Wednesday, November 14, 2012

A movie quote from America's first Progressive President




American's first Progressive (i.e. Liberal) President, Woodrow Wilson was a great admirer of the Ku Klux Klan, and lent a line from his own textbook A History of the American People to D.W. Griffith's movie Birth of a Nation.

D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation glorified the original Klan, which was now a fading memory. Griffith's film was based on the book and play The Clansman and the book The Leopard's Spots, both by Thomas Dixon who said his purpose was "to revolutionize northern sentiment by a presentation of history that would transform every man in my audience into a good Democrat!" [emphasis mine]
The film created a nationwide craze for the Klan. At a preview in Los Angeles, actors dressed as Klansmen were hired to ride by as a promotional stunt, and real-life members of the newly reorganized Klan rode up and down the street at its later official premiere in Atlanta.
In some cases, enthusiastic southern audiences fired their guns into the screen. The film's popularity and influence were enhanced by a widely reported endorsement of its factual accuracy by historian and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson as a favor to an old friend. Much of the modern Klan's iconography, including the standardized white costume and the burning cross, are imitations of the film, whose imagery was itself based on Dixon's romanticized concept of old Scotland rather than on the Reconstruction Klan.


The Birth of a Nation includes extensive quotations from Woodrow Wilson's History of the American People, e.g., "The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation ... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country." Wilson, on seeing the film in a special White House screening on February 18, 1915, exclaimed, "It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." Wilson's family had sympathized with the Confederacy during the Civil War, and cared for wounded Confederate soldiers at a church. When he was a young man, his party had vigorously opposed Reconstruction, and as president he resegregated the federal government for the first time since Reconstruction. 
Given the film's strong Democratic partisan message and Wilson's documented views on race and the Klan, it is not unreasonable to interpret the statement as supporting the Klan, and the word "regret" as referring to the film's depiction of Radical Republican Reconstruction. Later correspondence with the film's director, D.W. Griffith, confirms Wilson's enthusiasm about the film. Wilson's remarks were widely reported and immediately became controversial. Wilson tried to remain aloof from the controversy, but finally, on April 30, he issued a non-denial denial. His endorsement of the film greatly enhanced its popularity and influence, and helped Griffith to defend it against legal attack by the NAACP; the film, in turn, was a major factor leading to the creation of the second Klan in the same year.

Progressive Democrat Wilson, like most Southern progressive Democrats, had a ferocious disdain for blacks. He barred blacks from Princeton when he was president of the university, and he re-segregated the federal civil service and the army as President (both had been integrated by Republicans since Reconstruction). His Progressive Democrat colleagues and descendants segregated the South. Wilson was the patriarch of modern Democrat big-government liberalism, of which segregation was one of its more extensive social engineering projects. FDR served as a junior official in his administration, and merely carried on the enormous expansion of government that Wilson had so aggressively started.

The salient characteristic of modern Liberalism/Progressivism is not racial justice. It is big government social engineering, of which segregation was a vibrant cog. When Progressive Democrats squeezed the last drops of political juice out of segregation in the 1960's, they dropped the old moniker, called themselves Liberals, and squeezed the heck out of affirmative action and forced busing and any system of race-baiting and racial bean-counting they could get away with. They're still doing it. Old habits die hard.

Social engineering according to race and political manipulation of racial fear are the desiderata of Liberalism/Progressivism.  A color-blind society is anathema to Liberal Progressive Democrats.

43 comments:

  1. Sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose. Guess who wrote this:

    "the central question that emerges... is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas where it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes – the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race."

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    1. Well, let's not forget the dressing.

      The author of that quote repudiated his earlier stance. Woodrow Wilson held his view until the day he died.

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    2. Yes, and let's not forget that one of them lived at the beginning of the 20th century, while the other at its end.

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    3. Who ever it was he certainly had a concept of 'race'. No mention of 'tribes' or 'peoples'.
      I wonder if he had seen those pictures of the 'tree of life' with orangs and 'negroes' on the same branch?
      Seems he found justification in SCIENCE.

