If you believe mainstream media and political pundits, you think the Democratic Party was responsible for our voting rights. If you believe facts, you know that Democrats fought long and hard to suppress voting rights, especially those of my color.
This week is the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Most people don’t realize its provisions were basically the same as the GOP-authored and passed Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871. Not a single Democrat voted for them (see tallies here, here, here and here). It only took the Party of Andrew Jackson nearly 100 years to finally get it right.
Republicans Fought for Voting Rights
Fast forward to 1965 and the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA) finally broke the stranglehold of voter suppression that the Democratic Party had on America. Yet, Democrats constantly gaslight America (and the world) into thinking they’re the ones who championed voting rights. It seems a day doesn’t go by where Dems fearmonger the public into thinking the Party of Lincoln is trying to deny the very voting rights the GOP authored in the Fifteenth Amendment and the Enforcement Acts.
Just look at the vote tallies from the passage of the VRA. In the Senate, 94% of Republicans voted for it versus 69% of Democrats (see this great VRA factsheet here). In the House, 81% of Republicans voted for it versus 75% of Democrats. It was signed into law by a Democratic President, Lyndon B. Johnson, who never voted for a single civil rights bill during the entirety of his 20+ years in Congress. He knew times had changed.
The DNC Delusion
A few years ago, I was completely shocked to witness the Democratic National Committee’s outrageous political fabrication online. I thought, initially, I was on a parody site. I wasn’t. The official website of the DNC, from 2005-2011, lied like a dirty rug thrown over layers of dirty rotten lies. It wasn’t just exaggeration. It was a total reinvention of history: “Democrats are unwavering in our support of equal opportunity for all Americans. That's why we’ve worked to pass every one of our nation’s Civil Rights laws, and every law that protects workers. Most recently, Democrats stood together to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. On every civil rights issue, Democrats have led the fight.”
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Democrats led the fight against civil rights…for over a century. But that narrative didn’t play well for them, so they pretended to be the Party of Lincoln instead. Decades of disinformation has done its damage. From public school teachers and leftist “news” media to so-called Civil Rights organizations and historically challenged academics, there is no shortage of those who will provide coverage for the DNC’s disastrous past.
Same Lies. Different Century.
Democrats can’t handle the truth. In their 2024 tribute to the anniversary of the VRA, they almost painted an honest picture of our nation’s racist past: “After years of relentless activism in the face of violent oppression, the VRA protected and extended access to the ballot to all Americans by removing long-standing barriers used to silence Black voters.” It was just missing one thing: the word “Democrats’” before “relentless”.
Nowhere in the press statement do they acknowledge their role in the dehumanization and terrorization of people of my complexion. Nowhere do they accept responsibility for denying millions their precious right to vote. Instead, they rely on theatrics to vilify the GOP to distract from the real villains: the party that spread Jim Crow like a cancer across the country.
The statement continued: “In recent years, Republicans have systematically rolled back voting rights. Under Donald Trump’s watch, his extreme Supreme Court led the charge to gut the Voting Rights Act, empowering Republican elected officials to purge voter rolls and pass laws that make voting far more difficult — particularly for Black voters.”
Election integrity, like Voter ID legislation, aren’t rolling back voting rights; they’re rolling over avenues that make fraud easier in our election system. Thirty-six states have laws that require people to show their photo ID before voting at their polling place. Black voter turnout has not been suppressed at all. It’s flourished. But the DNC says it’s “raaaaaaacist” to have people prove they are who they are before casting a crucial ballot. It’s a threat to democracy!
Less Activism, More Factivism
Americans beg to differ. According to an October 2024 Gallup poll, 84% of us support verifying your identity in order to vote. This includes 98% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats. Yes, a surprising percentage of Democrats agree that proving who you are matters. Oh, and looky here. A whopping 80% of “People of Color” support the exact same thing. (“People of Color”, according to the poll, includes everyone except White folks who apparently are transparent.) Eighty five percent of those transparent folk support providing photo identification prior to voting too.
Let’s not forget, it’s the Democratic Party that threatens our Democracy when they propose and pass bills that allow non-citizens to vote (here, here and here). This is also reflected in the fact that 96% of Republicans support voter ID laws that require proof of citizenship when you register to vote whereas only 66% of Democrats do. The 44% of Democrats who don’t think it’s necessary to prove you’re a citizen to vote is an actual threat to democracy.
Gallup concluded that “majorities of Americans favor a range of election law policies that expand voters’ access to the ballot box…they also broadly support measures to limit fraud and ensure election integrity, including requiring photo identification to vote and providing proof of citizenship when first registering to vote.”
The Democratic Party doesn’t know how to do life without racism. Many of us can. And do.
So, celebrate 60 years of a powerful moment that changed America for the better. Rejoice that, in 1965, the public and politicians refused to allow a toxic worldview to dictate who could or could not vote. Don’t let anyone scare you away from these truths.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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