“This racism is killing me inside.” 
David Duke is thinking about maybe sort of running for president. He’s “exploring” the option.
Good for him, I say! It’s about time a Serious Racist decided to make a run for the presidency:
A former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and Republican executive-committee chairman in his district until 2000, 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 in his bid for Louisiana governor. But like many “white civil rights advocates,” as he describes himself to The Daily Beast, 2012 is already shaping up to be a pivotal year.
Former (and current) Neo Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Confederates, and other representatives of the many wings of the “white nationalist” movement are starting to file paperwork and print campaign literature for offices large and small, pointing to rising unemployment, four years with an African-American president, and rampant illegal immigration as part of a growing mound of evidence that white people need to take a stand.
Duke says that “thousands of Tea Party activists have urged him to run for President,” so who is he to deny his fans the joy of seeing him extol the virtues of segregation right to that stupid Kenyan Usurper’s face?
Here’s a video Duke made last year in which he lays out his platform:
As President, I will give you better government than you deserve, because you have let the media lie to you and manipulate you, and you’ve let the politicians lie to you, and you’ve let the government take away your basic American rights. [Shorter: You assholes let that niggra into office, so I’m going to fix it even though you don’t deserve it. -ed.] Too many of you have cared more about the ball game than your heritage [wink wink. -ed.] and your freedom. The media will tell you that you can’t trust me because of my past. Well, I think my past is one of the reason you should support me because my past shows that I am a man who says what he believes, who is willing to be unpopular to tell what he believes to be the whole truth. [He is totes willing to be unpopular. Racism is totes unpopz. -ed.] I’ve certainly evolved since my younger days [like Obama, mirite? -ed.1], as did, by the way Senator Robert Byrd who was in the same organization I was in over thirty-three years ago. Byrd became one of the fiercest opponents of our catastrophic and anti-American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as have I. And the late Robert Byrd is now respected, and thankfully in some quarters I’m finally earning some respect as well. [Not really, buddy. Those quarters that are finally respecting you are the same damn quarters that respected you before. It’s just that those quarters are now a relevant political party. -ed.]
His platform is about what you would expect from a libertarian: immigration is evil, bring the troops home, stop the banksters, fair trade not free trade, abolish racism and sexism and go with a strictly merit-based system (wink, wink), abolish taxes, reform campaign finance, protect the First, Second, and Tenth Amendment (and fuck the rest of the amendments with their hippie bullshit), and no more activist judges.
That about sums up the total of what David Duke is about! That’s the David Duke platform! Sounds pretty ok, huh? Except for the balls-out white supremacy, misogyny, and anti-semitism.
You see, he knows that Democrats love a redemption song; that’s why he mentions Robert Byrd. Without getting into my personal feelings about Robert Byrd’s racial awakening, it is beyond dispute that Byrd publicly renounced his racist views, stating that joining the KKK was the biggest mistake he ever made. Duke, on the other hand, held a fundraiser in 2007 to raise money for an updated edition of his 1998 book My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding in 1998 (reviewed here by the Anti-Defamation League), in which he says the following:
We (Whites) desire to live in our own neighborhoods, go to our own schools, work in our own cities and towns, and ultimately live as one extended family in our own nation. We shall end the racial genocide of integration. We shall work for the eventual establishment of a separate homeland for African Americans, so each race will be free to pursue its own destiny without racial conflicts and ill will.
I know, I know. Why bother, right? Why try to understand or explain crazy. Crazy just is.
As such, and in the spirit of crazy, I hope Duke wins the Republican primary. He’ll give that Hawa-Indo-Kenyan a run for his money. Duke is anti-war! That’s sure to play well with the crowd, right? I bet he’ll let people smoke they weed, too! Plus, nothing would be better than watching a presidential debate between Obama and David Fucking Duke — except watching a presidential debate between Barack Obama and Clayton Bigsby.
WHITE POWER!
UPDATE: David Duke’s Wikipedia entry is worth a gander. I love how it talks about how he brought equality to the KKK by letting women join. What a pioneer!
1 I tried to help it, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
[via The Daily Beast]
[cross-posted]
Thoughtcrime
Put up your Dukes.
NobodySpecial
Just the guy to assure Scott Brown wins reelection!
b-psycho
Actually that would be the total antithesis of libertarianism, being that it’d imply restrictions on immigration when libertarians feel there shouldn’t be any.