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  2. And this:

    "As you go through life, however, you will experience an ever larger number of encounters with black Americans. Assuming your encounters are random—for example, not restricted only to black convicted murderers or to black investment bankers—the Law of Large Numbers will inevitably kick in. You will observe that the means—the averages—of many traits are very different for black and white Americans, as has been confirmed by methodical inquiries in the human sciences.
    ...
    Thus, while always attentive to the particular qualities of individuals, on the many occasions where you have nothing to guide you but knowledge of those mean differences, use statistical common sense:

    Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.

    Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods."

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    1. "Nationally, nearly half of all murder victims are black. And the overwhelming majority of those black people are killed by other black people."
      Juan Williams, cited in The Atlantic, 2012

      Personally speaking, I neither smoke nor do I visit high-crime, high-violence neighborhoods.

      If you do either, perhaps we can all look forward to a slightly diminished level of left-wing gibbering.

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    2. Heavily black neighborhood does not equal high crime neighborhood. And if you understood math you might understand that Juan Williams claim does not come close to equating to the previous quotation. Thank you for demonstrating the point.

      Boo

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    3. And remember folks, racism is a liberal trait. Michael Egnor says so.

      Boo

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    4. Racism is not a liberal trait. There are racists of all political persuasions.

      Race-baiting is a liberal trait. And large-scale social engineering, which is pre-requisite for racist government, is a liberal trait.

      A conservative racist is offensive.

      A liberal racist creates Jim Crow, and uses race to gain political advantage.

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    5. Once again Mr. Egnor, just saying something does not actually make it true. Why don't you try actually learning things? It's not as hard as it first looks. Race-baiting as used by conservatives is a meaningless buzz term, and if you actually believe that right wingers have never engaged in social engineering... well, I guess we already established you know nothing of history or political science.

      But what they heck, I'll give it another go. Try to pay attention here: The purpose of Jim Crow was to ensure continued white dominance after blacks had been freed from slavery. As such, it was an attempt to preserve the status quo power structure. Ergo, it was inherently conservative. Twist yourself in knots to deny it all you want, but that is a fact whether you like it or not.

      Boo

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    6. So when you voted to preserve Obama in his job, you were voting conservative?

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    7. I didn't vote for Obama, and voting for the center leftist over the conservatives wouldn't be conservative. The left romanticizes the future, the right romanticizes the past. This is pretty basic. Double fail Mr. Egnor.

      Boo

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  3. I’ve worked at a few different companies in the same technical community for over 20 years. I know these people quite well, and without exception, the ones that have made overtly racist comments over the years are all Republican voting conservatives. The same holds true for my extended family. Climbing into the way-back machine to find resist liberals from 50 to 100 years ago does little to change the modern reality that common experience tells us is true.

    -KW

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    1. Your unverifiable anecdotal experiences are compelling. I suppose the debate is over, now.

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    2. 46% of Mississippi Republicans polled in April 2011 said interracial marriage should be illegal.

      Boo

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    3. There is no debate. There are only liars like Egnor trying to hide the truth by dredging up ancient history.

      -KW

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    4. If Wilson is ancient history, what does that make slavery? Slavery was an evil institution. It's also been illegal for 147 years, and yet no discussion on race is complete without a soliloquy on slavery. I wouldn't mind hearing about it if didn't serve three purposes: to explain why blacks can't be held to the same standards as everyone else, to excuse very bad behavior on the part of blacks, and to explain why blacks are entitled to special favors.

      Wilson was elected the same year my grandmother was born. He's not ancient history, you just don't want to talk about him.

      His progressive (ideological) cousin, Franklin Roosevelt has a similar record on race. He appointed a KKK member to the supreme court and locked up Japanese-Americans. He did nothing to desegregate the Armed Forces. Yet he is the penultimate big government liberal, still widely respected. Nancy Pelosi said in 2009, that three words proved that the Democrats aren't out of ideas: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Sure, he had some good ones, like...Uh, let me think here...internment camps?

      Do you want me to explain your non-scientific, anecdotal observations about racism and party affiliation? You're a liberal, and as such basically paranoid schizophrenic or close to it. You see racism everywhere, at least among those other people that you hate--conservatives. You inject race into discussions that have nothing to do with it. You hear "dog whistles" everywhere. If a person says that welfare has become a way of life for too many people, you hear "I hate black people." If a person says that a photo ID should be required to vote, you hear "I don't want brown people voting."

