American left-wing/right-wing dichotomy was based on economic class and not race

We Americans like to think of the American left as being historically being anti-racist in addition to standing up for disaffected farmers and factory workers, because the 1964 presidential election led to a major shift in African Americans voting behavior and Fidel Castro weaponized his view of inequalities in Batista's Cuba as race-based in order to get some people to color to praise him for standing strong against racism. However, the most responsible students of US history know that even though Thomas Jefferson's Democratic Party relied on the support of the farmers and craft workers whereas the Federalist Party (the ancestor of the Whig Party and Republican Party) received support from manufacturers, merchants, and traders, the most of the backbone of the Democratic Party top brass during the first half of the 19th century was pro-slavery, and the Republican Party was way ahead of the Democratic Party in vocally taking the first steps towards calling for equality for non-white Americans (the Whig Party didn't craft an explicit stance on slavery in their party platforms, but Northern Whigs tended to oppose slavery's expansionism into the western territories). Hence, ultra-left people of color should think twice about seeing the left as historically opposed to racism and war and take heed of the fact that: (1) as much the Democratic Party defended the interests of farmers and craftspeople in the early 1800s, most Democrats were pro-slavery; (2) General Francisco Franco of Spain was the only fascist dictator of Europe to not resort to territorial conquest, and the right-wing dictators of Latin America did not have foreign bases or an appetite for war with foreign countries; (3) Fulgencio Batista invited Jewish American mobster Meyer Lansky along with other mobsters to finance Cuba's casinos despite marginalizing the civil rights of Afro-Cubans and mulatto Cubans; and (4) Haitian dictator François Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude hailed from a right-wing political party in Haiti that, while being dearly proud that Afro-Haitians prevented Napoleon from attempting to reinstitute slavery in Haiti, fiercely opposed communism on the grounds that it was a mortal threat to the Haitian way of life, especially the filial integrity of extended families Haitian Vodou religion.

a reply to: Potlatch

Democrats were pro slavery. Democrats created the KKK. Our sitting POTUS (a Democrat) voted repeatedly for segregation, not wanting his kids educated in a 'racial jungle' and sponsored bills to keep minorities from becoming equals in society.

Biden's current actions seem to prove our president either doesn't run the show, or he's found a leopard spot-changing store.

Politicians can say anything to keep getting reelected, so it's a good idea to check out their voting history in DC. More often than not it's completely opposite of what they say they stand for.

a reply to: Potlatch

What History book did this come from? 😁

a reply to: Potlatch

You lost at posting for "Americans".

Spoiler alert: the humans won.

(deploys holy water drone. lols)

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: Potlatch

What History book did this come from? 😁

I've read US history textbooks and taken US history classes, and the fact that the Democratic Party split into pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions during the 1860 presidential election just shows how smart Abraham Lincoln was in recognizing the bloodshed in Kansas in 1856 as a reason why the concept of popular sovereignty espoused by Stephen Douglas only allowed pro-slavery people to buy time to try to impose slavery in Kansas and potentially other parts of the West. As I said in the starting post for this thread, the Democratic Party top brass was mostly dominated by pro-slavery men, and not all right-wing dictators craved for territorial conquest (although Franco, Batista, Pinochet, and Somoza did not invade foreign land, they were anti-communist and had the backing of corporate interests).

a reply to: Potlatch

Good Summary 😎