Pot Calling the Kettle Lilly-White
Posted by Stephen Green · 19 December 2002
Reason's Charles Paul Freund reveals that the last real segregationist racist in the White House was a Democrat. Namely, the much-admired (by the Left), Woodrow Wilson:
What Wilson's election meant to the South was "home rule;" that is, license to pursue its racial practices without concern about interference from the federal government. That is exactly what the 1948 Dixiecrats wanted. But "home rule" was only the beginning. Upon taking power in Washington, Wilson and the many other Southerners he brought into his cabinet were disturbed at the way the federal government went about its own business. One legacy of post-Civil War Republican ascendancy was that Washington's large black populace had access to federal jobs, and worked with whites in largely integrated circumstances. Wilson's cabinet put an end to that, bringing Jim Crow to Washington.
I suppose Wilson's low-minded racism was forgivable, since he was a high-minded multilateralist.
Wilson was probably the worse President of the 20th Century - which is saying something if you knew my opinion of FDR and LBJ...
And not merely in domestic race relations, but in domestic repression ( the bulk of our free speech constitutional law precedent comes from the repressive laws of the Wilson administration during WWI ), foreign policy and more. The election of Harding was in large part a repudiation of the racist policies of the Democrats.
Dittos Robin, tho where's Jimmah?. There are two silver linings with Dixiegate. 1) Lott is forced out and when all is said and done, we pubs can point with pride to a job well done (alternative is too scary to think about but I think W will ratchet up pressure on wavering Senweasels) 2) Our great unwashed and brainwashed masses may get a little bit of a history lesson on 20th century race relations and which party did what to who- hint- its not the Arthur Schlesinger version we've been forcefed. Hear that Vodkaman.
