How lacking we are in a legitimate comprehension of our very own history

Major ideologue shift from "Honest" Abe … 

It is an argument I often hear from ideologues about how the Democratic Party (although they usually leave off the “ic” out of a lame attempt to diminish the Dems image) is the one that gave us segregation and bigotry.

The ones who argue that the Republican Party is the so-called “Party of Lincoln” that freed the slaves and is the one that has done far more for black people than the open hostility they have received from Democratic politicos.

… to "Fake News" Donald

BUT IT IS one I heard again Tuesday from someone who felt compelled to turn to Facebook to say that that, “a vote for a Democrat is a vote for the party that fought a war to keep my ancestors enslaved.”

That same African-American individual also felt compelled to write, “even an illiterate, newly-freed slave knew not to vote for a Democrat.”

Writing as one who just over a week ago went to an early voting center in Cook County and cast a ballot that deliberately went against every single Republican option as a way of undermining President Donald Trump’s influence for the next two years, I’d have to retort that some people truly are dangerous in the way they try to use historic allusions to defend nonsensical historic claims.

Figures such as FDR, along with … 

Yet this woman’s Facebook ramblings are not unique. I’m sure I will hear similar nonsense-thoughts expressed again even after “Election ‘18” is long over-and-done with.

NOW I’M NOT about to deny that the original Republican Party that our state’s very own “Honest Abe” was a part of was eager to maintain the “union” of our nation, and was the opposition to the segregationists who were more than willing to engage in war to preserve the “Southern Way of life” that included chattel slavery.

… JFK and LBJ (below) influenced Dems shift … 

After our nation’s (very un-)Civil War, it was the structure of the Democratic Party that elected government officials who tried to evade the spirit of the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th amendments to the Constitution that essentially granted equality to all regardless of race by giving us the policies of “Jim Crow” throughout the South.

… away from segregation ways, … 

But anybody who thinks that’s the extent of the story is spewing nonsense more fake than anything Donald Trump has tried to proclaim as truth.

The reality is that the political parties began to shift back in the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt as president – who expressed some support for more progressive ideals and made them a part of the Democratic platform. Although one could honestly say FDR’s support for such ideals were more the doing of first lady Eleanor who got him to do things he might not otherwise have bothered with.

THEN CAME THE Civil Rights years of the 1950s-60s, which John F. Kennedy gave lip service to, but became reality with Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964.

… so naturally, Trump admires Jackson

That act passed with an off-beat combination of Democrats and just enough Republicans who didn’t oppose integrationist ideals to overcome those political people who seriously thought there was truth to the slogan, “Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow, and Segregation forever!”

As for those who thought there was legitimacy to the “old ways,” they were the ones who made the shift from the Democrats to the Republicans, led largely by the influence of Richard Nixon and later by Ronald Reagan who made the "seggies" feel welcome to the point where their grandchildren now run the GOP and make it quite less grand every time Trump opens his mouth.

Which means those people who try to claim that Democrats are the party of segregation and the old horrid ways are ignoring the massive transformation that occurred in our political structure.

NIXON: Won on a 'Southern' strategy

WHAT MAKES IT more ridiculous is when those same people try to argue that the reason the Democrats no longer represent what they view as “real” people is because of this shift. As though Dems gave up public interests to focus on these racial issues.

I also find it odd that Trump himself has often tried to claim a bipartisan nature of his own political ideology by claiming support and admiration for the presidency of Andrew Jackson. That early 19^th Century figure who was one of the first Democrats to be elected president and who often was backed by those who saw a sense of legitimacy to the old segregationist ways of our society.

Personally, I think people are entitled to vote how they want to. I comprehend that some black voters find a sense of hypocrisy in backing Democrats who seem more concerned with their own self-interests than anything involving the electorate.

So if this woman doesn’t want to vote for Democrats, that’s her business. Just realize that I (and just about anybody who’s ever read a history book of any type) are going to disregard her thoughts as the nonsense-ramblings of an ideologue – which actually is what she has in common with our incumbent president.

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