Friday, July 17, 2009
Around Town / Media / Politics Scene Cover: The Democrats Are Way More Racist
Posted by Pete Kotz on Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 5:57 AM
"I hadn't read your magazine yet, but looking at the cover, comparing the GOP and the KKK, I'd like to remind that the Democratic Party was the slavery party and the Klan party, started and was run by Democrats for many, many years. It's also the segregationist party. You need to study up and read a little history once and while, you idiot."
Comments (19)
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My ancestors have undoubtedly done a number of wrong things. Last I checked though, none of us can reach back into history and affect the actions of people who died long before we were born. For some time now the Democratic Party has been associated with civil rights and has done much to cleanse itself of the sins of its fathers.
That being said, there are plenty of prejudiced people in the Democratic Party. Incredibly enough, there are plenty of prejudiced people in the Republican Party. Am I responsible for the prejudices of my fellow party members?
Of course, there is all kinds of prejudice, including painting a whole party as racist on the basis of the actions of a few.
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The anonymous fan is correct. People seem to forget this fact when it suits their purpose. Longtime Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd was in the KKK, that is an established fact. And did you see the performance of Sen. Barbara Boxer yesterday, trying to keep that fellow from the Black Chamber of Commerce on the plantation?
http://www.breitbart.tv/god-awful-black-chamber-of-commerce-ceo-rips-sen-boxer-for-condescending-racial-remarks/
Technically, the caller is correct though missing some serious context.
If one knows the history of the South, after Reconstruction, the states were basically just handed back to the Confederate ruling class. Through the twists and turns of political history, these folks and their political progeny started the Klan and later became the racist Dixiecrats.
It is much more nuanced and complicated than that, but the caller is essentially correct.
It is also true the GOP was once broadly referenced as the "Party of Lincoln." That would be President Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator. However, the GOP has lost the right to claim that mantle presently given its collective stance on immigration and the "race politics" engendered by Lee Atwater in the GOP's "Southern strategy" used to such great effect in the 1980s and beyond.
Of course, Democrats in Tennessee are far from blame. Wasn't it the chief of staff of a Democratic Congressman who could not say with certainty that candidate Barack Obama was not "terrorist connected?" It was.
Also, try traveling to some of Tennessee's still quite Democratic rural counties - they do exist. You will find avowed, Yellow Dog Democrats who still are as racist their 1950s counterparts.
Overall, the cover illustration was total carpetbagger crap, Kotz. Sure, it moved papers off the rack. It just wasn't accurate in suggesting the GOP is the party of racism and gun nut mania. If you bothered to actually check the voting records of both parties on issues like guns in bars and immigration, you will not find too terribly much difference in this state. They just ACT like they are different when it is election time and they need money from their respective bases.
Try learning a little of Tennessee's history and then doing some modern day fact checking, boys. It will make the journalism you are attempting much better. It is hard to be one of the stewards of a community if you don't know its history.
As a foot note, I might add that there is no such thing as a lighthearted reference to the Klan in the South. For that reason alone, your illustration is out of line. It is a deep, dark, shameful image in our history and in our minds. Branding an entire group of people with it is irresponsible as is using its image as part of a joke. It would be like a German paper portraying its conservative party by using a swastika. It's too much.
Jesus Christ, seriously? We can't make light-hearted references to the nincompoops in the Klan because we're in the South?
Come on. If ever there were a place in the country that has earned the right to mock those idiots, it's the South.
Anyway, as for this argument that the Republicans and the Democrats in this state are just the same, that's demonstrably bullshit. If Republicans and Democrats are equally as bad as the other, why do minority groups still vote solidly Democrat?
Brainwashing?
Or maybe the difference, small though it often is, is important.
I just don't understand how an elephant can shoot a gun. Don't you need thumbs for that?
Professor,
The best way to finish off the last vestiges of the Klan is to make relentless fun of them.
Having said that, the relentless and reckless use of Klan analogies and other accusations of racism by the Scene, by responsible media and by other political opponents of the Republican Party do noting but worsen race relations.
There is an old term for using the behavior of a few to falsely characterize the actions of a few. I think it is 'McCarthyism.'
Aunt B.,
"We can't make light-hearted references to the nincompoops in the Klan because we're in the South?"
How is this different from any American mocking Al Sharpton in 'Barak the Magic Negro?'
"If Republicans and Democrats are equally as bad as the other, why do minority groups still vote solidly Democrat?"
Could one element be that members of minority groups who might want to try new ideas see the way that people like J.C. Watts and Michael Steele and Clarence Thomas are treated by the establishment in their communities?
In Tennessee Nathan Vaughn won three elections in a heavily white and heavily Republican district suggesting that race was not a factor. He loses when the Democrats run a candidate rejected by a large majority of Democrats in the primary and a Senate candidate with little money or name recognition and the default cry is 'racism.' Why not start with wondering what Democratic turnout was like first?