      Yet you see nothing racist about the fanatical dedication of 99% of black America to this president. You see nothing racist in hiring and promotion schemes that afford minorities special treatment. You see nothing wrong with separatist black professional organizations, black dorm floors, black graduations, black proms. You see nothing racist about the rash of fake hate crimes that blacks perpetrate against themselves in order to perpetuate the myth of racist white America.

      The Torch

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    5. @Torch:

      Well said.

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    6. You hear "dog whistles" everywhere.

      Yeah, like my co-worker who referred to “fucking spicks” a couple of years ago; Turns out he (very predictably) hates Nancy Pelosi and voted for Romney.

      You’re in denial.

      Romney lost every demographic except white men. Blacks, Latinos, Asians, women, and any other minority group you can imagine thought Obama was the better choice. Either white men know something the rest of us don’t, or the Republican Party is the party that attracts the white racists.

      There’s a fundamental difference between a blacks overwhelmingly voting for one of their own after years of discrimination and exclusion, and a whites voting for the consistently anti-minority party. Only one of these is racism.

      -KW

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    7. Blacks and other minorities vote Democratic because the Democratic Party has a platform of preferential treatment for them. That's racism. White men vote Republican because the Republican Party has a platform of equal treatment for all. That's not racism.

      I don't know this co-worker of yours or the racial slurs that he used but I do not that you're notoriously paranoid about racism. You were on a serious tear about how George Zimmerman was allowed to go home with his gun, which somehow proved racism.

      I don't vote for "one of my own." That's called racism and it's abhorrent. I agree with Little John. We'll all be better off when we stop looking out for "our own" and understand that we're all in it together.

      The Torch

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    8. “We'll all be better off when we stop looking out for "our own" and understand that we're all in it together.”

      I agree with you there.

      Let’s start by getting conservatives to lean on Fox news to end their constant race baiting. In 21 segments on Election Day they showed the scary scary Black Panther intimidating voters. Of course they failed to mention that he was a certified poll monitor in a predominantly black neighborhood intimidating no one.

      My point is conservatives use the racism of their supporters to motivate them. Your claim that all conservatives want is “equal treatment for all” is bullshit. What they want is to be allowed to be racist without consequence.

      -KW

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    9. "he was a certified poll monitor in a predominantly black neighborhood intimidating no one."

      A member of an organization with a long history of racial violence, dressed in Black Panther uniform.

      What if a Klansman got certified as a poll monitor, and showed up in sheet?

      Oh, I forgot. The rules are different for different races, when you're race-baiting.

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    10. "There’s a fundamental difference between a blacks overwhelmingly voting for one of their own after years of discrimination and exclusion, and a whites voting for the consistently anti-minority party. Only one of these is racism."

      Nope. Voting for "one of their own" based on race is racism.

      And persistently using ludicrous allegations of racism to evade rational discussion of policy is race-baiting.

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    11. The other thing that the NBPP and the KKK share in common is they are both organizations of violent race-baiting Democrats.

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    12. Do you really think members of the KKK are voting for Democrats? If you really believe that, you are literally crazy.

      -KW

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    13. The New Black Panther Party? Seriously? Their entire "Party" consists of literally like six guys.

      And if you're actually dumb enough to think the Klan support Democrats, perhaps you could explain why they and other white nationalist groups have enthusiastically endorsed those silly seccession petitions? (Don't worry, I know you can't.)

      Boo

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    14. The KKK is and was an explicitly anti-Republican organization. You need to catch up on American history, 101.

      The Klan today has about six members, mostly drooling nuts. Who the hell knows who or what they vote for.

      The historical Klan was 100% Democrat, and in fact was often an arm of the local Democrat party.

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    15. The last serving Klansman of the US Senate, Robert C Byrd (WV) died in 2010. During his 40-year tenure, he served as Majority Leader, Minority Leader, Majority Whip, and President pro tempore, all while seated with the Democrat caucus. He filibustered the Civil Rights Act for over 14 hours.