“libertarian” has become a catch-all word here for “things I don’t like”.
WyldPirate
Morgan Freeman on racism
ABL sez…
Congrats. A productive, true statement.
bkny
remember in the early days of the teatards … there was much harrumphing by the village magpies when the dfh would insinuate that racism was a motivating factor in their world…
cleek
i blame Obama
Jim C.
Please god, if you love me at all, let this man run in the Republican Primaries.
jeff
No way I’m watching his video…but he looks remarkable for 61. I guess it was the pact with Satan.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@WyldPirate:
Sadly, as good a reason as Mr. Freeman puts out for it, it’s also entirely too idealistic. We should strive for what he states, but we’re still far away from that point. Especially with the way our fundies are readily re-writing history so Thomas Jefferson’s philosophies and ideals were necessarily shoved aside so we could teach more John Calvin.
Our history is being re-written in the other direction. That’s why we still need to talk about Racism and Black History month, because not recognizing it exists just makes it easier for folks like Duke to imply and ingrain that non-whites really are inferior. After all, all things are equal, there’s no racism, and yet they’re always failing compared to those godly WASPs.
Linda Featheringill
That is totally believable. Duke is a plain and open and clear racist, separatist, and white supremacist. That is what he is. So he’s thinking of running for president? He would get some votes, that’s for sure. Whether he could bring in enough money, I don’t know.
Davis X. Machina
No factor. Like the DFH’s who went ‘Clean for Gene’ in ’68, the racists are going to all ‘Hide that shit, for Mitt’.
The end is ‘The Socia1ist Kenyan Muslim Usurper Must Go.’ The means are allowed to vary.
Purity of heart is to will one thing.
(And Brown maintains his MA Senate seat with a 4-6% majority.)
4tehlulz
OT: The only thing that can salvage my day is seeing Nancy Grace’s head explode live on TV.
South of I-10
Vote for the crook, it’s important! Oh wait, wrong election.
Montysano
Apparently Obama is made of sterner stuff than I am, because after non-stop freak show we’ve endured since 11/2008, I’d be inclined to Go Galt. Teach a few classes (I hear Stanford is quite lovely), write a book or two, and watch from the bleachers as Hot Mess USA goes off the rails.
Dave Chappelle is a genius also, too.
MattR
4tehlulz – I enjoyed one of Anthony’s defense lawyers ripping into the TV pundits and lawyers who were speculating without knowing the details or having the expertise.
Also funny to watch them try and blame it on the emotions of the jury and how they may have been manipulated without acknowledging that they are running 100% on emotion themselves.
Djur
David Duke’s videos do not “go viral” just because a bunch of wannabe white warriors watch them. Nobody’s passing around his videos to their friends saying “OMFG you have to see this”. The Daily Beast should stop validating this loser and his little klavern of social rejects by suggesting anyone else gives a flying fuck what he thinks.
Basilisc
If he gets a lot of votes in the primaries, which he will, it’s just more proof that liberals think Republicans are racists. Which makes all liberals racists. Or something.
Davis X. Machina
@ Montysano.
They would, at the very least, start saying nice things about him at MyDD and Open Left and Corrente and FDL….
Probably. Unless it’s decided there that he did it just to collect his massive payoffs from the health insurance industry ahead of schedule.
Southern Beale
Damn I knew I should have taken that Tea Party telephone survey last week and named David Duke my “favorite conservative.”
Nope, no racism here … nothing to see, move along ..
Warren Terra
His base doesn’t need him. There’s a whole political movement based around white ressentiment, but unlike Duke this movement’s leaders learned from Lee Atwater and only said the ‘ressentiment’ part out loud, and not the ‘white’ part. Mostly, any way. Just about his only purpose could be to give the Tahaddis someone to denounce and exclude, earning themselves credibility and praise from the same pundits currently issuing thumbsuckers about the eminent gravitas of Michelle Bachmann.
ETA I may be an Atheist, but I hope there’s a special Hell for the people who made iOS’s spellcheck. When typing, it’s bearable, but my FSM, when trying to edit text …
IrishGirl
Bbbbbbut the Tea Party isn’t racist! LMFAO
Linda Featheringill
I really think that david duke should run on a third party ticket.
Does he have a website? Maybe I’ll go over there and suggest this 3rd party idea.
