Real home of racism is Democratic Party

According to letter writer Walt Zlotow (July 17), the Republican Party is a racist party, because David Duke has decided to run for president as a Republican, and because the southern states shifted to the Republican Party when Democrat Lyndon Johnson successfully led the effort to make civil rights legislation law. David Duke was a wizard in the Ku Klux Klan and managed to gain notoriety by winning an election for state representative in Louisiana.

Naturally, the historical context is more interesting. The Republican Party was founded specifically to abolish slavery. The KKK became the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party. Neither Democratic Presidents Woodrow Wilson nor Franklin D. Roosevelt nor Harry Truman could have won elections without the help of the KKK.

Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who died just a few years back, earned his place in Democratic politics as a recruiter for the KKK. In the 50 or so years that he served, the Democratic leadership did not oppose his re-elections as the Republican leadership opposed Duke. Curiously, during Duke’s campaign for governor, James Meredith, a famous civil rights leader, endorsed Duke.

Conservative pundit William F. Buckley opposed the civil rights legislation of 1964, because he feared that it would become a weapon for reverse discrimination. Democratic presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey objected. He said, if that were true, he would eat his hat. Fast forward 37 years: just the other day, a federal appellate court struck down a law passed by the people of Michigan to ban racial discrimination. The two jurists who voted to strike down the law were Democrats.

Neither Walt Zlotow nor David Duke can make this go away: The natural home of racism is the Democratic Party.

George Kocan

Warrenville