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07 Mar

The Republican Party’s Ku Klux Klan ‘problem’ is much bigger than just Donald Trump

The Republican Party’s Ku Klux Klan ‘problem’ is much bigger than just Donald Trump

By Chauncey DeVega

The McGlynn: Let us go back to 1924-1928.

President Harding accepted induction into the Klan at a secret White House ceremony.

The Klan supported Coolidge in 1924 after Democrat John W. Davis, in a speech in Asbury Park, New Jersey, tore up his prepared speech and delivered an emotional denunciation of the Klan, after two blacks were lynched in nearby Sea Bright, New Jersey, for ignoring a sign warning n____s to stay out.  The good people of Sea Bright had elected a Klan government and the two men were stopped by the police per a traffic stop and murdered.  Coolidge did not reject Klan support.

The Klan, much diminished from what it had been in 1924, worked hard in 1928 to elect Herbert Hoover over Al Smith.  Smith was Catholic and had been raised on the lower East Side of New York with Jews and blacks and even said blacks in the South should be permitted to vote.  The Klan even put his life in jeopardy, as told in this video:

 

White supremacists love Donald Trump. Last week, David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, endorsed the American Il Duce. As reported by the website Buzzfeed:

“Voting for these people, voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage,” Duke said on the David Duke Radio Program Wednesday, referring to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. “I’m not saying I endorse everything about Trump, in fact I haven’t formally endorsed him. But I do support his candidacy, and I support voting for him as a strategic action. I hope he does everything we hope he will do.”

Duke then urged his followers to call Trump’s campaign headquarters to volunteer.

“And I am telling you that it is your job now to get active. Get off your duff. Get off your rear end that’s getting fatter and fatter for many of you everyday on your chairs. When this show’s over, go out, call the Republican Party, but call Donald Trump’s headquarters, volunteer. They’re screaming for volunteers. Go in there, you’re gonna meet people who are going to have the same kind of mindset that you have.”

When confronted on CNN last weekend about David Duke’s endorsement, Donald Trump pleaded ignorance and refused to condemn the high profile white supremacist or others who share such beliefs, before grudgingly doing so later.

The news media have now made Donald Trump’s refusal to condemn David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan the “hot” talking point of the week. Republican candidates have tried to use Trump’s evasions about the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists as a cudgel to paint their rival as unelectable, unhinged, and irresponsible.

These are distractions from fundamental and basic questions about the post-civil rights era Republican Party, justice, equality, and the color line.

In reality, the Republican Party’s “problems” with the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacy are much bigger than Donald Trump.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 7th, 2016 at 11:53 am and is filed under Politics, Presidential Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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