

Princeton historian Kevin Kruse is sick and tired of Trump supporters claiming that the Democrats are the party of racism and white supremacy today because they were the party of racism and white supremacy 100+ years ago. This twitter thread is a masterful lesson in change over time.
By the way, if you want to learn more about Kruse and the way he has used twitter to teach us how the past informs the present, listen to our interview with him in Episode 34 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast.
So I think I broke Twitter. Um … my bad?
Here’s that Kanye/realignment thread unrolled. https://t.co/NrLnDktQ6J
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) May 1, 2018
Read the thread here. A taste:
Another historical point: the Democratic party in the first half of the 20th century was also the party of southern white evangelicalism. Does that mean southern white evangelical Democrats were they die-hard supporters of big government, secularism, abortion-on-demand, health-care reform and LGBTQ issues in the 1920s? Does that mean that they were racists, also? Does that mean that southern white evangelicals laid the foundation of all the things in the Obama administration that Trump supporters deride? Even a minimal knowledge of American political history would show how this type of thinking about political parties from some Trump supporters doesn’t make any sense.