KKK crucial to building the South’s enduring Republican majority, study finds

[DonViejo]

TRAVIS GETTYS
08 DEC 2014 AT 12:41 ET

The Ku Klux Klan played an active and enduring role in steering southern white voters away from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, according to a new study.

The white supremacist group resurged to prominence in the 1960s as a reaction to the civil rights movement, and its violent extremism inflamed racial division and polarized communities for generations, according to the study published by the American Sociological Review.

“It encouraged white voters to prioritize the defense of white supremacy when making voting decisions, upending long-standing Democratic Party allegiances,” wrote the study’s authors.

The researchers — David Cunningham, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at Brandeis University, Rory McVeigh of the University of Notre Dame and Justin Farrell of Yale University — studied county voting records in 10 southern states where the KKK actively recruited members in the 1960s.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/kkk-crucial-to-building-the-souths-enduring-republican-majority-study-finds/

[H. Cromwell]

1. According to the History Channel...

http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan

Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s.

The KKK was actually founded by Democrats.

[hifiguy]

4. And your point in bringing up 148 year old history is?

In those days the Republican party actually WAS the party of Lincoln.

Things have changed in the ensuing century-and-a-half.

[arcane1]

5. That's known. The OP is about post-civil-rights era, when the racists switched parties.

20th century, not 19th.

[IDemo]

8. And Lincoln was a Republican who would be bashed relentlessly on Fox News now

Neither party has little if any relevance to their 19th Century identities.

[Rex]

11. You should read more about history, you would find out why the parties are reversed today.

OTOH, I think we still have some Dixiecrats in the party fucking it up for the rest of us. Dixiecrats and libertarians need to go.

[AleksS]

15. I for one am proud to be of the party the KKK ran AWAY FROM

I for one am proud to be of the party the KKK ran AWAY FROM instead of the party it is running TO.

I think there's a difference there.

[MrScorpio]

21. Of course, you would say that. nt

[zappaman]

26. Welcome to DU!

How long do you intend on staying?

[JustAnotherGen]

36. Person has been around since 2007

[zappaman]

37. I know.

[JustAnotherGen]

48. Ha!

thanks you!

[Nevernose]

50. Nice.

My favorite bit of the movie is where he identifies Colonel Sanders as Chairman Mao.

[uponit7771]

27. The KKK was found by conservatives... funny you leave that out in a useless counter point...

[gollygee]

44. Are you totally ignorant of history?

I've heard different reasons for the shift in voting between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. One is that racist Democrats (including the KKK) stopped voting for Democrats in 1964 due to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Another is that voting shifted with FDR in the 1930s because he was a democrat who was obviously not pushing the "small federal government" thing that Southerners liked. Either way, I don't believe you are ignorant enough to think that the Civil War era Democratic and Republican parties line up with the current Democratic and Republican parties.

[villager]

2. And we let the terrorists continue to win, when Democrats are steered rightward...

...to appeal to these Klan-spawned GOP voters...

[VanillaRhapsody]

3. I KNOW....there are lots of places in the south where a Liberal is considered a social pariah....

seriously. Because people in the rural South are very into "identity" they almost wear uniforms.....either they are wearing camo or golfing clothes....that is pretty much it...They are very easily manipulated because they have a very strong desire to "fit in" and demand social conformity...

THAT is why so many Southern Whites are no longer voting for Democrats....they will be ostracized by their communities...they will be shamed for it...

I am soooo glad I left...

[arcane1]

6. Country music plays a role in that identity too.

When I visited my parents this last time, one of the hits was about a loser who drives a Prius and doesn't know how to fish

[Odin2005]

57. I that the "I'm still a guy" song?

[arcane1]

58. I think it's called "He Can't Bait a Hook" or something similar.

[Matrosov]

9. Liberals hate 'Murica

That is very true, and when you don't fit neatly into their restrictive mold of what a 'real' American is (e.g. white, Christian, heterosexual, loves football, drives a truck, listens to country music, has more guns than teeth) then you're automatically dismissed as a liberal, regardless of your politics.

Not that 'liberal' is an insult to any normal person, many wear it as a badge of honor, but here in the deep South it's just another way (along with 'socialist' and 'communist' and lots of other words) to paint someone has being anti-American, un-American, and wanting to destroy the American way of life (which in their minds consists of opposing anything that could be described as 'liberal').

