Disingenuousness: An Example · 7:03pm Jan 20th, 2020
Anybody who's participated in political arguments these last few years has probably come across this fabulous line: "Stop claiming the KKK are Republicans; they were always Democrats!" (If you're one of those people, stick around; maybe you'll learn something for once.) Typically the response is to talk about the Republican Southern Strategy and the party switch, which doesn't get very far because it's a broad, abstract concept that can just be flatly denied. So what follows is a more pertinent rebuttal.
There are actually a number of modern organizations that claim to be the true Klan. We'll go through all of the prominent ones (according to Wikipedia, because the research buck has to stop somewhere), and try to find the political affiliations of the leaders and any prominent members.
First up is the Imperial Klans of America, which actually has a website. I won't link it, but I will link this article quoting the leader, Ron Edwards on the 2008 presidential election.
Most of them are too afraid to say that they believe the way I believe. They sit around their dinner table and talk the way I do, but when they get out in public, they have two faces and show the other face. When people are voting in the booth privately, they'll vote Republican even if they're a Democrat. If he wins, I'll laugh. I don't like McCain, but he's the only one I can vote for. He's against a lot of the things that I'm for. I'm afraid that he's going to mess with gun laws. But I'm going Republican and I talked to my guys and most of them are voting for McCain too.
In summary, he's anti-establishment so he harps on both major candidates, but he not only says that himself and his fellow Klan members are voting for the Republican candidate, but he even equates "the way I believe" with "vote Republican".
The IKA website has a hall of fame of sorts for other people who are "True White Nationalists", so we'll take a gander at those, as well. Richard Butler, founder of the group Aryan Nations, had no obvious political affiliation outside of his own group, which was essentially a political party in itself. Matt Hale, in prison for trying to arrange the murder of a federal judge, endorsed Republican Roy Moore in his Senate run. Edward Dunn has no readily identifiable party affiliation. Dave Groves... I can't find independent references to at all. (I skipped over one of them as being a leader of another group that I'll be looking at in a moment.)
The current incarnation of the Knights of the White Camelia is secretive, so leadership is unfortunately unknown.
The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is headed by Chris Barker, who traveled cross-country to participate in a Donald Trump victory parade along with regional Klan leader William Hagan and a number of other Klan members (including the guy that he stabbed the night before, causing him to miss the rally). This is one of the groups, by the way, that helped organize the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. Note the explicit self-association with the "Right", to which Republicans generally identify. Another regional leader of the organization, William Quigg, supposedly endorsed Hillary Clinton... but actually endorsed Donald Trump, then pretended to endorse Clinton, then admitted after Trump won that he had endorsed Clinton to damage her reputation.
The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is led by Richard Green, who warned that Obama's election "could be the destruction of America".
The Bayou Knights of the Ku Klux Klan doesn't seem to be prominent enough to have a clear leader.
The Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (or something like that, different sources give slightly different names for this one) was led by Jeff Berry before his death in 2013 (I can't find who runs it now). Berry made general statements of displeasure towards the two-party system, but hinted that then-President Bush was associated with the Klan and claimed that Bill Clinton was with the evil Jews.
Finally, we have the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which was famously founded by David Duke. David Duke ran for several political offices, initially as a Democrat, but then switched to being a Republican (with a few stints in smaller third-parties). His one successful win was in the Louisiana House, which was his first Republican run. David Duke has vigorously supported Donald Trump, with the sole reservation that Trump is too "pro-Israel", but nevertheless urging his followers to support the Republican president or be labeled a traitor. He recently announced support for Democratic primary candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who, although running as a Democrat, more closely resembles a third-party candidate in her positions. The current leader of the Klan, Thomas Robb, has also openly endorsed Donald Trump. (These two are prominent enough that you can easily find the sources yourself, also this is getting long and I'm tired.)
And that's all of the prominent Klan leadership of today. A number are opposed to the two-party system, most of them are explicitly tied to Republicans and the Right, and exactly one of them has ties to Democrats, which are overwhelmed by that same person's ties to Republicans.
In other words, the KKK is a Republican problem. Feel free to point people to this blog when they claim otherwise.
Of course, the real problem isn't that people are confused about what Republicans or Democrats stand for... the real problem is that many Republicans support, agree with, or at least tolerate the KKK, but understand that openly admitting such is political suicide. The real problem is that people are lying about the reality that they do understand because they think it gives them an advantage. To those people: How do you justify to yourself that a cause you must lie for is a cause worthy of support? If it cannot win in an honest discussion, then why do you think it should win at all? Doesn't dishonestly inherently taint what it touches?
