Nashville News Blog

My ancestors have undoubtedly done a number of wrong things. Last I checked though, none of us can reach back into history and affect the actions of people who died long before we were born. For some time now the Democratic Party has been associated with civil rights and has done much to cleanse itself of the sins of its fathers.

That being said, there are plenty of prejudiced people in the Democratic Party. Incredibly enough, there are plenty of prejudiced people in the Republican Party. Am I responsible for the prejudices of my fellow party members?

Of course, there is all kinds of prejudice, including painting a whole party as racist on the basis of the actions of a few.

Technically, the caller is correct though missing some serious context.

If one knows the history of the South, after Reconstruction, the states were basically just handed back to the Confederate ruling class. Through the twists and turns of political history, these folks and their political progeny started the Klan and later became the racist Dixiecrats.

It is much more nuanced and complicated than that, but the caller is essentially correct.

It is also true the GOP was once broadly referenced as the "Party of Lincoln." That would be President Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator. However, the GOP has lost the right to claim that mantle presently given its collective stance on immigration and the "race politics" engendered by Lee Atwater in the GOP's "Southern strategy" used to such great effect in the 1980s and beyond.

Of course, Democrats in Tennessee are far from blame. Wasn't it the chief of staff of a Democratic Congressman who could not say with certainty that candidate Barack Obama was not "terrorist connected?" It was.

Also, try traveling to some of Tennessee's still quite Democratic rural counties - they do exist. You will find avowed, Yellow Dog Democrats who still are as racist their 1950s counterparts.

Overall, the cover illustration was total carpetbagger crap, Kotz. Sure, it moved papers off the rack. It just wasn't accurate in suggesting the GOP is the party of racism and gun nut mania. If you bothered to actually check the voting records of both parties on issues like guns in bars and immigration, you will not find too terribly much difference in this state. They just ACT like they are different when it is election time and they need money from their respective bases.

Try learning a little of Tennessee's history and then doing some modern day fact checking, boys. It will make the journalism you are attempting much better. It is hard to be one of the stewards of a community if you don't know its history.

As a foot note, I might add that there is no such thing as a lighthearted reference to the Klan in the South. For that reason alone, your illustration is out of line. It is a deep, dark, shameful image in our history and in our minds. Branding an entire group of people with it is irresponsible as is using its image as part of a joke. It would be like a German paper portraying its conservative party by using a swastika. It's too much.

I just don't understand how an elephant can shoot a gun. Don't you need thumbs for that?

Damn it, Rogers, did Blake Wylie narc me out? Because I specifically told him, "Do NOT tell Mark Rogers I think he's a thoughtful commenter and writes challenging things."

And yet, here you are.

Okay, fine, I will try to respond to you as thoughtfully, even though you are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. (Just kidding.)

I don't think that "You're acting like the KKK." "Learn your history, idiot! You're acting like the KKK." does much to worsen race relations because they are, by and large, squabbles between white people. You'd have to be already racist to be "Well, my god, if those white people don't quit comparing me to the Klan, I'm going to hate black people even worse."

So, I don't think we have to treat white people as too stupid to see that it's a fight among other white people or black people as so fragile that any reference to the Klan might make them wilt.

Whatever reasons Vaughn lost, and I agree with you in your analysis of why that was, when the Republicans mail out fliers with his head on a black bird and when Mumpower was making comments about how he was a more appropriate candidate for Memphis, that was racist. It doesn't matter whether it was effective, it was racist.

To me, and I'm as much of the problem as anyone, the problem is that the first response to all of these events has been to make jokes about them. And I think that, knowing Tennessee politicians the way I do, few of them are willing to step into a situation where the shit is already flying and be leaders.

So we have this kind of ongoing circle-jerk, where now people immediately start to snark, politicians don't do anything because they don't want to get in the middle of the shit storm, and then those of us who love to snark feel justified in it because we feel like, well, if we don't say anything, obviously, no one will.

But it would be nice to see people on both sides of the political divide say, "Okay, today, I'm going to be a leader."

Just don't look to me for that. Please.

So what? This cartoon would have been appropriate for the Democratic Party, especially in the Democratic Party in the South...in 1954.

