If they weren’t so dangerous, they would be laughable.
The Capitol community will pause for a few moments this week to honor Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and former D.C. resident whose statued likeness will be placed in the Capitol on Wednesday.
The statue’s dedication in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center has been a long time coming and has been celebrated on both sides of the aisle, from the office of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., to that of Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, who will host Douglass family descendents for an event surrounding the dedication.
And for D.C.’s Republican Party, it’s an opportunity to remind people that Douglass was a Republican active in District politics.
“He is the original urban Republican,” said D.C. GOP Chairman Ron Phillips.
The GOP can kiss my ass.
It’s better than their youth outreach:
http://www.salon.com/2013/06/17/gop_plan_to_appeal_to_millennials_make_abortion_funny/
Which reminds me. Last week I was walking along George Washington university’s campus and a GOP operative stopped by to ask me if I was willing to talk about their failed efforts with my age cohort. They were hanging around Starbucks so they had the general spot down lol. However, they wanted me to do it in front of a camera so I declined. I’m sure I would have been a good focus group member: “you can attract my vote when you go to the left of the Dems on every issue and stop being…white supremacists.”
You should have done it. They would never use the tape, but you should have done it anyway.
To be fair, the Republicans were the party of liberation of the blacks. It’s a fact of history. Lincoln was a republican. So were most of the important figures in the events that resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation.
Far from being fair, that’s just an added embarrassment in light of current circumstances.
That just shows how they have completely changed. Both parties have flipped position on race.
To be fair, the Plebian Party was really the party of common Romans.
When you reach back to the era of the daguerreotype to provide a picture of a non-racist Republican Party, that facts speaks for itself.
more accurate to say emancipation of enslaved people – many Black people of the time were free or freed
He is the original urban Republican, a constituency that no longer exists.
How long until they lock the bigots in the attic again?
Just who do they think they are going to influence by reminding folks they (were) the party of Lincoln?
Whether you are a GOP lover or hater, that’s likely just going to piss you off.
This whole theme of “The GOP is the party of civil rights- the Democrat party supported the KKK!!!” is meant to provide the comfort and rationale modern racists need in broader society. It is horribly ineffective as minority outreach. It is hard to believe they don’t recognize this.
I’m made to think of Rand Paul’s recent address at Howard University, where he “whitesplained” history to scholastically gifted African-Americans in the most insulting, condescending tone imaginable. A particularly outstanding example was when the Senator asked the audience if they knew that the NAACP had been established by Republicans. When they answered “YES!”, Rand feebly responded to their understandable anger by saying “OK, hey, I’m just trying to find out what you know.” The more he spoke, the deeper the hole.
It IS laughable that the version of the Republican Party that exists now would try to wrap itself in the flag of Emancipation glory. They do damage on a daily basis to deny equality to anyone other than their own idealized group.
The political parties shifted and morphed over decades, obviously. It only shows how pathetically desperate the tattered remains of the Republicans are now. I’m sure there are good and decent Republican representatives out there. Right? Somewhere?
I love that no matter where black people are from, or how they lived, they were “urban”
Inorite? Especially since the population of DC (which is what he’s talking about) in 1860 was 75,000. And for a lot of these guys that’s still their definition of a big city.
lol. especially since Frederick Douglass was born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, near Easton – still not exactly “urban” in their definition.
To be fair – and when it comes to Republicans I’m all about being fair – the Republicans were kind of stuck with Ron Phillips as DC GOP Chairman, because he’s actually the only Republican living in the District.
Because the four others(Yglesias, The McArgleBargle clan and Weigel) weren’t qualified?
That gives me an idea for how Democrats can win votes in Georgia and South Carolina–just tell them Sherman was a Republican.
Actually, as a resident of one of those states, I’m gonna try this on a bunch of my friends and relatives. Will post if it appears to have any impact. Of course, to get folks to vote for Dems here, the state party would have to actually field some candidates. They’ve no one at all to run against Chambliss. They tried to convince Barrow, but he wisely declined. Besides I don’t like him all that much either. He’s really a very blue Blue Dog democrat. But then, given our voting patterns, he’d have to be to retain his office. For that he deserves some kudos.