What Governor appointed the first African-American justice to the Tennessee Supreme Court? Want to guess which party worked to defeat him?
Of course we Republicans have much to answer for regarding race. But the constant accusations of racism and invocations of the Klan only make things worse. Sort of like someone's observation that McCarthy's great achievement was to make serious investigations into Communist infiltration more difficult.
Damn it, Rogers, did Blake Wylie narc me out? Because I specifically told him, "Do NOT tell Mark Rogers I think he's a thoughtful commenter and writes challenging things."
And yet, here you are.
Okay, fine, I will try to respond to you as thoughtfully, even though you are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. (Just kidding.)
I don't think that "You're acting like the KKK." "Learn your history, idiot! You're acting like the KKK." does much to worsen race relations because they are, by and large, squabbles between white people. You'd have to be already racist to be "Well, my god, if those white people don't quit comparing me to the Klan, I'm going to hate black people even worse."
So, I don't think we have to treat white people as too stupid to see that it's a fight among other white people or black people as so fragile that any reference to the Klan might make them wilt.
Whatever reasons Vaughn lost, and I agree with you in your analysis of why that was, when the Republicans mail out fliers with his head on a black bird and when Mumpower was making comments about how he was a more appropriate candidate for Memphis, that was racist. It doesn't matter whether it was effective, it was racist.
To me, and I'm as much of the problem as anyone, the problem is that the first response to all of these events has been to make jokes about them. And I think that, knowing Tennessee politicians the way I do, few of them are willing to step into a situation where the shit is already flying and be leaders.
So we have this kind of ongoing circle-jerk, where now people immediately start to snark, politicians don't do anything because they don't want to get in the middle of the shit storm, and then those of us who love to snark feel justified in it because we feel like, well, if we don't say anything, obviously, no one will.
But it would be nice to see people on both sides of the political divide say, "Okay, today, I'm going to be a leader."
Just don't look to me for that. Please.
You'll be pleased to know, professor, that the cover wasn't thought up by the carpetbaggers, but by two native born sons of the South.
So what? This cartoon would have been appropriate for the Democratic Party, especially in the Democratic Party in the South...in 1954.
Racists historically have come in all parties. It used to be the Democrats. Now it's the GOP.
Our country has been drug down by conservatives and racists throughout its history. They switch parties over the course of generations.
Again, original commenter. So what? So damn what? Today, in 2009, right now, as things are currently, the Republicans are the party of racists.
I know, "Well, what about...?" (Fill in some Democratic offense, even if it's decades old) is considered a clever and all sufficient rejoinder by the dittohead morons of right wing talk radio, but it is almost always totally irrelevant.
Like this time. Again, so what?
Aunt B.,
Thanks very much. I have a great respect for your writing also.
"I don't think that "You're acting like the KKK." "Learn your history, idiot! You're acting like the KKK." does much to worsen race relations because they are, by and large, squabbles between white people."
I totally agree with this. But when the 'You're acting like the KKK' card gets played to discredit every suggestion for issues like welfare reform, opposition to affirmative action or tax policy, it changes the shape of the debate in harmful ways.
For example, it makes it harder for those on both sides who want compromise to achieve it. Moderate Conservatives are loathe to negotiate with those who call them racists and moderate liberals open themselves to criticism for working with racists from opponents of reform. The only winners are the Sharptons of both extremes.
While I don't agree about the Vaughn ad, I would suggest that any criticism relates to the people who used the ad but not to the voters.
"But it would be nice to see people on both sides of the political divide say, "Okay, today, I'm going to be a leader."
I agree. Perhaps we ould help by giving people on the other side who want the same some cover from the extremists on our side. I will buy the first round for a discussion on how to achieve this.
TennRod,
Many thanks for proving my point. With enemies like you, who needs friends.
Yes, the Democrats were the southern party going back to the days of Jackson and the Republicans were the party of Lincoln. Those were more or less the lines of demarcation during the civil war. It stayed that way for several more generations. But the caller, while essentially correct, completely misses the point. That is that conservatives have always been on the same side, as have liberals. Liberals were never champions of Jim Crow or slavery. Liberals in the eighteen hundreds were more likely to be Republicans than Democrats. Things change. What matters is the present, not the past. And the Robert Byrd point is completely pointless. I'm no fan of the guy but he has completely and apologetically distanced himself from his past, a past, need I remind you, that was from back in the forties or fifties.
Further, one doesn't need to look any further than Strom Thurmond for context. He was a Democrat before he became a Dixiecrat and then becoming a Republican, a party more in line with his beliefs. Or Lester Maddox of Georgia and George Wallace from Alabama. Democrats but ultra-conservative ones.
Exactly right, chris1974. The conservatives have always been the problem, and if some conservative Democrat was a racist during Jim Crow era, so what? Every racist, segregationist, anti-affirmative action, never-forget-to-bash-the-NAACP, tell-that-stupid-black-welfare-queen-buying-steaks-with-food-stamps-lie, hate Jesse Jackson, Obama is a Muslim foreigner, Rush-listening, hate monger who voted for or would have voted for the anti-Civil Rights Souther Democrats a generation ago now vote for Republicans. Because right now Republicans are totally in sync with their reactionary crypto-fascist racist views.
