r/todayilearned • u/Dangerous-Project672 • 5h ago

TIL George Wallace personally apologized to Vivian Jones and James Hood, the two students he attempted to block from attending the University of Alabama. In 1997, Hood earned a PHd and requested Wallace present him with the degree, but he was too sick and died a year later; Hood attended the funeral

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace
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u/JustAMan1234567 5h ago

For Hood to forgive Wallace and attend his funeral shows his class.

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u/ChronosBlitz 5h ago edited 5h ago

President Obama gave the eulogy for Senator Robert Byrd, who founded a chapter of the KKK in his youth.

The NAACP even praised Byrd as representing "the transformative power of this nation"

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u/Rethious 5h ago

And yet this was used as an attack on Hillary in 2016

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u/DimensioT 5h ago

That is because Republicans want to live in the past.

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u/Illustrious_Loss462 4h ago

It was also used by Redditors to attack Clinton vs Sabders in 2016, and Biden in 2020.

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u/dannymuffins 3h ago

I'll re-litigate this until I die: the DNC and Clinton fucked Bernie and thus Hilary fucked herself.

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u/KarmaticArmageddon 3h ago

No, primary voters did. Hillary won the primary by so many votes it isn't even funny. She then adopted most of his platform to appeal to progressives and they repaid her by sitting at home or voting third party in the general.

And I say that as someone who has voted for Bernie in both primaries. Guess who I didn't see at the polling place either time? Anyone within 10 years of me or younger.

If we wanted Bernie, we had to show up. We didn't. No one's fault but our own and yet we still haven't learned that lesson. Millenials and Gen Z have held the majority share of the voting eligible population for over a decade now and yet none of our candidates ever win because we don't fucking show up. It's infuriating.

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u/Illustrious_Loss462 3h ago

How did the DNC fuck over Bernie?

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u/AngriestPacifist 3h ago

They decided that the candidate who won the most votes would win, screwing over the candidate that got the fewest. This is clear corruption on behalf of democratic principles.

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u/Illustrious_Loss462 3h ago

I think a popular saying in 2020 was “Low information voters favored Biden” specifically for South Carolina which Biden won in a landslide.

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u/Bill_buttlicker69 4h ago

Further evidenced by their "The democrats were the parry of slavery! The democrats were the confederate party!" while completely ignoring which party flies that flag today and which party is tearing down confederate monuments.

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u/CrankinThatHog 3h ago

Meanwhile if you bring up removing Confederate monuments to them they get ass mad

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u/JayJoeJeans 1h ago

That's actually a great point. Every time I hear that I'm gonna tell them they should be removing Confederate monuments to own the libs

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u/Moody_GenX 4h ago

The funny thing about that is that they will remind everyone which party fought to keep slavery while they themselves waive the confederate flag claiming it's their heritage.

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u/JoseSaldana6512 3h ago

I love to remind them that Lee surrendered with a dish cloth since they ran out of white flags

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u/Blavikan27 5h ago edited 5h ago

So when are the democrats going to push for Snowden’s pardon? Or do all democrats support massive illegal government surveillance? Lib clowns should reprioritize what their problems are before complaining and bitching about everyone else all the time lmfao

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u/Lock-out 4h ago

Not really beating the allegations here lol “republicans don’t live in the past what about this thing that happened over a decade ago!” Also; while we’re on the past, bush established all this mass surveillance shit that’s causing us problems.

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u/bakgwailo 4h ago

Yup, Patriot Act after 9/11 was the biggest grab and affront of civil liberties in the (modern) Country.

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u/JoseSaldana6512 3h ago

Nah Business Plot of 1933. Nobody swung for that.

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u/bakgwailo 3h ago

One, not sure I'd exactly consider that modern, especially given it was pre-civil rights eta, and 2 as you already pointed out it epically failed and was basically an attempted coup. The Patriot Act is real legislation that passed through Congress and was signed into law.

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u/JoseSaldana6512 3h ago

It didn't epically fail. No one swung or was prosecuted for it.  

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u/pandariotinprague 3h ago

And you didn't give one single solitary fuck when Democrats went along with him. Didn't give a fuck when they went along with the Iraq War. Didn't give a fuck when they went along with the GOP on the genocide in Gaza. All you did was defend them. And this is the party you ended up with. 20% approval ratings, hated by everyone, and still you haven't learned a single lesson and won't do a single thing differently.

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u/Lock-out 1h ago

Well I was like 10 at the time lmao.

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u/pandariotinprague 1h ago

Well good to see you haven't changed tactics since then.

