I am opening this new thread in order to facilitate…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:23 PM Permalink

…the excellent repartee taking place regarding my post of April 9, 2009, titled: Traitors betraying traitors among themselves. More fun, at here and I'm doing this to continue the most excellent conversation taking place on that post.

While I don't always agree with the people writing in, I am impressed with the civil nature of the conversation and the fact that we can all agree or disagree without being disagreeable.

Last excerpt:

Lifting the Klan mask revealed a chaotic multitude of antiblack vigilante groups, disgruntled poor white farmers, wartime guerrilla bands, displaced Democratic politicians, illegal whiskey distillers, coercive moral reformers, sadists, rapists, white workmen fearful of black competition, employers trying to enforce labor discipline, common thieves, neighbors with decades-old grudges, and even a few freedmen and white Republicans who allied with Democratic whites or had criminal agendas of their own. Indeed, all they had in common, besides being overwhelmingly white, southern, and Democratic, was that they called themselves, or were called, Klansmen.

Historian Eric Foner observed: In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy. Its purposes were political, but political in the broadest sense, for it sought to affect power relations, both public and private, throughout Southern society. It aimed to reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South during Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican party's infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of Wikipedia, but it does tend to indicate that the KKK was joined and formed by many disparate groups and not just purely democrats as some have appear to have alleged.

Also, I consider what gwb and the GOP have done by overseeing the greatest transfer of money ever from the poor to the rich a national shame. I know the republicans are embarrassed by the crushing loss at the polls last November, and that vote was mostly accounted for by the public being tired of the borrow and spend republican congress and their efforts to block the minority vote in an attempt to gain more personal and to eliminate chances of a black candidate winning by openly calling for Obama's assassination, creating the song "Barak the Magic Negro" and going even further in the case of the defeat of Harold Ford by issuing a deliberately racist commercial spot with a white woman allegedly asking Harold to give her a call (wink-wink)

So while the democrats obviously were in the mix forming the KKK, their racial hatred and desire to encourage the killing of a black presidential nominee, an act of supreme disgrace of politicians trying to remain to retain control of government, were just another attempt at signal that overt racism is just fine with the GOP.

And it would clearly seem that the republicans have picked up the mantle of the KKK and are constantly trying to disenfranchise millions of blacks without regard to the illegalities, dirty tricks, robo-call, and clear, but untrue statements that Obama has made the country less safe.

The republicans have been fighting tooth-and-nail against any legislation favoring the poor, the elderly, the unsured, and the unemployed. The unemployment rates for black now stands at 12%, naturally shaming congress and the republican "party of no," which is stifling attempts of modern day democrats to help all groups and not just rich, old white men further enriching old, white men.

It will never easy to gain and keep discrimination in check, but it is perfectly clear that the GOP doesn't stand for anything more than a party of greed that has picked up the mantle of the KKK, at least in spirit and intent, and that have acted most foul when dealing with racial issues.

Labels: democratic party, GOP, racism