A Democrat Looks At Fifty

[DemocratSinceBirth]

I'm reminded of Dr. King's observation that "The arc of history is long but it bends toward justice." Sure there are still racists, xenophobes, bigots, and sundry other cretins among us but progress has been made. America looks a lot and is a lot different then when Dr. King lived. Marginalized and ignored groups like African Americans, Hispanics, gays, and women are now part of the political process. The Republicans didn't prevent that.

They opposed civil rights for our African American brother snd sisters. We rolled them. They opposed civil rights for our Latino brothers and sisters. We rolled them. They opposed civil rights for our gay brothers and sisters. We rolled them or are in their process of rolling them on that too.

And the ironic thing is they say they never opposed civil rights for those groups in the first place.

[bigtree]

1. just turned 50 myself

I'm constantly amazed at the pace of change in my lifetime. It gives me great optimism for our future. Roll on!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. I Was Listening To Rush. That's Was My Inspiration

On every major issue of the fifty years the liberals have eventually won.

[bigtree]

5. ah

you know that can cause brain damage?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. We Won On Every Big Issue From The Birth Of This Nation

~

[bigtree]

7. indeed

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. Yes, absolutely true.

I wish the pace of progress were quicker though.

[damntexdem]

4. Fifty? Hard to remember back to then.

;-)

[NC_Nurse]

8. I will be fifty next year. It seems to me that people were more tolerant in the

1970's than they are now. While it's true that women and minorities have made some progress, there are so many truly crazy voices out there now. So much anti-gay, anti-choice, racist and anti-intellectual rhetoric and activism. I didn't think we'd be hearing that by now. Guess Reagan succeeded in turning the country around to head back toward some imagined "good old days", albeit with a few more visible women and minority faces in the govt.

I sure hope these tea bagger types don't hold up progress even more. They scare me.

[hfojvt]

9. "they" really did not oppose them

More Republicans voted for the civil rights act than Democrats did. It was pushed by LBJ, but it was fillibustered by 18 Democratic Senators. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964#Passage_in_the_Senate.

The opposition was less by party than it was by region.

Also, the opposition did not get completely rolled. The bill had to be watered down some in order to pass the Senate.

"The compromise bill was weaker than the House version in regard to government power to regulate the conduct of private business, but it was not so weak as to cause the House to reconsider the legislation."

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. You Are Technically Correct

But you do know that many of the Democrats who opposed civil rights joined the Republican party. It also wasn't a totally altruistic votes for the Republicnas as most of them were from the north where civil rights legislation was more popular.

[hfojvt]

12. so what if it wasn't altruism?

A huge part of democracy is that the people elected are supposed to represent the will of the people, especially when it comes to doing the right thing.

And so what if people switch parties? I was a Republicsn myself from 1975 to 1985, and I am still fairly conservative on social issues - which seems to be your main focus here. No mention of the Earned Income Credit. Or Food stamps. Or minimum wage increases. Or progressive income taxes. Or OSHA.

No, civil rights are far more important than such trifles.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. Those Are Important Too

But without the right to vote, the right to defecate or urinate in public restrooms, the right to stay at the hotel of their choice, or the right to live in the neighborhood of their choice, rights most black folks didn't have prior to the landmark legilation of the mid sixties those items are mere trifles.

As to your point about changing parties my point was that many Democrats like Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond became Republicans because of their opposition to civil rights. If you think they became Republicans because they admired Lincoln there is nothing I can do to disabuse you of that notion.

[hfojvt]

16. you seem to want to pretend that

all the bad people became Republicans and all the good people stayed, or perhaps became, Democrats. All is well then, we can continue to proclaim that Republicans are 100% evil and Democrats are pure. When the truth is probably that many of those northern Republicans who voted for the civil rights act, stayed Republicans, and some people, like Senator Robert Byrd, who fillibustered for hours against the civil rights act, stayed Democrats.

You seem to miss my point, that the Democratic party has also done things for white people and that they/we will continue to do things for white people, as we should. All of us in the bottom 90% white, black, hispanic, asian, native American, should be united and working together. OSHA, you see, creates a safer workplace for workers of all races, creeds and sexual orientations. Whereas your summary seemed to focus only on minorities. As if our "brothers and sisters" must always come ahead of our own needs.

[OutNow]

11. Just turned Sixty

My view of the historical record is a bit different. Not that I disagree with your analysis, but:

1. The United States failed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment that was passed by Congress and signed by Nixon in 1972. In 2010, women do not have the same rights as men.

2. The Supreme Court in Roe v Wade made abortion legal in 1973. Since then there have been hundreds of restrictions and limitations passed including prohibiting federal funding for family planning, etc. that have resulted in large areas of the country having no access at all to medical services for pregnancy termination.

3. The advances made in affirmative action have been gutted by a series of laws and Supreme Court decisions beginning with the Bakke Case (1978) including the recent Seattle School District (2007.

4. In the last years of his life Dr. King expanded his work from civil rights to economic rights. His Poor People's Campaign was carried on without him in 1968. The economic bill of rights he advocated was never passed. A mere shell of that plan, the Humphrey Hawkins Act was passed in 1978 and has been largely ignored in the last 25 years. Think about it; when was the last time you heard about the needs of poor people or people on welfare. They have been erased from the political vocabulary. We all know the current situation on income disparity, but the need for millions of jobs for the poor is not on anyone's priority list

[hfojvt]

13. thanks for #4 finally

but the last time I heard about poor people was only back in March of 2008 during the John Edwards campaign. So recently that I am still using the mouse pad that I bought from the John Edwards store.

[RagAss]

14. Just turned 51.......

My first memory in this world was the murder of JFK.

DEM from Birth.

DEM until Death !

[hfojvt]

17. I suppose that would be traumatic

Myself, at 48 cannot remember that. I can remember waiting at the airport to see RFK, but do not remember hearing that he was shot. Nor do I remember anything about MLK. The first political thing I remember was seeing McGovern yard signs on the way home from school. So I was for McGovern. Until I saw him on TV saying that the space program was a waste of money. You just don't say that to a ten year old boy. I became a Nixon supporter on the spot, and a Fierce one. I would have run over my own grandfather Tresspassers William in order to help Nixon get re-elected. I am not sure why I stayed Republican. Perhaps because a Republican Ford was President in 1976 I wanted to see him re-elected. Then I was also listening to Ronald Reagan's little two minute talks on the radio, so I became a fan that way. I also was young and optimistic and certain that I was gonna be rich. After all, I was smart and this was America!

Then came college, at the liberal University of Minnesota, where I was converted by the wit of James r Lileks, and also by the speech of Jesse Jackson at the 1984 DNC. Still, I almost voted for Reagan in 1984 because I really did not like Mondale. Not sure what I did in the Congressional elections.