RE: Why are all republicans so ignorant?

Seattle WA

Description

Before you start claiming Republicans are racists, learn some U.S. history. (Sorry it's kind of a long read, but if you read it, maybe you will learn something.) No black person would ever vote for a democrat if they knew some history. To save slavery, Democrats started a war! They overwhelmingly supported the Confederacy while the Republicans supported the Union during the Civil War. The first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves. It was Republicans in Congress who wrote and pushed the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. These landmark amendments helped to outlaw slavery, guaranteed equal protection under the law, and secured voting rights for African Americans. So it should be no surprise that following the war, African Americans solidly supported Republicans, while Southern whites supported Democrats and passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. In fact, Democrats opposed the passage of every piece of civil rights legislation from the 1860’s to the 1960's. After they took control of Congress in 1892, Democrats passed the ”Repeal Act of 1894” and overturned civil rights legislation passed by the Republicans, including the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875. It took Republicans nearly six decades to finally achieve passage of civil rights legislation in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In 1870 Hiram Revels of Mississippi was the first black elected as a United States senator, a Republican. The First Blacks in Congress were all Republicans. African Americans were not even allowed to attend Democratic conventions until 1924. White Republicans started the NAACP in 1909 to counter racist practices of the Democrats. The first black American to head the NAACP was James Weldon Johnson, a Republican. Many blacks switched to supporting Democrats during the Depression Era, when Roosevelt made concessions by providing federal financial aid. As a result, half way through the 1930s, an estimated 40 percent of African Americans were getting some kind of government assistance. By the latter part of the 1930s, 75 percent of blacks voted Democrat. In the 26 major civil rights votes after 1933, Democrats opposed the legislation over 80% of the time, whereas Republicans favored civil rights over 96 percent of their votes. Democrats like to take credit for advancing civil rights legislation for blacks and women. But the facts show just the opposite. From the early days of slavery right up to present day, Democrats have done everything they could to stop black progress, while proclaiming just the opposite and history proves it! Prior to 1957, Democrat Lyndon Johnson voted against civil rights issues, 100% of the time. Republicans wrote and sponsored the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Long time Democrat Senator Robert Byrd was a former "Exalted Cyclops" and "Keagle" in the Ku Klux Klan. He was a prominent Democrat leader in Congress where he was honored by his fellow Democrats as the "conscience of the Senate." Byrd remained a Democrat until he died in 2010 where Joe Biden spoke at his funeral. Over the years, the policies of the two major political parties evolved. The Republicans message was that people should be independent and self-reliant. Democrats favored government programs and President Johnson’s “Great Society” really got big government handout programs rolling and many blacks voted for democrats to keep the benefits coming. But even after spending billions in his “war on poverty”, little was done to improve people’s lives. One could certainly argue that it's far more complimentary to tell people they are strong and smart enough to make it on their own than telling them they need to rely on the government or someone else to succeed. In 1954, Democrat Arkansas Gov Faubus tried to prevent desegregation of a Little Rock public school. Republican President Dwight Eisenhower pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. Democrats fought against all civil rights legislation in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Democrat Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor in Birmingham let loose vicious dogs and turned fire hoses on black civil rights demonstrators. Republican Senator and presidential candidate Barry Goldwater believed parts of it were unconstitutional and voted against it. This was the first civil rights legislation he had opposed in 12 years. But that vote proved devastating to his chance of beating incumbent Lyndon Johnson. The bill passed and Johnson signed it but the GOP provided the majority of the 60 votes needed. Although as a senator, Johnson had fought against the 1957 Civil Rights Act, he took credit for the 1964 bill’s passage. Little known by many today is the fact that it was Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois, not Democrat President Lyndon Johnson, who pushed through the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In fact, Dirksen was instrumental to the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964, 1965 and 1968. Dirksen wrote the language for the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Dirksen also crafted the language for the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which prohibited discrimination in housing. The chief opponents of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were Democrats Senators Sam Ervin, Albert Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd who filibustered against the bill for 14 straight hours before the final vote. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. hailed Senator Dirksen’s "able and courageous leadership" and "The Chicago Defender," the largest black-owned daily newspaper at that time, praised Senator Dirksen "for the grand manner of his generalship behind the passage of the best civil rights measures that have ever been enacted into law since Reconstruction." Democrats today ignore the pivotal role played by Senator Dirksen in obtaining passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, while heralding President Johnson as a civil rights advocate for signing the bill. In time, no matter what stance the GOP had on things, their image remained tarnished, fairly or not. In the 1990s, a new Republican Congress led by Speaker Newt Gingrich ushered in a very successful welfare reform program. Signed into law by Democrat Bill Clinton these reforms help to lift millions out of poverty and led to a roaring economy and a budget surplus. Clinton took the credit, despite the fact that he initially didn't want to sign the bill into law. It was Republican President Eisenhower who sponsored both Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act and it was a Lynden Johnson lead the Senate and the Democrats who fought tooth and nail against them. It was Republican Eisenhower who send Federal troops to Little Rock Arkansas to escort black students entering a formally all white schools. Much is made of Democrat President Harry Truman's issuing an Executive Order in 1948 to desegregate the military. Not mentioned is the fact that it was then Republican, General Eisenhower who actually took action to effectively end segregation in the military. In 1958, Eisenhower established a permanent Civil Rights Commission that had been rejected by prior Democrat presidents, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt. If you look though the history books in schools today. If you listen to politicians and pundits. If you talk to your neighbors or friends. Most, would not know the lost history in the Civil Rights Movement. This is a travesty and the people that have been most afflicted by this have been the African American community for not really understanding the truth. Maybe one day Conservatives, Libertarians, and Republicans will once again be seen as the true champions of individual liberty and true civil rights. It would certainly be more accurate label than what they get now from Democrats and the media.