In S.C. twist, black candidate is expected to beat Thurmond's son in House race

[alp227]

More bizarre happenings in South Carolina politics. First Nikki Haley, the Indian-American ("the dot, not the feather" as my former high school government teacher once remarked) Republican candidate for governor who won despite being accused of cheating on her husband. Then Alvin Greene, the dark horse (no pun intended) Democratic US Senate candidate who won out of nowhere...no campaigns, no website, NOTHING against the incumbent Republican Jim DeMint. And now...in the Republican US Senate primary, seems that an African-American Tea Party candidate named Tim Scott is beating Paul Thurmond, the youngest son of the late segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond. The Washington Post has more.

[bluestateguy]

1. So who do the racist white people vote for in the real election?

Do they suck it up and vote for the "Dimmycrat" (who I assume is white), stay home and not vote for either, or vote for the black Republican and then pat themselves on the back for how egalitarian they are.

[alp227]

2. Think about this: Strom Thurmond actually voted to confirm Clarence Thomas!

In 1991, the Senate=57 D, 43 R. Every Republican in the Senate at the time except the moderates Jim Jeffords and Bob Packwood voted for Thomas.

And the Democratic Party used to be for segregation and slavery and racism, at least before the Civil Rights era.

Black Republicans have been in Congress forever. Not just the new breed of black conservatives/Uncle Toms. Did you know the first African-American elected Congressional representative was from South Carolina? That's right, Joseph Rainey, of South Carolina's 1st Congressional district, who served from 1870-1879, during Reconstruction.

The first African-American ever to be elected to Congress was Sen. Hiram Revels (R-MS).

After Reconstruction, the first African-Americans to be elected in Congress = Republicans. Sen. Edward Brooke (MA) in 1978 and Oscar Stanton De Priest (IL-1) in 1928.

But in the current political environment now that the Democrats are more likely to favour civil rights and Republicans have been known to be soft on racism and even racist themselves, history is smacked.