With gay marriage decided, what will be the next big left-led social change?

The first part is certainly possible, though far from a sure thing, but the point is still irrelevant. I guess I can't complain about you yanking this thread off on an irrelevant tangent given that you created it as a place to take potshots at the left.

 

My name is Robert B. and I'm ... uh, mistaken?

 

I'm not sure there's any reason to include Christian men, or men of extreme privilege in your qualifier, but otherwise I mostly agree with you.

We're talking about people who were products of their time, and who held views that were prevalent in their time.

And, racial views, across the political spectrum, have changed drastically over time.

And, there were racists in both parties before 1964, and there are racists in both parties in 2015.

But, only the Democratic Party thinks that they exiled every racist at some point in the 1970's, and that's just not true.

 

St. Reagan, 1981

Another key plank in the GOP platform is that the real racists are the Democrats. Just look at all those Klan members from however many years ago.

 

No. He's sorry he joined because it was used against him for the rest of his life, and it hurt his legacy. He never admits to being a racist, and he never admits that his klavern was racist.

And, he also knows it wasn't really a mistake, since it was his launching pad into politics, and Bill Clinton talked about this:

Former President Bill Clinton explained the late Sen. Robert Byrd's (D-W.V.) membership in the Ku Klux Klan Friday by claiming Byrd was simply trying to get elected.

Speaking at Byrd's funeral in Charleston today, Clinton seemed to criticize newspaper eulogies that dwelled on Byrd's association with the Klan.

"They mention that he once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, and what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means," Clinton said. "He was a country boy from the hills and hollows of West Virginia. He was trying to get elected. And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that's what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There certainly are no perfect politicians."

Byrd joined the KKK in 1942 and was elected leader of his local chapter. Byrd later claimed to have become "disinterested" after about a year.

Byrd vigorously opposed the integration of the military, and wrote in 1946 that the KKK was "needed today as never before."

Clinton says Byrd joined KKK to help him get elected | TheHill

 

I created it? Try again.

 

Interesting little tidbit you ignore ... "In this present crisis ..."

 

Disinterested after, say, being asked to go hang a negro?

 

Robert Byrd: I'm no longer interested in hanging negros from a tree. I don't know what came over me, it just doesn't hold the same appeal anymore. Besides, I'm busy with my political career now, so I'm going to have less time to play with you guys.

 

Whoops. My bad. Got it mixed up with the many, many others you create for that purpose.

Great. Now I CAN complain about you yanking this discussion off on an irrelevant tangent for the sole purpose of attacking Democrats.

 

Go back and look again at who started this tangent.

 

Philip Hart was a racist? When?

And yes, the year does matter. Times change. How about 1980? Coinciding with the year of Reagan's election, 35 years ago.