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Former GOP Rep. Klansman David Duke May Run for President in 2012
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by Karen Hatter | July 6, 2011 at 06:27 am
466 views | 8 Recommendations | 18 comments
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Controversial nativist David Duke, former Republican representative of Louisiana and Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, has announced he will explore seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for President of the United States.
David Duke fired up the White supremacist/nationalist base of the Right Wing when he declared on internet radio on election night, November 4, 2008, that the election of President Obama marked a “ …. night of tragedy and sadness.” He advised his listening audience that “We as European Americans have to rally for our survival.”
According to reporting from the Daily Beast on July 4, 2011, in addition to David Duke, others from within the supremacist/nationalist movement, including current and former Neo Nazis, neo-Confederates and Ku Klux Klansmen, have been distributing campaign literature, highlighting the current unemployment rate in the U.S. under an African American president and have been seeking political offices in local elections since the U.S. presidential election of 2008. The claim has been made that high unemployment and an African American U.S. president, as well as illegal immigration, provides the proof White people need to “ …. take a stand.”
David Duke served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and as the Republican executive-committee chair in his district until 2000.
David Duke has ….
.... a significant following online. His videos go viral. This month, he’s launching a tour of 25 states to explore how much support he can garner for a potential presidential bid. He hasn’t considered running for serious office since the early '90s, when he won nearly 40 percent of the vote ....
.... during his campaign for governor of Louisiana in 1991.
Also at NowPublic:
A Troubling View of Post Obama America, Spring 2010
Right Wing Extremist Tendencies: In the 1990s Forward to Today
Religious Extremism and U.S. Politics: Often an Ominous Pairing
Will Right Wing Madness Totally Consume the Republican Party?
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Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Karen Hatter
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (18)
at 07:54 on July 6th, 2011
Die hard Klansman like he former Senator Robert Byrd just won't go away. They have a constituency of like kinds.
at 08:34 on July 6th, 2011
They do indeed, Jim.
David Duke and fellow former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Don Black, the founder of the internet site Stormfront, known as the most popular hate site on the internet, often co-host events together. They are warmly received among their following.
Derek Black, Don's son, was elected to office as a Republican in Palm Beach, Florida.
Mr. Black is married to David Duke's former wife.
at 15:37 on July 6th, 2011
Karen, I bet President Obama gets under these ice white boys skins..lol
Ironic seeing Don's last name isn't it.. Bet he gets teased about that..lol
Let idiot Duke run..see if he can get elected_or if America still represents all races, cultures, and creeds..He may learn America's greatness has nothing to do with white racist supremacy ideas like his.
at 16:12 on July 6th, 2011
1, it is my understanding that the last time David Duke ran for President of the United States, on the Republican Party ticket in 1992, he received 1% of the Republican vote. So, he obviously didn't make it into the general election cycle.
Even with the Republican Party in its current schizophrenic state of disarray, I don't envision David Duke getting majority support from Republican or Republican leaning voters.
Although, since the election of President Obama in 2008, within the circles in which Duke travels, those nativist elements have expressed great hopes for attempting to recruit converts as a result of the chaos currently plaguing the GOP from the Right Wing of their Party.
Of course, Duke's entry into the presidential race would tend to make ALL of the other Republican Party presidential hopefuls look tame in comparison!
at 21:48 on July 6th, 2011
All Dukes ideas do is make America weaker, not stronger. Ultimately it's how all divisive attitudes and ideas get started. People not understanding humanity as one. Instead dividing human species up into segments. Still racism and prejudice does still exist everywhere, for many different reasons. Different cultures and religions ultimately causing most of the hatred today. Man seems destined to never quite reach perfect harmony as in 'all men are created equal'.
at 05:02 on July 7th, 2011
Well said, 1.
