The “Party Switch” Myth Debunked
I’ve been doing months of research on the history of the political systems in the US. There is one myth that is bigger than all of them and thats the “party switch” myth so I’m going to debunk that myth for everyone here.
The typical argument for this is “The republicans won the south during the 1950’s-1970’s, so they are the party of racism. The platforms of both parties switched in this time period.” They somehow try to ignore the part where the Democrats were the party of slaves and slave owners 100 years before this time period. They ignore the part where Republicans abolished slavery.
The GOP won the south AFTER civil rights. Ending over 100+ years of democrat control which started with slavery and ended due to the civil rights movement. This means that it’s impossible for someone to claim the GOP is the party of racism in the south. I already know someone will try to use the typical stereotype argument where they claim “the KKK is votes republican now!!!” which has never even been proven true. It’s just a stereotype. Even if they did now in 2019, that doesn’t mean the democratic party is automatically forgiven for what it did to blacks and the racism that exists today is nothing close to pre-1965.
Out of 1600 racist Democrats from the Civil War to the year 2000 less than 1% switched parties. Only 2 of the 112 racist Democrats who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 actually “switched” to the GOP. John Jarman and Strom Thurmond. All the racist Democrats who had opposed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960’s were the same ones who in the 1970’s supported Roe v. Wade. They went straight from supporting segregation to supporting abortion. There was no switch among politicians. In fact, the GOP didn’t gain a majority of southern seats until 1994, 30 years after the Civil Rights movement.
When you look at the voting record, you will see that the republicans were still more supportive of civil rights than the democrats which is all the proof you need to conclude that the party switch is a myth.
I’ll use this source to determine the “important” bills
House vote on Civil Rights Act of 1960
8% of Republicans voted against
29% of the Democrats voted against
Senate vote on Civil Rights Act of 1960
0% of Republicans voted against
28% of the Democrats voted against
House vote on H.R. 7152. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
20% of Republicans voted against
35% of the Democrats voted against
Senate vote on H.R. 7152. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
18% of Republicans voted against
33% of the Democrats voted against
House vote on THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965
16% of Republicans voted against
21% of Democrats voted against
Senate vote on THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965
5.25% of Republicans voted against
25% of Democrats voted against
House vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act)
13% of Republicans voted against
27% of Democrats voted against
Senate vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act)
8% of Republicans voted against
27% of Democrats voted against
Senate vote on the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970
2% of Republicans voted against
19% of Democrats voted against
Fun fact: There was only one single vote against this from the GOP. Guess who it was? Strom Thurmond. One of the 2 southern democrats that switched.
