In his July 18th letter to the editor, Timothy Tiches claims to know some history when he stated that, “The Democrat Party advocated for slavery and voted with southern states to secede from the Union…” Mr. Tiches goes on to advocate expunging the “Democrat Party.” Mr. Tiches unfortunately, barely cracked open a history book, because if he did his homework, he would know that there is no such party as the “Democrat Party”. There is the Democratic Party, which did not vote for slavery because parties don’t vote, people vote. The Southern people voted to secede from the Union and preserve slavery. (In the election of 1860, Southern Democrats split from the Democratic Party to create their own southern party due to their differences over allowing slavery in the western territories). Just like Republicans, Democrats fought for the Union, such as General George McClellan, (General in the Union Army and candidate for president in 1864 opposite Lincoln). The abolition of slavery was not on either major political party’s platform in 1860, but arguments over the extension of slavery into the territories split Northerners from Southerners (Republicans and Democrats alike).

Nevertheless, Mr. Tiches might be on to something, the Democratic Party was a racist party, but he neglects to tell us that the Republican Party was equally racist. Mr. Tiches forgot to mention the Compromise of 1877 when politicians in both parties came to a not-so-secret agreement over the stalemated election of 1876. Both parties gave Republican Hayes enough votes to be president and Republicans agreed to end Reconstruction pulling Union troops from the South. This gave ex-confederates free reign to terrorize Black people in the South and institute Jim Crow. Mr. Tiches scratches at the surface of important facts, the US was a racist country, and it is still a racist country. Today it seems that the Black community’s general preference is to vote Democratic, but I think that Black people are voting for the lesser of two evils. Today’s Republican Party has a poor track record when it comes to passing Civil Rights legislation and enforcing those laws, and Republican Senator Rand Paul did his best to block a long overdue anti-lynching law, in contrast to the Democratic Party, which is working on diversity and social justice. If Mr. Tiches wants to do some expunging, he should expunge both parties, or maybe keep the parties but expunge the institutionalized racism in the U.S., that might be better for all of us.