No, the man who was busy assuring that he had no problems with Klan membership was one President Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR made the assurance not to just anyone, either. He made it to Alabama progressive Democrat and senator Hugo Black — when Black had been nominated by FDR to, yes indeed, the Supreme Court of the United States. Black revealed the conversation decades later in his memoirs because, yes indeed, he, Black, had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan himself.
This episode really tells us much more about Roosevelt than Black. There appears to be little doubt that he knowingly appointed a member of the Ku Klux Klan to the Supreme Court and saw nothing wrong with it since he had many “friends and supporters” who were also members.
The point here is very simple. There is no umbrage in the Democratic Party today about FDR and his “friends and supporters” in the Klan because, in fact, then, now — and always — the Democrats have been the Party of Race. Ralph Northam is not some sort of exception — he is the rule. This is, recall, the party that celebrates progressive icon and president Woodrow Wilson — he the Democrat who segregated the federal government and show-cased the Klan supporting the film Birth of a Nationwith a showing at the White House.
As Dan Flynn reminds, before Northam, Democrats didn’t just dress up as Klansmen — they were the Klan.
The six presidential platforms that supported slavery. When slavery was defeated, the party quickly moved to support for segregation, either supporting it outright or being silent on the subject in 20 presidential platforms from 1868 to 1948.
There is more to this — oh so much more — but the point is crystal clear. This heavy dependence on racism to win elections is not some lurid past. And Ralph Northam is far from alone in his party right this minute.
Oh, so pious. Oh, so righteous. And phony as the proverbial three-dollar bill.
Did either Hillary or Biden refuse to speak at Sharpton’s events, saying that Sharpton must go from any and all influence in their party because he has been captured on tape going on about “Chinamen,” “Greek homos,” “punk faggots” and “n****rs”? Of course not.
The hard political fact is that the American Left, having built an entire political apparatus on racism, is going to keep right on playing the race card to win elections — and no one in their leadership is going to call for this to stop.
And don’t forget the media. Where are the calls at CNN and MSNBC and the Times and the Post for Sharpton’s head? Silence. Except for MSNBC — which has made a point of giving Sharpton a television show.
What this entire Northam incident has illustrated is — yet again — just how obsessed with race is the American Left and the Democratic Party. In moving from supporting slavery to supporting segregation to now supporting the son of segregation — identity politics — the party has not moved at all.
What Ralph Northam has inadvertently illustrated over the last several days is just how race obsessed his party has, in fact, always been. And still is. With no Democrat having the political courage to stand up and say — enough.