David Duke due in Bahrain for lecture

gulf news ^ | November 12, 2002

[AngryOne]

"poor little racist?"
Is that the best you can do? Come on! The day has passed when you can spew that childish crap and expect to get away with it. Listen, I'm no fan of Duke or his ilk, but there is a very obvious double standard in the US concerning what whites can do and say (or more to the point what we can't!) and what every other race can. For you to blast someone who puts black racists in the same catagory with white racists as a "poor little racist' is disingenuous at best, and very stupid in the least.

[CobaltBlue]

The answer was on a bumper sticker --

Vote For the Crook. It's Important.

Thank the Lord I wasn't living in Louisiana then, so I didn't have to make the choice, but if I had been, I would have voted for Edwards, myself.

[Rodney King]

He said Duke was not being invited because of his perceived anti-Jewish stand but because he has recently authored a book that 'exposes the Zionist agenda for world domination."

LOL. That's a great quote.

[CobaltBlue]

You're very wrong about Duke's ideas.

I grew up in Baton Rouge when he was at LSU (my mother was in graduate school) and he was very far outside the mainstream, then as now.

He's just a phony opportunist, who manipulates people and rips them off. Worse than the ordinary politician because he has no shame at all.

He's sleazy even by Louisiana standards, with his bleached blond blow dried pompador, chin implants, cheek implants, nose job, and eye makeup.

He got thrown out of the KKK in 1980 for ripping them off, stealing their mailing list, setting up a black power newspaper under a phony name, and selling pornography.

Even the KKK doesn't want him or trust him.

[CobaltBlue]

My husband and I personally witnessed David Duke and a bunch of guys dressed like Brownshirts at a screening of Triumph of the Will in New Orleans, circa 1980.

They cheered during Triumph of the Will, then cheered halfway through a documentary about the Nazi party, but slunk out before the end.

Losers.

[CobaltBlue]

>>I don't know Duke from Adam, but if the press and the marxists hate him so much, there has to be something "positive" in his words, otherwise he would be ignored. <<

You'd think so, but in this case it's simply not true.

Unless you are a member of the KKK, a skinhead, or a White Power fan, in which case I won't argue with you.

I am against affirmative action and minority set asides, but that's not what David Duke is about.

I used to work at a couple of companies that printed his newspapers, and I personally prepared them for the press, so I used to read them every week.

I also saw him and his bodyguard/boyfriend every week.

[CobaltBlue]

>>every week<<

Probably was once a month, in retrospect.

I saved a lot of them but can't find them anymore.

[bigunreal]

My response is directed towards all of you who either voted for Edwards, or would have if you'd been in Louisiana. I think your posts reveal the extent of white guilt in this country. Really, even among conservatives, the greatest crime anyone can commit now is to be a racist (provided you're white, of course). Edwards was a crooked politician without a single principle- that was obvious to everyone. Duke has never been charged with anything, to my knowledge, except extreme views on race relations. Leaving aside his racial views, his platform must have been much closer to yours than Edwards'. Yet, like most white people, the single issue of race relations-and the fear you may be voting for a racist-forced you (or would have forced you) to vote for a candidate who was odious to you. Would you have voted for a Jesse Helms, for example, over Edwards? If so, what difference is there, on the issue of race relations, between Duke and Helms? I maintain that most white voters- and not just Democrats-would vote for a murderer before they would vote for a "racist."

[bigunreal]

You paint a cartoonish, but colorful (and adjective filled) portrait of Duke. I can't really blame you, at the time he ran for Governor, Duke was subjected to a smear campaign previously reserved for the likes of Joe McCarthy. I recall watching Larry King Live at that time (I can't imagine why I was watching it, but I was), and his guest was actress Valerie Bertinelli. Larry somehow managed to introduce the topic of Duke's gubernatorial campaign into their infantile conversation. The completely disinterested Bertinelli took quite a while to catch on but eventually followed her cues and agreed with Larry that if Duke were elected, her husband (burned out rocker Eddie Van Halen) would boycott the state. The campaign against Duke became so intense that major newspapers actually published the names of individuals who had sent him contributions. Unprecedented and thoroughly despicable. Therefore, while I'm not exactly a fan of Duke's, I think he behaved much better than all of his numerous, powerful enemies. And yes, given a choice between him and a criminal like Edwards, I would definitely have voted for Duke.

[CobaltBlue]

Either you don't know anything about David Duke, or you actually admire him, because it's not just about race.

His recent trip to Bahrain shows his true colors.

