When it comes to bullying and violence, you can always count on Democrats. The latest example is last week's union protest in Michigan after Governor Rick Snyder signed his right-to-work legislation. Union supporters had a meltdown and then promptly took it out on everyone else.

During a celebration rally held by Americans for Prosperity, union thugs tore down the group's large tent -- with women, children, and two individuals in wheelchairs still trapped inside! Some of the people were trampled on as they struggled underneath the tent before being pulled to safety by police. Clint Tarver, a hotdog vendor hired for the event, had his tent tore down while still inside it. After fielding a few racial epithets and even offering one of the thugs a free hotdog, Tarver was pushed aside and his equipment smashed to pieces.

The fact that Tarver is black mattered little to the shouting union supporters who surrounded him, nor to union media giants ABC, CBS, and NBC which, according to the Media Research Center, gave only a passing reference  to the incident during their Tuesday evening newscasts, calling it "boisterous." As in the case of black Tea Party activist Kenneth Gladney, who was brutally beaten by two SEIU members during a 2009 health care town hall meeting, don't hold your breath waiting for someone to be convicted of a hate crime. In Gladney's case, both union members were acquitted.

Unfortunately, tactics of this type have a long, historic connection to both Democrats and unions. Though if you grew up going to a unionized public school, there's a good chance that you've never heard of this. Don't feel bad. I'm a teacher with a Ph.D and I never knew half of our nation's real history until after I left school and began to re-educate myself by learning from original source materials, rather than modern textbooks written by progressive historians with an agenda.

Interestingly, for much of 19th century American political history it was actually the Republican Party that was the party of choice for black Americans. Not only was the Republican Party formed during the late 1850s as part of a new political movement to end slavery, it was the first party to openly advocate strong civil rights legislation for all minorities. Take, for example, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which officially abolished slavery. Of the 118 Republicans in Congress at the time, all 118 voted in favor of the legislation, while only 19 of 82 Democrats voted likewise. (Journal of the House of Representatives, 38th Congress, 2nd Session; Journal of the Senate, 38th Congress, 1st Session), p. 313, April 11, 1864) Then there's the 14th and 15th Amendments guaranteeing rights of citizenship and voting to blacks. Not a single Democrat voted in favor of either amendment. (14th Amendment vote: Journal of the House of Representatives, Vol. 63 ; Journal of the Senate Vol. 58. 15th Amendment vote: Journal of the House of Representatives, 40th Congress, Journal of the Senate, 40th Congress) Given this, it's no surprise that black Americans commonly voted Republican.

By the mid 1860s, the Republican Party's alliance with blacks had caused a noticeable strain on the Democrat's struggle for electoral significance in the post Civil War era. This prompted the Democratic Party in 1866 to develop a new pseudo-secret political action group whose sole purpose was to help gain control of the electorate. The new group was known simply by their initials, KKK (Ku Klux Klan).

This terrible and insidious political relationship was nationally solidified shortly thereafter during the 1868 Democratic National Convention when former Civil War general and Tennessean Nathan Bedford Forrest was honored as the KKK's first Grand Wizard. (Stanley Horn, Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan 1866-1871) But don't bother checking the Democratic National Committee's website for further information. Curiously, they have omitted all related history between 1848 to 1900 from their timeline -- half a century worth!

Nevertheless, this secret and sordid history is well documented. There's even a thirteen volume set of Congressional investigations dating from 1872 detailing the Klan's connection to the party. The official documents, titled Report of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire Into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, irrefutably proves the KKK's prominent role in the Democratic Party.

One of the most vivid examples of collusion between the KKK and Democratic Party was when Democrat Senator Wade Hampton (yet another former Confederate general) ran for the governorship of South Carolina in 1876. The Klan put into action a battle plan to help the Democrats win, stating: "Every Democrat must feel honor bound to control the vote of at least one Negro by intimidation.... Democrats must go in as large numbers ... and well-armed." (David Barton, Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White)

An issue of Harper's Weekly that same year illustrated this mindset with a depiction of two white Democrats standing next to a black man while pointing a gun at him. At the bottom of the depiction is a caption that reads: "Of Course He Wants To Vote The Democratic Ticket!"

The Klan's primary mission, similar to that of modern day unions, was to target and intimidate Republicans. And the Klan, like unions, didn't care if a Republican was white or black. Between 1882 and 1964, an estimated 3,446 blacks and 1,279 whites were lynched at the hands of the Klan, according to published statistics by the University of Missouri-Kansas City's School of Law. Fortunately, the lynching has stopped. But given the degree of recent union-perpetrated violence against conservatives across the country, is it completely unreasonable to fear some similar type of lethal incident iin the near future if something isn't done to stop the progression of such violence? Consider the recent violence in 2011 during a "Days of Rage" protest by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union at the Port of Longview in Washington. Union members actually took half a dozen guards hostage, sabotaged rail cars, and smashed windows.

Today, the Democratic Party no longer needs the help of political gangs wearing pointy hoods to do their dirty work. Instead, they now rely on union thugs who have no problem intimidating and conducting beat-downs on opponents, as the recent case in Michigan and elsewhere aptly shows. Adding to this already inflammatory situation, Michigan Education Association President Steve Cook jumped into the protest game against the state's new right-to-work legislation stating, "Whoever votes for this is not going to have any peace for the next two years." An even worse threat was issued on the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives the next day by Democrat Representative Douglas Geiss, stating "There will be blood."

Obviously, Democrats are once again showing signs of desperation, similar to that of the days when they worked side by side with the Klan. They have a secret past that must be protected and an agenda that must be fulfilled, and it appears that they're prepared to do whatever it takes to silence any opposition. Calling white Republicans racists and black Republicans Uncle Toms has been an especially fruitful tactic this election year. But now, it seems their thirst for violence is once again on the rise. Sadly, it seems Democrats never stray far from their roots.

Kimberly Bloom Jackson holds a doctorate in anthropology. She recently completed her first book, a behind the scenes look at Hollywood's social politics.