Every so often I hear "the Democrats were the party of slavery and Jim Crow..."

[ChoppinBroccoli]

7. A Little History Lesson

When Lincoln freed the slaves, most of the newly-freed slaves became Republicans because they admired Lincoln so much. As a direct result, most of the white landowners in the South became Democrats for the exact opposite reason. Things went along like that for roughly 100 years, until LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act into law (and by the way, when he signed it, he actually said that by so doing, he was delivering the South to the Republican Party for a generation). For having the unmitigated gall to give black people the same rights as "actual humans," most white Southerners (now known as "Dixiecrats&quot switched parties and became Republicans, which is why the Southern States are all a solid Republican voting block to this day.

So as you can see, the Republican Party at the time of Lincoln was the LIBERAL party. The CONSERVATIVES opposed freeing the slaves. And after LBJ gave black people their civil rights, all the CONSERVATIVES became Republicans. And by the way, CONSERVATIVES to this day are the ones opposed to treating pretty much ANY minority as equals, so I just don't get their whole tortured "Democrats were the party of slavery" argument.