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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022

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But this story Democrats tell themselves that "And then one day, for no reason, all the good people and all the bad people switched teams" is mostly copium and deflection from their party's history, which by their normal standards ought to utterly damn them.

Well, that is not the story I told, and more generally, this does not address the very clear reality that, while in the past social conservatives were Democrats, that is obviously no longer the case, so, whatever the specific details, the claim that "Democrats are the racists because most racists were Democrats sixty years ago" is not a very honest claim. So, no, the party's history should not "damn them," because both parties have different compositions than they did in the past.

Well, that is not the story I told

Then we are watching two very different movies. That's the story I imbibed growing up and there may still exist the cringy teenaged political rants on LiveJournal to prove it. I get annoyed at this discussion because I'm coming with the embarrassed energy of the deconverted. More generally, I think if I rephrased it less snarkily, something like "After the CRA, basically all of the racists immediately switched to the Republican party and stayed there ever since", the median Redditor would agree, and further agree that all educated people know this is true history.

while in the past social conservatives were Democrats, that is obviously no longer the case, so, whatever the specific details, the claim that "Democrats are the racists because most racists were Democrats sixty years ago" is not a very honest claim.

At this point we're a little deep in the woods, in terms of multiple people jumping into a conversation. The "newest posts" feed is great for murdering time, but contributes to this sort of situation. To clarify, I'm not saying the quoted bit above, but I am saying that many of the racist Democrats from 60 years ago stayed Democrats in the wake of the CRA, and many who did switch did so more for other reasons ranging from religion to foreign policy, over the course of that 60 years. Hlynka, by contrast, was making a separate claim that Democrats are a party of public disorder and violent race baiting, and that this is core enough to the meme cluster "Democrat Party" to be common between old social-con Klansmen and new woke-prog antifa.

So, no, the party's history should not "damn them," because both parties have different compositions than they did in the past.

This is a very isolated demand for rigor. Dems damn the Republicans for the Southern Strategy and the United States in general for slavery and historical racism, but BlushingFlowerMeme.jpg regarding their own party's history as the party of slavery, the party of the Klan, and the party of Jim Crow. I'm certainly amenable to "the past is a different country" arguments, but the folks who toppled statues of abolitionists because they don't actually know who the person was don't get a free dodge for that accusation of hypocrisy.

Then we are watching two very different movies.

To clarify, I meant the story that I told in this thread, not the story that I was told as a child.

"After the CRA, basically all of the racists immediately switched to the Republican party and stayed there ever since",

Not a claim I made.

This is a very isolated demand for rigor. Dems damn the Republicans for the Southern Strategy and the United States in general for slavery and historical racism, but BlushingFlowerMeme.jpg regarding their own party's history as the party of slavery, the party of the Klan, and the party of Jim Crow. I'm certainly amenable to "the past is a different country" arguments, but the folks who toppled statues of abolitionists because they don't actually know who the person was don't get a free dodge for that accusation of hypocrisy.

I don't see how that is relevant to the issue. which is whether the Democratic Party is "the real racist party" today. Just because statute-topplers are morons who make moronic claims does not mean that is it ok for us to do so.

I have no patience for claims of racism in general, and specifically not for claims that "Republicans are racist," but it is very clear that that parties have changed on issues of relevance to African Americans. In 1960, if you were a real honest-to-goodness racist, you were almost voted Democratic. Today, you almost certainly vote Republican. (I am of course assuming two parties). The Democratic Party tends to support affirmative action, while the Republican Party tends to oppose it. The Democratic Party appoints judges who tend to reign in police civil liberties violations; the Republican Party appoints judges who are "law and order" judges who tend to do the opposite. Etc, etc. This has been true for thirty years

The fact of the matter is that the Democratic Party, at least, is a vastly different party on these issues than it was 70 years ago. In contrast, the Republican Party, has drifted in the other direction. More generally, once upon a time the Republican Party was the more liberal party, not just on race, but on many other issues; meanwhile, the Democratic Party was the more conservative party, especially on race. That is obviously no longer the case.

Not a claim I made.

Did not quite say you did. What I am claiming is that it is a very common understanding of events, and the first comment of yours that I replied to was in that ballpark.

I don't see how that is relevant to the issue

I think we're into 3 or 4 different issues, talking past each other, and I have a feeling that if I go into responses for a bunch of the parts of the next two paragraphs I have problems with, it's going to keep happening.