As Newsbusters reported, the Los Angeles Times is claiming that Democrats led the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Talk show host Larry Elder sets the record straight:
As a percentage of the party, more republicans voted for the '64 Civil Rights Act than did democrats.
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) August 30, 2013
For breaking dems' filibuster to get the '64 Civil Rts. act thru Senate, Sen. Dirksen (R-ILL) was called "the hero of the nation" by LBJ.
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) August 30, 2013
L.A. Times claims democrats "led" fight for civil rights. Here's "The True History of the Democratic Racist Party": http://t.co/EH9LpYX1Vh
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) August 30, 2013
According to the article linked by Elder above,
Only 64 percent of Democrats in Congress voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act (153 for, 91 against in the House; and 46 for, 21 against in the Senate). But 80 percent of Republicans (136 for, 35 against in the House; and 27 for, 6 against in the Senate) voted for the 1964 Act.
Wikipedia, which has been known on occasion to get its facts right, has the same numbers.
Even the ultra-liberal blog Raw Story acknowledges the vote totals:
When we look at the party vote in both houses of Congress, it fits the historical pattern. Republicans are more in favor of the bill:
80% of Republicans in the House and Senate voted for the bill. Less than 70% of Democrats did. Indeed, Minority Leader Republican Everett Dirksen led the fight to end the filibuster. Meanwhile, Democrats such as Richard Russell of Georgia and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina tried as hard as they could to sustain a filibuster.
Naturally, the raw votes don’t mean what you think they mean. “Once you control for region,” Raw Story asserts, “it turns out that Democrats were actually more likely to support the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”
Indeed. And if you control for idiocy, it turns out that the L.A. Times is actually biased toward Republicans.
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