at 12:14 on July 14th, 2011
let me as a European guy jumpinto your serious debate. yes, racism and prejudice are always ominous, not only when the individual person is black, afro american. I am convinced, tha people like Duke are in my opinion american white trash. They appeal to lowest instincts of unsatisfied white people. "the One " you write, that people will never reach "perfect harmony". well you are right. i know that more than 15 or more years. "All men are created equal". they are not, my friend. it is only a creed. Author of this article was not born {propably} with golden spoon in mouth. She is not daughter of Murdoch or Rockefeller, etc.. neither are you, propably. people are equal only in their citizens rights.KKK is a relict of a past, when America was only forming its face and values. the Clan hated blacks, socialists, catholics, etc... Now it tries to change, but I believe it will not succeed. It is important, that current president will be a good example how a black president can run your country. I think republicans lack potential in good candidates for next elections
at 06:57 on July 7th, 2011
Karen, that may become part of the party's plan. It is an old game. To get one extremist to seem moderate, you find someone even more extreme. Not that I am calling anyone specific in the Republican Party an extremist, but lets face it, some of them are only a step or two away from tiny moustaches and arm bands... standing next to someone with a pointy white hat, burning crosses makes them look like boyscouts by comparison. By putting a racist, extremist baffoon into the mix, the Republican party could make even Sarah Palin seem palatable... well... somewhat....
at 07:47 on July 7th, 2011
You could be right, Piobar!
Oddly enough, calculating the odds of the success of such a tactic would be tricky to measure from the 'what IF David Duke hadn't run and siphoned off some of the votes from whomever' scenario, as well as the 'Gee, Sarah (or Michele Bachmann, at this point) doesn't seem so UNpalatable compared to David Duke!' possible outcome.
However, it must not be discounted that David Duke is very popular within his circle and I find it more than just a little disturbing that he succeeded in gaining almost 40% of the vote during his run for governor in Louisiana.
In certain areas of the U.S., his schtick goes over very well.
at 02:21 on July 9th, 2011
Karen, This is my first attempt at a serious political observation, so bear with me. I consider myself a Democrat.Probably because that is what my Daddy was, and his Daddy before him. I was born in the South and I lived through those days of De-Segregation as a child. Not many people talk about those days anymore, but they did happen. I watched the effects of racism and hatred on a daily basis. It affected people of all color and prevented a generation from a greater understanding of the world around them. I am white and I have never voted in my life.I am happy to state that though my background might lend itself to the assumption that I might support someone like David Duke" Nothing could be farther from the truth. I think most white people today would characterize Duke as an extremist, and my personal belief is that the money situation could revive some ancient truths that could only further devastate all those years of suffering and adjustment and effort on the part of the people of this nation.The ancient truths I speak of, are probably less truths, as they are reality. The reality we understand today must not allow room for an extremist or radical, because it would only serve as a derailment for the people as we negotiate our way out of the predicament we currently find ourselves in. We The People must change if we expect any chance of change in government, and that is where our true aspirations should be focused. It is with my sincerest hope that in the coming years we act with purpose to preserve all races and cultures for if we fail there" we will certainly fail as a species. It is our desperation for change that goes unanswered generation after generation. The people are as depressed as the economy, and just like the economy" stimulation has not been successful, in so much that it has been offered.
at 06:39 on July 17th, 2011
Duddits (not verified), you correctly state that most White people would view David Duke as an extremist.
I tend to agree with your basic thoughts in principle with these specific stipulations.
David Duke and those of like minds that lead the nationalist/supremacist movement have succeeded in convincing hundreds of thousands that their very lives are in jeopardy because there will be efforts to strip White people of their rights, predicating their preservation at the expense of everyone else in America.
It has always been the methodology of David Duke and those of like minds to seek efforts to disenfranchise and subjugate all others in order to preserve their rights, believing themselves descended from the 'original' founders, who were White people, as a remedy for what they preach will be the inevitable cataclysmic fall of White society due to the believed to be outcome of the 'browning' of America.
Their belief is that America belongs only to White people and they seek to create an environment that will aid them in 'reclaiming' America and somehow returning the nation to a much altered, sanitized and skewered recollection of America's dark past.