      The reverence for Senator Byrd among modern Senate Democrats is surpassed only by Ted Kennedy, murderer.

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    16. "The Klan today has about six members, mostly drooling nuts. Who the hell knows who or what they vote for."

      Maybe in the Land of Egnorance, but out here in reality the contemporary Klan is estimated to have between 3000-5000 active members, not accounting for all the other skinhead and white nationalist groups out there. And David Duke, Shaun Winkler, John Abarr, and pretty much every other recent KKK member to run for office has done so as a Republican.

      And yes, the Klan were often Democrats way back when the southern wing of the Democratic Party was conservative and racist. They also dominated the Republican Party in Colorado and Indiana in the 20s, boasting Colorado Republican governor Clarence Morley and Indiana Republican governor Ed Jackson in their ranks.

      Trying to lie about history in the age of the internet is an exercise in futility, Mr. Egnor. As is your continued attempt to equivocate between "Democrat" and "liberal." They are not synonymous terms, especially historically.

      (And don't think I didn't notice you evaded my question, but as I said, I expected you to.) You may now cuss me out and run away again.

      Boo

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    17. That the Indiana Klan in the 20's was associated with Republicans is true, but is the exception to the rule.

      The Rule: the KKK is a creation and the enforcement arm of the Democratic party.

      The 1924 Democratic National Convention was so dominated by the Klan that it was called the "Klanbake".

      The KKK hated these things: Blacks, Catholics, Republicans, and Jews.

      The KKK initiation oath included swearing to uphold "separation of church and state" .

      I don't blame you for squirming and tap-dancing to avoid the facts.

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    18. I'm not avoiding anything. You are once again committing the fallacy of assuming that I am a tribalist like you. Just because you want to lump all goodness on one side of the political spectrum and all evil on the other side doesn't mean everyone else is such a simpleton. I am perfectly aware that the conservative arm of the Democratic party enforced racism. Since I am not a knee jerk Democrat or knee jerk left winger as you are a knee jerk Republican and knee jerk right winger, this does not cause me the consternation you apparently believe it should. That is why I can easily acknowledge that the Klan was on the side of the Democrats before the civil rights era, but you cannot acknowledge it is on the side of the Republicans now. Hence, you have to consistently avoid my points whereas I do not have to avoid yours.

      The Klan is very concerned about illegal immigration. Remind me again, which major political party shares this view?

      The Klan is very pro states rights. Remind me again, which major political party shares this view?

      The Klan romanticizes the old South. Remind me again, which major political party tends to do likewise?

      The Klan is opposed to affirmative action. Remind me again, which major political party shares this view?

      The Klan is supporting the ridiculous seccesion petitions. Remind me again, which political party's election gains were those petitions launched in response to?

      The Klan is strongly anti-communist. Remind me again, which major political party accuses its enemies of being communists?

      The Klan wraps itself in Christian symbolism. Remind me again, which major political party has more of a tendency to do this?

      If the Klan is the enforcement arm of the Democratic party, why do their beliefs seem much closer to today's Republican party than to the Democrats?

      Boo

      PS Yes, I know you won't answer.

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    19. "The Klan wraps itself in Christian symbolism. Remind me again, which major political party has more of a tendency to do this?"

      The Democrats. By far.

      http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obama-releases-ad-touting-his-christian-faith-claiming-hes-leading-america-with-faith-values/

      It's only "out of bounds" when conservatives/Republicans do it. The militant atheist left would really be up in arms with Obama and that religion on his sleeve if they believed for a second that it was genuine. They give him a pass because they understand that it's a lot of nonsense that he has to say to get elected.

      TRISH

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    20. @Boo: I could do the very same exercise with the Democrats and CPUSA, demonstrating their common ground, thus "proving" that the Democrats are in fact communists.

      Opposing affirmative action is not racism but supporting it is.

      TRISH

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    21. "The Klan is strongly anti-communist. Remind me again, which major political party accuses its enemies of being communists?"

      The Communist Party is strongly anti-fascist. Remind me again which major political party accuses its enemies of being fascists?