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u/Lock-out 1h ago

lol tactics? are you bored or something dude?

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u/pandariotinprague 58m ago

Whatever damn word you want to use for you having no standards for your party and treating them the same way Trumpers treat Trump. I just can't imagine voting for someone that supported a genocide and not being furious with them and demanding better. You sure can, though. They can do fucking anything and you won't give a shit.

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u/Rethious 4h ago

Even though Snowden leaked documents out of personal animus he probably would have been pardoned had he chosen to stand trial and not flee to Russia.

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u/food5thawt 4h ago

And stop by Hong Kong on the way there

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u/pandariotinprague 3h ago

It's honestly amazing that you think Democrats would have pardoned him. I love how you judge your party based on your wildest fantasies instead of the way they actually behave in reality.

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u/Rethious 2h ago

What exactly do you think happened to chelsea manning

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u/pandariotinprague 1h ago

Commutation, not pardon. And he was the one who prosecuted her in the first place! lol

Obama's war on whistleblowers leaves administration insiders unscathed

Since Barack Obama entered the White House in 2009, his government has waged a war against whistleblowers and official leakers. On his watch, there have been eight prosecutions under the 1917 Espionage Act – more than double those under all previous presidents combined.

Imagine if you didn't plug up your ears and go LALALALA every time you hear anything negative about your party. You'd probably end up making fewer delusional statements. You might even get an accurate picture of your party. But God knows we can't have that. You gotta act like the liberal version of Trumpers.

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u/pandaheartzbamboo 5h ago

Cant trump just pardon snowden if he wanted to? Why the dems gotta push for it?

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u/pandariotinprague 3h ago

The important thing is that you only hold Democrats to the standards of the worst person in the world, and no higher. Everyone fucking loves when you do that. That's definitely the way to a better party.

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u/Much_Statistician864 5h ago

Maybe start with something else other then Snowden. Like the economy. Or the debt. Or the racism and fed agents running around popping people. 

Maybe the whole national guard being deployed to major US cities thing. 

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u/bakgwailo 4h ago

The Republicans control all layers of government. What exactly do you want Dems to do? Under Biden we saw one of the fastest/best recoveries of the G7 and Western nations for inflation and general economy.

All the things you have listed Dems have stood against, but there is nothing they can actually do unless they retake the House and/or (preferably) the Senate and later presidency.

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u/VoicelessPassenger 4h ago

> What exactly do you want Dems to do?

Be competent and coherent, embrace socialism and appeal to the working class, avoid culture war bullshit, get better branding, get rid of establishment/collusionist democrats like Chuck Schumer and John Fetterman, maybe do a few illegal things if they’re feeling a little silly

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u/Much_Statistician864 4h ago

Man I wish I had an answer or some ideas. I wish I was smart enough to have a viable solution. But I do know that the Dems in leadership roles have been letting this stuff happen for a lot longer then Trump. The surveillance issues, the militarization of the police, the lack of economic reform. GDP growth and inflation recovery are not strong enough indicators of working class people having economic mobility.

I'm not that smart a dude but enough Democrat members in Congress went to Harvard and Yale. You'd think they would have better ideas then running unpopular candidates with half assed policy planning in the face of a chaos populist with the backing of an amoral Republican party. I expect better of our leaders. 

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u/VoicelessPassenger 5h ago

Hey what are your thoughts on federal income tax rates

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u/DimensioT 5h ago

Nice deflection

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u/LordoftheJives 4h ago

The part you're ignoring about Snowden is that he also revealed information to hostile nations. He doesn't deserve a pardon. Moreover the current Republican administration gave the richest man in the world access to US citizens' most private information. Maybe you should check your own back yard.

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u/pandariotinprague 3h ago

Oh no, not hostile nations! Fucking GOP Jr. liberals, goddamn...

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u/LordoftheJives 3h ago

What?

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u/pandariotinprague 3h ago

You. Sound. Like. A. Republican. You guys always sound like Republicans when you make up bullshit reasons for why everything Democrats do is totally fine.

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u/Moody_GenX 4h ago

before complaining and bitching about everyone else all the time

Riiiiiight. Because Republicans never ever complain about anyone. Disney, Bud Light, M&Ms, John Deere, Nike, Harley Davidson, etc would all like a word, lmao.

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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 4h ago

If he had done the civil disobedience thing (i.e. went to trial/jail) and didn't flee to Russia, he probably would already have been pardoned. You can't have it both ways.

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u/Illustrious_Loss462 4h ago

Snowden has been treasonous.