I saw this post on Facebook today, so I did some
research. The links are to follow. The Democrats were opposed to the Reconstructionism
of the Republicans. Many were racist in those times. So were many of the
Republicans. That is the past – over a century ago. The Republican party of
today bears little resemblance to the Party of Lincoln, or even General
Eisenhower. Democrat President LBJ, singed The Voter’s Rights Act of 1965 – not
a Republican. The Democratic Party of today is the party of choice of majority
of people of color, not just African Americans. Is this a coincidence? NO. Is
this factual? YES. Do Democrats fight to restrict voting rights today? NO –
That would be the Republican Party.
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The
accusation the Democrats founded the KKK and started the Civil War is false.
Fact
check: Democratic Party did not found the KKK, start Civil War (usatoday.com)
The claim: The Democratic Party started the Civil War to preserve slavery and later the KKK
As America marks a month of protests against systemic racism and many people draw comparisons between current events and the Civil Rights Movement, an oversimplified trope about the Democratic Party’s racist past has been resurrected online.
“Friendly reminder that if you support the Democrat Party, you support the party that founded the KKK and start a civil war to keep their slaves," claims an image of a tweet Instagram user @snowflake.tears shared June 19.
Many Instagram users read between the lines for the tweet’s implication about the modern Democratic and Republican parties. Some argued this past action discredited current liberal policies, while others said it did not matter.
“Everyone knows that Abraham Lincoln fought to free the slaves, but he also created the Republican Party, and was the leader of it to help fight to free the slaves, yet it’s said that most black people still vote for Democrats who fought to keep the slaves,” user @shrukenshmuck commented.
“I’m a conservative but I find this argument pretty stupid because clearly that’s not what they support anymore, values change overtime,” user @james.dubee wrote.
Historians agree that although factions of the Democratic Party did majorly contribute to the Civil War's start and the KKK's founding, it is inaccurate to say the party is responsible for either.
Instagram user @snowflake.tears has not returned USA TODAY’s request for comment.
*****************
The KKK was founded by ex-Confederate
Soldiers, not the Democratic Party. Nor were all members Democrats.
Ku Klux Klan:
Origin, Members & Facts - HISTORY
A group including many
former Confederate veterans founded the first branch of the Ku Klux Klan as a
social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865. The first two words of the
organization’s name supposedly derived from the Greek word “kyklos,” meaning
circle. In the summer of 1867, local branches of the Klan met in a general
organizing convention and established what they called an “Invisible Empire of
the South.” Leading Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was chosen as the first leader, or
Grand Wizard of the Klan.
The organization of the Ku Klux Klan coincided with the beginning of the second phase of post-Civil WarReconstruction, put into place by the more radical members of the Republican Party in Congress. After rejecting President Andrew Johnson’s relatively lenient Reconstruction policies, in place from 1865 to 1866, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act over the presidential veto. Under its provisions, the South was divided into five military districts, and each state was required to approve the 14th Amendment, which granted “equal protection” of the Constitution to former enslaved people and enacted universal male suffrage.
Ku Klux Klan - Wikipedia
First KKK
The first Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, on December 24, 1865, by six former officers of the Confederate army: Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones and James Crowe. It started as a fraternal social club inspired at least in part by the then largely defunct Sons of Malta. It borrowed parts of the initiation ceremony from that group, with the same purpose: "ludicrous initiations, the baffling of public curiosity, and the amusement for members were the only objects of the Klan", according to Albert Stevens in 1907. The manual of rituals was printed by Laps D. McCord of Pulaski.
According to The Cyclopædia of Fraternities (1907), "Beginning in April, 1867, there was a gradual transformation. ...The members had conjured up a veritable Frankenstein. They had played with an engine of power and mystery, though organized on entirely innocent lines, and found themselves overcome by a belief that something must lie behind it all – that there was, after all, a serious purpose, a work for the Klan to do."
Although there was little organizational structure above the local level, similar groups rose across the South and adopted the same name and methods. Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement promoting resistance and white supremacy during the Reconstruction Era. For example, Confederate veteran John W. Morton founded a chapter in Nashville, Tennessee. As a secret vigilante group, the Klan targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder. "They targeted white Northern leaders, Southern sympathizers and politically active blacks." In 1870 and 1871, the federal government passed the Enforcement Acts, which were intended to prosecute and suppress Klan crimes.
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David Duke - Wikipedia
David Duke, the most prominent member of the KKK for decades, started as a Democrat. He switched to the Populist party after not making headway as a Democrat. He then became a Republican, mounting a minor challenge to President Bush in 1992. (An FYI)
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Trumpism:
TRUMPISM | What Does TRUMPISM Mean? (cyberdefinitions.com)
Trumpism - Wikipedia
The four characteristics of Trumpism | TheHill
Urban Dictionary: Trumpism
Sane person: Donald Trump is
a narcissist.
Trump supporter: Nobody is doing anything about
the Martian invasion!
Sane person: How is that even relevant?
Trump supporter: I haven't talked yet about how much money was wasted on fighting global warming.
Sane person: I hope Trumpism is curable.
********************
I believe the greatest threat to the future of our
nation is “Trumpism.” At its core, is a morally bankrupt, soon to be ex-President,
who continues his baseless and divisive rants about voter fraud – even after
his own Attorney General and the head of Cyber-Security have clearly contradicted
him, saying there was none of any significance.
This is not the time for pettiness because
Trump lost; and lost by the widest margin in history. Stop politicizing the
attempts to slow the spread. Hospitals are filling up with patients affected by
the virus. Denounce the calls for violence, and the threats against people of
both parties over the results.
I know my words will carry little weight in this world. I don’t care. All it
takes for evil to prosper is for good men (and women) to do nothing; to remain
silent out of fear. So, I will raise my voice and share my words no matter how
many take the time to read them. It is my duty. It is in keeping with the oath
I swore in 1972 at my enlistment. It is in keeping with my moral code.
