Thursday, July 07, 2011

The New Face of the Teaparty

On July 5, Mail Online posted an article about David Duke contemplating a run for the Republican nomination for President. Like most of the contenders in that race, he is truly delusional that he even has a chance. Hell, he can't even run. Did he forget that he was convicted of tax charges and mail fraud in 2005? Or is he conveniently leaving that fact out when courting the Tea Party voters who may not even remember or know about his inability to run.

In 1990 David Duke came to speak at our university. He was invited by the school's Young Republicans. When there was a major outcry over his appearance, they just couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. And even though an overwhelming majority of the student body demanded they find another speaker, (this was Louisiana, there was no shortage of Republicans to choose from), they stood by there decision.

The students government put together their own event to take place at the same time as Duke's speech, a tolerance rally. There were a number speakers that represented diversity in gender, ethnicity, religion, and even sexual orientation., and the speeches were about overcoming prejudices. It was standing room only for those who were lucky enough to get in.

The next day in the paper there spoke about Duke's speech. He referred to out rally as a protest, which I found amusing since he was barely mentioned at all. The other interesting point they made was that the audience that attended were all older members of the community.

I noticed at the time that his handlers always tried to play down his past. But everyone knew his time in the KKK and that he is a holocaust denier. We knew that then, and we haven't forgotten now.

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