ET
Good one South of I-10. I remember that bumper sticker “fondly.”
I do wonder are this issues with felons running for president? ‘Cause that may be a campaign killer.
TreeBeard
“The media will tell you that you can’t trust me because of my past. Well, I think my past is one of the reason you should support me because my past shows that I am a man who says what he believes, who is willing to be unpopular to tell what he believes to be the whole truth.”
– Osama Bin Laden
“The media will tell you that you can’t trust me because of my past. Well, I think my past is one of the reason you should support me because my past shows that I am a man who says what he believes, who is willing to be unpopular to tell what he believes to be the whole truth.”
– Adolf Hitler
“The media will tell you that you can’t trust me because of my past. Well, I think my past is one of the reason you should support me because my past shows that I am a man who says what he believes, who is willing to be unpopular to tell what he believes to be the whole truth.”
– Josef Stalin
“The media will tell you that you can’t trust me because of my past. Well, I think my past is one of the reason you should support me because my past shows that I am a man who says what he believes, who is willing to be unpopular to tell what he believes to be the whole truth.”
–
I… I’m a bit lost for words beyond that.
John PM
Not completely off-topic, considering the Dave Chappelle video.
Warren Terra
@Treebeard
Damn it, now that he’s been mentioned we all have to denounce Stalin lest any conservatives reading this thread get confused.
(I denounce Stalin and all his works. Except Sputnik was pretty cool. Shame about the dog in the sequel, though).
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
This is bad news for the Ron Paul campaign.
me
@b-psycho: Also, any “free-market libertarian” opposed to free trade has no idea what the term means.
Elie
This is not the sign of a party or movement at its peak of performance or in its ascendancy. This is the sign and pure stink of failure and desperation that such so called leaders are swimming up from the swamps. Their Queen is cornered and all that is left is for them to acknowledge it – but they would rather still play out the moves.
David Duke? Seriously. Ass whipping. That is what is coming. Good ol, britches pulling ass whipping. In fact, its happening right now in front of our faces, but everyone is just too polite to point this out and stop the fun.
Culture of Truth
No need to print new t-shirts if he goes with campaign slogan “Yep, I’m a Racist”
jane from hell
Meh, he’s too moderate to win the primary.
Linda Featheringill
I did find an email address for David Duke and suggested he run as a third-party candidate, pointing out that he could save money during the long primary season and then concentrate his resources on the general election.
But nobody ever listens to my suggestions anyway.
:-)
Edited for clarity.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
Jane Hamsher is having a fundraiser for Duke.
http://tinyurl.com/3u27uav
Roger Moore
And I would say that he’s deliberately conflating “trust” with “support”. Maybe you can trust him to say what he believes, but that’s exactly why you shouldn’t support him. How can you support someone who believes in the awful, evil things David Duke does?
South of I-10
@ET I had the bumper sticker! Also, Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard.
Martin
DICK ALERT!
Someone get Bobo to his fainting couch, stat!
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century) @33
Dude…If you played hockey, you’d be referred to as a shit-disturber. Think Claude LeMieux.
bemused
Either Duke sports a white beard or he fell face first into a flour bin. The video is obviously not professionally made but his fans probably find that appealing.
Cris (without an H)
To second what Djur said, “going viral” used to sort of mean something, but now people throw the phrase around as a synonym for “gets lots of traffic.” Just because it sounds hip, I guess.
It’s just one more phrase that has been stripped of whatever meaning it had as to become full-blown bullshit bingo.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
@ Max McGee,
I prefer Dick Butkus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvdKHxiJdKk
Although, Nitschke in “The Longest Yard” is a close 2nd.
The Pale Scot
I was hoping for a Barbour/Bachmann ticket, but I admit, this might be even better.
PurpleGirl
4tehlulz: I haven’t been following the baby Caylee case at all, even when it started way back. I saw on Yahoo News that a verdict was expected today. (Picking up bits and pieces in headlines only.) Woah… Nancy Grace’s head will explode all right. (Back in the 90s I developed a loathing for Ms. Grace when she was on the old Court TV.)
Keith G
@Linda Featheringill
While it is technically possible, I am not sure what..
..means.
Duke is not credible and teabagger math is notoriously fucked (and do they even have a formal membership to know who the “activists” are?). Maybe, like The Donald, he just wants the attention.
