Klansville USA (American Experience) showed striking similarities to today.

[Hamlette]

In the 1950's and 60's the Klan had a resurgence. The American Experience episode came out Jan of 2015 but a repeat is airing this week. The episode follows Bob Jones (not THAT Bob Jones) the Grand Dragon of North Carolina and who built that state's chapter to over 10,000 dues paying members.

The show argues that whites were attracted to the Klan because they felt economically disadvantaged and forgotten by the government.* Sound familiar? Sounds like the explanation of Trump voters to me. In fact, Bob Jones is a Trump like figure, failed at every job he ever had except stirring up racism, or at least capitalizing on it.

* There were other reasons too, obviously, as explained in the show. The civil rights movement was a huge factor.

If you get a chance to see it, or if you have, was it as striking to you as to me? I guess its the ugly face of populism (which I used to think was a good thing).

[Warpy]

1. Yeah, I was there

I remember the Bobby Jones years all too well. They soured me on the south forever. All that shit is always just under the surface.

And not just in the south, I know it's in the upper midwest, also.

That doesn't make the scars any shallower.

[guillaumeb]

2. The 1950s and 1960s were also a time when working class people

made large gains due to a relatively robust economy and the fact that a large sector of the workforce was unionized. But even at that time, rural and Southern America lagged behind the more industrialized areas of the country.