Joe Biden can't open his mouth to praise someone without a segregationist blast from the past coming out. Segregationaists, apparently, were the only people he knew.

And the flak he's getting on it is entertaining, but it's kind of a diversion. As the old geezer praises 'civility' and other virtues of the men of his party, the hair-raising specter is rising: Segregationists were pretty much the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. It wasn't a fringe or regional group. It wasn't a few outliers. It was the main thrust of the Democratic Party and recently enough that Biden knew its proponents.

Republicans have known this for a long time - just the history of the civil rights movement, with the Bull Connor Democrats who tried to stop it every step of the way, often violently, pretty well shows how intensely the Democratic Party was the party of racism. It certainly explains why people such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Condoleezza Rice, were lifelong Republicans. I know Black leaders in South Central Los Angeles who come out of this same tradition - and remain Republicans - even though they probably vote Democrat. Biden's inability to open his mouth without citing these heart-and-soul-of-the-Democratic Party segregationists shows just how extensive the problem really was.

And Biden, unwittingly, stands as a proxy for the history of the Democrats just by being himself.....

Start with the most recent gaffe: Biden's praise for Fritz Hollings. Here's a tweet:

Joe Biden today: “The only thing I miss is my buddy Fritz Hollings, he was one of my mentors and I’m sorry he’s not here”

Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC) was a segregationist who said blacks attend trade conferences so they can “get a good square meal” rather than “eating each other” pic.twitter.com/vYAlBmmtNd

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 22, 2019

Hollings is also the one who reintroduced the Confederate flag to the South Carolina statehouse, which caused such a flap when it got removed. It never would have gone up had it not been for Hollings.

It corresponds closely with Biden's praise for two other segregationists for their 'civil' behavior:

As evidence of his ability to forge personal bonds, the former vice president pointed to his 36-year career in the Senate, which stretched back to 1973 and overlapped with the service of leading Southern Democrats. Biden cited the late senators James O. Eastland (Miss.) and Herman E. Talmadge (Ga.), who were steadfastly opposed to civil rights and racial integration.

“I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland,” Biden said at the fundraiser, where he was introduced by Eric Mindich, an investment manager and former Goldman Sachs partner.

The Democratic presidential candidate, who has led his competitors in early polls of the crowded nominating contest, briefly imitated the southern drawl of the Mississippi cotton planter, lawyer and lawmaker. “He never called me ‘boy,’ " Biden said. “He always called me ‘son.’ ”

Of course they were 'civil.' Biden forgets that he's white.

But there's more, much more:

He gave eulogies for Sen. Strom Thurmond and Sen. Robert Byrd, two other segregationists, with Byrd an actual former Klansman. According to Fox News:

Biden called Thurmond a "brave man, who in the end made his choice and moved to the good side." He said they became “good friends.”

In 2010, Biden also eulogized the late West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, a former KKK member who later regretted that affiliation and described it as a mistake.

“Although I and my colleagues behind me revered the Senate, Robert C. Byrd elevated the Senate,” Biden said in his remarks in 2010.

Here's another one: The Washingtonn Examiner also says that Biden praised George Wallace, the mother of all segregationists.

That's six. And old Joe can't find anyone who wasn't some kind of segregationist who wasn't his colleague and associated.

We always view Democrats as the essence of 'wokeness,' now. But what we are seeing is the delineation of the main part of the Democratic Party, the segregationists and racists, and the other part, the hippie McGovernite utopian socialists. These days, the McGovernites rule the roost. But even they aren't colorblind. Their fascination with counting skin color as a criteria for voting for someone or counting black faces in groups with affirmative action ain mind is marketed as s being pro-Black. But actually, it's just another variety of the Dixiecrat racism. It's the same skin-obsession that the segregationists had in mind, just in a different form.

Even I was surprised at how much of the Democratic Party has been neck-deep in racism until Joe Biden started praising his friends. But Biden himself is old enough to be the story of the Democratic Party. And his gaffes on this merit a closer look at just who the Democrats are and what they stand for.

Image credit: Montage by Monica Showalter from public domain sources