Originally posted by shunyadragon
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OTOH, the Republicans backed the Civil Rights legislation. For example, 82% of Republicans in the Senate and 79% in the House voted for the Civil Rights Act. Similar trends occurred with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was supported by 82% of the Republicans in the House, and by 94% of Senate Republicans!
Concerning the Voting Rights Act the same Democrat standard-bearers took their normal racist stands, this time with Senator Fulbright leading the opposition effort. It took the hard work of Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen and Republican Whip Thomas Kuchel to pass the Civil Rights Act (Dirksen was presented a civil rights accomplishment award for the year by the head of the NAACP in recognition of his efforts). Dirksen was also responsible for breaking the Democrat filibuster of the 1957 Civil Rights Act that was signed by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. The fact is that if it weren’t for the Republican’s overwhelming support, all of these measures would have been defeated.
In fact, FWIU, of 26 major civil rights votes from 1933 through the 1960’s civil rights era shows that Republicans favored civil rights in approximately 96% of the votes (whereas the Democrats opposed them in 80% of the votes).
Btw, LBJ vehemently opposed any and all civil rights legislation when he was in the Senate. He even fought against anti-lynching legislation. But eventually he had a sort of epiphany. He realized that he could exploit the situation. As he infamously boasted to two governors on Air Force One after signing the CRA, "I'll have those [n-word] voting Democratic for the next 200 years."
The fact is that LBJ only saw civil rights legislation as a tool to be exploited in order to get blacks onto the Democratic plantation. This attitude again be seen in his nomination of Thurgood Marshall to the SCOTUS. So while he was being praised by liberals for his appointment of Marshall, behind closed doors LBJ’s cynical brand of "identity politics" became crystal clear. According to presidential historian Robert Dallek, while talking to a staff member (someone he didn't need support from) who wondered why he had nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court rather than a black judge less identified with the civil rights cause, Johnson explained, "Son, when I appoint a [n-word] to the court, I want everyone to know he's a [n-word]."
LBJ was easily the most racist president we had since Woodrow Wilson
1. Third in the line of succession to the presidency behind the Vice President and Speaker of the House
2. In a speech on civil rights Al Gore claimed that,
"My commitment to civil rights is a deeply personal one. I watched my father when he was, a U.S. Senator from Tennessee, take courageous stands for civil rights. He opposed the poll tax in the ‘40s, and supported civil rights in the ‘50s, he supported voting rights in 1963, and was one of two Southern Senators to refuse to sign the hateful Southern Manifesto opposing integration in our schools. He lost his Senate seat because his [sic] stands.”
Apparently, Al Gore’s memory is a bit fuzzy. His father’s civil rights record is a tad less glorious than Al relates. Al Gore Sr. voted AGAINST the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Al Gore Sr. participated in a 74-day filibuster to delay and weaken the legislation. Al Gore Sr. proposed an amendment to the Civil Rights Act that would have kept federal funds flowing to schools that defied court desegregation orders. The measure was defeated by a vote of 74 to 25 with only one Republican voted for it.
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