How the Republican Party Became The Party of Racism

[amb123]

Michael Harriot - The Root

Here’s a joke: What’s the difference between a Klan rally and a Republican Convention?

Answer: The dress code.

Here’s another one: How white is the Republican Party?

According to Pew Research, 83 percent of the registered voters who identify as Republican are non-Hispanic whites. The Republican Party is whiter than Tilda Swinton riding a polar bear in a snowstorm to a Taylor Swift concert.

Why isn’t anyone laughing? Is this thing on?

And not only is the Grand Ole Party unapologetically white, recently it has been disposing of its dog whistles in favor of bullhorns, becoming more unabashedly racist every day. Aside from its leader excusing a white supremacist murder, calling Mexicans “rapists,” referring to “shithole countries” and settling multiple discrimination lawsuits, there is an abundance of evidence that shows the party’s racism.

*snip*

https://www.theroot.com/how-the-republican-party-became-the-party-of-racism-1827779221

[MineralMan]

1. Trump's Racist, Jingoistic Populism Is Why.

He figured out how to get the loyalty of the 30+% of Americans who hold racist views. Then, with Russian help, he got to the White House.

[Blue_true]

9. For a long time, I have read estimates that 20-35% of White Americans were vile racists.

Trump has proven the accuracy of that estimate. He got that base and then convinced enough Americans who do not fall under 24/7 racists to vote for him.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It always has been. Trump just made it OK for them to be more obvious about it.

[Crunchy Frog]

7. It started out as the party of the abolitionists.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. True. I guess by "always" I meant in everyone's living memory.

They've been the party of big business since the late 19th century and flipped to full-on, overt racism in the '60s when the southern Democrats - the Dixiecrats - went GOP because of the Civil Rights Act.

[Blue_true]

10. On the issue of race.

For the country's entire history, there has been an "even if you don't agree and are not racist, look the other way while injustice is done". People are creatures that are driven by want and fear, it took a lot of guts for a White in 1919 to defend the civil and economic rights of a Black person, or defend an American Indian in 1876, so the vast majority of Whites that were not racist chose to look the other way.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. That's true, too, unfortunately.

But it's been the GOP that has actively and loudly opposed any legislation that sought to uphold the rights of people who weren't white. They've been against integrating public schools; they were against the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act; they didn't even want a national holiday honoring MLK.

[Blue_true]

12. I agree. One thing that is clear, the GOP long ago became the party of racists.

What I have seen is that when a dominant type of politics take root, opportunists jump on and push to outlandish levels. Trump is largely an opportunist, IMO. He seem to have no core values than what is in his best interests. He will campaign hard for republicans in the fall because he knows that if democrats gain control of investigations, he is in trouble. Our side must match his intensity and defeat him, because if we don't, there is no limit to the damage that he will do.

[tblue37]

16. I do think racism is a core value for Trump--perhaps the only one other than self-interest

and self-aggrandizement.

[mythology]

14. You might want to look at the numbers

A higher percentage of Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act than Democrats for example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964#By_party

The original House version:[22]

Democratic Party: 152–96 (61–39%)
Republican Party: 138–34 (80–20%)

Cloture in the Senate:[23]

Democratic Party: 44–23 (66–34%)
Republican Party: 27–6 (82–18%)

The Senate version:[22]

Democratic Party: 46–21 (69–31%)
Republican Party: 27–6 (82–18%)

The Senate version, voted on by the House:[22]

Democratic Party: 153–91 (63–37%)
Republican Party: 136–35 (80–20%)

Also more Republicans voted for the MLK holiday than voted against it. Yes it was about 55% to 45%, but it's not as blunt as you seem to think it was.

[Blue_true]

18. Both parties changed.

Republicans started to change when Goldwater ran and invited in racists, Nixon later codified that with his southern strategy. Democrats became more progressive as more Blacks gravitated to the party due to Kennedy and LBJ.

[brush]

3. The racism expanded even more when the dixiecrats moved over to the repug party...

Last edited Sat Jul 28, 2018, 02:13 PM - Edit history (1)

in the mid-60s over among other happenings, Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker's Freedom Democratic Party demonstrations at the 1964 Democratic Party convention and the passing in 1965 of the Voting Rights Act.

[TDale313]

4. Yes, this.

So when I get Repugs claiming “Dems are the party of the clan/Jim Crow” I usually say yeah, Dems were- but we cleaned up our act and most of the Southern Dixiecrats became Repugs. When are you gonna demand your party stand up against racism?!? (Crickets, usually)

[JHB]

5. I like to phrase it this way...

When the Democrats got out of the klansmen-coddling business, conservative Republicans set up recruiting tables.

[brush]

6. Heeheehee!

[JI7]

13. because the democratic party became the party of civil rights

[tblue37]

15. The picture at the top of the article!

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--3FRJnygt--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/jd7iboig4whoeppzq2pc.jpg

[Gothmog]

17. Dear idiot Fox News guest, being a victim of a racism is far worse than being called a racist.

Link to tweet