Byrd’s Klan revelation is hardly new. He’s admitted it often, and every time he or someone else brings it up, the Republicans mercilessly pillory him for it. Whenever a Republican makes a racial foot-in-the mouth gaffe, and Democrats publicly lambaste him for it, GOP leaders quickly and reflexively scream, “But what about Byrd,” and pound the Democrats for having a former Klansman as a top Democrat.
But Byrd has come clean and apologized for that sordid episode in his past. Even more galling to Republicans, he’s been a thorn in their side on Bush’s war policies. But even if Byrd hadn’t uttered a mumbling word critical of Bush’s policies, the GOP still should be the last to dump on him.
These are the words from Earl Ofari Hutchinson latest piece Republican Hypocrisy On Byrd’s Klan Night Ride
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Now I ain’t a Republican, but I’m just wondering if this forgiveness is also applied to the likes of David Duke, Strom Thurmond, and Trent Lott.
Bush and the Republicans owe Ol’ Strom an eternal debt of gratitude. That’s not the debt that my granddaughters owe their presumed great-great grandfather. However, when they’re old enough to understand I’ll talk candidly with them about the racially indelible political stamp that he put on the nation. (more…)
Yet Lott may be more than just a Republican conservative indignant at Clinton’s moral misbehavior, but a Southern politician who has cozied up to race baiters and segregationists. The list of Lott’s dubious political ties and actions call into serious question his political and moral fitness to judge Clinton. The list includes:
…neo-KKKer David Duke (who incidently left the KKK before entering politics)(more…)
Naaaah!
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June 21st, 2005 at 7:53 am
Much of the negative perception of Republicans that is fostered within the black community comes from older blacks such as Hutchinson. They witnessed first hand the raced based negative politics of the Southern Strategy exercisd by Republicans in the late 1960’s-mid 1970′. This encouraged whites formerly alligned with the Democratic party to move over into the Republican party. A great deal of vitriol and bad blood was created during this period, and continues today.
Unfortunately for Mr. Hutchinson, of whom I think is one of the great cultural intellectuals…of any race, his arguments boils down to an exercise of moral equivalence between the two cases of racist activity of the two parties. It needs to be understood in the context of history, that most white politicians were at worst flatout racist (KKK members Byrd (Democrat), David Duke (Republican)), or sympathetic with the racist attitudes of their constituency on the political level, while friends with black on a personal level (Strom “I like to dip in the Chocolate” Thurmond, George Wallace). I would like to note that, excluding Duke, all were Democrats during their “Hail Segregation’ heyday.
While Byrd has “renounced” his Klan days, he still harbors racist sentiments as witnessed in an interview with Tony Snow in 2001, where he stated “I know some white niggers” twice in the span of 10 seconds. Then he stated ” he will use that word to describe how peope act”. No other network covered the story of how a Senator actually used a racial ephithet in the 21st century, and was not raked over the coals. No outrage from the CBC, no Jesse, no Al, no jeri curl wearing Michael Dyson (although judging from his usage of the word, he probaly objected to Byrd using a “black” term on whites. Kind of like copyright infringement).
While Lott lavished praise on a vegetative Thurmond, he was villified as a racist. Byrd gets a pass not just on the KKK membership,(he was the Grand Klegle..not sure what that is, but it sounds more than the guy responsible for bringing the beer), he gets a pass for using a racist slur. I believe Mr. Hutchinson is not being fair…or intellectually honest at this point. And neither is the black elite, and the others who feign outrage when the toe of some Republicans brush the line of racial insensitivity. This in light of the fact that the Democrats are so comfortable taking the black vote for granted, they feel no need to apologize for the outright racist behavior of liberals.
June 21st, 2005 at 8:10 am
Chris,
Can you give me some documented history on the “Southern Strategy exercisd by Republicans in the late 1960’s-mid 1970′s”. You have some strong and fair arguments but I have not found any proof of a GOP strategy of any kind. I wanted to do some research on when Blacks stopped supporting the GOP and I have been unable to find out why. Help!!