August 17, 2014 by David K. Sutton
In American History, Name A Conservative Accomplishment
In the history of the United States of America, I dare you to name me a conservative human rights accomplishment. Go ahead, try to do it. I tell ya, it can’t be done.
And this is why contemporary conservatives, when you bring this topic up, must resort to trivial critiques like how often President Obama plays golf, or other similar frivolous claims. Because they too cannot come up with anything.
A comment to an article I wrote a while back, goes even further than childish distraction tactics, and instead goes full-bore into conspiracy territory.
When the Progressive Democrats *- LOST -* the Civil Rights struggle – in 1964 -, they (Dems) fixed their black voter problem with their old stand by. The plantation system. What year? 1964.
This is the problem we have in 2014 when we equate Democratic with progressive/liberal and Republican with conservative. Sure, in 2014 that’s pretty much true. In 1964, not so much. In 1964, the lines were blurred, and you could just as easily find a liberal Republican as you could a liberal Democrat. So when someone tries to whitewash the history of the political parties to posit a contemporary argument about why things are the way they are, well, they are nothing more than a conspiratorial hack.
The comment quoted above is laden in conspiracy theory talk, trying to connect things which are mostly if not entirely disconnected. And it’s laughable that this person tried to pin slavery, and filibustering the civil rights movement, to progressive Democrats.
It was white southern conservative Democrats who were against civil rights, similar to the white racist conservatives who were defending slavery a century earlier. When the Democratic Party adopted civil rights as a centerpiece to its platform, those white racist conservatives fled the party, and later, the Republican Party welcomed them with open arms. That’s what led President Johnson to say, “We have lost the South for a generation.”
It’s both amusing and sad when conservatives attempt to claim liberal advances throughout history as their own. And in contemporary times, we liberals continue to push for greater social acceptance and inclusion and what do conservatives do? They push back, every step of the way, trying to maintain status quo, or even turn back the clock. It’s as if conservatives believe that the time they live in, or some earlier time, is when society reached a magical plateau. Well, maybe it’s because conservatives have done exactly that: At every turn throughout history, conservatives have defended the “new” status quo brought about by liberals.
