GOP is still party of racists

A week ago, Time ran an erroneous web-only story stating that Bush II had resurrected a practice of sending a wreath to honor Jefferson Davis. I blogged it.

The story turned out to be false. I waited for Time to issue a retraction, and when it did, so did I. It happens, no big deal, right? Well, a certain right-wing blogger has written the following:

Kos waited until the entry left his main page & went to the world of the archives.  How brave, Kos....the word "coward" immediately comes to mind.  Cowardly in the sense of waiting for the most opportune time to update and cowardly in the sense of ignoring what you said, as you simply posted the story of the retraction. As a reminder, here's what Kos said, THEN:

[Quotes my post I linked above.]

When it came out that everything ended up being the proverbial egg on his/her face, Kos took the cowardly way out by having no testicular fortitude whatsoever, as "NOW" the follow-up is simply: 

Update: Time screwed up the story. It wasn't true.

Let's use the words that I recall reading recently....there's a lot of reasons why you have little credibility, Kos (and I generally liked your stuff...once), and this one has to top them all, as it appears you are the same old cowardly Democrat.

I generally ignore this kind of shit. It seems the more popular my site becomes, the more I get attacked from the Right. It comes with the territory. But in this case, it gives me an opportunity to blog one of my favorite topics -- the fact that the modern GOP is built upon a foundation of racism.

You see, this other blogger (and I don't reward link trollers with a link) suggests that since the Time story was false, then my premise that the GOP is a racist party was also false. As though my entire argument for the GOP being racist was predicated on a single wreath! LOL!

Let's recap the evidence:

1. Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, Rep. Cass Ballenger, Rep. Tom Tancredo, John Ashcroft, and the entire GOP caucus in Congress. I could go on and on. So I will. Here's a few more examples in California, Ohio, and Louisiana. There's still lots more, but I don't have all night.

2. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. 'Nuff said.

3. Trent Lott gets ousted -- this is a good sign .... But then he gets rewarded with a committee chairmanship! Way to exorcise those racists ghosts from the past!

4. Charles Pickering, defender of cross burners and foe of interracial marriages, is nominated to the federal bench. His nomination is eventually squashed by Senate Democrats.

5. Charles Pickering, gets renominated by Bush (not even two weeks after Lott's demotion).

6. The Confederate Flag

7. The GOP's Southern Strategy

I could go on and on, but I've made my point. Just as I did here. And here and here. And lots of places more. All without the aid of the wreath story. And note that I didn't even mention the GOP's outright hostility to the Civil Rights agenda. Reasonable people can disagree on those issues without being racist (though with the GOP, it's hard to give them the benefit of the doubt).

I had moved on to war, the Democratic primaries, and the economy, but hey, we can always go back to race anytime anyone on the Right wants.

Posted January 27, 2003 06:13 PM | Comments (80)