And that means that one should ignore all of the evidence that he is racist? Nope.
Again, Sessions was the second federal judicial nominee to be rejected by the Senate in 48 years. If there was a clear pattern of Democrats rejecting any and all conservative nominees on the flimsy excuse of racism, I think there would be more than just two nominees rejected in 50 years.
I'm not saying that I know for a fact that is racist. I'm saying that he has said things that give people reason to believe that he's racist. When called out on it, I would expect that someone who wants to deny his racism would say "Hey, I was just joking". Joking that the NAACP is un-American? Joking that someone is a disgrace to his race?
I assume you mean Byrd, not Thurmond. And again, I'm saying that people have reason to think he's no longer a racist when he has firmly disavowed his prior racism and his words and actions have been consistently anti-racist for decades. More on that below.
My null hypothesis is that if someone has made racist comments, it gives one reason to think that he is racist.
You have provided no basis to hold that my null hypothesis is if someone is conservative they must be racist and I ask that you retract that assertion unless you intend to support it. I will directly challenge that in the future if it is repeated without support.
Which does not mean that one ignores the prior evidence of racism. The reason Byrd is forgiven is not just because he didn't do anything particular racist "since then" but because he became a champion of civil rights. In support:
For the 2003–2004 session, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)[67] rated Byrd's voting record as being 100% in line with the N.A.A.C.P.'s position on the thirty-three Senate bills they evaluated. Sixteen other senators received that rating. In June 2005, Byrd proposed an additional $10,000,000 in federal funding for the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C., remarking that, "With the passage of time, we have come to learn that his Dream was the American Dream, and few ever expressed it more eloquently."[68] Upon news of his death, the NAACP released a statement praising Byrd, saying that he "became a champion for civil rights and liberties" and "came to consistently support the NAACP civil rights agenda".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd#Race
Sessions, on the other hand:
"Sessions' positions on civil rights issues have not won him any fans at the NAACP. He's received consistent "Fs" on the group's legislative report cards for the past decade and a half.
Cornell William Brooks, the group's president, blasted Sessions' nomination, citing what he called a "very disturbing and recurring theme of hostility to and toward civil rights" exhibited over his career."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politi...ons/index.html
And he apparently never fully disavowed his prior support for segregation.
So it's not just an issue of having a "D" or and "R" next to one's name. It's ones actions regarding civil rights that make a significant difference whether people think one has truly changed his stripes. A racist can always choose to not behave in a racist manner so that doesn't really mean that he's changed. But if one becomes a civil rights champion, then it's reasonable to think that they have changed.
I think maybe his campaign rhetoric gives people a reason to think he is.
And you have not supported that it's a strategy that they employ. There's wide gulf between Kanye West saying Bush is a racist and a intentional strategy from the Democratic party to use racism accusations against Republicans.
So in the past three posts you say that it's a strategy but I've seen no support that it is an intentional strategy. I won't challenge many INDIVIDUAL accusations of racism that some liberal has charged against some conservative but that doesn't show a conspiracy or general strategy. I don't think, nor do I think you are seriously suggesting, that Kanye somehow coordinated with the Democrats to level his racism charges. I'm guessing we will agree that he was just shooting his mouth off again.
So if you are telling me that you THINK it's the case that there is a concerted strategy, message received. Thanks for telling me what you think. But if you are going to make the argument that that is really what's going on, let's see some support for it. And again, individual charges of racism is not support unless you can tie them to the alleged larger strategy.
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