In an amazing piece of pseudo-history, Worldnet daily is bizarrely claiming the Ku Klux Klan as an invention of the Democrats, set up to target Republicans, no less. (With an implicit suggestion that this is where Democratic politics really lead, in sharp contrast to Republicans’ tolerance and diversity.) Snurfle. Choke on your coffee. You think I’m joking?
I am going to quote WND. (Sorry.) Richard Barton is the author of:
….”Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White,” which … that not only did the Democrats work hand-in-glove with the Ku Klux Klan for generations, they started the KKK and endorsed its mayhem.
“Of all forms of violent intimidation, lynchings were by far the most effective,” Barton said in his book. “Republicans often led the efforts to pass federal anti-lynching laws and their platforms consistently called for a ban on lynching. Democrats successfully blocked those bills and their platforms never did condemn lynchings.”
Now, I am pretty certain that enough Democrats were implicated in the activities of the KKK. However, there is something that could politely be called “disingenuous” in the WND attempt to whitewash the Republican’s major role. Indeed to present the Republicans a dogged fighters against the KKK hamstrung by Democratic opposition. (It could less politely be called lots of things, such as “barking mad”, “lying” and so on. For any WND readers who’ve strayed here by the grace of Google, I’ll have to admit “Yes, that is in fact what I mean. I was using the word disingenuous, because I was pretty sure you wouldn’t know what it meant.”)
All the same, I do recognise there has been something of great leap forward in the US. At least, the actions of the KKK must now be recognised as so universally repellent that you can really harm your political opponents by making spurious attributions of relation to them.
I found some interesting observations on Christian Ethics Today about Nicholas Barton whose spreading this crap.
Barton has become the guru of Religious Right antiseparationism.
(referring to the separation of church and state)
A careful look at that material, however, shows that “Mythbuilders†would describe it more accurately than “Wallbuilders,†for the essence of his message rests on eight historical fallacies regarding the Constitution
Basically, they are politely saying he’s a far-right nutjob and that Wallbuilders is a pseudo history site with anti-separation of church and state agenda…. This point of view is put rather more forcefully on Right Wing Watch blog, where a Sept 19 post said
A Right-Wing Three-Fer
Right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton will be addressing the Regent Law School chapter of the Federalist Society….
In fact, now I’ve got to Right Wing Watch, I see that there’s an much more elegant deconstruction of this ludicrous David Barton story than I can manage. (Because I’m too busy laughing at the effrontery of it)
Well, Heather, Barton is correct, although he’s being purposely misleading. The racial attitudes of today’s Republicans have little relationship to the racial attitudes of the Republicans of yesteryear. Barton is trying to paint his right-wing colleagues as coming from a long line of principled men and women. But he’s full of shit.
YOU, however, have to read up on your U.S. history. The KKK was, indeed, originally a reaction to Republican carpet-bagging in the South during the Reconstruction era. Of course, in those days, the Republicans — Lincoln was one, don’t forget — were philosophically closer, in some ways, to what we would probably call Democrats today. And the nineteenth-century Democrats were what we might call Republicans.
Well into the mid-1900s, the Democratic party is the one that led the charge both supporting and opposing civil rights. The segregationist South used to be solidly Democratic before the 1964 presidential election. All those famous Southern racists you’ve read about from those days called themselves Democrats. (They were referred to as Dixiecrats. Look it up.)
It’s only since 1964 and then Nixon’s “Southern strategy” in ’68 that the Republicans have become associated with racists on the level you’re thinking about.
I did say “Now, I am pretty certain that enough Democrats were implicated in the activities of the KKK.” An attempt to cover up my limited awareness of the detail. My entire knowledge of this comes from a geography project on racism in the American South that I did when I was 14.
I am not disagreeing.. I am sure you are right. My desire to read up on US history<0, I’m afraid. My only knowledge is a misty awareness of post-64 US politics and the Republicans don’t seem to have covered themselves in glory in this.
My point was more to do with the Republican’s anti-racism-come-lately and the attempt to identify the Democrats with the KKK.
Heather: I’ll tell you another piece of U.S. history for you to put into your memory bank. The daddy of fundie theocrats was William Jennings Bryan (you may have heard of him in relation to the Scopes trial). He was the Democratic presidential candidate in 1898, 1900, and 1908 — and was, for a time, Secretary of State under Wilson.
So that’s another area in which the Republicans have only relatively lately embraced evil.
Which, of course, as you point out, in NO WAY excuses those bastards who call themselves Republicans today.
Umm … I’m giving lectures on U.S. history? That should have been 1896, not 1898. The only presidential election in 1898 was in my mind.
😀 Never mind, we certainly didn’t know any better!