Racists historically have come in all parties. It used to be the Democrats. Now it's the GOP.

Our country has been drug down by conservatives and racists throughout its history. They switch parties over the course of generations.

Again, original commenter. So what? So damn what? Today, in 2009, right now, as things are currently, the Republicans are the party of racists.

I know, "Well, what about...?" (Fill in some Democratic offense, even if it's decades old) is considered a clever and all sufficient rejoinder by the dittohead morons of right wing talk radio, but it is almost always totally irrelevant.

Like this time. Again, so what?

Yes, the Democrats were the southern party going back to the days of Jackson and the Republicans were the party of Lincoln. Those were more or less the lines of demarcation during the civil war. It stayed that way for several more generations. But the caller, while essentially correct, completely misses the point. That is that conservatives have always been on the same side, as have liberals. Liberals were never champions of Jim Crow or slavery. Liberals in the eighteen hundreds were more likely to be Republicans than Democrats. Things change. What matters is the present, not the past. And the Robert Byrd point is completely pointless. I'm no fan of the guy but he has completely and apologetically distanced himself from his past, a past, need I remind you, that was from back in the forties or fifties.

Exactly right, chris1974. The conservatives have always been the problem, and if some conservative Democrat was a racist during Jim Crow era, so what? Every racist, segregationist, anti-affirmative action, never-forget-to-bash-the-NAACP, tell-that-stupid-black-welfare-queen-buying-steaks-with-food-stamps-lie, hate Jesse Jackson, Obama is a Muslim foreigner, Rush-listening, hate monger who voted for or would have voted for the anti-Civil Rights Souther Democrats a generation ago now vote for Republicans. Because right now Republicans are totally in sync with their reactionary crypto-fascist racist views.

Chris,

"Yes, the Democrats were the southern party going back to the days of Jackson and the Republicans were the party of Lincoln."

Well, actually no. The Jacksonian appeal was far more nationwide than you suggest. From Jackson to Lincoln the Democratic Party pretty much dominated American politics including the North and West. The term 'Copperheads' was coined to describe Northern anti-war Democrats.

Also, your characterizations of 'Left' and 'Right' are so stereotypical as to be useless. I would be interested in what you believe defines a Liberal and a Conservative.

TIME TO BOYCOTT THE ADVERTISERS IN THIS MAGAZINE UNTIL THIS PAPER POSTS AN APOLOGY.

MAKE A LIST OF ALL THE ADVERTISERS IN THE MAGAZINE AND CALL EVERYONE OF THEM AND TELL THEM YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN BUY THEIR PRODUCTS BECAUSE THEY ADVERTISE IN A PAPER THAT SPREADS LIES.

THEN TELL EACH ADVERTISER YOU WILL TELL EVERY ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS TO NEVER BUY THEIR PRODUCTS.

I AM SICK AND TIRED OF THE DRIVE-BY MEDIA THINKING THEY CAN SPREAD LIES.

TIME TO MAKE THEM PAY WITH THEIR WALLETS.

DON'T GET STUCK ON STUPID, STUPID!!

YOU WANT A HISTORY LESSON ABOUT RACISM?

Did you know the "I HAVE A DREAM" speech almost didn't happen?

THE REASON: John F. Kennedy (DEMOCRAT) along with his brother Bobby Kennedy (DEMOCRAT) wanted to prevent blacks from coming out to the political rally. They enacted a plan that they thought would work. The plan was to close down all the liquor stores in Washington D.C. for the day. They thought if blacks couldn't get any liquor that they wouldn't attend the rally. I first heard of this on a documentary about Martin Luther King on the HISTORY CHANNEL. ITS VERY TRUE.

WANT SOME MORE?

GEORGE WALLACE (DEMOCRAT), remember him? The man who stood in the way of the first blacks to attend the University of Alabama. THESE ARE HIS FAMOUS WORDS:

"In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say SEGREGATION now, SEGREGATION tomorrow, SEGREGATION forever."

WANT SOME MORE?

THERE IS ALLOT TO TALK ABOUT WHEN IT COMES TO DEMOCRATS.