Democrats & So-Called Civil Rights

Ok, so I’m in a back & forth with a couple of people on Twitter. They purport that the Democratic Party is the party of equality and freedom. Sometimes they even go as far as to imply that most Republicans are “rednecks” and “backwards”.
I take issue with this. Not because I’m a Republican – I’m watching that party fall apart at the seams – but because I’m conservative. I’m more conservative than the current Republican is today, actually. But I'll get to that later.

I was encouraged late last night to “check my history” on this issue of freedom and race so I went back and checked my history. So let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

The Republican Party’s first platform in 1856 included nine planks – six of which had to do with equality & the condemnation of slavery as a crime against humanity!

The Democratic Party was, from it’s founding, adamantly pro-slavery. Sometimes that language was blatant, sometimes it was implied, other times it was forthright: “All efforts by abolitionists . . . to interfere with questions of slavery . . . are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences and . . . have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of the union.” [Plank in the Democrats’ party platform in 1840, 1844 & 1848.]

The Republican Party’s first platform in 1856 included nine planks – six of which had to do with equality and the condemnation of slavery as a crime against humanity! The differences here are stark and plain. The Democrats in subsequent platforms accused the Republicans of promulgating “negro supremacy” – a dastardly claim to say the least.

It is said lately that the Civil War had less to do with the slavery issue and more to do with economics. Those making such claims fail to mention that slavery was the economy of the south. Slaves ran industry there and the Emancipation Proclamation was a nearly a deathblow to southern economy. If you need more assurance than that, the Republican Platform of 1864 unequivocally states that the reason for the Civil War was slavery.

Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the KKK, was a Democrat. Every member of Congress who was a Klan member was a Democrat. In fact, over the issue of the Civil War, Democrats in Congress surrendered their seats to join the South – and had no problem verbally admitting to it.

Said differences in platform and action between parties did not change much for the next 100 years. On a few occasions, the Democrats’ party platforms explicitly lied, claiming to be “for equality” while Democrats in Congress voted down civil right legislation time and time again.

Once we get to the 1960s, people say, everything switched. Republicans turned into backwards rednecks and Democrats finally saw the light and became the champions of civil rights. There are multiple problems with this assertion but I will articulate two of them.

1) The first problem is logistics: Ideological party flip-flops do not happen in a single decade without something like a military coup or planned infiltration that forces a party to subscribe to opposing ideals.

We are in the midst of watching the Republican Party move away from its conservative roots – most clearly demonstrated by Ronald Reagan and become an anti-homosexual rights & pro-abortion Democrat Lites. This has taken decades and the Republicans still hold on to their big-ticket issues with much ferocity.

2) The voting record: the Democrats did not make some shift jump to supporting the Civil Rights Movement or civil rights legislation as evidenced by the voting record. President Kennedy stalled for two years on simply putting his signature on a bill to integrate public housing! While Lyndon Johnson picked up the civil rights issue – he faced significant opposition from those in his own party! Keep in mind, all you who believe that this supposed switch took place in the 1960s, Johnson’s presidency was from 1963-1969.

Democratic Senators Robert Bird and Richard Russell lead harsh opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights bill, going as far as a filibuster. The bill, as verified by the voting record, had huge support from the Republican Party. In fact, had it not been for the Republicans’ support, the 1964 Civil Rights bill could not have passed.

So if you have been lead to believe that Democrats became the cheerleaders for Civil Rights, it’s time to rethink. Check the facts. The Democrats (to their disgrace) have ranged on the scale from utter scorn for civil rights to dragging their feet. They were never the shining light on the hill and joining blacks in their struggle against oppression. I hate to even need to make this point but it must be said: Democrats WERE the struggle that blacks faced.

Sadly, they still are.

Welfare is simply glorified slavery. The agents that ran into black communities in the 1970s, telling women that they had a right to free money, food stamps, housing and healthcare provided they had a child and there was no man in the home systematically decimated the black family – which, until that point, was overcoming the MASSIVE odds against it. Why did the government insist upon forcing it’s ‘help’ on blacks who were actually gaining ground on every area on their own? How is that beneficial? There are no whips but there is oppression.

Do you see the problem here? Things were getting better for the black community until the government chose into "intervene" in their individual lives and families. Suddenly it wasn’t about making sure the group was treated well – it was creating individual dependence on an outside source! Damn the government for their subversive interference!

And which party was it that thought it best to meddle in the black family that was bettering itself by the year?

The Democrats.