Are Republicans racist???

[DeistPaladin]

The Southern strategy doesn't have anything to do with the Klan specifically. I wasn't being dishonest, only brief. I didn't think that the overly simplistic opening question really deserved a lengthy discussion. I actually thought about mentioning how things the racists in the south largely either went over the Republicans or dropped the racism from their platform (Ala former Klan member Democrat Robert Byrd, who kept his other political beliefs and dropped the racism) Many politicians in both parties post 1964 dropped the racism from their platform because they had a black contingency to deal with. However the people from both parties from that era are almost universally dead. If we start discounting history when exactly is the cutoff? When the people you like stopped openly being racist?

Dude, you are really indulging in sophistry here. We're discussing the Republican Party as it exists today. You are bringing up history from the time before I was even born! And I'm hardly a youngster. I'm in my mid-40s for Reason's sake!

"Oh yeah, well what about the Democrats prior to 1965?" is a red herring evasion tactic and someone as smart as you must surely know that.

My mention of history, and I used examples like Clinton and W Bush which are fairly recent, is to put in context the psychotic, abusive and sabotaging GOP behavior and how there is no precedent for it. This historical context is relevant to determine if there is a racial motive in the GOP's radical behavior.

Tell you what, since you asked for a rule on the historical cutoff. How about we stick to what most of us can remember instead of what we have read in history books?

Also what about Black or Lation racists?

Irrelevant. This is a Tu Quoque evasion of the topic.

Or are white racists the only real racists?

Because white racists are the only racists who have any impact on our society.

When black cops are killing young white unarmed teens in the street and getting let off the hook...
When Latino congressmen are disrupting a white president's SOTU address by screaming "you lie!" in the middle of it, who are then hailed as some kind of hero by their base...
When Asian Democrats are shutting down the government and threatening to default on our nation's bills because they're going insane over a white president being elected...
When White Canadian children, fleeing for their lives from drug lords and rape gangs and trying to find sanctuary in America, only to be met by crowds of blacks and Latinos at the border screaming for these "invaders" to be sent back...

...when these things are happening, I'll be delighted to discuss black, Latino and other racists. Until then, this is an "oh yeah" Tu Quoque/Red Herring evasion tactic.

The southern strategy is dead and there is near universal acceptance of the civil rights act by Republicans.

How's the scenery on the alternate planet on which you are living?

Have you paid any attention to the news since the Supreme Court struck down the Voting Rights Act? Have you noticed how many states are creating new restrictions on voting that seem to target poor and minority voters? This is Jim Crow but wearing a fig leaf of "guarding against the non-existent problem of voter fraud".

At best I think the most fair thing to say is that there are more (maybe even far more) white racists in the Republican party than the Democratic party. That is obviously true, but that isn't what was being said in this thread or what I was replying to. What was being said was a ridiculous blanket statement and that was what I replying to.

The issue that needs to be discussed is not so much whether every Republican is racist (that's a blanked statement and I agree I wouldn't support that) but whether the policies and rhetoric that drive the GOP are racist.

I have pointed out the psychotic nature of the GOP today, how it treats our president and how it's sabotaging the political process. I have underscored this point by showing how this treatment of a fairly centrist president is unique in our history. So here's my question for you: Why is that? What is the cause if it is not racism?