Thread by @ProfHansNoel

Kudos to @KevinMKruse for including political scientists in his rundown of experts disputing @DineshDSouza’s silly claim that there has not been a realignment on racial issues in American political parties. 1/x

https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1100823068174372868

Important b/c D’Souza not only mangles the history. He has a fals view of what a political party is. Parties, especially in the U.S., are coalitions -- meaning they bring together people who disagree, but who choose to set aside those disagreements. 2/x
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…

Managing those disagreements can be hard, but it’s what parties do. 3/x
faculty.georgetown.edu/hcn4/Downloads…

There is a persistent group in American politics that has opposed equality for racial minorities. That group was part of the Democratic coalition for a very long time. When they were, other Democrats tolerated and even welcomed them. 4/x

In the 1950s, the Democrats included both segregationists and some of the loudest voices against segregation. In the following decades, the racists left because of a fight among Democrats (and among liberals) that the segregationists lost. 5/x
faculty.georgetown.edu/hcn4/Downloads…

Today, that group is part of the Republican coalition, and conservative ideology has incorporated many of their interests. But, yes, of course, the GOP also includes many non-racist figures. It’s a coalition. 6/x

cambridge.org/core/books/pol…

Because the parties are coalitions, and people are complex, not every Democratis not as anti-racist as most in the party would expect. Hence Northam, Herring, Lisanti, and many others. 7/x

A focus on coalition politics helps clarify. Look at the strength of each coalition member in the party’s agenda, platform, activists, campaign rhetoric, legislative priorities and so on. The Democratic Party is increasingly enhancing the anti-racist element of its coalition. 8/x

Meanwhile, the Republican Party is, if anything, increasingly enhancing the anti-equality group element of its coalition. See, e.g., confederate monuments, #BlackLivesMatter, VRA, etc. The history is almost* irrelevant. The current coalition is the thing to examine. 9/x

*ALMOST irrelevant, because we can't understand this without tracing it. Which is why, contrary to what D'Souza claims, historians and political scientists (and sociologists, etc.) do trace it. They just trace it accurately. 10/10