There is no plan, nor will it come about, where White people will be stripped of their rights. Yet, the danger of David Duke and those of the same mind is their ability to convince ever increasing numbers in the thousands that any rights gained by other non-White groups infringe upon White people's rights.
These beliefs can only be viewed as true if viewed from a nativist White nationalist/supremacist perspective since, in those circles, guaranteeing the rights and liberties of those viewed by Duke and his kind as lesser human beings is a basic infringement upon their rights as European Americans, the only true inheritors of America's promise.
Despite the new and improved Ku Klux Klan, which has, for the most part, traded their white robes and regalia for traditional business suits, their strategies are bigoted, seeking to exploit whatever societal change may occur.
In this instance, as David Duke postulated several years ago, his perceived rallying tool has come to be what he had predicted with the election of the nation's first African American president, galvanizing those Right Wing extremist elements subscribing to nativist/supremacist/nationalist sentiments, with those quarters experiencing ever increasing numbers and supporters.
at 08:25 on July 9th, 2011
At the David Duke website, it proclaims that his candidacy has been embraced by members of the TEA Party since the release of a YouTube video where David Duke addressed the TEA Party.
at 11:54 on July 9th, 2011
Karen, I agree with you, and can only hope that our young people will be able to see through the mirage that is presented to them today. I share a true story with you here to demonstrate what I mean. My Grandfather was the son of a farmer, he shared this story with me before his death in 2004. He wanted me to know about his Fathers brief but devastating run in with the KKK. According to him , the family farm was a sort of co-op that incorporated the concept of "barter and trade" coupled with legal instruments "which I still posses to this day" that were drawn up between his Father and the workers helping him develop the farm. I think this was termed as sharecropping in those days. However" In this instance he was somehow being pressured by the local "powers that be" to cease and desist with his practice of granting title of land to workers who had fulfilled their end of the bargain. He told me that they accused him of modern day slavery and would seek to prosecute him. He resisted as "any man would" who felt that outside sources were trying to determine the outcome of his life, and the workers and their families lives. This is when the KKK entered the arena. He told me that people who he knew that had connections to the Klan began to try to influence him and gave him stark warnings about his practice of giving title to lands to black workers and how it would be his ruin. Soon after" a treasured friend and devoted worker died in a mysterious fire at his grain silo. He felt that the Klan was involved, and told me in these words. I quote" This was the first evidence to him of local government working with clandestine elements to achieve what is now known as Block-Busting. I submit to you and readers" This is the true nature of Racism, and how it can affect the lives of people directly and indirectly. I simply cant imagine the negative effects that a David Duke candidacy would project, and would hope the world would see through this.
at 12:15 on July 9th, 2011
Thank you for sharing your poignant, personal story, Duddits and I hope along with you that the majority of the world, especially those in America, will see through the machinations of David Duke and those from within his movement.
at 12:36 on July 13th, 2011
Just wanted to post some info for reading on the ongoing crimes against humanity that are closely associated with Fascism and Racism.......................................................................................................................................rt.com/usa/news/kkk-congress-montana-abarr/rt.com/usa/news/nevada-bonta-family-lisa/If the world want's Peace" There must be Justice.
at 14:08 on July 23rd, 2011
KKK wreaks havoc in Mississippi: A sample of racial hatred raising it's face in the heartland. As far as I am concerned" this is also a form of terrorism. rt.com/usa/news/mississippi-jones-county-southern/
at 12:23 on September 27th, 2011
Neo-Nazi David Duke arrested for illegal possessions of marijuana, heroin, and child pornography
profreedomblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/neo-nazi-david-duke-arrested-for.html
at 12:24 on September 27th, 2011
David Duke arrested for illegal possessions of marijuana, heroin, and child pornography profreedomblog doc blogspot doc com/2011/09/neo-nazi-david-duke-arrested-for.html