My morning email to an old buddy re: politics and US History

On Wed, Nov 17, 2021 at 9:36 AM harrywelty wrote:
Poor Rutherfraud.

When we were in school we got the Democratic preferred history that Grant was the head of a corrupt government. That was the vintage DW Griffith history that Woodrow Wilson championed. It remained in JFK’S era with Profiles in Courage. BUT Grant is being reappraised. He was a stalwart for freedmen.

Any attempt at Reconstruction died in the election of 1876. The agreement letting Rutherford win gave the south’s white democrats the future of their former slaves. Reagan welcomed southern dems into the GOP at the place where the 3 civil rights workers were murdered when we were kids.

I always bridle when I hear some Republican blame democrats for supporting slavery because its a different party. They traded the issue with Republicans when southern dems changed sides and took their war against civil rights with them. Trump turbo charged it.

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