# Is the newly unapologetic racist, nativist GOP power base basically the KKK for the new millennium? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 30, 2016, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638 "2016-01-30T05:36:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/101 "2016-02-04T21:16:34Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I disagree. One would expect, given random chance, for acceptance of resumes by name to occur along a standard bell curve, right? As in, some names would have an unusually high acceptance, and some would have an unusually low acceptance. There’s not necessarily a reason for any particular name to fall at any particular point along the curve; that’s what random chance is about. Out of 36 names, one name is going to be at the extreme end of the bell curve in terms of acceptance, and one name at the other. > > What’s interesting is not necessarily the percentage of acceptance of any given name; what’s interesting is the different bell curves presented by white-sounding and black-sounding names. When the curves themselves are so different, something’s up. FWIW I did a little bit more math. It says that the black female resumes were each sent out about 200 times. Assume the response rate is 6.87%: The lowest, Aisha at 2.2% was probably either 4/182 or 5/227. If we do 182 samples we’d expect to get 4 or fewer 0.42% of the time If we do 227 samples we’d expect to get 5 or fewer responses 0.14% of the time The highest, Ebony had a response rate of 10.5%. Luckily this is exactly 21/200. The probability of seeing 21 or higher using 200 samples is 3.54%. Since there were only 8 black names, it’s extremely unlikely that these extremes happened by random chance. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/102 "2016-02-05T09:43:02Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > An angry populist party that if it ever achieved power would raise minimum wage to $75/hr and drive every job to China? Sounds delightful. We’re gonna build a wall across the Pacific! And we’ll get China to do it - they’ve already got experience in building big walls! ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/103 "2016-02-28T16:28:51Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I doubt many things. > > The Klan is dead. White Supremacism is dead. Defunct. Pushing up daisies. Taking a dirt nap. In short, it’s gone for good and never coming back. > > Problem is, groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center rake in big bucks by proclaiming daily that the Klan is bigger and more dangerous than ever. They lie because they know they’d be irrelevant if they didn’t. > Meanwhile, the handful of losers who still belong to what’s left of the Klan are also lying and trying to pretend they’re relevant. If they try to latch onto Donald Trump and pretend he’s their guy, let them. They’re full of crap. Wait a minute, I thought the klan was dead and then at the top of my news feed I get this: [3 stabbed at Ku Klux Klan rally in California: ‘All hell broke loose’](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-california-ku-klux-klan-stabbing-020160228-story.html) WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/104 "2016-02-28T19:50:00Z")
That article was about 6 Klan members and 30 counterprotestors, so that hardly shows any sort of major Klan strength. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/105 "2016-02-29T14:14:15Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > Wait a minute, I thought the klan was dead and then at the top of my news feed I get this: > > [3 stabbed at Ku Klux Klan rally in California: ‘All hell broke loose’](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-california-ku-klux-klan-stabbing-020160228-story.html) > > WTF? The article you link to says that a tiny number of Klansman was attacked by a much larger group of pro-immigrant folks. The Klansmen escalated the violence by pulling out knives, but they didn’t START the fight. Either way, this doesn’t sound like a large or powerful band. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/106 "2016-02-29T15:55:23Z")
The official Republican response to this question is, “No, because 50 years ago the Democrats were the racists!” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/107 "2016-02-29T17:08:01Z")
How prescient, this thread. [Trump endorsed by David Duke; Trump doesn’t loudly disavow them, instead says "uhh who?](http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2016/Pres/Maps/Feb29.html) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/108 "2016-02-29T18:04:16Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > How prescient, this thread. > > [Trump endorsed by David Duke; Trump doesn’t loudly disavow them, instead says "uhh who?](http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2016/Pres/Maps/Feb29.html) That’s embarrassing, or WOULD be to anyone but Trump. Fact remains, David Duke is NOBODY! He holds no political position. At his peak, he was a mere state legislator. He can’t deliver any votes. He’s not an important part of Trump’s coalition and played NO part in getting Trump to the strong position he’s in now. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/109 "2016-02-29T18:10:49Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > That’s embarrassing, or WOULD be to anyone but Trump. > > Fact remains, David Duke is NOBODY! He holds no political position. At his peak, he was a mere state legislator. He can’t deliver any votes. > > He’s not an important part of Trump’s coalition and played NO part in getting Trump to the strong position he’s in now. [But people who think like him did.](http://www.salon.com/2016/02/29/theres_no_more_denying_trumps_campaign_of_hate_how_he_built_a_coalition_of_americas_bullies_xenophobes_bigots/) That’s why Trump has to vacillate about Duke’s endorsement – he can’t afford to alienate that part of his base. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/110 "2016-02-29T20:54:29Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > That’s embarrassing, or WOULD be to anyone but Trump. > > Fact remains, David Duke is NOBODY! One thing’s for sure about Trump, [he doesn’t bother insulting nobodies](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-twitter-insults.html). > [@Trump](#): > > [Neil Young] “total hypocrite” > [Ruth Marcus]“no focus, poor level of concentration" > [Brent Bozell] “begging for money like a dog” > [Angela Merkel]“ruining Germany” > [Tim O’Brien]“dumb guy with no clue” > [Ben Cardin]“It’s politicians like Cardin that have destroyed Baltimore.” > [Ronda Rousey]“not a nice person!” > [Penn Jillete]“hokey garbage” > [Rand Paul]“reminds me of a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain” So yeah, it’s totally part of Trump’s schtick to rise above the fray. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638/111 "2016-03-01T18:37:45Z")
[Chauncey Devega writes:](http://www.salon.com/2016/03/01/donald_trump_has_dropped_the_gops_mask_conservatism_and_racism_now_officially_the_same_thing/) > [@](#): > > Political parties are a type of “brand name” that voters associate with a specific set of policies, ideas, personalities and moral values. Consequently, the types of voters who are attracted to a given political party also tells us a great deal about how it is perceived by the public. And in a democracy, the relationship between voters, elected officials and a given political party should ideally be reflected by the types of policies the latter advances in order to both win and stay in power. > > By these criteria, the post-civil rights era Republican Party is the United States’ largest white identity organization, one in which conservatism and racism are now one and the same thing. > > In the 2012 election, 89 percent of Republican voters were white. While the Republican Party routinely anoints a professional “best black friend” (Herman Cain in 2012; Ben Carson in 2016; Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele in 2009) who serves in the role as human chaff to deflect charges of racism, non-whites are a minuscule part of the GOP’s electoral coalition and base. This is reflected by how Republican voters are much more likely to be racially resentful toward black Americans and also manifest what is known as “modern” or “symbolic racism.” > > Even more troubling, research by Brown University political scientist Michael Tesler demonstrates that “old-fashioned racism” has _actually increased_ among Republican voters since the election of Barack Obama. Once thought to be a relative non-factor in contemporary politics, this, the more primitive and retrograde racism of Jim and Jane Crow America, is now such a potent force that it is directly correlated with party identification: individuals who are “old-fashioned racists” are more likely to support the Republican Party. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-newly-unapologetic-racist-nativist-gop-power-base-basically-the-kkk-for-the-new-millennium/744638.md?page=5)