I have always wondered don't why most of America's black citizens are Democrats. Going all the way back to Abe Lincoln it has been Republican Party working to elevate the blacks. Yet, Republicans are dismissed as the party of big business, the party with no time nor interest in the poor. Perhaps the reputation was once earned. Today it's far from accurate. When reviewing political parties, the American history of helping blacks doesn't recognize many Democrats.
It was the Republicans who overwhelmingly introduced, promoted, and passed every civil rights act from the end of the Civil War right up to and including the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
(1) Eisenhower (Republican) pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, written by Attorney Generl Herbert Brownell (Republican) guaranteeing black voting rights. Lyndon Johnson, Sam Ervin, both Democrats were strongly against it.
(2) Richard Nixon, (Republican) VP and President of the Senate, was an major supporter of the bill. However, Lyndon Johnson (Democrat) led the Senate to gut the bill of it's enforcement provisions. The watered down version of this legislation was nearly useless.
(2) Richard Nixon, (Republican) VP and President of the Senate, was an major supporter of the bill. However, Lyndon Johnson (Democrat) led the Senate to gut the bill of it's enforcement provisions. The watered down version of this legislation was nearly useless.
(3) In 1960 Eisenhower (Republican) created the U.S. Civil Rights Commission to fix the enforcement provisions. The vote passed and became law. In the Senate every single vote against came from a Democrat.
(4) Note that Barry Goldwater (Republican) and the rest of the Republican Party, supported every single civil rights bill until 1964 when he broke with the Republicans to oppose the 1964 Act. Actually, Goldwater opposed just two of the seven provisions of the bill, - those regulating privately owned housing and public accommodations. Goldwater wanted it to be specifically mandatory that federal funds be withheld from programs that practiced discrimination, rather than discretionary. It was John Kennedy (Democrat) that insisted on "discretionary".
(5) Goldwater (Republican) was well known to be a strong and vocal foe of segregation., and a believer in limited government. Goldwater (Republican) was active in promoting desegregation, and he was a member of the Republican Party. The party that had been fighting Democratic obstructurism for the previous century.
(6) In Nixon's 1969 inaugural address he said; "No man can go free while his neighbor is not." Despite Lyndon Johnson's opposition, it took the Nixon White House" to get the schools desegregated.
I think those six notes above make the point !
(5) Goldwater (Republican) was well known to be a strong and vocal foe of segregation., and a believer in limited government. Goldwater (Republican) was active in promoting desegregation, and he was a member of the Republican Party. The party that had been fighting Democratic obstructurism for the previous century.
(6) In Nixon's 1969 inaugural address he said; "No man can go free while his neighbor is not." Despite Lyndon Johnson's opposition, it took the Nixon White House" to get the schools desegregated.
I think those six notes above make the point !
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ReplyDeleteIt's not just blacks I can't figure out, my Dad and many other older people I know are as conservative as can be, but still are--and vote--democrat. My Dad passed away before Obama came on the scene. That was probably a good thing because he was very prejudiced and would not have known what to do.