It's extremely divisive but one has to admit they do an excellent job of scaring people for whom subjects like race and religion and sexual orientation might otherwise not be an important issue into wanting to conform to that narrow minded view of what a 'real' American is meant to be.

[VanillaRhapsody]

10. EXACTLY....they are dangerously close to fascists...they demand conformity...

[Rex]

13. True, you can get beat up by a gaggle of bubbas if you talk about being a liberal.

Of course, sticking with tradition, they have no idea why they reflexively react to the word 'liberal' with anger and rage. Same with words like 'socialism' and 'Obama'. They are trigger words brainwashed into their head by Foxnews as being somehow evil and wrong.

They are the people that get called 'sheeple'. Yet they remind me more of lemmings.

[VanillaRhapsody]

14. They hate Hillary Clinton...but when you press them why....they cannot come up with a single thing..

[Rex]

17. True, although I think I've never seen anyone hated on like Obama.

I live in south Texas and people here practically spit his name out. Some of them can barely contain themselves enough to keep from calling him the N word in public.

[VanillaRhapsody]

20. I have heard him called that word a number of times...including by my father..

[Rex]

33. I lost some friends after 2008, but that is okay because they were low key racists

and I never knew it.

[VanillaRhapsody]

34. Me to...it really culled the herd around me...

I moved north and left those folks behind...I have even kicked a couple of relatives out of my house for being racists....they were always shocked by that.

[Matrosov]

18. ..or you get circular nonsense

"Hillary hates 'Murica!"

What makes you think she hates America?

"Cause she's a no good socialist!"

What makes you think she's a socialist?

"Cause Hillary hates 'Murica!"

[hifiguy]

19. That is a perfect distillation of Ignorant America's mindset.

Dumber than a sack of hammers and proud of it. Zero critical thinking skills. They hate real education and people with real educations (No, the Bob Jones, Falwell and Robertson diploma mills and their ilk do NOT count as real education). Gawd and Gunz rule. And the idiots are everywhere in the US, albeit there seem to be more of them in the south judging by the electoral results.

[VanillaRhapsody]

22. and they think they "just have a difference of opinion" than you...as IF there are two sides to

every issue....they are brainwashed to think in only Conservative or Liberal thoughts....So no amount of evidence to the contrary of their narrow world view can sway them because they think all YOUR legitimate sources are inferior to theirs, from Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, World Nut Daily, Drudge, Sean Hannity, to Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh they are the ONLY sources of information for them...they think EVERYTHING else is as biased as those guys. So they can feel justified listening even though they know its all bullshit....they think for example that MSNBC is the exact opposite of Fox News....

Just this week I was trying to show this numb nuts that Black people are not more criminal or violent than White people, by showing stats that say exactly that from the FBI website.....the FBI! They dismissed it out of hand....apparently the FBI has a Liberal bias too!

[hifiguy]

23. I wrote a 6,000 word essay in large part about media propaganda

that is supposed to be published on worldnewstrust.com this week thanks to calimary.

Will link it when it goes up.

[VanillaRhapsody]

24. Thanks....thats the bane of the Democratic Party existance... Marketing...they don't hire marketers.

[Matrosov]

28. Our strength is our weakness

Progressives like to think about others and aren't inherently self-centered. We also prefer to approach all problems with an attitude of cooperation and goodwill rather than deciding who or what is the boogeyman du jour and then trying to destroy the problem (remember "You are either with us or you are against us"?)

It's our strength, but it is also our weakness in that we aren't very good at marketing ourselves, since we lack the narcissistic tendencies that give conservatives such a good marketing ability. Besides, few things are a better motivator than fear, and while conservatives prefer to scare each other into believing that African-Americans, homosexuals, Muslims, and foreigners, are out to get them, progressives prefer to try to inspire others.

[VanillaRhapsody]

29. Exactly...very astute and succinctly put...

[Rex]

32. Good deal, will be looking forward to reading it.

The M$M is such a damaging body in some ways toward the nation imo.

[jwirr]

30. I wonder if they even remember who lifted them out of the Great Depression? TVA? Government

spending on military bases in the south. NASA. And all the other things that proceed from that era? They have let themselves be captured by racism and forgotten all the rest.

[Rex]

35. They put everyone that is a Dem, in the socialist/Marxist category.

Their brains are so full of lies, I doubt they even know or remember the truth. IMO, it is a form of virtual brain rot brought on by watching fast food news and not getting any exercise in the critical thinking department.

