The two major American political parties - Democratic and Republican - are two of the three oldest continuously operating political parties in the world today. Britain's Conservative Party (aka: the Tories), rounds out the top three.
The Democratic Party has its roots in the late 1820s and its first elected Democratic president was Andrew Jackson, in 1828, followed by his re-election in 1832. Over the following decades, the party tolerated, then supported before eventually championing slavery as more states and territories were added to the country until the practice ended with the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865.
Eleven years prior to the end of the Civil War (1854), the Republican Party was created from the remnants of the former Whig Party specifically to prevent the expansion, and continuing use, of slavery championed by the Democratic Party. The party's first presidential nominee was John C. Fremont, who lost to Democrat James Buchanan in 1856. The first successful Republican presidential nominee was Illinois' Abraham Lincoln in 1860, although he did not win based on obtaining a majority of electoral votes, but that is not something I need to expand on in this post.
The two dominant parties at the time continue to be the two dominant parties today. One party championed the abhorrent, yet historically common, act of slavery. The other was created specifically to end the act of slavery and the supporters of both parties fought a nearly country-ending civil war over slavery, with the Republican cause eventually proving successful in 1865.
Considering the decades-long support for slavery and their willingness to end the United States as the world knew it, it is understandable Democrats would still harbor racist views and a desire to control newly emancipated blacks just short of physical shackles or threats of a whipping, or worse, for many years after the war. These feelings manifested in opposition to Reconstruction and especially to the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments but also into the Jim Crow and KKK era and finally into opposition to the civil rights acts of the 1950s and 60s.
When I say "finally" above, you would think it was after alllllll those many, many decades of solidly Democrat-championed anti-black policies and actions, they would have suddenly, practically overnight, become enlightened to the errors of their ways and ended virtually all vestiges of racism towards black Americans, correct? If I did not know better, I certainly would have inferred such a thing, yet, as I will demonstrate below, racism against black Americans is still very much alive within the Democratic Party today, despite their insistence it is Republicans who are the true racists today. After all, Democrats like to claim there was a "big switch" during the height of the civil rights era where all the racist Southern Democrats suddenly switched allegiances to the GOP, effectively shedding racism from the Democratic Party onto the GOP ever since. Uh.... riiiiiiiight.
THE LIST
I mentioned in my most recent post how the most popular term Democrats use to denigrate non-conforming black Americans today is "Uncle Tom". I clearly demonstrated Uncle Tom is used in exactly the same way the N-word was used for decades to express disgust with ANY black person who does not say/think/write/believe as they are expected to exclusively by Democrats. This fact alone is the clearest possible example why racism is still solidly ingrained within the Democratic party, but there are plenty of other examples, as listed below.
- A 2016 Gallup poll asked respondents how they felt about the requirement of photo ID to vote. Seventy-seven percent of non-whites favored photo ID requirements and 63% of Democrats overall favored the obviously sensible ballot-protection act of presenting a govt-issued photo ID. For some reason, Democrats consistently claim black voters are uniquely incapable of obtaining ID due to not being able to afford it, not knowing where to get it, not having data on their phone or internet at home, etc. They also claim photo-ID requirements unfairly depresses black voter turnout but this has proven untrue. See my favorite video on this subject.
- For Michigan, three Dem-appointed 6th-Circut judges unanimously voted to uphold the existing straight-ticket voting (STV) option citing black communities primarily would be unfairly burdened with the requirement to choose a candidate in each race instead of choosing one option to cover all same-party candidates. Personally, I like that option quite a bit but only six states permitted STV in 2020. The fact black voters were determined to be uniquely burdened only adds to the belief black people lack certain abilities, intelligence, etc. compared to other races, whites, in particular.
- Alabama recently enacted a photo-ID requirement and made obtaining one extremely easy, and at no cost, if necessary. They will even drive to your home at no cost to provide a photo ID yet the typical lawsuits were filed, nonetheless. Luckily, a federal judge dismissed their case for obvious reasons. Seriously, how much easier do Democrats want photo ID to be obtained? To go to the trouble to file a lawsuit against Alabama's Secretary of State knowing there is no reasonable burden to the state's black community is crazy and only hurts the plaintiff's cause.
- OK, this one is not directly related to racism but since I am on the subject of photo ID for voting and racism charges are ubiquitous on the matter.... this article mentions an interesting study finding Republicans are not only much more concerned about photo ID for voting but even when presented with the possibility lack of photo ID would benefit GOP candidates or policies, they hardly budged on their core belief in the need for photo ID. Conversely, Dems were very transactional when it came to who benefited or suffered due to photo ID. They strongly supported photo ID if it benefited Dem candidates or policies but were much less supportive when it benefited the GOP. "When it comes to voter ID laws, Republicans care intensely about fraud while Democrats worry more about whether their own party will come out ahead" is the leading line of the article. With that, Dems have absolutely NO credibility when it comes to election integrity concerns.
- Now, on to education: Dems (white Dems, especially) say black students don't deserve the same school choice options they enjoy (expect/demand is more accurate, really). Blacks parents, perhaps more than anybody, desire to have school choice options and it is Democrats, controlled by the teacher unions, who are the most ardent opponents to school choice.
- Another on education: coming soon
- Competence Downshift: This one is really damaging and is similar to the study mentioned in #4. This post on one of my favorite sites highlights a study demonstrating liberals uniquely tend to lower their word complexity and overall appearance of competence when speaking to a black crowd. My take on this study is it reinforces the left no longer believe (if they ever did) in MLK Jr's famous quote: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." To the right, character is color-blind but skin color is paramount to the left in nearly all facets of our society, character be damned.
- Reparations: black conservative radio host, Larry Elder, perhaps said it best recently with this quote: "Reparations is the extraction of money from people who were never slave owners to be given to people who were never slaves." To best describe how relatively lucky American blacks are today, despite the slave trade (and slavery, in general) being abhorrent, this Q & A between a reporter and Muhammad Ali after Ali returned victorious from his fight against George Foreman in Zaire: “Champ, what did you think of Africa?” Ali replied, “Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat" is spot-on in explaining why American blacks are obviously exponentially better off today than they would otherwise be if comparing to their African homelands today. With that, reparations are fully unjustified, if not for the impossible means of determining equitability but certainly by comparing outcomes for any slave's true descendants in America today. To continue advocating for reparations demonstrates perhaps the ultimate example of virtue-signaling, especially if they are a white liberal.