WyldPirate
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik @ #9:
I see what you–and ABL—are saying. No doubt that it is a tough choice. Do you give the haters the attention they seek or do you ignore them? One way is like pouring gas on a fire and the other is letting the crazy fuckers rant, rave and further marginalize themselves.
I’m not as pessimistic as you and perhaps ABL are. Yes, racism still exists and it probably always will as we humans are in a sense pack/tribal animals. We attack those who are different. But as bad as things are, they are far, far better than they were earlier in my life–say 45 years ago when I first became aware of the differences in skin color.
A lot of the older folks haven’t changed and probably never will, but many of the younger folks have and from my perspective–anecdotal as it may be–things continue to improve for the better. The threat to improvement will be how the nation fares economically and if certain factions can find acceptable scapegoats. But those folks are rapidly running out of time barring a major economic disaster.
Warren Terra
If Duke’s videos go viral, we need to find a cure. Antibiotics won’t help with viruses, we all know that, and inappropriate use increases the prevalence of nasty little buggers running around. Antiretrovirals, perhaps? Interferon? Antiinflammatories, and hope for the best? FSM knows Duke and his ilk are inflammatory …
Ah, well, take two aspirin, and don’t call me in the morning.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century) @40
Don’t take this the wrong way- I like you, Mike- but it’s less like you’re trying to destroy someone directly, a la Butkus, but rather trying to get under their skin and forcing them to destroy themselves. With that original comment, anyway.
Scott
Pirate, ask David Neiwert at Crooks&Liars about what happens when you just ignore the racists. He can show you how well that worked out in Idaho with the Aryan Nations.
Triassic Sands
As long as Duke runs as a Republican, I’m all for it. I don’t see any point in his running as a third party candidate and splitting the racist vote. After all, Republicans deserve a candidate who doesn’t pretend he/she isn’t a racist.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@WyldPirate #44
Ignoring idiots only works if they’re already marginalized enough to where you can sap them of oxygen by letting them burn out. But we’re nowhere near that point yet. Far, far, far from it. Ignoring them when they still have a captive audience only allows them to craft their own alternate reality which they can sell as actual reality to dupes, and create a self-feeding system that snowballs.
Not to say that we haven’t made strides. But it’s folly to pretend that if we don’t talk about it, it’ll cease to exist. It’ll have to be a conscious choice first before it becomes so accepted that future generations will not know a time when this kind of shit existed in everyday life. Racism may not be a sucking chest wound anymore, comparatively, but it’s still an open would enough that simply ignoring it just means it’ll get infected and grow even worse.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
@Temporarily Max McGee : I like you too Max, ever since I saw your fake punt in the 1960 championship game. Your restaurant was pretty tasty, as well.
Atheist
He’s got my vote!!!
Elie
Racism and other tribal, territorial, R-formation crap will always be with us. Its hard wired in the human brain and can only be overcome by heavy synaptic input from the cerebral cortex (learning, experience, emotional development, etc). In animals, it aligns with territorial behavior to protect food and reproduction.
That’s the biology anyway.
I don’t say that we ignore it. Not wise as you have to keep your eye on any critter that is growling and charging when you go on you way. That said, standing your ground in a assertive, calm way is better than screaming back and running at the critter at top speed… Sometimes of course, you have to show the critter the stick and sometimes you have to use the stick… but that is more rarely needed if those in the know keep their cool…
Just my two cents
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
Bachmann bumper sticker: “If it ain’t white, it ain’t right”.
kay
My sister in law is off the Tea Party and back to pleading for comity and reconciliation with normal, reasonable people. She was an early adopter and organizer, so maybe that’s a sign.
She goes full-bore screaming wingnut for two solid years, at each and every gathering, and now insists we all apologize to her because we’re such “partisans” and there’s such “rancor and division” in the country. This is the same person who was drunkenly reciting certain selected parts of the Declaration of Independence at me last year at this time, because she thinks it’s the Constitution, and she demands I ABIDE BY IT.
She’s backing Romney, now that she’s a “moderate” although reluctantly, because he’s “not a Christian”, according to her reading of the Bible, or perhaps the Declaration of Independence, one.
Gozer
I’m sorry, but I was distracted by his pube colored beard in that video.
Gozer
South of I-10 – July 5, 2011 | 2:58 pm · Link
ET – July 5, 2011 | 3:11 pm · Link
Gotta love “Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard.”
