Misrepresenting Statistics

Democrats Are Not Saints

Walker suggests in his previous post that the Republican Party has done more for African Americans than the Democratic Party. At no time did I ever assert anything different. It is debatable whether this record of supporting civil rights holds true after the 1960s, for some would argue that entitlement programs actually hurt minorities instead of help them. Never mind that.

I agree wholeheartedly that the Republican Party was the traditional party of civil rights before the 1960s. That was back when the Democratic Party was the party of the South. Walker asserts that "The Democratic Party certainly panders more with an old south kind of 'we'll take care of you' attitude all the time," but this was NOT true prior to the 1950s. Before then, the Democratic Party was the part of the white South, and it most certainly did not represent African Americans.

Statistics for the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Let's look at the statistics regarding passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 to see just how split the Democratic Party was on this issue. (By the way, I got these statistics from Wikipedia, so I have no idea whether they're accurate.)

The entire measure was divisive, as we can see from the total passage. For the Senate version, the votes were 73% for and 27% against. In the House, it was 70% for and 30% against. About the same, I would say.

By party, however, things get odd. For the Senate version (in Yes-No format):

Democratic Party: 46-22 (68%-32%)
Republican Party: 27-6 (82%-18%)

The Senate version, voted on by the House:
Democratic Party: 153-91 (63%-37%)
Republican Party: 186-35 (80%-20%)

I'm not sure where Walker got his figures, but he says,

"89% of Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964...A FAR greater percentage than Democrats. The Civil Rights Act of 1964…perhaps the greatest accomplishment in the struggle for civil rights was overwhelming supported by Republicans and overwhelming hated by Democrats."

I'm not sure whether those figures are "overwhelming," as Walker suggests. Nevertheless, things get really strange when we divide the votes by Southern and Northern states, where Southern refers to those states that were once a part of the Confederacy. Northern refers to all other states, no matter where they are.

I don't think the statistics make the Democrats look good and the Republicans look bad, for I'm not pleased that anyone chose to vote against civil rights. And it really upsets me that my chosen party was so divided on this issue. But I think this division needs to be clarified instead of taking Walker's assertions at face value.

In the South, there were ten Republican Representatives, and all of them voted against the Bill. There was one Republican Senator, and he voted against it, too. For the Democrats, it's no better: 93% of Representatives voted against the bill and 95% of Senators voted against it. Here are the statistics:

The original House version:
Southern Democrats: 7-87 (7%-93%)
Southern Republicans: 0-10 (0%-100%)

In the North, however, it was a different story:

The House:
Northern Democrats: 145-9 (94%-6%)
Northern Republicans: 138-24 (85%-15%)

The Senate:
Northern Democrats: 45-1 (98%-2%) (only Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia opposed the measure)
Northern Republicans: 27-5 (84%-16%) (Senators Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, Edwin L. Mechem of New Mexico, Milward L. Simpson of Wyoming, and Norris H. Cotton of New Hampshire opposed the measure)

I'm not going to make much of these statistics except to say that the Democrats voted FOR the Civil Rights Act in the North in similar percentages that they voted AGAINST it in the South. For the Republicans, they were actually more divided in the North than the Democrats, but the numbers are too small to draw any conclusions, except that they were more divided in the North.

The Red State/Blue State Divide
What is really interesting about these statistics, however, is how things switched after this bill. Not only did some representatives leave their party based on this issue, but the very notion of Democrats and Republicans changed. The South became the Republican bastion and the Northeast became the Democratic post. Did this change happen all because of the Civil Rights Act? Absolutely not, but it helped fuel it. Before the 1960s, the South ALWAYS voted Democrat. And then, they began to pull away.

Check out the presidential election maps to see this shift most clearly. In 1956, only seven states went Democrat, and they were all southern states (here defined more broadly). Then, in 1960, more states went Democrat. In 1964, however, it all changes. Now, only six states go Republican, and only one is not a southern state--Arizona.

In 1968, everyone goes Republican except for a handful of southern states who vote for Wallace, an independent running on basically a segregation/states' rights platform, and a few mainly northern states that went Democrat.

With a few exceptions, the Red State/Blue State divide has been constant since 1964. Just coincidence? I doubt it.