Thread by @KevinMKruse

This whole thread shows how people who don't understand this history can get things wildly wrong.

The Democratic senators he references here were all longtime conservative segregationists. Their elections *confirm* the charges against Nixon instead of refute them.

Let's look:

https://twitter.com/dom_lucre/status/1649181268964265985

Arkansas Democrat John McClellan: signer of the Southern Manifesto who attacked Eisenhower for sending troops to Little Rock and called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the "Discrimination Act of 1964."

In 1972, the American Conservative Union gave him an 80% conservative rating.

Mississippi Democrat James Eastland: one of *the* most prominent segregationists in the Senate, the powerful Judiciary Committee chairman said he had a special coat with pockets to bury civil rights bills.

1972 ACU rating: 67% (due to missed votes)

Alabama Democrat John Sparkman: yet another longterm segregationist who stood in opposition to civil rights throughout the 1950s and 1960s

1972 ACU rating: a perfect 100% conservative!

The quoted thread says that Democrats were "re-elected" from Louisiana and Georgia in 1972, but that's not true.

Incumbent senators in both states had died, were replaced by interim figures, and then new Democrats elected.

The New Democrat in Georgia was Sam Nunn, who was regarded at the time as another conservative in the tradition of the state party.

(No ACU rating as he was a state rep before running)

In Louisiana, incumbent Dem Allen Ellender -- who'd vowed to "defend white supremacy" as long as he was in the Senate; 68% ACU lifetime rating there -- died in 1971.

The new Dem, Bennett Johnston had defended segregation as a young lawyer and would attack busing in the Senate.

People mostly remember Bennett as the man who fended off David Duke when the Klan leader got the Republican nomination for Senate in 1990.

So ... comparatively speaking, not *that* bad?

latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

Anyway, this is a long way of noting that if you assume "Democrat" means "liberal" when you dig into the past, you're going to wind up making claims that sound pretty idiotic.

Like "Nixon voters also voted for legendary segregationist Jim Eastland, how could they be racist?"

It won't surprise anyone that this pile of ahistorical nonsense was praised as Good, Actually by

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1649372964926660615