GOP group's campaign ad says Democrats started KKK

cnn.com ^ | 22 September 2006

[Aussie Dasher]

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (AP) -- A national black Republican group is running a radio advertisement accusing Democrats of starting the Ku Klux Klan and saying the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, a claim challenged by civil-rights researchers.

Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, the black Republican nominee for Maryland's open Senate seat, disavowed the ad Thursday as "insulting to Marylanders." He said his campaign asked the Washington-based National Black Republican Association to stop running it.

At an event in Baltimore, Steele said, "I don't know exactly what the intent of the ad was" but that "it's not helpful to the public discourse."

The ad does not mention Steele or his Democratic opponent, Rep. Ben Cardin.

The association's president, Frances Rice, did not return calls for comment. The group, founded a year ago, promotes the Republicans to black voters.

The spot begins with one woman telling another, "Dr. King was a real man. You know he was a Republican."

Steve Klein, a senior researcher with the Atlanta-based King Center, said Thursday that King never endorsed candidates from either party.

"I think it's highly inaccurate to say he was a Republican because there's really no evidence," Klein said.

A King biographer, Taylor Branch, also said Thursday that King was nonpartisan.

In the ad, the woman goes on to say, "Democrats passed those black codes and Jim Crow laws. Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan." Her companion replies, "The Klan? White hoods and sheets?"

[Arrowhead1952]

ask Senator Byrd, he was there at the first meeting I believe.

I'm glad I'd just swallowed my drink when I saw that remark.

[Tribune7]

They did.

[Lewite]

I have been a Republican in Alabama, since 1952. My mother was at Ike's parade when he came to Birmingham at that time. I was in school an could not attend. Most of us were not vocal at that time because all the rednecks were Dims and Klan.

[flynmudd]

Sad but true. Dumb them down and then talk them into aborting their children, teach them to be a victim of old whitey, tell them the same lie over and over and one day it will become revisionist history. That's why it's so important you know what your kids are learning in school. I was brainwashed in school to think that dems were the ones that freed the slaves. It wasn't until my son went to college and I was reading his history book that my eyes were opened and steam rolled out of my ears. It has only been in the last five years that I even cared. 9/11 woke me up big time.

[Tribune7]

However, it should be noted that Wilson, held repeated private viewings of Birth of a Nation at the White House. He also fought integration while president of Princeton University, and as president of the United States ordered the re-segregation of the federal government.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I think it doesn't reach the target audience. The people who would love an ad that links the democrats of 150 years ago to the KKK would be people who already hate democrats.

It won't help black candidates. Neither would telling them their hero was republican, especially when he was not.

[WOSG]

"I think MLK, Sr., was a Republican."

Doesnt count. My Dad was a Democrat, I'm a Republican.

It's an interesting factiod if MLK was a Republican, but he was against Vietnam war in 1968 and was trying to organize unions.

Ralph Abernathy went right and Republican,
and Jesse Jackson went left and liberal Democrat.

[popdonnelly]

Democrats did start the KKK. It's the truth, so of course the Democrats will call it a smear. That's how it works. When you tell the truth about a Democrat, it's a smear. When a Democrat tells a lie about you, it's a "search for the truth". Unless a Clintonista tells it, then it's just a lie.

[paudio]

Was your family considered "liberal, progessive" (social-wise) by the rednecks at that time?

[popdonnelly]

but I don't think MLK was a Republican.

He was a one point. His father was descended from Reconstruction Black Republicans. You know, the ones that the Democrats disenfranchised.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

"What do you make of this, folks"?

---

When the Klan was formed, there were no Southern Republicans, to form anything. When I reached voting age, in 1963, and registered as a Republican, the registrar tried to talk me out of it. My daddy was a staunch conservative, for all his 86 years, but didn't change his registration to GOP until he was 85.
I am a Southerner. I know that I am Swiss, Scot, and Cherokee. There are Black Folks that share a common ancestral name, so, who the hell knows which way the genes flowed?
I am a Republican for one reason only, FREEDOM!
If democratic demand has it's way, our Constitution will be history. I don't care what color I am, or you are, if you are here for FREEDOM!
If you prefer security, move your Butt to New York!

