Fact check: Democratic Party did not found the KKK, did not start the Civil War

[mfcorey1]

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 on June on 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 KKK's founding, it is inaccurate to say the party is responsible for either

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fact-check-democratic-party-did-not-found-the-kkk-did-not-start-the-civil-war/ar-BB16aCEb?ocid=spartan-dhp-feeds

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Conservatives keep trying to sell this shit over and over...

First the Democratic Party of Civil War era is not the same party or today, neither is the GOP. Conservatives try to scam people into believing it is so.

Second, the movement to "conserve" the traditional economic system or slavery and the cultural institution of white supremacy, has always been a conservative or reactionary one.

[still_one]

2. and the roles between the parties have been reversed since FDR and beyond

[GulfCoast66]

10. More accurately since LBJ. When I was a kid the South was solidly Democratic.

And that was the 70’s.

Two things led to the south becoming republican.

-the passage of the Civil rights laws led by LBJ.

-the republicans abandoning their century long support of rights for African Americans. And have no doubt, up and after the civil rights acted passed any laws to support civil rights had to have republican support. They have always been for the rich and hated government programs, but they used to support rights for African Americans more than many democrats.

The current Republican Party is really a party that mirrors George Wallace.

Here’s the saddest part. No region of the country supported government programs initiated by FDR more than the South. They had the most to gain. But when the choice became supporting an active government and racism, they chose racism. And I say this as a southern man whose family has been in the south for over 300 years.

[still_one]

13. No question about it, Trump is the ghost of George Wallace. The reason I started with FDR was

because that was when things started to change with executive order 8802, to prohibit racial discrimination in the nation’s defense industry, and setup the fair employment practice Committee

You are right though, it was the Civil Rights act in the mid sixties, which was the catalyst, and Nixon exploited that racism with his Southern Strategy

[Hoyt]

3. To be honest, Dixiecrats were racists in 50s, 60s, early 70s. BUT

But, the only thing that ties Dixiecrats to today’s Democrats is that they thanked FDR for Social Security that saved poor dirt farmers from starvation.

Dixiecrats pretty much migrated to Republican Party, that welcomed them with the Southern strategy (ie, racism). And here we are today.

[erpowers]

4. A Better Response

A better response is to talk about how things have changed over the years. What party is attracting members of the KKK today? High profile members of the KKK and other white supremacist groups are not members of the Democratic Party today; they are members of the Republican Party, or the support the Republican Party.

[keithbvadu2]

5. Thank God you republicans won that war back in the 1860s.

That is the appropriate reply.

Congratulate them.

Make them proud.

[First Speaker]

6. The Dem party in fact split in two in 1860...

...Breckenridge running for President of the Southern side, and Douglas on the Northern side. The latter ran as the "centrist", the only man who could hold the Union together. Lincoln beat him, thank God, and Douglas, who died in 1861, roused the Northern Dems to support the War. Whatever his sins--and they are many--he did do that...

[roamer65]

7. Lincoln would be ashamed of today's Trumplican party.

He would be a Democrat today, because he would put country over party.

[yellowcanine]

8. Not to mention that all of the old Dixiecrats became Republicans.

LBJ predicted that in 1964 when he signed the Civil Rights Act and he was spot on.

[Quixote1818]

9. I send people this video. It's very well done

[Crunchy Frog]

11. LOL! I'm not a supporter of the "Democrat Party" anyway, so why should I care?

[Hortensis]

12. If you look at events in terms of liberal and conservative,

political labels don't confuse and can't be used to deceive.

Things aren't always either-or of course, as when parties have factions of different ideologies, as we did before the 1970s.

But when you read that the "Liberal Party" in some nation voted to make homosexual sex a capital offense, you know that party's obviously dominated by conservative ideology, strong-to-extremist by our standards, apparently heavily influenced by social-religious conservatives.

Or when Republican legislators passed laws integrating various segments of society -- the liberal faction obviously dominated at that time and place, likely supported by some moderate conservatives! You don't have to look up the legislators and their ideology to know that.

And when some state officials in the Democratic Party refused to comply with the law and even used state police to block integration --conservative faction. Obviously!

More, you quickly come to realize that hard-core conservatives, social/cultural especially, are the world's big troublemakers, far and above others. Forget the labels -- if an aggressive group's hurting others, all that's left is due-diligence confirmation of what's almost always true.