karel wrote:waauw wrote:Funny thing republicans like to ignore is that the USA was founded on liberalism: Montesquieu, Voltaire and Locke. USA land of the snowflakes!!!!
fact most people dont know the kkk was founded by the dems
Actually, most people DO know that. I can't remember the last time I met a person who didn't know that.
There's no doubt about it. From 1860 to 1960 the Dems were the party of the Old South, firmly committed to apartheid at the very least, if not the outright restoration of slavery.
Nonetheless, in 1960, when Kennedy pulled strings to get Martin Luther King out of jail, he repositioned the party to take advantage of race politics. The sad and ironic part is that it was all fake. Kennedy was 15 points behind Nixon in the polls, and he needed a publicity stunt to fire up his campaign. Cynical campaigning and not any kind of genuine devotion to civil rights drove his decision. The Kennedy's were as elitist as a ruling-class family could be. It was Nixon who actually had a positive voting record on civil rights issues and actually had friendship and correspondence with Martin Luther King. Nonetheless, Kennedy's trick worked. The stunt with getting King out of jail brought him the black vote and the election. The rest, as they say, is history.
Once Kennedy opened the door, there was a mass exodus of the white supremacist old guard out of the Democratic party and into the Republican. By 1970 the transformation was complete -- all the significant racists had gone Republican, and all the integrators had gone Democrat. So much so that in 1968 Nixon won an election by playing the flip side of the same coin and pandering to white fears.
It's interesting historical trivia, but it means absolutely nothing. Using it to fling poop at the Democratic Party is stupid. There is no active politician in that party who was an active politician before 1960. The poop won't stick.
A lot of organizations have changed completely from their origins. Nokia didn't always sell phones; they started out selling galoshes. Berkshire-Hathaway was a yarn manufacturer. BSA didn't always make motorcycles; they started out making rifles. The Hudson's Bay Company was originally the world's largest fur trader. Today, not only is it no longer dependent on the fur trade, but in fact has rejected the fur trade completely and won't even allow furs to be retailed in its stores. The priorities of organizations shift, and over time they can change course 180 degrees.
The fact that for 100 years the Democrats were the white supremacist party means absolutely nothing today.
