Remember the last time a Democrat called for a return to segregation? Remember the last time a Democrat made a racist comment about black people? Remember the last time a Democrat wrote up a pledge declaring that black people were better off during slavery? Remember the last time a Democrat made a racist comment about President Obama? Yeah, me neither. But that’s not stopping one African-American conservative leader from telling Tea Party crowds that the Democratic Party supports the KKK.

Apostle Claver (yeah, that’s his name) is the leader of a group named Raging Elephants, and he is charged with bringing more diversity to the GOP. Have you stopped laughing yet? Ok, let’s move on. Anyway, Claver spoke to a mostly white Tea Party crowd in South Carolina on Sunday, and he had a lot of things to say about the Democratic Party. He told the crowd that Democrats are the real racists and that they support the KKK. He also had some words for several prominent African-Americans politicians. After asking the southern white audience where the blacks, Hispanics, and Asians were at (as if they really gave a sh*t) Claver began ranting about Democrats.

“Them folks, them blacks and Hispanics, they’re just as conservative as you are. But the point is, we’re they’re friends, not the Democrats. And we need to have the courage to go into their neighborhoods and tell them the truth about the party of Jim Crow, the party of the KKK, the party of Dred Scott, the party of segregation. The Democrats are the ones who are the racists, not you! Through their policies, their liberal policies, it’s the Democratic Party that has done damage to the black community; decimated their family; miseducated their children; devoured, destroyed their economic base.”

As if that wasn’t enough bullsh*t, Claver then accused several high profile African-Americans of being racists.

“They want to say you are the racist. No. No. If anybody is a racist, it’s [Texas Democrat] Shiela Jackson Lee! If anybody is a racist, it’s [Democrat] John Conyers! If anybody is a racist, it’s [South Carolina Democrat)] James Clyburn! If anybody is a racist, it’s Jesse ‘castration’ Jackson! If anybody is a racist, it’s Al ‘shakedown’ Sharpton! They’re the racists! We’re their friends!”

Here’s the video:

Can you believe the audacity and ignorance of this guy? First he accuses Democrats of being racists, which is flatly ridiculous considering all the racial slurs and statements Republicans have used during the last 30 years. And who could forget the racist signs held up by Tea Party supporters during their rallies? How does Claver explain Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul? Both of these conservatives have expressed racist views before, like when Buchanan talked about the good old days of segregation and when Ron Paul put his name on racist newsletters and decried the Civil Rights Act. Plus, most KKK leaders have endorsed Republican candidates.

Claver obviously has no grasp on recent history either. Yes, the Democrats used to support the KKK, BEFORE the 1960s, and that’s back when the Democratic Party was the conservative party, and Republicans were the liberal party. That began to reverse in the 1930s when Franklin Roosevelt sought to improve the economic woes of African-Americans. Then Harry Truman integrated the armed services. Democrats didn’t stop there. JFK and LBJ ushered in Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s and that’s when the KKK officially adopted the Republican Party as its new home.

By the 1960s, the Republican Party had become the conservative brand. Also, let’s not forget that it was Republicans who became upset when Chief Justice Warren Burger issued the majority decision in Brown v. Board of Education which integrated public schools. Conservatives fought for slavery, started the Civil War, instituted Jim Crow, and continue to adamantly insist on enacting racist policies that harm African-Americans such as cuts to housing, disenfranchising voting laws, job killing policies, cuts to job training, education, and so on. Conservatives around the country even continue to call for secession and South Carolina continues to fly a Confederate flag outside the state house.

Apostle Claver, like Allen West and Michael Steele before him, is nothing more than the “token” African-American conservatives use to shield themselves from accusations of racism while still employing deeply racist rhetoric and feeding racial resentments among white voters. If Democrats are as racist as Claver states, there is no way Barack Obama would have been elected President. Unlike the Democratic Party, conservatives would never elevate an African-American to the position of leader of the free world. It goes against everything they have believed for centuries: That African-Americans should be forever under the boot heel of white men.

One last point I want to bring up as I conclude is that the late Democratic Senator Robert Byrd was once a Klansman. He later saw the error of his ways and renounced the KKK and racism and became a beloved champion of civil rights and friend of the African-American community. The last Republican to be beloved by African-Americans? Abraham Lincoln. Now that should tell you everything you need to know about how far the Republican Party has fallen.

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