Elie
kay:
I have to go back to that R-formation, territoriality behavior — the need to mark your territority and make AWESOME displays of power and daring to show you will defend your turf at all costs…
The adrenaline rush of the first few years of this has started to wear off (as adrenaline does eventually). You can’t keep your mind/body at that crisis level forever and you just run out of juice if there is not enough to keep things inflammed.
Obama has been cool — almost cold for some through this. Its worked to allow some of the Tea party folks to run out of steam, having beat off to the birther stuff and whatever else they could bleed. Not to say they can’t go off again — they can and will esp if he has to go the route of the 14th amendment option being held up as the symbolic “stick”. That of course, means war and all bets are off then…
Can’t you see their desperation, though? People who are winning the message and influence war just don’t behave this way.. This is the scent marking and making big signs when you are feeling weak and threatenned.. not ready to be “calm and submissive”, not yet ready to fully give up to that, but they are running out of options.
sistermoon
Or the extensive cosmetic surgery. He’s supposed to rival Joan Rivers for his history of… uh… procedures
AAA Bonds
RUN DAVID RUN ! ! !
Snarkworth
I am so hoping for a Duke-Cain ticket.
AAA Bonds
I swear, if he actually declared, I would cram money into his little asshole until he squeaked.
I can’t imagine anything better for the left.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i am not sure what david duke brings to the clown car, that isn’t already there. i will enjoy watching him struggle to provide contrast between himself and the opposition.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i am not sure what david duke brings to the clown car, that isn’t already there. i will enjoy watching him struggle to provide contrast between himself and the opposition.
AxelFoley
@ Max MaGee:
ROFL
I see what you did there!
AAA Bonds
I’m not one of those “back Bachmann, she’s crazy” or “back Palin, she’s crazy” types. All it takes is a few phone calls from Rove and they’re as centrist as they need to be, meaning all Republican donations are then centered on their wallets.
But no Republican establishment will possibly back David Duke, even as he offers their voter base a message many of them can get behind easily. He’s potentially a genuine ball-and-chain around them if he declares and gets publicity during primary season.
I honestly love reading Duke’s writing. It’s so calmly cruel and unsettling, and tells you just what at least a chunk of White America thinks.
My favorite is his proposal that we get rid of rap music and replace it with good white music such as “reels and jigs”.
That’s how you get the kids in your corner, now. Reels! and! jigs!
ABL
Duke talks about his membership in “an organization” like the KKK is the Kiwanis Club. He does this because there are people of voting age who don’t know that he was the Grand Wizard of the KKK.
there’s a harry potter quip in here somewhere, but i’m too lazy to find it.
AxelFoley
@Snarkworth:
LOL, talk about a Nancy Grace-like head explosion…
Lysana
As a Celtic music fan, I don’t know whether to barf at the near association or introduce him to a Breton rap act or two.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Big whoop. Another Republican wants to run for president. Some news. Oh, he’s a racist? So’s the Republican party. He’s been rubbing shoulders with them for a long time. The Republican party isn’t hiding it any more and that’s why Duke is encouraged enough to consider a run for the presidency. The rest of the party is responsible for his decision, they created the climate that makes him look acceptable to the crazy segment on the right.
The Republicans have encouraged his considering a run for the top spot.
Sherman fucked up. He should have burned the whole south to the ground. For you people who are tired of the south bashing, I am bashing the south of then. While, IMO, the south is still causing a shitload of problems for their people plus policy and law at the national level, they are two completely different things. For now anyway.
Talk that I consider traitorous is at an all-time high, to the point that it can be stated on the ‘news’ and no serious commentary or discussion follows it. That kind of talk has become acceptable and I find it anything but. While the south causes enough problems for the rest of us, they wouldn’t be in the position to do so without the assistance of some northern states. Some people don’t remember (or know) that states like Indiana were very prominent in the Klan movement. IMO the Klan movement spread northward from the south as the population shifted due to economic forces. There’s no doubt that they found others in the north who were sympathetic to their cause, leading to the national rising of the Klan 100 years ago.
The Republicans have cultivated this toxic atmosphere, enabled by the lust for power and control by the wealthy and the powerful business interests. The Republicans (and some Democrats) cater specifically to the rich, to the detriment of the lower classes. They cater to them knowing that they will be rewarded for delivering the goods to them. They know that if they do a good job in delivering the goods then they may end up in an easy, good paying job after their political careers are over. In the meantime they can sell their votes to the highest bidder for some campaign cash and support that will keep them in office.
