Broomstick wrote:There are a lot of "decent people" who have been Klan members, and they were decent as long as you weren't one of the undesirables stepping out of line. I hear a lot of Nazis were kind to puppies and children, too. Being a "decent person" does not make it OK to be a member of a hate group.
Senator Byrd may or may not have regrets about those days, but the mere fact he was associated with such people means that many other people will always regard him with deep suspicion.
The 2nd Klan didn't do that much terrorizing, the 1st one had been effective enough. In the 20th century the KKK was, more than anything, a social club for insecure lower-class white men (and a gigantic money grubbing scheme for the guys on top). Of course, Klan members did terrorize minorities, and the organization was explicitly dedicated to bigotry against racial and religious minorities, with misogynist undertones to boot. So certainly Klan membership is a stain on anyone's record (except Stetson Kennedy and others like him).
Anyway, I think it's the reason why the Senator joined is important to consider. As a young man a Klan member stroked his ego in the right way, praising him as just the sort of man who should lead the country. After a couple of years there, he lost interest and left. This points to someone who was racist (which he definitely was) as a by-the-way thing, not as a central or important component of his person. It looks like he joined-up because he was promised good things, and left after determining that it was road to nowhere.
In the decades since it seems that his attitudes have shifted, that he has learned better. It is difficult to cast off one's upbringing, many people don't do it, and Byrd seems to have not only honestly tried, but also succeeded to an extent. I'm sure the old coot isn't perfect, I wouldn't put him in a pedestal, even as one who has overcome the bigoted views he was taught, but at this time I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
So back to what I was originally getting at, I am not surprised that he has endorsed Obama.
Byrd's regrets about his more racist days have been getting stronger over the last decade, with many public apologies. I believe he's honest in his attempts to show he's changing, because he's facing the End of Days and feels he's going to have to answer for his sins.
Regardless of how one feels about Christian beliefs regarding redemption and the afterlife, I think it is definitely to his credit that he recognizes his previous words and actions as sins.
