Jim Crow And The Donkey: A History The Left Loves To Ignore

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s producer, Steve Benen, just took a whack at the American Civil Rights Union’s new booklet, “The Truth About Jim Crow,” (TTAJC) which National Review writer John Fund wrote about in a recent column.

Benen cites a critique from the Atlanta Journal Constitution blogger Jay Bookman: “Jay Bookman took a closer look at the pamphlet Fund’s piece was promoting, highlighting some of its more glaring errors of fact and judgment.”

And what errors of fact would those be, Steve? Bookman did not point out a single factual error. Instead, regarding TTAJC’s three main points, that Jim Crow was “dehumanizing, deadly and Democratic,” he painfully admitted the paper’s accuracy: “that is true as far as it goes.” Apparently, Benen believes if you can’t find a factual error yourself, it’s okay to claim falsely that somebody else did.

In contrast, liberal Democrats remained divided, and liberal senators like William Fulbright and Al Gore, Sr. continued to fight for Jim Crow and white supremacy until the bitter end. One of those incontestably liberal Democrats who fought civil rights tooth and nail was Lyndon Baines Johnson, who switched sides only because he believed supporting civil rights for blacks would cement black support for the Democratic Party. And, how many of the people reading this column knew that the greatest icon of the Democratic Party, liberal John F. Kennedy, voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act

Goldwater voted agains the 1964 act not because he supported Jim Crow but because it stretched the Commerce Clause so far that it could become a precedent for Congress to legislate on any subject. His concern turned out to be correct. The Supreme Court had a chance to restore some restraint with the Obamacare decision, but Roberts stabbed us in the back with a decision that stretches the taxation power to allow Congress to legislate about any subject.

The beginning of Jim Crow was all about Democrats versus Republicans. The 1876 election was disputed and headed for the House of Representatives. The Democrats struck a deal that if the Republicans pulled federal troops out of the South and ended Reconstruction they would withdraw their objections and allow Rutherford B. Hayes to be elected President.

The Democrats then took over in every Southern state, creating the Solid South and enacting the Jim Crow laws.

By 1964 the charge for civil rights was lead by Democrats and the opposition was lead by Democrats. The Republican Senate Leader, Everett Dirksen negotiated some tweaks with the floor manager, Hubert Humphrey, and brought his caucus over to supporting the bill. A higher percentage of the Republican caucuses in the Senate and House supported the bill than the Democrat caucuses.

Everyone knew that after FDR put together the New Deal coalition that held Congress from 1932 that they only way to end segregation would be if and when the Democrats decided to do it.

And it's a myth that the segregationists then came over to the Republican Party. The party that more strongly supported civil rights than the Democrats? Seriously? That makes no sense.

Almost no Democrat politicians switched parties after the vote. Being politicians, they just switched sides and started courting the black vote.

Liberals can't face up to the real reason Democrats switched to the Republicans. It's because the McGovernite, isolationist and appeasement wing of the party took over in 1968-1972. The cold warriors and fiscally responsible people, which most Southerners are, were pushed out by the far left.

The only one who did change parties was former dixiecrat Strom Thurmond. BUT He publicly denounced the dixiecrat platform and became a champion of civil rights unlike al gore sr, richard russel, william fulbright, robert byrd, etc, etc.

Strom Thurmond was the first southern politician to have african americans on his staff, while democrats remained lily white.

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