When accused of racism, Republicans typically declare that the Democrats are the true racists. To again this up, it’s generally claimed that the Democrats are “the occasion of the Ku Klux Klan.” Whereas I don’t assume that Ted Cruz invented this tactic, he did push it into the highlight again when he defended Jeff Periods towards accusations of racism. Cruz went past merely claiming that Democrats fashioned the Klan; he additionally claimed the Democrats had been liable for segregation and Jim Crow legal guidelines. As Cruz noticed it, the Democrats’ tactic is to “…simply accuse anybody they disagree with of being racist.”
Ted Cruz is correct in regards to the historical past of the Democratic occasion. After the Civil War, the southern Democratic Party explicitly identified itself as the “white man’s party” and accused the Republican party of being “negro dominated.” Some Southern Democrats did help Jim Crow and joined the KKK. So, these accusations are true. However do they show that the fashionable Democrats are the true occasion of Racists? The straightforward and apparent reply is that they don’t.
Regardless of the racism in its previous, the Democrats turned the occasion related to civil rights whereas the Republicans engaged in what has become known as the “southern strategy.” On this strategic political transfer, Republicans appealed to racism towards blacks to realize political energy within the south. Although ironic given the historical past of the 2 events, this technique was efficient and plenty of southern Democrats switched events to grow to be southern Republicans. This was like exchanging the wine in two bottles whereas leaving the labels the identical. As such, whereas Ted and others are proper in regards to the historical past, they’re criticizing the label moderately than the wine.
Utilizing this historical past of the Democratic occasion to assault the occasion of immediately additionally entails the genetic fallacy. The truth that the Democrats of the previous backed Jim Crow and segregation is irrelevant to the benefit of claims made by present Democrats or whether or not they’re racist now. What is required is proof of present racism. When the logic is laid naked, the fallacy is kind of evident:
Premise 1: Over a century in the past, some Southern Democrats as soon as joined the KKK.
Premise 2: Over a century in the past, some Southern Democrats backed segregation and Jim Crow Legal guidelines.
Conclusion: The present Democrats are racists (or their claims about racism are false).
As ought to be evident, the premises haven’t any logical connection to the conclusion. Nonetheless, this fallacy can have appreciable rhetorical power.
As famous above, additionally it is frequent for Republicans to accuse Democrats if counting on accusations of racism as a political tactic. It’s true {that a} mere accusation of racism doesn’t show an individual is racist. Whether it is an unsupported assault, then it proves nothing. Each ethics and significant thought require that one correctly overview the proof for such accusations and never merely settle for them. As such, if the Democrats are merely launching empty advert hominem assaults, then these assaults ought to be dismissed. But when the accusations have benefit, then this benefit ought to be given the consideration they deserve.
When folks make this assault on Democrats, they appear to simply accept that racism is a nasty factor. In any case, comparable to condemnation of present Democrats requires condemning previous Democrats for his or her help of racism, segregation and Jim Crow legal guidelines. As such, the critic purports to agree with the present Democrats’ professed view that racism is dangerous. However the critic condemns the Democrats for making what are alleged to be false expenses of racism. This, then, is the related concern: which claims, if any, made by the Democrats about racism true? The historical past of the Democratic occasion isn’t related to the reply, neither is the empty accusation that the Democrats are the true racists for worrying about racism.
