Whenever you talk about the Republican Party and race, there's this peculiar conservative response that goes something like, "Robert Byrd was in the KKK!" And it's true, Byrd was in the KKK. Indeed, before the 1960s, the Democratic Party, like the country, was terrible on race. But this is an embarrassing defense. In the 60s, the Democrats went through a wrenching, and electorally lethal, expurgation process. In doing, the party lost not only the South, but a number of its own politicians. Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms both began their careers as Democrats and ended their lives as Republicans. As any conservative will tell you, these were not stupid men, and they left the Democratic Party for a reason: It had transformed itself into an institution that was hostile to racists. More than that, it transformed itself into a party whose electoral coalition relied on African-American voters. A party need not carry the sins of its past forever and ever. But redemption requires rejection. And that doesn't come so long as substantial portions of your party consider Jesse Helms the soul of conservatism. The Democratic Party has its faults, but many take pride in the affiliation nonetheless, and a chief reason is this: The Democratic Party drove Helms and his fellow segregationists out, and they never came back. The Party sought absolution through actual change, which is the only way to achieve it.