On the Federal dole. Easy street.
What we are seeing on the right is a conglomeration of hate that is concentrating itself enough to win office and put their hate to work to achieve their ends.
If they can’t be stopped then I think we are fucked.
kay
I don’t know: I long ago stopped trying to predict conservative fads. I think you’re better at “big picture” things than I am.
I actually get pissed off that we discuss them so much. I don’t think they spend nearly the time, energy or attention parsing the souls of liberals as liberals do parsing the (alleged) souls of conservatives, so that just makes me mad in a childish, stamp-my-feet “I don’t want to TALK about their FEELINGS anymore!” way.
Conservatives discuss conservatism constantly (themselves: their absolute favorite subject), media discusses conservatism constantly, and LIBERALS discuss conservatism constantly.
I can’t read opinion anymore (other than here, so I don’t mean yours). I cannot bear one more paragraph from a pundit or “observer” on the State Of the Conservative Soul. I think they talk about themselves ENOUGH w/out others helping them out :)
I want to talk about the damage they do, not their inner struggles. I guess I’m less interested in their INTENT than I used to be.
It’s amusing to talk with my SIL, because she tries and tries to go to First Principles (LIBERTY! LIFE!) , and I have a lot of fun forcing her back to specifics. She says “LIFE!” I say “your governor just shut down clinics for low-income women”. Like that. I won’t go back and forth longer than twenty minutes, because I don’t have the patience, but I think she’d argue all night.
Frankensteinbeck
b-psycho:
You’re right that strict libertarian philosophy is not anti-immigration, since it doesn’t want the government making any rules of any kind about anything. But the reigning wisdom here is that libertarians who actually follow their creed through with any faithfulness are very rare (and still not liked). Most references to libertarians here refer to the people who claim they are libertarians but whose actual positions are 95% conservative Republican. Which… seems to be the vast majority of libertarians.
ABL
that’s the only way to argue with conservatives. it’s sort of like taking a deposition. you’ve gotta move from the big picture to specifics. get a bunch of answers you like to specifics and then explain to them how what they really think doesn’t mesh with what they’ve been told to think.
kay
Hah. True. I like her, I really do, she has redeeming qualities, but I do think she should own up to her former Glenn Beck-following ways, before lecturing us all on grown-up political discussions. I let it slide, but maybe I should have asked her what the hell that insanity was all about.
I don’t have any sympathy for Romney, by the way. If he wants to get around religious bigotry,maybe he should switch parties. Democrats elect Mormons, and Massachusetts voters didn’t hold his religion against him.
Maybe he could look to GOP primary voters and do some soul-searching on why he’s comfortable begging them to include him as a “Christian”. All that groveling he does just makes me uncomfortable. Jesus, buddy, get up off your knees. They’re bigots. Face it. Move on.
Swellsman
I had a Close Encounter w/David Duke about a year after his failed 1991 bid for LA Governor. I was still in law school and visiting some friends in DC; we went to a Georgetown Bar and realized abruptly that the guy sitting with two friends on the bar stool next to us was David Duke.
We discussed, briefly and sotto voce, what to do about this and then I very loudly said: “We don’t do anything. The guy’s a racist prick and we ignore him.”
Duke and his two friends left less than 5 minutes later.
Can’t know for sure, but always suspected, Duke just didn’t want a confrontation. Not that we were offering one — but the disdain was clear.
And . . . I know, I know, maybe Duke was just being rational and diplomatic. But in addition to his revoluting racism, that quick encounter also convinced me he is a huge wuss.
anna missed
David Duke’s Wikipedia entry is worth a gander. I love how it talks about how he brought equality to the KKK by letting women join. What a pioneer!
The KKK has had a women’s division since the early 20’s – it was called the WKKK, and had at least a half million registered members. Women in the Klan, was in fact initiated by one Elizabeth Tyler who started with the Klan as membership promoter, and was virtually running the Klan (according to a congressional investigation at the time) by 1922.
bjacques
My Google-fu has failed me. I was looking for an oldie but goodie, a poster or bumper sticker by Robbie Conal, from 1992, with
HONEST REPUBLICANS
[Pat Buchanan] [David Duke]
FOR A CHANGE