The KKK: left/progressive.....or.....right/conservative?

[Daemon Sophic]

First, a disclaimer: I am realist/progressive in my political outlook, and therefore find this article (the correspondent's comments) unabashedly staggering in its profound stupidity.
http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/02/29/cnns-jeffrey-lord-defends-trumps-refusal-to-dis/208874

In brief, he states that it is irrelevant that Trump didn't disavow the KKK, because the whole KKK and its ideology is a left wing plot that was set up to entrap Trump. Furtherore, I think he is implying that the various senators and congressmembers in office, who espouse progressive, left wing ideologies like "supporting Franklin Roosevelt, are hateful murderous KKK members.

" ..... it is a racist hate group from the left. And that counts. That is important to understand. It is not conservative. It has nothing to do with conservatism. All of these Klan members who have been elected to Congress and U.S. Senate and governorships over the years, supporting Franklin Roosevelt because they like Social Security. Let's get our history straight."
​

So. Your thoughts? Is this just some witless drone, spouting nonsense in an effort to deflect the press from Trump's guilt. Or could some people ACTUALLY think of the KKK as anything other than an extreme conservative right-wing group? If so, then what could motivate their thoughts down that alley?

 

[metis]

Ya, I heard Jeffrey Lord today on CNN whereas he said the same thing, and I almost fell off my chair laughing. The KKK emerged from the "Dixiecrats", which were part of what we used to call "southern Democrats". However, starting especially with the signing of the Civil rights Acts in the 1960's by LBJ, they left in droves to become Republicans.

Needless to say, the "Dixiecrats" and "southern Democrats" are mostly Republicans today, and they are not liberals but largely racist Republicans. All he is doing is just playing a disingenuous game by trying to sway those who would not likely ever check up on this.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The KKK are a bunch of **** eating **** heads who are a part of the reason I can't stand living here because there are enough **** eating **** heads here who actually support them.
And they are definitely NOT liberal or left leaning.

 

[Sunstone]

Or could some people ACTUALLY think of the KKK as anything other than an extreme conservative right-wing group? If so, then what could motivate their thoughts down that alley?

Some folks just take a simple delight in seeing how many other people will swallow their BS. They don't believe what they're saying, but they enjoy making fools of people.

But that aside, I think in this case, you might have hit on the motive: To distract our nation's vital supply of village idiots from thinking through the full implications of what Trump said (and refused to say).

 

[BSM1]

Ya, I heard Jeffrey Lord today on CNN whereas he said the same thing, and I almost fell off my chair laughing. The KKK emerged from the "Dixiecrats", which were part of what we used to call "southern Democrats". However, starting especially with the signing of the Civil rights Acts in the 1960's by LBJ, they left in droves to become Republicans.

Needless to say, the "Dixiecrats" and "southern Democrats" are mostly Republicans today, and they are not liberals but largely racist Republicans. All he is doing is just playing a disingenuous game by trying to sway those who would not likely ever check up on this.

You might want to check your facts. The KKK started up during the Reconstruction after The War Between The States (wasn't a damn thing civil about it) by Nathan Bedford Forrest. During the twenties and thirties the KKK was actual a political party. The "Dixiecrats" were not necessarily KKK but they were staunch Segregationists. If it were not for the Republicans Johnson may not have gotten his Civil Rights Bill passed.

 

[Ingledsva]

*
I don't think they understand history and the fact that the Republican, and Democratic parties, are not now what they started out as.

The KKK says it is a Christian conservative group. Christian white people, no immigration, etc. They now fall better under the ideology of the right.

"... Deriving its membership from native-born, white Protestant U.S. citizens, the KKK has also been anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic, and has opposed the immigration of all those it does not view as "racially pure."

"Origins and Initial Growth
Ex-Confederate soldiers established the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866." http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Ku_Klux_Klan.aspx

*

 

[Scott C.]

First, a disclaimer: I am realist/progressive in my political outlook, and therefore find this article (the correspondent's comments) unabashedly staggering in its profound stupidity.
http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/02/29/cnns-jeffrey-lord-defends-trumps-refusal-to-dis/208874

In brief, he states that it is irrelevant that Trump didn't disavow the KKK, because the whole KKK and its ideology is a left wing plot that was set up to entrap Trump. Furtherore, I think he is implying that the various senators and congressmembers in office, who espouse progressive, left wing ideologies like "supporting Franklin Roosevelt, are hateful murderous KKK members.

" ..... it is a racist hate group from the left. And that counts. That is important to understand. It is not conservative. It has nothing to do with conservatism. All of these Klan members who have been elected to Congress and U.S. Senate and governorships over the years, supporting Franklin Roosevelt because they like Social Security. Let's get our history straight."
​

So. Your thoughts? Is this just some witless drone, spouting nonsense in an effort to deflect the press from Trump's guilt. Or could some people ACTUALLY think of the KKK as anything other than an extreme conservative right-wing group? If so, then what could motivate their thoughts down that alley?

I don't see it as conservatism, even extreme. If you follow the path from conservative to more conservative to more conservative, you don't logically and ultimately end up with KKK ideology.

