Senator Rand Paul, who told Rachel Maddow that had he would have voted against part of the law had he been in the Senate when the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was passed, proclaimed pride for the Republican Party and its tradition of protecting Civil Rights.
?I’ve always been a Republican,” Paul told CNN in an interview on October 13, 2013.
?I am proud to be a Republican. Can’t imagine being anything else.”
The Senator must have been talking about some other Republican Party from some other time; a party which no Republican today would have anything to do with. Paul, like his father former Congressman Ron Paul, has been closely aligned with the Libertarian ideology. ?Since switching professions from Ophthalmology to United States Senator, Paul has also been closely aligned with the Teabully Movement.
The Republican Party of 1860 was progressive and championed the causes of freedom for our African American brothers and the need to keep our Republic intact.
Those are the same causes which led to the exodus of the white Christian South, from the Democratic Party beginning in 1948 with Strom Thurmond’s failed run for the Presidency as a Dixiecrat, and culminating with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965.
Not only has Senator Paul voiced opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1965, but he also opposes affirmative action and he has voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.? Senator Paul is also against the other major civil rights issues of our time, as he opposes same sex marriage, supporting a Constitutional Amendment to prevent same sex marriage, and is on the record against the comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation in the Senate.
No wonder Senator Paul is now attempting to walk away from his Libertarian roots while embracing the GOP.? True Libertarians are supportive of these basic and precious civil rights. The Teabully takeover of the Libertarian Party label has poisoned the roots of these issues of basic fairness toward all of our citizens.
Theodore Roosevelt was the first Republican candidate to ever make equality for women, including Voting Rights for Women, a center piece of a campaign for the Presidency.? Of course, Roosevelt had to leave the Republican Party and form the Progressive Bull Moose Party?to do so.
On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965.? The law would not have become reality had it not been for the support given to it by the Republicans lead by Senate Minority Leader, Everett Dirksen.? Not only did the Republicans in the Senate not filibuster the bill, 30 Republican Senators joined 47 Democrats to pass it.? Can you imagine Republicans doing this today?
Eight red states passed laws in 2013 designed to restrict voting rights and to prevent voters who would likely vote for Democrats from getting to the polls.? Wisconsin and South Carolina, both GOP-controlled states, are continuing efforts to pass restrictions on voting rights.? These laws came after the passage of restrictive voting rights laws in 15 red states since 2011.? And the gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by the Conservative majority in Shelby County vs. Holder has made it very tough for the United States Department of Justice to protect voting rights, as we move forward towards the 2014 elections when many of these new laws will be in effect.
Senator Paul now sees no problem with restrictive voting rights legislation.? He sees no current evidence of direct attempts to keep our African-American citizens away from the polls and he has no issues with the new restrictions being imposed in these red states.
Sorry folks, Senator Paul is a wolf in sheep’s clothing in attempting to rebrand himself and the Republican Party as in someway being supportive of civil rights.? The Libertarian Party, which has been taken over through slick marketing by the Teabully Movement and merged within today’s GOP, would have nothing to do with any of the progressive Republicans from days gone by.
Senator Rand Paul and this Republican Party have shown no interest in protecting the civil rights of Americans.? Surely, Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt, along with the Republican Senators now gone from this world who helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, are all turning over in their graves.
Edited by ALS
