[unoti]

I have no doubt that this near-slavery condition will always exist, but that doesn't make it right.

Confederates before the US Civil War argued in favor of slavery, and some of the arguments weren't far off from that thinking. http://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp

[ms4720]

not Confederates it was the Democrats that argued it

[craigyk]

if I remember correctly, the Republicans and Democrats swapped places in every way but name not too long after that.

[kyllo]

Yeah, after the Reconstruction there was a mass defection of Southern Democrats or "Dixiecrats" (aka unabashedly racist politicians, many of whom were Klan members) from the Democratic to the Republican party.

[mnutt]

The Southern Democrats moved over to the Republican party long after the Reconstruction, starting in the 1960s.