 

[Augustus]

So. Your thoughts? Is this just some witless drone, spouting nonsense in an effort to deflect the press from Trump's guilt. Or could some people ACTUALLY think of the KKK as anything other than an extreme conservative right-wing group? If so, then what could motivate their thoughts down that alley?

I don't know a great deal about the KKK other than they are racist ****s, but would like to make a general point about right/left conservative/progressive.

Conservative means opposing social change while progressive means supporting it. As such this means that both the Nazis and the commies were progressive movements. Then again, abolitionism was progressive and opposing it was conservative. The American revolution itself was clearly progressive also.

Left and right wing are very arbitrary terms also. People might think that imperialism is a right wing ideology, but it is (and was) equally of the left. Where does extreme nationalism fit in on the spectrum? Again it can be either (or perhaps neither).

The Nazis were certainly progressive, and arguably 'left wing'. They also had many ideas that are also considered very 'right wing' though.

The terms are practically meaningless as abstract concepts and conservative/right wing and progressive/left wing are not necessarily synonymous anyway. Political ideologies don't really fit into neat binaries because ultimately there is very little to link many of the stereotypically 'right wing' or 'left wing' beliefs together and what is progressive or conservative depends on the nature of the society rather than any objective standard.

The terms are generally more of an impediment to understanding than valuable and enlightening descriptors.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I don't know a great deal about the KKK other than they are racist ****s, but would like to make a general point about right/left conservative/progressive.

They are a denomination of Conservative Christians who are also white supremacists. In fact, their whole "brand" of Christianity revolves around white people being better than everybody else. Or, as some today claim, they are just proud of being white, but no one who is proud wears a bed bed sheet and pokes some eyes holes in their pillow case.

 

[Paleo]

According to themselves they're conservative but ay, I could call myself a socialist but that wouldn't make it so.
Honestly who knows what they are? What I do know is that they're illogical, racist a**hats.

 

[Revoltingest]

According to themselves they're conservative but ay, I could call myself a socialist but that wouldn't make it so.
Honestly who knows what they are? What I do know is that they're illogical, racist a**hats.

But some are allied with National socialists.
The word, "right", means several things.....
Authoritarian
Economic liberal (in the classical sense)
Conservative
Republican
Too often, it's merely used as a pejorative.

 

[Sunstone]

Honestly who knows what they are?

Honestly, most of America. It's not rocket science.

 

[Paleo]

Honestly, most of America. It's not rocket science.

I was referring to their political affiliation. While it may not be rocket science they call themselves Christians and Republicans despite their previous attacks on Christians proving otherwise. In fact my city was quite a hotspot for them in 1920, they were linked to a massive race war and massacre around that time here.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I was referring to their political affiliation. While it may not be rocket science they call themselves Christians and Republicans despite their previous attacks on Christians proving otherwise. In fact my city was quite a hotspot for them in 1920, they were linked to a massive race war and massacre around that time here.

They are conservative. In my city, it was a hotspot for most of the 20th century. Not only was the largest Klan rally in history held here early in the 20th century, the local newspaper building added reinforced windows because the Klan was shooting at them during the Civil Rights movement.

 

[Sunstone]

I was referring to their political affiliation.

They are almost universally regarded as Right Wing extremists.

 

[Paleo]

They are conservative. In my city, it was a hotspot for most of the 20th century. Not only was the largest Klan rally in history held here early in the 20th century, the local newspaper building added reinforced windows because the Klan was shooting at them during the Civil Rights movement.

Apparently my city was had what was considered "the single bloodiest day in modern American Political History". Google the Ocoee Massacre.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

They are almost universally regarded as Right Wing extremists.

The bars that are still around the windows of the Kokomo Tribune are a powerful testament to this.

 

[BSM1]

*
I don't think they understand history and the fact that the Republican, and Democratic parties, are not now what they started out as.

The KKK says it is a Christian conservative group. Christian white people, no immigration, etc. They now fall better under the ideology of the right.

"... Deriving its membership from native-born, white Protestant U.S. citizens, the KKK has also been anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic, and has opposed the immigration of all those it does not view as "racially pure."

"Origins and Initial Growth
Ex-Confederate soldiers established the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866." http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Ku_Klux_Klan.aspx

*

I'm not sure how many Kluxers you have met, but ones I have come in contact with have had to fail at least six IQ test to become members. These are some the most naturally ignorant people God ever put on this earth. I believe there ought to be Federal laws dealing with Criminal Ignorance just for these folks.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The KKK says it is a Christian conservative group. Christian white people, no immigration, etc. They now fall better under the ideology of the right.

 

[jeager106]

Awww com' on.
The simple answer is the best & most accurate answer.
The Klan is a bunch of retard hillbillies with guns that want to exterminate blacks,
Catholics, and other religions not supporting White Anglo Saxon Protestants.
PERIOD.
The Klan lynches minorities and those that fight for American Rights for minorities.
The Klan members ARE criminals. PERIOD.
Mexicans, ALL recent Immigrants, Liberals, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, and
ANY minority CHRISTIAN FAITH is fare game to the KKK.
White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPS) are excused from Klan violence IF the KLAN
accepts them!
The Klan is a group of arrogant, ignorant, gun toting, TERRORIST worthy of being
accepted into the Muslim Extremist movement.
The extremist movement will deal the the Klan when the Klan has served it's purpose.