Reply #1: Growing up in W.Va. [View All]

[EST]

A half century ago, in a hard r/w household, I was was sold the klan in a totally different fashion. There were many, many very poor families, families who, for one reason or another, fell to the lowest rung of the economic ladder and never moved off.
One of the things the klan would do was to set up a highly publicized charity giveaway and lots of "we take care of our own" speeches to sell the general public on the notion that the KKK was actually a charitable organization, with the occasional hothead thrown in, here and there.

Imagine that - the klan is a charitable organization and the reports you might hear are, no doubt, wildly exaggerated. If this doesn't actually lead you to be defensive of these right wing morons, at least it does make you more likely to be sympathetic, or slower to blame them for their atrocities.

In the area and arena where I lived, Byrd was pretty universally disliked, with the most common picture being that of the biggest hog at the trough.