Strom Thurmond multiracial offspring

[specious_reasons]

I think many people are forgetting something. Even after the racial taboos of Strom Thurmond's youth had mostly gone by, there was still the stigma of an out-of-wedlock child.

My guess is the fact that he earlier hid her existence was painful and embarassing and would have only further cast him and other republicans as racist in the public light.

My guess is that there are more than just selfish considerations in this. You know if Strom had fathered a legitimate multiracial child at the age of 100 it would have been in every GOP ad as a way of saying "look, we arent Klan members!"

I don't disagree with you, but none of the actions he took were the honorable course.

NPR has a longer quote, which I don't remember, but Thurmond called it "too scandalous" to warrant comment when the accusation came to light in 1972.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60363-2003Dec12_4.html

This whole episode doesn't lower my opinion of Thurmond, because my opinion was that Thurmond always did what he thought was most politically expedient.

 

[jj]

How a super rich guy like Strom can manipulated the tax and estate laws in order to all but aviod an estate tax.

Yeah, let's talk about how the tax levels for the estate tax were set in the early 1900's, and never changed until a few years ago, when they were set to gradually raise, disappear for a year, and then come back to the original levels set in the 1900's.

A law, obviously designed to except one generation's wealth, and sieze the next generation's, among other things.

The real problem, of course, is the failure to adjust the tax rate with inflation for close to 100 years, in the name of "soak the rich".

 

[jj]

quote:
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Originally posted by Tmy


Whats wrongis how the law ends up taking from family of the little guy who probably has nothing more than the family home and really cant afford to do estate planning while a billionare can shelter everything. Worse! You get these rich people who play their cards right and end up sucking the medicare system dry cause they are "poor" on paper.


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Any references for this interesting interpretation of estate law?

Actually, yes.

Because of the way laws are set up, it's very hard to pass along small family businesses, but quite easy to pass along liquid assets by converting them from one form to another.

This has destroyed many a family business. When a small family business was worth 100,000 the tax didn't matter. Now that a small family business is worth 10,000,000 it's simple destruction to have to pay half of it in taxes.

 

[Clancie]

Posted by corplinx

My guess is that there are more than just selfish considerations in this. You know if Strom had fathered a legitimate multiracial child at the age of 100 it would have been in every GOP ad as a way of saying "look, we arent Klan members!"

Well, the child would only be "legitimate" if Thurmond married a black woman. No chance of that, of course.

The most disgusting thing about Thurmond is that he was a leading proponent of racism and the segregationist policies that destroyed the opportunities for so many African Americans.

If he wanted sex with his black maid, that was okay, hidden away for his own pleasure...but he wouldn't ever recognize blacks as equals to whites in public, and worked -diligently for decades-- to deny them their rights as American citizens. What a hypocrite.

re: estate tax...Here's an interesting article.estate tax

 

[NightG1]

I don't disagree with you, but none of the actions he took were the honorable course.

Exactly my feelings on this issue. Had Strom admitted to or if the story had broke the he had fathered a child out-of-wedlock with a black 16-year old housekeeper, it would have made his political asperations in South Carolina rather brief and this is the real reason he kept the relationship a secret. I find it also somewhat poetic that Strom is also now guilty of lying about his sexual conquests just like a certain former US President.

 

[Clancie]

Posted by NightG1

Strom is also now guilty of lying about his sexual conquests just like a certain former US President.

Which former president, NightG1? Eisenhower? Kennedy? Johnson? Harding? Wilson?

Having consensual extramarital sex with an adult, doesn't even begin to approach the level of hypocrisy of a 22 year old bigot having sex with the 16 year old family maid, fathering a child by her...never acknowledging that child...and being a leading racist for 60 years.

You think that's like Clinton? Oh, brother.....