It is the very pinnacle of stupidity to declare "the past doesn't matter." So history doesn't matter? Knowledge of where we have been to give us context for where we are headed doesn't matter? Facts don't matter? Really? Really? Why doesn't it matter? Because your Whiskey Tango institution of higher learning didn't teach it to you, perhaps? You may be liberals, but you certainly are not of the "over educated" variety.
Several commenters in order to make their points and blindly defend this cover illustration and the not-so subtle allusion it makes are willing to foresake the importance of history itself.
Unfuckingbelievable.
Hey TennRod, chris1974, all the conservatives on this board have already agreed with you. I guess we were not frothy enough in our denunciations of the current racial politics of the GOP - which date back to the early 1980s, not Ford/Corker. Further denunciation was not the damn point. It wasn't the topic of the conversation.
The entire point of the caller and the thread was that the Scene's choice for a cover illustration vastly oversimplified a very nuanced and complex history of racial politics. You're repeated shouts of "So What!" when the discussion is about the actual context of racial politics makes you look dumber than a bag full of hammers.
By the way, if facts matter to anyone on this board including the alleged journalists, go to the Scene site search function above and plug in "Doug Jackson." That is a DEMOCRATIC Senator in our General Assembly. You know, the set of largish buildings downtown that only Jeff Woods among your staff could find on a map. Jackson led the charge for guns-in-bars. (You can reach his district by driving about 50 minutes from Nashville down I-65 South.) The vote in each chamber of the legislature passed the measure by a wide margin, meaning Democrats voted for it too. The resistance in the Senate was in single digits on some votes. Discover the Intranets. They are a wonderful thing. Lots of good ACCURATE information out there. The kids call it "Googling."
Chris,
"Yes, the Democrats were the southern party going back to the days of Jackson and the Republicans were the party of Lincoln."
Well, actually no. The Jacksonian appeal was far more nationwide than you suggest. From Jackson to Lincoln the Democratic Party pretty much dominated American politics including the North and West. The term 'Copperheads' was coined to describe Northern anti-war Democrats.
Also, your characterizations of 'Left' and 'Right' are so stereotypical as to be useless. I would be interested in what you believe defines a Liberal and a Conservative.
Conservatives love to point out that the Republican Party freed the slaves while the Democratic Party started the Klan and Jim Crow laws.
All you have to do is read about the Compromise of 1877 to learn that both parties are a bunch of sellout bastards.
TIME TO BOYCOTT THE ADVERTISERS IN THIS MAGAZINE UNTIL THIS PAPER POSTS AN APOLOGY.
MAKE A LIST OF ALL THE ADVERTISERS IN THE MAGAZINE AND CALL EVERYONE OF THEM AND TELL THEM YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN BUY THEIR PRODUCTS BECAUSE THEY ADVERTISE IN A PAPER THAT SPREADS LIES.
THEN TELL EACH ADVERTISER YOU WILL TELL EVERY ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS TO NEVER BUY THEIR PRODUCTS.
I AM SICK AND TIRED OF THE DRIVE-BY MEDIA THINKING THEY CAN SPREAD LIES.
TIME TO MAKE THEM PAY WITH THEIR WALLETS.
DON'T GET STUCK ON STUPID, STUPID!!
Mostly what I see here is abunch of crap being uttered by a bunch of misinformed cool-aid drinking democrats who think that they represent the people. get a clue. take a note from your political machine and "move on".org okay? it's rascism if 95% of whites vote for a white president in favor of a black one, but somehow it's not rascist if 95% of blacks do the same damn thing. it's time people own up to responsibility. own up to hypocrisy and get real!
YOU WANT A HISTORY LESSON ABOUT RACISM?
Did you know the "I HAVE A DREAM" speech almost didn't happen?
THE REASON: John F. Kennedy (DEMOCRAT) along with his brother Bobby Kennedy (DEMOCRAT) wanted to prevent blacks from coming out to the political rally. They enacted a plan that they thought would work. The plan was to close down all the liquor stores in Washington D.C. for the day. They thought if blacks couldn't get any liquor that they wouldn't attend the rally. I first heard of this on a documentary about Martin Luther King on the HISTORY CHANNEL. ITS VERY TRUE.
WANT SOME MORE?
GEORGE WALLACE (DEMOCRAT), remember him? The man who stood in the way of the first blacks to attend the University of Alabama. THESE ARE HIS FAMOUS WORDS:
"In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say SEGREGATION now, SEGREGATION tomorrow, SEGREGATION forever."
WANT SOME MORE?
THERE IS ALLOT TO TALK ABOUT WHEN IT COMES TO DEMOCRATS.
