The dem party still uses the same practices to get votes now, as it did back in the bad old days of Jim Crow. Identity politics, divide people against each other, and promise to discriminate in favor of one group and against another, to get votes.
There is no break to the line from then to now. YOu support them now, you are supporting the same ideas and practices of then.
Strom Thurmond left behind his segregationist past when he left the dem party. THe GOP that he went to, never did that shit or anything like it. He is hte one that changed to fit US, not the other way around.
The GOP is hte party of ideas, of trying to get votes by pushing the MORAL and JUST policies, just like from the beginning when it was against the dems during the bad old days of Jim Crow.
So, when someone voted for Sen Thrumond, say in the 80s or 90s, he was supporting the same Enlightenment Era principles and practices of the GOP from those days. The line was unbroken from then to now.