Rewriting History

Sometimes on Facebook I see some witty leftie share a quote that says something like, “Enjoying your weekend?  Brought to you by the labor movement.”  If we’re talking about something that happened a hundred years ago or more, I expect we will soon see those same lefties posting the following quote:  “Enjoying that lack of slavery?  Brought to you by the Republican Party.”  I’m not going to hold my breath, though, as consistency is *not* a strong suit of the left.

Then there are the distortions and outright lies:

The general thrust of left-wing pundit Richard Cohen’s syndicated column of April 17, 2014 is an attack on Rand Paul’s (and other prospective GOP presidential candidates’) lack of experience. Given Barack Obama’s thin résumé before becoming president – which, to his credit, Cohen acknowledges -- assailing Rand Paul’s (or Ted Cruz’s, or anyone else’s) meager public record is ludicrous.

Bad as Cohen’s attack on Paul (and others) is, his sly effort to rewrite the history of the Republican Party’s (and by implication, the Democrat Party’s) role in the struggle for blacks’ civil rights is even worse.  Unhappily, however, Cohen’s historical revisionism typifies the American left’s all-too-successful efforts to change Americans’ memories of the roles of the two major political parties on behalf of blacks’ civil rights...

Three points should be made. First, leftists rewrite the history of Republicans’ record on civil rights for blacks. Second, vile charges that “Republicans are racists” cost the GOP votes, especially among low-information voters. Third, unless, even at this late date, Republicans forcefully dispute these lies and set the record straight, they should expect to lose votes (and maybe elections) in the future.