I think it’s remarkable just how comfortable white folks were to vote for an outright white supremacist. It’s important to note that while Duke did give some throwaway lines about how he became a born-again Christian and wasn’t racist anymore… I don’t think anyone believed him because everything else he promoted and advocated for was outright racist. Duke was nothing like Nick Fuentes or even Richard Spencer today - racists who trying and hide just how racist they are. Duke was literally a former KKK grand wizard and even though he was in his early 40s, he had a long track record of openly white supremacist comments. His campaign platform was still racist af and to the surprise of no one here, he got a solid majority of the white vote and only lost because of solid turnout of black voters who voted against him.

I was reading some comments on Reddit about this race and of course white people there try and justify it. A whole lot of “well most white folks didn’t agree with Duke but the other guy was just too corrupt”. Of course, white people are never just racists. As if people really care so much about corruption that they’re willing to vote for literally the worst person in the country. I honestly hate this attitude among white folks - this idea that you must NEVER assume someone’s just racist, and that you can make any excuse for their racist actions or comments by finding some other reason - any reason at all - for their racism.

Literally AmeriKKKa.

(Thanks to Gerald Horne and Tony on the Actually Existing Socialism podcast for making me aware of this)