Conservatives Tried To Excuse Their Racism With Bogus Clinton-Gore Buttons

Last updated on June 15th, 2020 at 09:05 am

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There is a conservative meme traveling the Twittersphere that makes it appear Clinton-Gore in 1992 were all about the Confederate-vote. In response to my post the other day, Ted Cruz Whines as Republicans Get Called Out for Their Symbol of Racial Hate appears this tweet:

The problem is, of course, that this pin most likely not genuine. The Clinton-Gore campaign neither manufactured nor distributed these pins, as The Washington Post points out.

Conservatives love their manufactured gotcha moments because this is the only way they are ever “gonna getcha” – by inventing them.
According to WaPo,

One indicator that it isn’t official is that it lacks a union “bug,” the little marker showing that a piece of campaign material was printed in a union shop. If you look at other Clinton-Gore buttons, nearly all — but not all — have a bug somewhere. The buttons below, from CampaignButtons-Etc.com, have their union bugs circled.

WaPo is willing to admit to a possibility that the pin is genuine. Philip Bump writes, “It’s believable that Clinton and Gore might have had a Confederate button, though we don’t know for sure that they did.”

Actually, without the official union bug or any markings suggesting that the button was produced for the Clinton-Gore campaign it is possible to conclude to a strong degree that this button most likely did not come from the campaign. There is no evidence that it was produced for the Clinton campaign, and the lack indicators on the button itself suggest that this piece of memorabilia was probably made by supporters.

Certainly by now, somebody would have provided the proof conservatives need. They have not, and the fact that nobody seems to have been wearing these back in ’92 – particularly the candidates themselves – argues against their authenticity.

More damning yet for this meme is the complete absence of evidence these buttons were ever used, on sites featuring old campaign buttons. Funny how it only surfaces now, isn’t it, when conservatives need it the most?

Nice try conservatives, but you’re going to have to do better than that.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.