Since 1868.
I used to believe our past ancestors were good and honorable people. I used to believe they did things because they were the right thing to do, and not because they served some self-interest.
I used to think the 14th amendment was a just and noble thing.
I now realize it was always a grab for power, and nothing else. The liberals in charge of government in 1868 did not do the 14th amendment because it was the right thing to do, they did it because they absolutely knew they would get every single vote created by the 14th amendment.
They did it for their own self interest, and not for the good of the Country.
And those on the other side weren’t grabbing for power? They were acting out of pure, disinterested concern for the public good? Or maybe they were entitled to power and their opponents weren’t?
Once you say that it’s all about power or money you set both sides as equals. You want to stop things there, but we can still go on to ask what distinguished the two sides and what might have made one side wrong and the other side right? Efforts to stop lynchings were all about power? Then all concern about law and justice is about power. Most people would disagree with that.
Or was it because the Republicans were hypocritical? Grow up. Everyone was hypocritical. You don’t think the Democrats talk about preserving civilization from the Negroes was in some sense hypocritical and self-serving? Democrats wrapped their cause up in supposed moral values. It’s just that society no longer accepts that their actions and beliefs really were moral.