Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (42207)	4/17/2005 12:15:11 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Democrats have racist history Randall Thomason Sidelines (Middle Tennessee State U.) (U-WIRE) MURFREESBORO, Tenn.—Consistent readers of my column may remember my Nov. 12, 2003 piece entitled “Dems get free pass on race,” I focused on Howard Dean’s confederate flag comments, Senate Democrats’ filibustering minority court appointees and large Democrat opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. On April 1, another sterling example of the hideous double standard that exists between Democrats and Republicans arose on the Senate floor when Democrat Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut spoke about his colleague from West Virginia, Sen. Robert Byrd, another Democrat. There’s nothing politicians love more than to praise each other, and this particular speech was to honor Sen. Byrd’s 17,000th Senate vote. Dodd stood up and said the following: “I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia that he would’ve been a great senator at any moment. Some were right for the time. Robert C. Byrd, in my view, would have been right at any time.” He went on to say that Sen. Byrd would have been right at the founding of this country and right during the Civil War. So what’s the big deal? Here are the highlights of Sen. Byrd’s past: He was a member of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1940s; he was a staunch opponent of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, even resorting to filibustering the legislation in an attempt to kill it; he was the only senator in American history to vote against confirming Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, the only two African-Americans ever appointed to the nation’s highest court; he repeatedly used the ‘N-word’ in an interview with Fox News in March 2001. So let’s imagine the firestorm that would’ve erupted if a Republican senator (say, Mississipian Trent Lott) had commented that a man with Byrd’s track record would have been right for America during the Civil War, a war fought over slavery. Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and all the rest of the elite liberal crowd would be banging down the door of that senator’s office, demanding he be removed from government at that very second. So where’s the outrage now? Of course the answer lies in Dodd’s party affiliation; he is a liberal Democrat from New England, so he gets an automatic free ride on any issue dealing with race. I’ll even take this discussion a step further. What would happen if a Republican had Byrd’s background? Every sentence in the media about that person would begin with some form of the following: “Republican (fill in a hypothetical name here), former KKK member and renowned opponent of civil rights...” Such is not the case for Byrd, again because he’s a Democrat. A majority of people in this country probably have no clue about Byrd’s past because the elite media outlets ignore it. This type of a blatant double standard is mind blowing. Again, let’s review. Lott said in 2002 that we may not be dealing with some of the problems in this country we have now if the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond had won the 1948 presidential election, a campaign in which he advocated continued segregation. Lott is subsequently removed from his post as majority leader and burned at the stake by the media. On April 1, 2004, Dodd said that a man who once wore the white robes of the KKK would have been right for America during the Civil War. Cue media outrage now. Still waiting ... and waiting. OK, I guess it’s not coming. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Webmaster: Aaron Vanderpoel Copyright © 2004, Columbia Chronicle Columbia Chronicle articles, photos, and graphics are the property of the Columbia Chronicle and may not be reproduced or published without written permission from the staff, editors, or faculty advisor. The Columbia Chronicle is a student produced publication of Columbia College Chicago and does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of Columbia College administrators, faculty or students. ccchronicle.com