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Why wasn't Robert Byrd ever pushed out by the progressive and tolerant Democrat party for his membership in the KKK. Or did his views evolve?
In the 40s, Senator Byrd said
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, "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."
I will concede that in 2005 he said
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Byrd also said, in 2005, "I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened."
An apology, but I'm not sure he is fit to serve office because of his past affiliations (sort of like CEOs of web browsers).
Conservatives like to trot out ol' Byrd due to the FACT that they welcomed segregationists to the GOP who fled the Democratic Party (consider Strom Thurmond). Remember, Reagan started out in politics opposing open housing and went on to object to the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and sanctions against the South African apartheid regime. Yet, conservatives believe he was Mr. Civil Rights.
Hugo Black was in the Klan, too, but Brown v. Board of Education sure was a unanimous decision, huh?
Sen Robert Byrd definitely brought the pork back to West Virginia. I think his name is nearly everywhere there. Answering the OP, Byrd's KKK past was well known as was Justice Black, a supreme court justice. However, Sen. Byrd unlike many unreconstructed racists from that era came to terms with his past and sought to make some amens by supporting a more liberal agenda. I am not an expert on his voting record and he definitely had his faults.
I'm not from West Virginia and never voted for the old clown(nor did I ever really care for the now deceased senator)..why is this my problem again?
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