[CobaltBlue]

Look, I took the effort to read some of your other comments in the forum, and see that you are in Tom Davis's district, as I am, so my guess is that you don't really know David Duke very well.

I am from Louisiana. I lived in Baton Rouge near the LSU campus when he was a student at LSU.

I've known David Duke since 1969 or so. He used to speak at Free Speech Alley at LSU when my mother went there. He was preaching a message of racial segregation, and anti-Semitism. He believed then that blacks are inferior, that they should not be able to live in white neighborhoods or marry white people. He believes that the law should prohibit this.

He was the Grand Wizard for the KKK. The KKK threw him out for stealing from them. Do you know what the KKK stands for?

He then started a White Power organization. Do you know what White Power means?

Did you read what I wrote about my husband and I seeing him and some of his friends dressed as Brownshirts at a screening of Triumph of the Will? Do you know what Brownshirts are (Nazis). Do you know what Triumph of the Will is (a movie about how wonderful the Nazi party is.)

If you are a fan of the Nazis, I hope you are lying about working for Tom Davis, because he doesn't need Nazi sympathizers.

[Skooz]

My opinion of Duke had nothing to do with any "smear campaign." I had watched him from the time he was Grand Imperial Gizzard of the KKK in the 1970s. He was well known to people in Louisiana long before he ran for office.

The man was a NAZI! That isn't a "smear campaign," it is the truth. If you would vote for a Nazi over a crook, you have a problem.

[Skooz]

Jesse Helms is not a Nazi.

David Duke is a Nazi.

Clear enough for ya'?

[Skooz]

By the way, I often said that if Duke had just come out of the blue, sans KKK and Naziism, I would have knocked on doors for him and campaigned on his behalf. The things he said in his campaign were absolutely right. I agreed with him on virtually every point.

But, when it came time for him to renounce his KKK and Nazi past, he refused to do so. That cost him my vote and the election, as well.

[bigunreal]

Thanks for responding. My point about Duke is not that nazis are great, or that racism is a good thing; I was merely pointing out that having beliefs that garner the label "right-wing extremist" are far more serious nowadays, in the eyes of most voters, than the commission of actual crimes. Duke, no matter how despicable you or I may think he was in a brownshirt or a white hood, has never even been accused of commiting a real crime, as far as I know. He appears to be guilty of putting his foot in his mouth many times and of making a fool out of himself in the past with his participation in nazi-worshiping activities. Edwards, on the other hand, had no real beliefs or principles, and did indeed engage in criminal behavior. I was making a comment on how our society now prioritizes things, and how the perspectives of most citizens have changed dramatically, especially since the birth of the Civil Rights crusade.

[bigunreal]

You prove my point perfectly. Here was a candidate you agreed with on virtually every issue, yet you not only didn't vote for him, you cast a vote for a slimy hack who was a criminal. I am not advocating for nazism, or anti- semitism; my observation was that most people now consider certain extreme beliefs (almost always either "racist" or "anti-semitic") to be more despicable than actual crimes, even violent ones. I know Edwards didn't rape or kill anyone (that we know of), but I still maintain that he would have been elected over Duke even if he had bragged about his violent crimes on the campaign trail. Would you have voted for him in that case?

[bigunreal]

How is David Duke a "nazi?" The National Socialist Party, despite Hollywood's efforts to constantly revive it in film after film, has been dead for over 50 years. Any copycat organizations here, or elsewhere, were pitiful little outfits with absolutely no power or influence. I am no expert on Duke, but to my knowledge, he has not advocated any of the things the real nazis advocated. If he has, please enlighten me. When has he come out in favor of exterminating Jews? Or of conquering parts of the world in an effort to set up a German Reich? I thought he was now just a strong opponent of affirmative action and our extensive aid to Israel. If you're going to call Duke a nazi, aren't textbook followers of Marx like John Conyers or Charles Schumer, actual communists? Can we call them that in public?

[Skooz]

How is David Duke a "nazi?"

David Duke, Nazi

I've also seen pictures of him in his little nazi outfit giving the Hitler salute to a Nazi flag. He was a leader in the American Nazi Party. That's a fact.

[Skooz]

If you're going to call Duke a nazi, aren't textbook followers of Marx like John Conyers or Charles Schumer, actual communists? Can we call them that in public?

If they are card carrying members of the Communist Party, yes. Just as Duke was a card carrying member of the American Nazi Party, via the neo-Nazi National Socialist White People’s Party.