At the recent Texas state Republican convention, someone felt mighty "comfy" distributing this button:pigsteak wrote:which convention will they feel more "comfy" at? that doesn't even deserve an answer. I hope neither.
Someone also felt fine distributing buttons that read, "Press 1 for English. Press 2 for Deportation" Nope, no racism among Texas Republicans. Sorry about the totally unfounded stereotyping.
I also wish that racists (of all sorts) were unwelcome at both Democratic and Republican gatherings. The sad truth is that prior to the Civil Rights movement, the Democratic party was something very different than it is today. It more than tolerated the Jim Crow, racist "Dixiecrats". (As i've said, here in Chicago, there was a strong aspect of overt racism in the Democratic party, particularly the city council opposition to Mayor Washington. That was as recent as the 80s)
When the Democratic party realigned itself to an actually progressive orientation, the southern racists no longer had a home. The Republican party turned its back on Lincoln and welcomed them in during the sixties, just as they would welcome the fundamentalists during the eighties and nineties. (Do I need to point out that Reagan kicked off his'80 presidential campaign in a Mississippi town that is known for nothing but the murder of three civil rights workers? Nope, rejecting the racists, for sure! Willie Horton? Push polls about McCain's "black baby"?) Today they are not the party of Reconstruction, the same way as they are no longer a "live and let live" version of "true" conservatism. (Case in point: the anti-gay ballot measures that were used in the 2004 election to get "base" Republican voters out to support Bush.)
