Responsorials
I’ve made it a practice to post some bits of those “History” posts on the Democratic Underground board — a bit more tightly structured. I tend to have to leave just as I’m posting, so I don’t get much interaction — though I’ve gotten a bit. Some responses:
Regarding the 1928 election: Without fail almost everything south of the mason dixon line had gone Democrat in every election since the civil war. Hoover carried Texas, Tennesee, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and all of the border states which is a good chunk of the south.
The “solid south” might have easily began to bolt before civil rights came into the mix if not for the New Deal.
A bit false. A Catholic being made the butt of a Klu Klux Klan effigy does fall under the category of “Civil Rights”, methinks.
I can’t believe that we let a fuckin’ asshole like Bob Jones get a non-profit 501(c)3 tax status.
Bob. Freaking. Jones. Not the concept of Bob Jones. The person of Bob Jones, in the flesh.
1960: BUT he did win them. 5 1/2 to be exact.
Further, despite a little revisionism from the left, the left of his day did not like Kennedy. The New Deal Democrats, led by Eleanore Roosevelt, opposed his nomination, as did the Wallacites who had splintered off and opposed Truman in 1948.
BTW, thanks for the thread. DU needs more discussion of factual party history.
The Wallacites were defeated utterly by this time. The other Wallacites would come in in a few years, and act the same as the old Thurmondites.
Only Carter and Clinton knew how to fight like that.
But you have to realize that there was no “Voting Rights Act” at that time, and blacks were kept from the poles in the South by the thousands, if not millions. Everyone likes to see LBJ as a liberal, especially the repukes, but in fact he was more of a moderate like JFK and RFK were. The problem with some moderates, like myself, is that we can’t always agree on what to moderate. Anyway, I digress. LBJ pushed thru the voting rights legislation for 2 reasons. It was planned by JFK….and of course, it was the right thing to do. Now keep in mind, LBJ WAS a typical Texas politician from that time….hardnosed politics, questionable election practices, and maybe JUST bordering on, JUST A LITTLE…..well…illegal.
But he was like Kennedy in one BIG sense. THEY REALLY KNEW HOW TO FIGHT FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVED IN. And JFK, well some believe it might have gotten him killed.
1924: John Davis, the party’s nominee that year had been Wilson’s solictor general and had opposed the klan and advocated US particpation in the League of Nations. The interesting thing is that Davis was later the lawyer that Thurgood Marshall went up against Brown V Board of Education. I think by 1924 the second klan as it was called went in to both political parties, the first klan had been in the democratic party and in the south. This second klan was in both and had a lot of power in states like Indiana and Oregon.
Wow. A John Davis fan. Imagine that.
Response on a completely different board: Howie, Howie…
…you left out the bloody race riots during this period. You know, the ones that made Watts look like a backyard brawl?
And you barely even mentioned (if at all) the strong communist movement of the times.
Or the labor demonstrations suppressed via miliatary force.
Like I told that idiot Patriot in the other thread, what we live in now – the `post wwII economic expansion’ – is a literal `golden age’. The openly racist, blatently corrupt, and fanatical time of the 1930’s is what we climbed out of.
The strong Communists came into force when Capitalism failed us. I must admit I reframed this post in a different light, and the response is a response to a pointed question — to wit:
Something I don’t understand except in terms that this strain of “Know Nothing” Americanism is inherently Isolationist and thus tends to ignore World Events Abroad (and leaving aside dalliances with Eugenics)… how can he say this is the “Only Movement in the world” which “Exists to establish a Civilization that will insure” that “Superior Blood” triumphs over “Inferior Blood.” Germany seemed to have a robust movement along those lines.
So the question, considering how both parties were currying favour with the Klan in some parts (and that is similar to any situation you get in a Muslim Nation — which is that the person placed in power would be seeking favour from Islamic Militants), and considering how the World Economic Picture would unfold pretty much the same throughout the World —
How close we come to being Nazi Germany, and what was there to stop us from such? I guess I could cynically say that from the vantage point of Black America, we were Nazi Germany, and there is anecdotal evidence that they were pretty apathetic about WWII.
Ah, yes. Hysteria! Hmmph Yourself!