Was the Repuklican party this bad on the verge of the Civil Rights laws?

[demtenjeep]

I can only imagine the words and signs and temperament back then.

[Dappleganger]

1. Much worse.

But it's the same sort of nasty.

[demtenjeep]

2. Being oppressive is the name of the game isn't it

it upsets their perceived order of the way life should go.


Like when CONservatives get angry at "liberals" because we have real jobs and real things as we are all supposed to be "free living hippies"

[Bicoastal]

3. You have to ask?

This Republican hero gave the longest filibuster in congressional history AGAINST dismantling segregation.

[POAS]

7. do you mean against "integration"?

[Bicoastal]

11. (self-directed facepalm)

LOL, Strom Thurmond, champion of civil rights!

Thanks.

[POAS]

19. I figured it was a slip between the mind and the keyboard.

[EFerrari]

4. Yeah, and at the time, the FBI was covertly supporting them.

We've have some really ugly chapters in our history.

[FARAFIELD]

5. Actually it was Southern Dems that were the worst

But its a different party now, they effectively switched parties in 64 through 68 if you look at election returns. YOWZA, Id give my left nut for a Minority Leader like Dirksen at any point (ive already had my kids so,,,,)

[POAS]

10. The infamous "southern strategy" resulted and

led to the current version of the GOP.

[havocmom]

17. Yep, sending in men on horseback to break heads, dogs, firehoses

and pretty damned vocal about not about to obey laws. I recall ax handles being handed out too.

[MajorChode]

23. Exactly

Those people started calling themselves Republicans when the Democrats would have no more to do with them.

[JVS]

6. The civil rights law was not a split between parties, it was a geographic split

Northern Republicans and Democrats prevailed over Southern Democrats and Republicans.

[EFerrari]

22. That's right. I managed to forget that. n/t

[laughingliberal]

8. I believe there were actually Republicans who voted for the bill

but that was in the days before both parties had tracked so far to the right. We're in a vicious cycle where the Republicans sell the public on more right wing ideas. The Democrats track a little right to keep up and win elections. The Republicans move further right to distinguish themselves from the 'liberals.' The Democrats track a little more right from their previous positions to win elections and find now they get campaign donations that way. The Republicans go off the charts bat shit crazy to the right. The Democrats position themselves a little to the right of where Reagan was in 1980 and are now considered centrists. The Republicans go further bat shit crazy to the right with increasingly vitriolic positions....

At this rate our party is going to be to the right of Bush in 20 years. God knows where that will put the Republicans.

edited for grammar

[DrDan]

9. "Was the republicans . . . "

maybe you can fix that before the freepers find it . . .

not unlike "morans", etc

[demtenjeep]

14. I had started to type other things

and changed it for civility :)

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WhiteTara]

13. they set churches on fire with little children inside

shot people in their driveways; but, it also pushed the movement and the civil rights bill was signed. Medicare was pretty terrible too; just less violent.

[Bluerthanblue]

21. this violence wasn't all Republican based... it's a sad

fact that many southern Democrats were on the WRONG side of this issue.

[WhiteTara]

24. and after Johnson signed the bill

they all became pubies. Just changed their names, not their stripes.

[DaveinMD]

15. conservatives were

but not all Republicans were conservative. Some were southern Democrats. Some were western Republicans. The Northern and midwerstern Republicans were liberal or moderate.

[morningglory]

16. It was much worse, but one different thing was a Southern president who

was helping everyone, except for killing our troops in Viet Nam (details!). A lot of people had a visceral fear of integration, nay horror, in the South, based on ignorance. Now the people do not know diddly about health care future, present problems, future costs, what would be best for everyone fiscally and physically, etc. The GOP propanda is pure, out and out lies, fearmongering, hate-filled crap by corporate vampires. You know when the republics drag out abortion (the gay and guns not being pertinent in HCR) they don't have a leg to stand on. And has anyone noticed we have a black president? Being hjere in a red area of the South, there is an apparent difference between Obama and LBJ. The absurdity of their arguments is mind-boggling as always.

[OregonBlue]

18. Not Dem vs Rep but very ugly time in America. Hard to believe now just how ugly it was.

[Bluerthanblue]

20. some Republicans were more progressive than Democrats on this

issue.

It's not the prettiest history of our party.

It's important to give credit where it is due.

Everett Dirksen (Republican) was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights act.


:hi:

[MajorChode]

25. The Republican party was MUCH different back then

Just as the Democratic party is much different today. Even Barry Goldwater was OK with gays in the military and specifically warned the GOP about crawling into bed with the fundies. Imagine ANY GOPher taking those positions, much less a premier member of the party. On the same note, you had Southern Democrats who made segregation a cornerstone of their platform.

[Jack Rabbit]

26. No

The main opposition to civil rights legislation came from Southern Democrats. In those days, the term Southern Democrat was pretty much a redundancy, as it had been since the end of Reconstruction. However, with some conservative Republicans opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1963 on constitutional grounds, a few Southern Democrats began switching parties. The first to do so was Strom Thurmond.

The party switch by old line segregationists did not happen overnight. Many Southern Democrats remained Democrats rather than lose seniority by switching. At that time, the Democrats held huge majorities in both houses of congress, so the Southern Democrats knew that the Republicans weren't going to become a majority party any time soon (in the House of Representatives, not until 1994). Even the GOP landslide in congressional elections of 1966 didn't make the Republicans a majority party or anything close to it. Many Southern Democrats might have switched parties had a situation arisen in which they would have held the balance of power and thus could use that as leverage in negotiations.