      TRISH

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    22. TRISH, how many times does Nancy Pelosi mention her supposed Catholic faith in the course of a single press conference?

      Not only are Democrats more inclined to brag about their religiosity, they're also more inclined to indict their opponents as un-American.

      Ben

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    23. Nice link, by the way. Aww..see, they're praying in the situation room at the White House. I know that's not just a photo op. Obama leads his cabinet in prayer all of the time because he's a very, very pious man.

      If his displays of faith weren't completely contrived, liberals would have a fit and someone would call the religion police. Remember the temper tantrum they had when they found out that John Ashcroft was holding voluntary lunch hour bible studies at the DOJ building? Scandal!

      "The purpose of the Department of Justice is to do the business of the government, not to establish a religion," said a Justice attorney, one of several critics who refused to be identified by name. "It strikes me and a lot of others as offensive, disrespectful and unconstitutional. ... It at least blurs the line, and it probably crosses it."

      I think that the anonymous lawyer might be our anonymous commenter here, the one who claims to be lawyer and loves speech taxes.

      Ben

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    24. "I could do the very same exercise with the Democrats and CPUSA, demonstrating their common ground, thus "proving" that the Democrats are in fact communists."

      You're missing the point entirely. First of all, I didn't try to claim that being a Republican and being a Klansman are symonymous, just that they are both on the right of the political spectrum. Second of all, I am well aware that communists are on the left of the political spectrum. I am not a tribalist like Egnor. I do not feel the need to try and push all bad people and ideologies on to one side. I am an adult who recognizes that there have been extremists who have caused harm on both sides.

      Boo

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    25. "The Klan wraps itself in Christian symbolism. Remind me again, which major political party has more of a tendency to do this?"

      Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the GOP candidate for president a Mormon and the Democratic candidate a member of some extremist (racial) Christian sect?

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    26. Which has what to do with my point?

      Boo

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  4. One guy, that’s only half of the whopping two guys the Black Panthers could muster in ‘08, yet Fox showed his picture all day long. You guys really are like scared little girls, and Fox knows it.

    -KW

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    1. We're not afraid of the NBPP, any more than you are afraid of the KKK.

      We are outraged by a Justice department that selectively refuses to enforce voting laws.

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    2. That's what Eric Holder calls "discretion." It means that he doesn't have to do his job when the intimidaters are of his race and pressuring people to vote for his boss. Remember that the next time some know-it-all leftist tries to tell you that voter ID laws disenfranchise. Nothing disenfranchises like a billy club, especially when the Attorney General of the United States serves as an accomplice, after-the-fact.

      "You want freedom you going to have to kill some crackers. You going to have to kill some of their babies"--Malik Zulu Shabazz, New Black Panther leader who was never arrested for his part in intimidating voters in 2008.

      More words of wisdom from innocent poll watchers M:

      “This is what King Samir, the Philadelphia Chapter, along with the guidance and leadership of Attorney Malik Shabazz has been doing that you don’t hear about from Fox Jews, I’m sorry, Fox News.”

      “Standing up to neo-nazi groups who consistently threaten our people dead. Now most of them media blood-suckers lies at Crucifox Jews wanna talk about me killing white babies.”

      “Ummm.”

      “Well, let me tell you stop jumping up and down like the devils you are, creating negative press to keep our people from joining something black and progressive. Yes, I said if you want freedom, you’re gonna have to deal with this enemy the way he brings it to us.

      “Ummm.”

      You cannot tell a slave how to feel under the pressure of white supremacy.”

      “That’s right!”

      “I’m not a committer of reverse racism, I am a slave.”

      “That’s right!”

      “Born, brought stolen to the hills of North America. Let’s talk about the little black babies that YOU use as alligator bait.”

      “Ooh, That’s Right!”

      “HUH?”

      TRISH

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    3. That’s so scary!!! I’m not afraid of black people, but by focusing on crap like this I can certainly see why bigoted racists would be. Outside of my pronominally white neighborhood polling place there where at least ten people, perhaps twenty, making their case for this or that issue or candidate, but they where all white, so none of them where scary enough to make Fox news.

      -KW

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