Dinesh D’Souza, Florida officials fire back at claims that the GOP is no longer party of Lincoln

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Conservatives and Republican officials across Florida spoke out against recent claims by some Florida Democrats that the Republican Party is no longer the anti-slavery, pro-civil rights movement founded by former President Abraham Lincoln.

Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, criticized Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, and Rep. Kiyan Michael’s, R-Jacksonville, recent legislation that would teach which political parties supported and opposed slavery and civil rights.

“It would do both Senator Ingoglia and Representative Michael a world of good to research the party of Lincoln they claim to be part of AND the dramatic party realignment that has happened in this country in the last 150 years,” Jones said. “They cannot have it both ways, claiming to be on the side of freedom and civil rights when they are walking a different walk and actively dismantling Floridians’ rights and freedoms.”

Florida’s Voice spoke with prominent conservative political commentator Dinesh D’Souza, along with other Republican elected officials in the state who disagree with Jones’ claims.

D’Souza said that many African Americans switched over to the Democratic Party in the 1930s, even while a strong wing of the party included many southern segregationists, also known as Dixiecrats.

“It’s clear that blacks didn’t do that because the Democrats became the party of civil rights, because of Martin Luther King and because of the Great Society,” D’Souza said. “No, blacks moved into the Democratic Party basically between 1932 and 1936. And by 1936, which was sort of FDR’s second term, the vast majority of blacks were already in the Democratic Party.”

He also said the American South did not shift to the Republican Party in the 1950s and 60s during the Civil Rights Movement as some have argued.

He added that using that logic, you would expect there to be a “revolt” in the Democratic Party where southern segregationists joined the Republicans after the Democratic Party began to champion civil rights.

“But in fact, that didn’t happen,” he said. “The Dixiecrats remained in the party, with one or two exceptions, but we’re talking about 200 prominent Dixiecrats.”

“So you have to ask the question, ‘why did those Dixiecrats stay in the Democratic Party until their deaths?'” D’Souza said. “And the answer was that the Democratic Party remained their natural home. And in fact, accepted them and tolerated them and promoted them.”

“That’s why you have all these eulogies to Robert Byrd that came from Obama, Hillary Clinton, people like that,” he said.

Ingoglia expressed concerns about how the Florida Democratic Party had specifically been hosting its yearly fundraising event that the party referred to as the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, as recently as 2013.

The party used the names of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson for the event even though the figures had controversial lives, through Jefferson’s ownership of slaves and Jackson’s involvement with the land displacement of Native Americans.

The party officially changed the name in 2014 to the Blue Leadership Gala, not before raising $700,000 to $850,000 within their last few years of using the event name.

“They were raising money to help get Democrats elected by using the names of slave owners to promote the event,” Ingoglia said. “How hypocritical can you be? In my opinion, the Florida Democrat Party should refund every single dollar ever raised at these Jefferson/Jackson dinners and apologize.”

“If what the Democrats say is true: that there was a ‘great party switch,’ why is it that over the last 50 years, as this nation became less and less racist the south became more and more Republican?” Ingoglia asked.

Michael emphasized to Florida’s Voice that American history “does not stop at race” and that race should not define when Americans do and do not talk about the realities of the past.

“This is our history, it should be in our history books, it’s something I will stand by, behind this bill,” she said.

Michael added how Black people have often been taught growing up that they must be Democrat.

“We were raised to be that, we didn’t know anything other than that,” she said. “If your parents are that, your aunts that, your uncle, your grandparents, you were expected to be a Democrat.”

Michael said that what the bill does is “bring to light” the fact that the Democratic Party pushed to keep slavery and caused the issue to be the fundamental reason behind why the Civil War took place.

Rep. Webster Barnaby, R-Deltona, told Florida’s Voice his concerns with Jones’ comments on Ingoglia’s and Michael’s legislation.

“For Sen. Jones to make this blanket accusation of racism with no evidence is disgraceful,” he said. “My admonition to the Senator is that he focuses on helping his constituents during this Session instead of attempting to stoke racial tensions with baseless, straw-man arguments.”

Barnaby also said that there was “no evidence” that the GOP is “full of racists.”

“On the contrary, it is the Democrats who espouse many vicious, racial ideals,” he said. “The leader of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden, stated ‘If you have a hard time figuring out who you’re voting for, me or Trump, then you ain’t Black,’ that’s a racist statement. President Joe Biden said he would only choose a Black vice president, that is a racist statement.”

“During the Trump presidency before the pandemic in 2020, the employment rate among minorities was at an all-time high,” Barnaby said. “More people with less than a high school diploma or criminal record were employed than at any other time in our nation’s history. The average median income among blacks increased 7.9%. All of these statistics were up from Obama-era lows.”

Barnaby said that while the Democratic Party continues to make “baseless claims of racism,” the GOP continues to “take real actions” that generate real results for all communities.