Posted on 11/27/2016 6:27:39 AM PST by Kaslin
Progressivism embraced racism early in its history, a line of thought that continues to this day, only with different targets of scorn. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, two of the early advocates of progressivism in America, often manifested racial and/or ethnic prejudice. Although he believed in Anglo-Saxon racial superiority, TR generally soft-peddled his views about blacks. But, he frequently mouthed shibboleths about Jews. His antipathy toward hyphenated Americans who were not from the British Isles or northern Europe was also well known. As president, Wilson exhibited his Southern heritage by a series of acts, from screening D. W. Griffith’s racist movie, Birth of a Nation, in the White House to resegregating domestic and military bureaucracies. Wilson may have been the most virulent white racist to occupy the White House since slavery ended.
While Chief Executive, Franklin D. Roosevelt – probably the progressives’ favorite president – refused to admit Jews on the ocean liner St. Louis into America in 1939, incarcerated 110,000-120,000 individuals of Japanese descent in concentration camps after Pearl Harbor, and bowed to Southern racists in one New Deal program after another. Lyndon Baines Johnson, also a foremost progressive, allegedly used the N-word when referring to African Americans.
The irony of progressivism’s history is that today’s versions of that hoary movement claim to be totally free of racial and/or ethnic prejudice. Today’s progressives refuse to acknowledge that the movement’s early years included people like Margaret Sanger who espoused negative eugenics, a policy she said would remove the mentally unfit and cull inferior races from the U.S. Sanger created the organization that is now known as Planned Parenthood.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The first step is to deprive progressives the use of racist labels. Responses can either be a turnaround (you’re projecting again) OR name calling in reverse (you’re so fond of abortion, you must be a child abuser).
That changes the whole discussion.
They are as racist as ever. Only these days, instead of coming out and saying, for example, that they think blacks are inferior sub-humans, progressives hide their racism behind language that, on the surface, actually sounds like they have empathy for blacks. So it is no longer that they say blacks are inferior; instead, they opine about how oppressed blacks are, and how they cannot ever hope to compete as equals because of all the oppression and racism. That language not only has a veneer of empathy, it helps to dispirit black people, to discourage them from even trying to improve their lot in life.
Note: any group that the left has decided is inferior can be substituted here. Hispanics, native Americans, etc. Their suppressive rhetoric is targeted the most heavily at black people.
OK, so progressive are ‘bigoted”.
What of blacks themselves?
Surveys of blacks show that they know that as a group, black people are more racist than whites.
If this screed had been published in Pravda no one would find that odd- trashing America with endless charges of racism being one of the Left’s favorite hobbyhorses.
But I guess the Glenn Beck crackpots have now made it fashionable to embrace the Left’s critique of America. Just blame it on the all-encompassing umbrella of progressivism.
Living and dying by pointing fingers at who’s most bigoted is senseless and ultimately plays into the progressives game plan
It’s very very foolish yet so many so called conservatives do it
Including many on team Trump at this very moment
I found a good article on the same website a while back. Expand this out a little to the Democratic party as a whole, they have a serious racist history.
The only difference now is they try to shift the blame to Republicans. LBJ voted against any and all civil rights bills for years as a senator, he only signed the one that passed because it would lock in the black vote for Democrats. Same reason he started Welfare. He was known as one of the biggest racists in DC at the time.
Democrats in this century filibustered and voted against all civil rights bills up until that time, George Wallace was a Democrat, it’s a part of their DNA I think. I’ve known Democrats who were so racist I had little to do with them.
And what did Hillary say about them? Super predators who need to be “brought to heel”.
Treacherous two faced despicable pigs...
I’m just curious, how do you explain Barry Goldwater and his refusal to vote for civil rights. His failed presidential campaign and the election of LBJ because of Goldwater’s refusal to support civil rights?
Don’t know a lot about Goldwater but I never said every racist had to be a Democrat...Most KKK members were Democrats for 100 years, but a small few here and there weren’t. Racism is not limited to one political party or ideological group or even race.
Ok Good Enough.
In many ways modern American conservatism is like a blindfolded man at a pinata. They whack and whack but cannot hit. That is because so many have allowed the “progressives” to DEFINE the debate TERMS. When you argue from the standards that the Left has defined FOR you, you’ve lost before you began. I wonder if our cat will ever bust out of it’s bag...
