Originally Posted by wdmso
Another example of the simplistic View forwarded by Conservatives
There is a difference between simplistic and simplified. For purposes of brief discussion, such as on this forum, complex issues are usually simplified.
can we talk current events.. not how things were 140 years ago
We could. If we wish to be simplistic, we could say, in relation to race, that The Democrat Party of today is not the same as that of 140 years ago. It does not support actual slavery as that institution was known 140 years ago.
If we wish to simplify, we could say that, in many ways, there are similarities in racial attitudes between the Party then and now. After the Republicans destroyed that old notion of slavery, the notion of so-called white supremacy continued overtly in the Democrat Party for several decades. Then, in order to get the black vote which had become crucial, the racist attitude of the Party lessened its overt expression and became more subtle. There is now a parallel similarity in terms of dependence and control between Blacks and the Democrat party--to the extent that Blacks, to a great extent, fear actual freedom, fear to shape their own lives without government (Democrat) assistance.
Historians say the KKK consisted of a group of Southern whites after the Civil War who were Democrats. But there’s no evidence the KKK was created by their political party.
That group of Southern whites was not banned by the Democrat Party. There was sympathy in the Party toward the KKK movement. Several years after the KKK was established, Woodrow Wilson, though born in Virginia, was basically a Northerner, a Governor of New Jersey, and one of the first "Progressive" Presidents (and a Democrat), praised the movie "Birth of a Nation." He represented the still overt but more subtle face of White supremacy. Blacks should not be slaves, but they should know their place as the inferior race. To be fair, whites, in general, regardless of party, probably held that notion. But party policies have created a different view which can also be translated to race. Conservative policies and notional philosophy stress individual responsibility, and Progressive policies and philosophy tend toward dependence on government. Somehow, the Conservative view is supposed to be "racist." I suppose because Blacks are still supposed to be oppressed by the legacy of slavery and so cannot yet have the ability to be self-sufficient. Well, Republicans cannot be blamed for that legacy.
So, then, with FDR's "New Deal" and its labor movement, there was ushered into the American psyche, for all races, the need for powerful government intervention in all lives. This is actually an elitist rather than a racist view. But as various civil rights acts were being passed with majority Republican and minority Democrat support, it became apparent that to hold the growing black vote, Democrats had to stress race as one of its more important elitisms. LBJ's "Great Society" did that. And the subtlest white supremacy was ingrained into Democrat Party philosophy--Blacks are not at the level of Whites, and Whites must help them get there.
It should also be noted that the anti-black Democratic Party of the 1860s and 1870s bears no similarity to the party of today.
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