What's so sad is that MLK Jr. was a republican, he had all the right values, to judge someone on the content of their character not on the color of their skin. And I don't want to hear "the parties switched ideologies" crap, that never happened, what happened was the democratic party changed their stance on racial issues, and painted the GOP as the racist party, and it has worked. Unfortunately a lot of [older] southern republicans are still racist, and that is something that needs to be fixed. I am disappointed with our fellow southern republicans today.
Lol. The Republican party is a southern party. By your own definition the Republican party is racist.
Some older republicans who once were democrats are still racist. That generation is dying off though and will only continue if the racism gets passed on by family. Also if the republican party is a southern party, than the democratic party is northeastern and west coast party.
People wonder why a lot of conservatives don't want to be called republicans, its mostly because of the racist/homophobic image that the democratic party paints on them. There's a lot of people who aren't racist or homophobic in conservative politics so they choose to be an independent instead of a republican on their voter ID. Independents now lean conservative because of that. There's a lot of people who don't want to be called names for their partisan leaning, and that includes myself.