How can you support the Democrat Party?

[Berzerker]

I apologize for interfering with the Mueller rd thread, so I'll just ask my question here...

The Democrats gave us slavery, replaced it with Jim Crow when it was banned by Republicans, then replaced Jim Crow with a drug war focused on black and brown people. As a result millions of people have been punished with many lives ruined or lost.

I've been told by supporters of these murderous racists that history doesn't matter, what Democrats did in the past is irrelevant to modern times. Well, the KKK got 'better' too, so what? "The New Jim Crow" is a book about the drug war and its effect on the black community and the Democrats paved that road, most of the time they were writing the laws. The Democrats controlled the House for decades and usually with large majorities.

Did Bill Clinton and Barack Obama end this war on black people? They had Democrats controlling the House too when they entered office. No, they oversaw the judicial plantation for 16 years and did nothing but make sure more black people were punished. So how can you support the Democrat party?

 

[Lexicus]

The Democrats gave us slavery,

Do you actually believe this?

 

[Hygro]

Nixon was a Democrat and Nancy Reagan told us to "Just try it"

 

[mrt144]

I totally think there is a genuine argument that Democrats haven't done enough to end the drug war. Berz is not making that argument.

Berz's argument is especially hollow given Sessions, current AG and Republican, has reversed DOJ and prosecutorial discretion vis a vis drugs in contradiction to Obama policy.

What kind of person invokes historical record from 150 years ago as being crucially more important than the current AG's own record? And what kind of person holds one party to an impossible political standard, while they fall short of but make some effort towards?

 

[JollyRoger]

Good thing Jeff Sessions is reversing a number of Obama policies in regards to the drug war.

 

[mrt144]

Good thing Jeff Sessions is reversing a number of Obama policies in regards to the drug war.

I honestly want to see how Berz justifies him honing on the party trying to incrementally change the war against drugs while ignoring the party that wants to increase it. What compels a person to invoke a Lincoln as a crucial data point on the Republicans actions in the war on drugs?

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

The Democrats gave us slavery, replaced it with Jim Crow when it was banned by Republicans, then replaced Jim Crow with a drug war focused on black and brown people.

I swear I see this like once a day and I wonder how political historians deal with it without drinking themselves to death.

 

[metalhead]

I have yet to see any attempt by Berz to rectify Republicans' actions on issues such as drug laws and voting rights with what the modern Democratic party stands for and does. One party is so clearly superior to the other on issues of minority rights that I don't know that any of these screeds are tethered to anything we'd recognize as reality. I think Berz is just trying to virtue signal with these rants, I don't think these are issues he cares about at all.

 

[mrt144]

I have yet to see any attempt by Berz to rectify Republicans' actions on issues such as drug laws and voting rights with what the modern Democratic party stands for and does. One party is so clearly superior to the other on issues of minority rights that I don't know that any of these screeds are tethered to anything we'd recognize as reality. I think Berz is just trying to virtue signal with these rants, I don't think these are issues he cares about at all.

Maybe Berz is taking up the role of Goofus to make Democrats as a party look better?

 

[Akka]

How can you support the Democratic party ?

Well, if we take the US as the context, the answer is obvious : because the alternative is the Republicans.

 

[danjuno]

Does "Nixon" and "Southern Strategy" ring any bells?

 

[Leonel]

It's easy! The Republicans appealed to the racist elements in the 70's through the Southern Strategy and now the parties have essentially switched names.

Therefore it's actually quite easy to support the Democrats, at least through a lesser-of-two-evils situation.

 

[Zkribbler]

Do you actually believe this?

It's true.

A little known fact is that, after Thomas Jefferson [who wrote the Declaration of Independence] snf James Madison [architect of the U.S. Constitution] co-founded what is now the Democratic Party, they jumped into their time machine, went back to the year 1620, and began importing slaves.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I apologize for interfering with the Mueller rd thread, so I'll just ask my question here...

There's a Mueller thread? Already? Thanks for telling me guys! Gah!

The Democrats gave us slavery

When you say "gave"... You obviously don't mean that the Democratic party invented slavery as a concept... and you obviously don't mean that the Democratic party introduced slavery to the continent of North America... so are you just saying that the Democrats were the party of the Confederacy/ the party that supported slavery? Why not just say that?

 

[mrt144]

There's a Mueller thread? Already? Thanks for telling me guys! Gah! When you say "gave"... You obviously don't mean that the Democratic party invented slavery as a concept... and you obviously don't mean that the Democratic party introduced slavery to the continent of North America... so are you just saying that the Democrats were the party of the Confederacy? Why not just say that?

Because it doesn't have nearly same gravitas.

 

[Lexicus]

Because it doesn't have nearly same gravitas.

Yeah, it's not one-dimensional and ahistorical enough.

 

[Sommerswerd]

gravitas and truth aren't mutually exclusive

 

[EgonSpengler]

Well, if we take the US as the context, the answer is obvious : because the alternative is the Republicans.

I agree. Some would say the US has two parties, a center-right party and a far-right party. The recent French election was similar. Everything is unsettled atm, but the Democrats are still to the left of the Republicans, wherever that leaves them.

 

[Zkribbler]

It's easy! The Republicans appealed to the racist elements in the 70's through the Southern Strategy and now the parties have essentially switched names..

I would like to add that Reagan began his 1980 campaign for the Presidency with a speech at the Neshoba County Fair, only 7 miles from where three civil rights workers where murdered by the Klan. The subject of his speech: "states rights," i.e. code for "segregation."

 

[Lexicus]

https://www.themarshallproject.org/...-two-platforms-on-criminal-justice#.3XCSORkEX