It’s not surprising that there’s lingering suspicion on this topic, though I certainly don’t believe the large majority of today’s Republicans think anything like their predecessors a few decades ago. Buckley himself never totally disavowed his early statements but did come to recognize many of his errors on these lines. But there are still minority voters today who remember the 1950s and 1960s, and not nearly as many who remember the 1850s.

The more interesting question – one not really touched upon here – is what party, if any, would actually be most reasonable for ‘minorities’ to vote for. I quite agree that the “Republican/conservative”=racist equation is indeed false as a general principle, of course, but that doesn’t automatically mean that Republican policies would be the best choices from a ‘minority’ perspective. That being said, I certainly agree that the Democratic party shouldn’t “get a pass” on such issues, either – which was the main thrust of the essay, I just think it wasn’t argued as strongly as it could have been.