re: #308 palomino

Exactly. That meme is useless. Today’s Republicans ARE the Democrats of 50-150 years ago: predominantly southern, disproportionately rural.

Here’s the other thing. Those Dems of 150 years ago made a lot of noise about states rights. Aren’t these the same guys who also accuse the Dems of wanting a way too intrusive federal government? I know, I know, I’m asking a lot to expect consistency from these people. Honestly I admire the Republican Party’s record on race from 1854-1964. It’s just the last 50 years they’ve gone from being the party that championed banning lynching, the 13th through 15th amendments to being a party that actively courted those who voted for Thurmond in ‘48 and Wallace in ‘68. Reagan opened up a campaign where civil rights workers were kidnapped and later murdered with a speech about states rights, Nixon had the Southern Strategy, Bush I had Lee Atwater as his main guy, and Bush II got heat for speaking at Bob Jones which had for years prohibited interracial dating. I mean you just can’t point out that the Dems were a bunch of assholes on race in a time when 95% of my ancestors were still in Europe and ignore how for the past 50 years the Republicans have been total assholes too but I digress.