Republicans and Racism

Up through the Civil War the peculiar institution of slavery was strongly defended by southern Democrats. For generations the South voted against Republicans because Lincoln freed the slaves. That all changed when Lyndon Johnson championed civil rights, which he understood meant that the Democrats would lose the South for a generation. He was right, except it may be two or more generations.

A hundred and fifty years ago, as now, the South hid its true concerns by talking of states rights and individual rights. For example, Republican senator-elect Rand Paul has said that private businesses should have the right to refuse service to anyone  - do you think he means blondes? - or blacks, Jews, gays or women?

Now the Republicans are widely identified as being less supportive of minorities, and over the last 50 years that attitude has sometimes been nakedly promoted by Republicans. For example, conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh routinely make remarks that blacks consider racist, but Limbaugh just laughs at. Virtually no national Republican figure criticizes Limbaugh for his comments that seem racist. It must be that Republicans generally share these sentiments; an interpretation that is supported by the tiny number of blacks who are Republicans or Tea Party members.

The fact that in the South, first Democrats supported racism and later Republican did, shows that the  Republican and Democratic parties have changed policies over time. It would be more accurate to say that thoughout US history, conservatives, no matter what their party affiliation, have exhibited more racist tendencies than liberals. But because Republicans have been increasing dominated by conservative views in modern times, I equate Republican and conservatism.