The "BIG LIE" Keeps Surfacing

It never fails - whenever an election comes around, Democrats pull out the "Civil Rights" card, claiming that minorities owe the Democrats for the Civil Rights Act, and claiming Republicans were against it.

The facts, should anyone care to actually check the Congressional Record, show just the opposite.

I believe that Democrats have lied about who supported the Civil Rights Act for so long that they actually believe their lies. But anytime this lie is retold, I feel compelled to debunk it. So here we go again...

The Congressional Quarterly of June 26, 1964 (p. 1323) recorded that, in the Senate, only 69% of Democrats (46 for, 21 against) voted for the Civil Rights Act as compared to 82% of Republicans (27 for, 6 against). All southern Democratic senators voted against the Act. This includes the life-long senator from West Virginia and former KKK member Robert C. Bryd (who filibustered the bill to keep it from passing) and former Tennessee senator Al Gore, Sr. (the father of Al Gore, "global warming" alarmist.). The Act's primary opposition came from the southern Democrats' 74-day filibuster, led by Byrd.

In the House of Representatives, 61% of Democrats (152 for, 96 against) voted for the Civil Rights Act; 92 of the 103 southern Democrats voted against it. Among Republicans, 80% (138 for, 34 against) voted for it.

In proportion to their numbers (Republicans were the minority) more Republicans than Democrats voted in favor of Civil Rights, and therefore more Democrats voted AGAINST it than Republicans.

As a matter of fact, the record shows that since 1933 Republicans had a more positive record on civil rights than the Democrats.

In the 26 major civil rights votes after 1933, a majority of Democrats opposed civil rights legislation in over 80 percent of the votes. By contrast, the Republican majority favored civil rights in over 96 percent of the votes.

[See http://www.congresslink.org/civil/essay.html and http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1982/3/82.03.04.x.html.]

I know these facts will not change perceptions among liberals and minorities - the "Big Lie" has been tol;d so often for so long that it has become truth in the minds of the uninformed.

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