General Discussion

Last edited Tue May 28, 2019, 06:11 AM - Edit history (1)

I may get flagged for speaking a republican talking point but this is historically accurate. Northern Democrats voted in a greater majority than Northern Republicans but as a whole Republicans voted in greater number than Democrats. Previous attempts at equal rights legislation was proposed and supported by Eisenhower and Congressional Republicans but attempts at introducing legislation stalled due to filibuster and lack of sufficient support from the fractured Democratic party. So true is it that Martin Luther King was a Republican and switched to the Democratic Party particularly to show support for Kennedy and then Johnson to ensure the Civil Rights Act was signed.


Now all that being said, the modern Republican narrative that they were the true/only champions of civil rights is absolutely false. They fail to mention that without the majority of Democrats the civil rights act would have never happened. The Democratic Party may have been fractured over civil rights but we had leaders who were instrumental in ensuring civil rights. Hubert Humphry and Mike Mansfield stood with their Republican counterparts for well over a decade before Johnson ultimately signed the Civil Rights Act in 1965... and he wouldn't have even had the opportunity without the efforts of JFK. Finally a majority of Democrats supported equal rights. The house often supported but the Senate (as usual) was a stalling point.

The GOP also fails to mention that Nixon's southern strategy was designed to entice disenfranchised southern Democrats to change parties and vote Republican.

So basically it's true but not nearly the whole truth.