The revenge of Joe Biden?

[MrFun]

Bush and Obama both suck. The country would be much better off if all the partisan hacks would accept that and allow the country to start electing real leaders.

I'm disappointed with Obama in a few ways after having voted for him, but I don't think he SUCKS, nor do I regret having voted for him.

As long as I believe that Democrats have/will have a better record on civil rights issues than Republicans, I will take a messed up Democrat over a messed up Republican.

[Drake Tungsten]

I don't think he SUCKS, nor do I regret having voted for him.

You should.

As long as I believe that Democrats have/will have a better record on civil rights issues than Republicans, I will take a messed up Democrat over a messed up Republican.

You really are a terrible historian. The Republicans clearly have a better record on civil rights issues than the Democrats...

[MikeH]

True but the party's not the same as it was then.

[Drake Tungsten]

Civil rights aren't an issue anymore. Show me where the GOP has ever voted against civil rights legislation in the numbers the Dems did during the 60s...

[MikeH]

Gay marriage and abortion are both civil rights issues and still hugely relevant. And plenty of laws infringing civil rights to privacy etc. came in under Bush administration.

These things are the next front in the civil rights war but since the Republicans got into bed with the religious right they will struggle to push anything forwards on that.

So now, contrary to 30 years ago, Democrats appear to be the civil rights party.

[Drake Tungsten]

Gay marriage and abortion are both civil rights issues and still hugely relevant.

No, they aren't. At least in the American political context.

[MikeH]

They should be though. They are in the UK, Europe and other political climates where religion is properly separated from politics.

[MikeH]

Abortion also comes under areas of health, but equal gay rights is undeniably a civil rights issue, no different to legislating on equal rights for different races and sexes.

[Drake Tungsten]

"Civil rights" in America = institutionalized discrimination against African Americans. The GOP was always better than the Dems on that issue.

Gays have tried to link their push for marriage rights with the black civil rights movement, but very few people buy the connection. Abortion is very rarely equated with the black civil rights movement, as far as I can tell.

[MikeH]

That was the major civil rights issue in the 60s, can't believe that's all the phrase means. Ridiculous. Not what it means anywhere else for sure.

[Theben]

Drake's making up his own definitions. Civil rights have changed since the 60s and includes rights for women and gays as well as other minorities- also class issues. It doesn't include abortion but you can usually find pro-choice people on the same side as civil rights.

[Theben]

Also the GOP did have a better track record wrt african-americans but they pissed that all away in the Reagan years and have made zero attempts to get minority membership since.

[MrFun]

Drake doesn't know that much about civil rights issues as he thinks he does.

[MrFun]

I got some questions then about Republican party's record on civil rights after end of Reconstruction.

Why was it a Democratic president (Lyndon B. Johnson) rather than a Republican president who aggressively pushed for Congress to pass civil rights legislation?

Why was it a Republican presidential candidate (Richard Nixon) who promised white Southerners that he would try to reverse or delay effects of some of the civil rights legislation?

Why did white Southerners turned amass to Republican party, and away from Democratic party, during the civil rights movement of 1950s and 1960s?

[MikeH]

Abortion is about womens rights, which is part of civil rights.