[jwirr]

38. And being educated in private schools that refuse to teach any of the truth. Do they even know that

much of the money the government spend today is still going to those programs?

[Rex]

42. Probably not, if it was up to their conservative private schools everyone would be

taught that God created America and taxes were invented by the Liberal Devil.

[maryellen99]

39. They also believe that Dems are all on government assistance too nt

[Rex]

41. Yes and that all GOPers are somehow magically able to take care of themselves

without any need from the government...like I said, they are really really far gone into the dark madness.

[maryellen99]

47. Agree nt

[One_Life_To_Give]

46. And it wouldn't have anything to do with a condescending attitude toward country folk? nt

[cordelia]

54. You really don't have a clue, do you?

This is some of the most elitist bullshit I've ever had the pleasure of ridiculing on this board.

[Kalidurga]

7. I just can't figure out why people think Republicans are racists

it's like objective information doesn't exist or something. I think the Republican party seriously needs to become something else, the way they are now is a cancer in this country.

[msongs]

12. white + christian + republican, it's the new trinity nt

[jwirr]

31. The new triune God.

[KamaAina]

16. Not The Onion, either.

[mb999]

25. The GOP has merged with the KKK

Other than the costumes they're indistinguishable

[ileus]

40. Been here for 44 years without seeing anything KKK related except in movies and here on DU.

Am I missing something, or is someone full of crapola.

[Dawgs]

43. DUers like to bash the South. Makes them feel superior, or something.

[gollygee]

45. KKK isn't just in the south

We had a neighbor who was found out to be a member of the KKK in Michigan around 1979-1980.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a very close relationship between the leadership of the KKK and the Tea Party. IMO they've just rebranded.

[Dawgs]

52. Yep. We had skinheads in Toledo when I lived there..sure they're still around.

[cordelia]

53. Yeah, I never did get that.

It's a form of, oh what's the word I'm looking for, that's allowed, if not celebrated at DU.

[Matrosov]

56. It should make them feel superior

I live in the deep South. Most things people on DU say about the South are not an exaggeration. Some things they say don't go far enough.

There's no reason DUers living in the South should take offense. Obviously those statements aren't aimed at them. When someone points out the rampant racism down here, that doesn't mean every DUer from the South is a racist.

[Dawgs]

59. I currently live in the deep South. I spent the first half of my life in the North (Toledo & MI).

The problem isn't that there's racism in the South. It's that there is ALSO a lot of racism in the North. It's not a South only problem. That's why they shouldn't feel superior.

[Thinkingabout]

49. I am from the south, I have seen KKK activity, I lived in Livingston Parish where David Duke had a

KKK office. I saw the crosses burning, I suspected members of the KKK but was never brave enough to ask. I have lived elsewhere and whether they profess to be KKK or similar in their beliefs it has definitely become a part of the KKK. There are a lot of Dixiecrats in the GOP and of course let us never deny a lot of single issue voters who are ANTI-ABORTION, it is the single most important issue, doesn't matter how much the GOP cuts off their noses they just take shorter breaths.

The most important thing is there are more Democrats than Republicans, why are we getting beat at the ballot box, we have one excuse after another why we don't vote or just too damn lazy. Two thirds of the eligible voters did not vote in 2014, I would bet lots of them are Democrats. We should be excited to take back Congress and local and state offices if Democrats turn out. We have to organize better than we did this year.

[Nevernose]

51. I've actually seen quite a bit in Las Vegas

It came to a head maybe ten years ago, when I had the son of the local KKK in my high school class. We spend a great deal of time talking/writing/discussing issues (thematically I tend to teach from a social justice perspective). I also learned a lot about the history, attitudes, and make up of the Klan.

I don't judge children -- ever, for any reason -- but it was difficult for me to listen to him at times. He had a right to his opinion and we had a parent teacher conference to that effect. In the end I think it was ultimately for the good: at least he was honest in opinions and furthered the discussion. Ironically, this was literally one of the toughest high schools in the nation.

I'm Facebook friends with many former students. Last time I looked he had a Mexican girlfriend so maybe I did a little bit of good.

Side note: I grew up half the time in East Texas. I once got the shit kicked out of me by total strangers for wearing an "end racism" t-shirt. In my opinion (and Malcolm X's), there are just as many racists in the North as the South, but the Southerners are more honest about it.

[maced666]

55. lol me either. more Bigfoot sightings.

I've heard references on the news but never seen or heard from them directly or heard anything from friends or family.