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THREAD: Unable to prove the Dixiecrats became Republicans @KevinMKruse and his sidekicks have shifted to claiming they were “conservative.” This is a distortion that slyly exploits an ambiguity in the meaning of the term
Now one meaning of “conservative” is being opposed to change, holding to the status quo. Yes the Dixiecrats were conservative in this sense. They wanted to keep segregation. But this is not what modern conservatives mean by the term. We oppose the staus quo; we want change
Of course the change we want is a return to the principles of the American revolution. That is what we seek to conserve. Lincoln explicitly called himself a conservative in this sense. Modern conservatives—and today’s GOP—are in that Lincoln tradition
Now a fair assessment of the Dixiecrats shows that most of them were deeply anti-Communist in foreign policy and ardent New Dealers in economic policy. FDR condoned their bigotry because he counted on them for New Deal support. Ira Katznelson’s “Fear Itself” documents this
Case in point: Hugo Black. FDR knew he was a Ku Klan Klan lawyer. He told Black he didn’t mind; some of his best friends were in the KKK! He named Black to the Supreme Court because he wanted justices who supported his government programs. Black came through for him!
The Dixiecrats also generally supported Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. There were a few exceptions that Kruse dwells on, but exceptions don’t prove a rule. In the @KevinMKruse case, exceptions are typically invoked to CONCEAL the rule
What about anti-Communism? It was a bipartisan issue then. Remember it was Truman, a Democrat, who started the Cold War. JFK too was anti-Comunist. So the anti-Communism of the Dixiecrats was not a GOP or conservative position; it reflected a national consensus at the time
Yesterday one of Kruse’s allies @ProfMSinha tweeted out that Biden’s segregationist pals—Talmadge, Eastland, Hollings—switched parties and became Republicans. A big lie! None of them did. This is easy to verify
Yet no apology, no retraction, nothing from @ProfMSinha . And Kruse, who jumps on just about everything I say, maintains his silence when his own side puts out obvious lies. Why? Because the lies support the fake narrative he and other progressives are peddling.
The bottom line is that Biden let the cat out of the bag by admitting: 1. He was good buddies with segregationists 2. They were in his own party and 3. He considers them a model for civility and “getting things done” today. What could be more incriminating than that?
