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In honour of the latest of a long line of racist arguments from Steve King, a few choice quotes on the issue of "Western civilization."
Klan members in the 1920s were far from the only ones who feared that "civilization" was under threat.
See, for example, Calvin Coolidge's argument that "biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend" and that the "unassimilated" immigrant would "prey upon our institutions."
While Klan newspapers approvingly reprinted a warning by J.L. Galvin that "the existing supremacy of what we call Western civilization will be severely reduced ... and the balance of the changing world may even be turned against all the white races."
The Klan positioned itself as the foremost protector of this "Western civilization." The Imperial Wizard proclaimed that "the enemies of civilization realized that at last a competent defender of America had arisen."
To stand against the "evils which would destroy justice and betray humanity," one Klan newspaper argued, meant basing all hopes "for the saving of western civilization" on the "chivalry, honor, industry and love" of the Ku Klux Klan.
It was used as a means of arguing for Prohibition, contending that, "Civilization necessarily spells restriction. The [founding] fathers did not die for the right to drink."
It was a means of attacking sexual freedom - "God save our civilization! We are come to dangerous times indeed when there are no sacred secrets for women to blush over."
While divorce "means the disintegration of the home, of society and government, and eventually no less thing than a return to barbarism - the actual overthrow of civilization."
And - over and over - Klan publications warned that immigration would "undermine and then overthrow the standards of civilization in this country."
Long before Steve King, the Iowa Klan pushed for the restriction of the "low grade of immigration," "aliens of so low a standard of civilization...that the body politic has been hurt."
These defenses of "civilization" were overtly rooted in white supremacism: "The Negro, though existing at least as long as the white race, has never made a single contribution to civilization. He is at the bottom of the line of human races, while the Caucasian is at the top."
Which is all a long way to say that Steve King's comments were not new, were not surprising, and - for all his denials - are fundamentally racist.
