The Republican Party was founded by abolitionists who saw that slavery was a great human evil that must be eradicated from the American land. Abraham Lincoln was a moderate when it came to the abolition of slavery. He famously stated he wanted to save the Union whether it required freeing all the slaves or none. The Democratic Party was the party of Andrew Jackson that believed in killing American Indians, conquering Mexican territory, and slavery for blacks, and it fought tooth and nail against the Republican abolitionist movement. After the Civil War ended and Reconstruction began, the Democrats, both Northern and Southern, opposed the Republican passed civil rights laws and amendments, and after repealing what was left of Reconstruction imposed Jim Crow laws in the former slave-holding states. After the Civil War and until the 1960s, the Republican party was the “black party” in the south, and it was said that most southerners would vote for a yellow dog if it was a Democrat rather than voting for a Republican. That made them Yellow Dog Democrats. All the famous civil libertarians until the 1950s and 60s were Republicans. The NAACP was started by Republicans. Even Jackie Robinson was a Republican, as was Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is sad to me that so many blacks have left the Republican party since the 1960s. I believe that they left because they were led by demagogues who did not have good intentions. Certainly they have been abused by the Democratic Party, which depends on black Americans for votes but passes policies to keep them in bondage, dependent on government handouts, living in dehumanizing and humiliating public housing, being indoctrinated in horrible public schools, and trapped in deteriorating city neighborhoods.
Barack Obama is running for President of the United States. I think there is a very good chance he will win. Despite the fact that he was abandoned by his black African father and raised by his white American mother and her parents, he has lived as a black man and gone to a militant black church for his adult life. He has risen to the top tier of politics in no time flat, while presenting himself as a totally black man (albeit a handsome and eloquent one) and a political cypher. So how is it that this nation, which has enabled Obama, who came from nothing, to arise to a few steps away from the most powerful office in the world, can possibly discriminate against people like him? And how does this get blamed on Republicans and not Democrats? Do Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice feel discriminated against in the Republican party?
The Republicans started as the anti-Slavery party. They were always for Liberty and against human Bondage. That hasn’t changed. The horror of slavery in the 19th century was banished. Now collectivism, excessive taxation, the destruction of rights to free speech, and the holocaust of abortion (disproportionately killing black babies, for what it’s worth) are terrible threats to American lives and freedoms, and Republicans oppose them while Democrats wish to impose them and spread them wider. And the threat of nuclear and biological weapons used in Jihad terrorism is a grave threat that all should recognize and oppose, but only Republicans seem to take seriously (despite the fact that the 9/11 planes attacked the Democratic strongholds of New York City and Washington DC). All these threats require adult responses, and by adult responses I do not mean pretending there is no threat, for while denial may be a typical adult response it lacks the other crucial attribute for responses, that they be responsible. An irresponsible response is not only tortured grammar but also a failure to follow logic and rationality.
Liberty is worth fighting for. That’s what Republicans believe.
Democrats should think about it.
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tag: Republicans, Slavery, Human Rights, Liberty
Wolf Pangloss 
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Excellent article. I guess great minds do think alike. 😉
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Typical of Conservatives, you twist the truth in order to make it appear “righteous” and to demonize the opposition. The Democrats were proponents of killing Native Americans, eh? Interesting, considering that legions of Cherokees fought on the side of the Confederacy only to be SLAUGHTERED by the Republican President Ulysses S. Grant in the infamous “Trail of Tears”. And until the abolition of slavery, the very same scoundrel kept his slaves, quoting “good help is hard to find”, upon being questioned of why no sooner release.
Are you aware of what initiated the Civil War? It was because the North was keeping Southern taxpayer monies and devoting it to industrializing the North, in cities such as Detroit. To much of a degree due to this and the apathy held towards Southern delegates, it was of little difference than “taxation without representation” fought against in the previous war. Of the South, less than 9% had any interaction with slaves; compare this with the fictitious imagery implanted today whereupon it is implied that most Southerners were slave-beating whites. How many in the North owned slaves? Per capita, the percentage does not greatly differ. The war had nothing to do with Slavery, and the Republicans were no “Anti-Slavery” party. And while the only truth you slide in is that Lincoln was apathetic towards the plight of the slaves, it should be mentioned that he was also quite the racist. I’ll leave you with a quote. If you have any integrity and ignorance of truth was your previous excuse, you will cease espousing such lies.
“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” – Lincoln, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 11/18/1858
Sangraal,
Interesting way to twist the truth in order to make it appear to be on the Democrat side. Unfortunately the party affiliation of the KKK is too well known for you to cover it up. Same party as Woodrow Wilson and FDR, who segregated Washington DC between them. And Abe Lincoln was on the other side.
You can have your own opinions. You cannot have your own truth. And the truth is that Republicans have always been the party that stood against human bondage, as opposed to communists, socialists, nazis, the KKK, and Democrats.
I expected such a response. However, the truth was by no means manipulated. Perhaps you’ve been asleep the past 8 years of Anti-Constitutional Jihad administered by the Republican administration, but the Patriot Act has ensured the unlawful arrest and the Constitutional breach of rights to a lawyer and a fair and speedy trail to an untold number of people based upon the color of their skin. Do you see things in only black? Personally, I see things as one “human race”. Racial profiling has always been in the hands of Republican leaders, and the people of Middle Eastern descent felt the same blows that the McCarthyist swine gave to anyone expected to be a “communist” in that era’s witch hunt, and prior to then, towards the Japanese following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And while it’s shown that the vast majority had NO terrorist affiliation, it matters not: this is America. Had it happened to any other person of color, hell would’ve been paid, but the Middle Easterners were this terms enemy… and since every single war we’ve had has started under the hands of a Republican, it can be rest assured that the next Republican president (and God forbid it is not McCain/Palin) will find another peoples to hate.
You have long had some wool pulled upon your eyes if you think that the GOP has and is anti-discriminatory. The bulk majority of all hate groups, especially those under the visage of religion (to include klan), are conservative and conservatives tend to aim towards voting Republican. The slavery problem of the Civil War was simply a mask for the issues already mentioned. Lincoln looked upon the slaves with the favor of your modern day klansman. Remember that the victors right the history books and the “truths” propagated will always be in absolute bias.