The past week saw the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, one of the great events of the civil rights push of the 1960s. I saw a Facebook meme about how the Republicans were the ones that were fighting for African American rights and Democrats were the ones arguing against them. The meme suggested that Democrats are wrong when they attack Republicans on racism grounds.
This is an interesting argument. What it doesn't take into account is that the Democrats and Republicans essentially switched sides on this issue in the early 1900's. They also switched strongholds. Democrats used to be stronger in the South and Republicans in the North. Then in the early to mid 1900's, that flipped too.
These days, Republican establishment and the Tea Party trend toward being racist and Democrats tend to be liberal. For evidence, all you have to do is look at the recent elections, the comments made by various Republican candidates, and the attendance of the 50th anniversary celebration in D.C. No Republican leader (and there were more than a few, including every member of Congress) came to the 50th anniversary celebration of the March on Washington. Yep, none, zip, zilch, zero, nada. "Well, there probably weren't that many speakers, right?" Hm, how does approximately 35 speakers, including 3 Presidents (all Democrats) sound?
Well, surely that's just because of scheduling conflicts. I wonder if we can find any other examples of the leaders of the Republican party being racist. Surprisingly, I can. Here's a couple interesting articles on this exact topic that I definitely suggest you read:
http://www.policymic.com/articles/56437/it-s-bizarre-and-ridiculous-how-racist-republicans-are
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/walker-bragman/correcting-rand-paul-on-t_b_3064617.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-weiler/legendary-gop-strategist-_b_2132029.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonce-gaiter/tea-partiers-battle-racis_b_564211.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/21/1225346/-Yes-The-Republican-Party-Is-Racist#
Seriously, though, look at Congress and tell me there's proper Republican representation by minorities. Look at what was said in response to Obama getting nominated and then elected. Look at the fact that Congress reviewed studies and confirmed that various Republican controlled states still need to be overseen when it comes to voting laws and redistricting (yes, the Supreme Court said the states don't need to be watched, but they said that the reason was because Congress hadn't changed the laws enough.... so, something hasn't been resolved and you stop trying to resolve it?)
I'm not saying Republicans are racist, I'm just saying their leaders are, both those in government as well as those in the media. O.k., I'm also saying that a vast majority of the more socially conservative Republicans are too ;-)
