending the statues why they are so obsessed with protecting statues of Democrats. It's great to see their heads explode.

[brush]

7. Love your last graph. And thanks for the info on the earlier splitting.

That fills in some holes in my knowledge of events. I know many Black people were still republicans into the '50s because of Lincoln, people like Jackie Robinson, and of course because of the dixiecrats being seen as Dems.

You're right. It didn't start with the civil rights movement and certain events like when LBJ seated Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Democratic Party at the '64 Dem convention, which has been one of my touchstones. Thanks again for the info on Thurmond.

[Hoyt]

3. I've never considered racist Dixiecrats as Democrats. But, it is a history that

is sometimes difficult to deal with when obvious ignorant rubes respond with "Democrats were the racists." There is no question that the Dixiecrats migrated to the GOP, who were waiting with open arms and promises to adopt racist policies.

Growing up in the South, it was always clear to me that Dixiecrats were thankful for Social Security and farm programs, but otherwise wanted to continue the racist policies of the early 1900s.

The last openly racist Dixiecrat in Georgia (into 1970s), unless you want to count Zell Miller:

https://slideplayer.com/slide/16194923/95/images/3/Lester+Maddox+%28+%29%3A+Georgia%E2%80%99s+last+segregationist+Governor.jpg

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/april-25-1965-atlanta-atlanta-segregationist-lester-maddox-marches-picture-id515513830?s=2048x2048

[CrispyQ]

5. This:

Understanding he’d be causing Democrats to lose the South, LBJ did it anyway. That kind of doing right for Americans, no matter the impact on party, has gone sadly missing from Republican leaders; especially in, but not limited to, the past thirteen years