| akuma587 said: Johnson, a Democrat, was the main cheerleader behind most of the Civil Rights stuff. And Democrats then =/ Democrats now. The Democrats who tried to filibuster and block the legislation were from the South. Not surprisingly, once Democrats became the party associated with civil rights, many "Democrats" in the South switched to "Republicans." The Civil Rights legislation was really the main force behind the political rearrangement of Democrats and Republicans. The previous Democrat voting bloc had been Southern Whites and Northern laborers. While northern laborers are still relatively reliable Democrats, Southern Whites are not. Its not really appropriate to draw parallels when the political landscape has shifted so much since then. For instance, the one Democratic senator from Texas who stood up for the bill was ousted from office shortly afterwards and his political career never recovered. The Democrat and Republican parties have seen profound changes since then, and have flip-flopped with each other on quite a few issues.
|
I agree with you. I do not consider myself a new Republican. I am, however, proud of the old Republicans who stood for expanding and protecting liberty in our nation, and I consider myself a Republican in their mold. Many prominent old Republicans-including my political hero, Robert Taft-always advocated liberty; they opposed internment, the Nuremberg trials, and other such violations of liberty. It is a shame that we no longer represent the ideals that they previously advocated.
