The Voting Rights Act of 1965: A Letter to a Silly Democrat

Voting Rights Act of 1965: A Letter to a Silly Democrat

The author of this editorial has developed a case of selective amnesia.  Bashing the Republican Party as the Jim Crow party is both nasty and silly.  Remember that the Confederacy was chuck full of Democrats with no Republicans at all.  The Republicans after seeing victory during the Civil War pushed through the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments to the U.S. Constitution with little to no help from the Democratic Party.  Also remember that in the 1860s and 1870s, the Democrats founded the KKK with the explicit purpose of keeping white and black Republicans from voting. 

Both the Civil Rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965 only passed with the help of Republicans like Senator Everett Dirksen  Look at the voting tally for the 1965 Voting Rights Act – notice that the Republican positive % was higher in both chambers of Congress.

Senate: 77–19

·                                 Democrats: 47–17   (73%-27%)

·                                 Republicans: 30–2 (94%-6%)

House: 333–85

·                                 Democrats: 221–61     (78%-22%)

·                                 Republicans: 112–24 (82%-18%)

Finally it was Republican George W. Bush who reauthorized the Voting Rights in July of 2006.

Lyndon Johnson, when he was not misleading the American public about the War in Vietnam can take credit for pushing both the Civil Rights act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 through Congress but don’t deny the history of the Republican Party when it come to civil rights. 

As to revising section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, let a calm and deliberative debate ensure with a vitriolic assault on one party.