[loreldan]

The Republicans have stood for the mostly same things throughout the years. Equality for everyone. It's the Democrat party that has swung wildly from extreme conservative (KKK Reconstruction years) to extremely liberal today. They went from NO equality for African-Americans to MORE equality for them than anyone else (affirmative action). Ever since the GOP was established the Democrat Party has tried to find a place to fit in. From disgruntled Southerners in the 1850's to 1950's to disgruntled anti-Americans from the Vietnam Era to present.

[popdonnelly]

The entire Confederate government was made up of Southern Democrat politicos. And the founders of the Klan were Southern Democrats. It was the Southern Democrats who were opposed to Blacks in government, and who passed the Jim Crow laws. A little history lesson for this culturally illiterate country.

[RasterMaster]

"... the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S’s: Slavery, Secession, Segregation and now Socialism."

History of the "racist" Republican:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/1499184/posts

Hear the ad:

http://www.trustedpartner.com/docs/library/000143/NBRA%20Radio%20Ad.mp3

[Williams]

The Southern Democrats seceded and started the civil war BECAUSE Abraham Lincoln was elected the first republican president. For decades after the war no black would vote other than republican. The solid South was solid democrat and of course the lynchers, kkk, church bombers, etc were democrats. that is just historical reality. The slaveholders were democrats, the emancipationists were republicans.

[Cicero]

Absolutely true that the KKK was probably 99 44/100 pure Democrat. There were no Republicans in the South in those days.

And the southern power structure that MLK challenged was all Democrats, too. The governors, the sheriffs, probably even the dogs. It was Democrats who built the segregated bathrooms and drinking fountains.

I never heard that MLK was a Republican, however, and a quick google search doesn't turn anything up.

[Eddie01]

"That's how it works." You nailed it. In line with your comments, you may find this interesting...

Eight Commandments of the Left:
(adopted from Janis '82 - Groupthink Behaviors)

I - Thou shalt create an illusion of invulnerability shared by most members to foster excessive optimism and encourage extreme risks taking

II - Thou shall not allow any member to question the group's inherent morality, instead members shall be encouraged to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions

III - Thou shalt promote collective efforts to rationalize in order to discount warnings, or other information that might lead members to reconsider their assumptions before they recommit themselves to their assumptions

IV - Thou shalt reinforce stereotyped views of enemy leaders as too evil to warrant genuine attempts to negotiate, or as too weak and stupid to counter whatever risky attempts are made to defeat their purpose

V - Thou shalt self-censor any deviation from the apparent group consensus, inclining each member to minimize the importance of their doubts and counterarguments

VI - Thou shalt create and maintain a shared illusion of unanimity concerning judgement conforming to the majority view

VII - Thou shalt apply direct pressure on any member who expresses strong arguments against any of the group's stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, making clear that this type of dissent is contrary to what is expected of all loyal members

VIII - Thou shalt appoint mindguards to protect the group from adverse information that might shatter their shared complacency about the effectiveness and morality of their decisions

[Lewite]

Reply to post #49

We were considered poor white trash. My Dad was a yeller dog dim, my Mother voted her heart until she became a true Repub about 25 to 30 years ago. My Grand Dad was Republican and my Grand Mother was a full fledged bigot dimocrapper until her death in 1981. We were poor and a mixed bag of political types. Most of the later children are Republican although we have one or two Dummiecrats in the family.

[infidel29]

AN EARLIER THREAD

[boop]

Well said! The whole REASON for the Republican party's existence is the abolition of slavery. The democrats were pro-slavery, the Republicans opposed it. The catalyst for the civil war was the election of Lincoln, the Republican. The South seceded from the union upon his election. To my knowledge, the democrat party has NEVER disavowed, or APOLOGIZED for being the slavery party. To this day I remain ashamed of ever voting for a democrat. The last time was in 1988. Never again will I support the party of racists.