D’Souza has made a specialty of highlighting the undeniable racism of the 1960s Democratic Party as a way to tar the current party. His arguments ignore the way the two political parties switch positions on Civil Rights in the 1960s, with the Democrats embracing Civil Rights and Republicans, under the guidance of national leaders like Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon, exploiting racist backlash.
On Monday, D’Souza put up a challenge to his critics:
Okay let’s see a list of the 200 or so racist Dixiecrats who switched parties and became Republicans. Put up or shut up https://t.co/dmXGZKXwne
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) July 2, 2018
Princeton historian Kevin M. Kruse, a scholar who has made good use of Twitter as a forum to popularize academic knowledge, took D’Souza up on the request:
Sure, let's do this.https://t.co/k6nTwpcYZV
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 3, 2018
As I've noted before, focusing solely on Southern Democratic politicians who officially switched parties -- instead of ordinary voters, as scholars emphasize -- intentionally misses the thrust of the party realignment on matters of race and civil rights: https://t.co/VrHNgQe0Ok
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 3, 2018
But, sure, let's ignore what scholars have written on this and meet this question on D'Souza's own chosen ground -- racist Southern Democratic politicians who switched to the GOP.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 3, 2018
No, 200 politicians didn't switch -- that's a laughably high bar -- but there were plenty.
1. First and foremost, of course, there's Strom Thurmond, the Dixiecrat presidential candidate, who was welcomed into the GOP in 1964 -- and, importantly, allowed to keep his seniority and thus all the power that came with it in Congress. (No other Southern Democrats were.) pic.twitter.com/4lCv0p3ji0
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 3, 2018
2. But before Thurmond, John Tower left the Democrats in the early 1950s and won election as the first GOP senator in the modern South.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 3, 2018
Tower spoke out against civil rights, joined with S. Dems to plot filibusters, and voted against the Civil Rights Act & Voting Rights Act. pic.twitter.com/dqaDcU2kgp
Kruse documents his case with ample examples and citations:
State legislatures had more switches.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 3, 2018
Again, this isn't what historians stress in party realignment, but yes, it happened.
Here's a terrific new book on it, by the way:https://t.co/hAh6NUjrjI
For some examples in state legs:
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 3, 2018
19. SC Rep. Arthur Ravenel Jr.
20. SC Rep. Floyd Spence
21. Texas Rep. Jack Cox
22. Mississippi Sen. Stanford Morse
23. Alabama Rep. Albert Goldthwaite
24. Louisiana Rep. Roderick Miller
25. South Carolina Sen. Marshall Parker
Etc etc.
Kruse’s entire twitter thread is an expert class in how to marshal scholarly evidence in a popular debate. It’s worth reading from start to finish. The only problem is D’Souza is unteachable:
"Obscure quibbles," also known as "evidence that refutes my idiotic claims" pic.twitter.com/sqIhxsqOr9
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 3, 2018