www.newsbusters.org
Colbert and Warnock Talk Slavery, Segregation -- Ignoring Democrats' Role in Both
Here on NewsBusters, Alex Christy had a sharp-eyed focus on a curious moment on a recent episode of Stephen Colbert’s late night CBS show.
Georgia’s Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock appeared on Colbert's set, as Democrats often do. Warnock and Colbert’s subject: slavery.
Alex reported:
Later, Colbert continued with the idea that disagreeing with liberals on economics makes one a bad Christian, "The Bible often talks about caring for the elderly, for the poor. Those who have the least power, the least of my brothers. And why do you think a nation that so frequently wants to describe itself as a Christian nation or one having Judeo-Christian values wants to shirk that collective responsibility to our brothers and sisters?"
Warnock went straight to Jim Crow and slavery comparisons, "Well, you know, that has a long history, and it's frustrating in this moment, but we've seen this before. There were a whole lot of Christians who were on the wrong side of the slavery question, the wrong side of the Jim Crow segregation question, but as I read the scripture, there are more than 2,000 verses in the Bible that tell you how to treat the poor."
Hmmmm. What, pray tell, did Colbert skip over when his guest said all of that? As the saying goes, let’s go to the record. That would be the record that precisely answers Warnock’s pondering about the “whole lot of Christians who were on the wrong side of the slavery question, the wrong side of the Jim Crow segregation question…”
What were both Warnock and his host Colbert interestingly silent about as they discussed "a whole lot of Christians who were on the wrong side of the slavery question, the wrong side of the Jim Crow segregation question”?
Neither Warnock nor Colbert mentioned who, exactly, were on the wrong side of the slavery question and the wrong side of the Jim Crow segregation. One can suspect that the reason that question was ignored by both is because the overwhelming support in the day for both slavery and then segregation came from - Democrats.
The two were, for example, silent on the number of Democratic Party platforms supporting slavery. There were 6 from 1840-1860.
They were silent on the number of Democratic presidents who owned slaves. There were 7 from 1800-1861.
Warnock’s mention of “the Jim Crow segregation question” ignored the number of Democratic Party platforms that either supported segregation outright or were silent on the subject. There were 20, from 1868-1948.
And oh yes. There was not a word from either that it was their political party that opposed passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that abolished slavery.
One could go on. But the real problem here is that this small moment in the ongoing river of American late night TV culture illustrated exactly the game that is played by the lefties who run and host late night TV.
Republicans are castigated in one form or another, with complete silence on the role the Left has, as in this case, played in the seriously real history of slavery and segregation.
One cannot imagine, were this topic to emerge on an edition of Greg Gutfeld’s Fox show, that the role of the Democrats in providing the serious political support for both slavery and segregation would go unmentioned.
All of the above is, admittedly, a very small moment in the history of the Left’s management of late night television shows.
It is a passing blink, a tiny snapshot of how the Left plays the culture game. Indeed, were it not for Alex Christy role in zeroing in on it for NewsBusters, the moment would be long gone already. Swallowed in the ocean of anti-conservative television moments already long forgotten beyond whatever role of preserved - but never watched - video exists closeted in some forgotten network vault somewhere.
In other words? As the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Happy Passover and Happy Easter.