” His failed presidential campaign and the election of LBJ because of Goldwater’s refusal to support civil rights?”
Good grief. What utter nonsense. Only those too young to remember 1964 would believe this.
What killed Goldwater’s chances had nothing to do with opposing the Civil Rights Act (a position which Goldwater supporter Ronald Reagan held as well). What damaged Goldwater’s chances was the assassination of John Kennedy in November 1963. That gave the Democrats an enormous sympathy vote and everyone knew it.
The majority of the country was not in favor of the Civil Rights Act. Goldwater and Reagan both opposed this expansion of federal intrusion into the lives of everyday Americans, an opposition that conservatives all once understood. Americans were no more enthusiastic about that bill than they were about Obamacare, but in both cases they got stuck with it. Elections are rarely about one issue.
Goldwater, BTW founded the AZ Air National Guard in 1947 and integrated it two years before Harry Truman would do the same to the Armed Forces. So the charge that he refused to support civil rights is either ignorant or dishonest. I’m assuming ignorance.
.
When its democrats, one must assume dishonesty.
.
.
Goldwater didn’t refuse to vote for the civil rights act. It was, in fact, the Republicans that gave it the victory. All of the no votes were Democrats.
Were you born yesterday, or the day before?
.
In this case there’s no reason for me to assume that Trumpet 1 is either dishonest or a Democrat.
The Democrat party of 1964 was much different from the Democrat party of today. A good portion of those earlier Democrats were part of the informal conservative coalition that had ruled the House since the 1930s and had thwarted much of the agenda promoted by the liberal wing of both major parties.
LBJ’s Great Society welfare state would never have gotten passed without the collaboration of the Rockefeller Republicans, so this singling out of past Democrats as the source of America’s leftward drift is ignorant and foolish. I mean why stop there, Andrew Jackson was a Democrat, so why not include him too...
“Goldwater didn’t refuse to vote for the civil rights act. It was, in fact, the Republicans that gave it the victory. All of the no votes were Democrats.”
Goldwater did not vote for the Civil Rights Act. Reagan, who couldn’t vote, spoke out against it.
The Republicans who joined with LBJ were the Rockefeller wing of the party like Tommy Kuchel and Jacob Javits. Over the years Senate Minority Whip Kuchel refused to support Goldwater, Nixon, George Murphy and Ronald Reagan. But he sure liked Lyndon Johnson well enough.
As I recall, Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act on constitutional grounds.
Counter to the Equal Protection clause, the Civil Rights Act applied to only 14 states (or areas thereof). Goldwater took the position that it should apply to all 50 states or none.
“Counter to the Equal Protection clause, the Civil Rights Act applied to only 14 states (or areas thereof). Goldwater took the position that it should apply to all 50 states or none. “
I believe you are conflating the Voting Rights Act with the Civil Rights Act. I don’t know his position on the Voting Rights Act, which did only apply to a few states.
A good summary of Goldwater’s opposition to the Civil Rights Act can be found here:
a portion of which includes this:
“As a matter of fact, as one of the six voting against the 1964 Civil rights act, Senator Goldwater, on principle, disagreed with the idea of Federal government intervention regarding this matter. “His stance was based on his view that the act was an intrusion of the federal government into the affairs of states and, second, that the Act interfered with the rights of private persons to do business, or not, with whomever they chose.”
“More specifically, Goldwater had problems with title II and title VII of the 1964 bill. He felt that constitutionally the federal government had no legal right to interfere in who people hired, fired; or to whom they sold their products, goods and services. He felt that “power” laid in the various states, and with the people. He was a strong advocate of the tenth amendment.
“Goldwater’s constitutional stance did not mean he agreed with the segregation and racial discrimination practiced in the South. To the contrary, he fought against these kinds of racial divides in his own state of Arizona. He supported the integration of the Arizona National guard and Phoenix public schools. Goldwater was, also, a member of the NAACP and the Urban League.
You are correct. I was citing the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Your reply mentioned the Arizona National Guard. As a matter of fact, the first unit in the U.S. military to be integrated was the Arizona Air National Guard.
Its commander at the time: Col. Barry Goldwater
And authorized by President Harry Truman upon Col. Goldwater's specific request for the privilege.
Goldwater was one of the best friends the civil rights movement ever had.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.