Register to vote if you haven’t already. If you’ve moved or changed your name, you must update your voter registration. You can also use the voter registration form to update your political party affiliation. Join the Republican Party if you haven’t already!
Arizonan’s can submit or update their voter registration using an online at ServiceArizona.com. Or visit any County Clerk or Vehicle Registration / Driver’s License office. If you’re not a resident of Arizona, please visit vote.gov instead.
“Voting is your civic duty” is a common sentiment. This club’s members know that our civic duty goes far beyond just voting. But voting, like all of our civil rights, are absolutely fundamental to Republicans. Voting rights are part of our drive to deliver on the promise of that “All Men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights”. If you do nothing else: At least vote! Republican’s have worked too hard to ensure this civil right for all legal Americans. Please don’t let our hard work be in vain.
Voting Rights – A History Lesson
Why are Republican’s so adamant about having rules for voting? Because every legitimate vote should count and because even a single illegitimate vote means that one legitimate vote got canceled. It’s because we’ve fought hard to establish voting rights and civil rights in general. We also know history. We know how powerful people – mostly in other countries, but it’s spreading here – have worked to steal people’s votes, manipulated their voting systems, and even lied to obtain more power.
Take a look at the bullets below. Time and time again, a much higher percentage of Republicans have supported civil rights, and voting rights in particular, compared to their Democrat counterparts. In fact, the Republican party began in 1854 “to protect the rights of African Americans after the Civil War.”
Below are some important historical US voting rights facts. History is important. If you don’t know history, others will be happy to distort it for their own benefits. This is ever so true regarding civil rights, especially voting rights.
Democrats like to say that Republicans try to suppress voting rights. Nothing could be further form the truth. The truth is that the Republican Party has worked long and hard to ensure for voting rights.
USA Civil & Voting Rights Legislative History
- You’ve probably heard of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954. Do you also recall the story about black students who were prevented from attending Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas? It was Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, a Democrat, who worked to against them and it was a Republican -President Eisenhower – who fixed it. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10730. This order temporarily nationalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent in National Guardsmen from the 101st Airborne Division to protect the students. They started with Little Rock to escort African-American students into previously whites-only segregated public schools! That’s the story most of us remember hearing about.
- It was also Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower who proposed civil rights legislation to the US Senate through Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL). Dirksen introduced the bill on behalf of Eisenhower.
- It should be noted that the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was a weakened version of Eisenhower’s original bill. The Western Illinois Historical Review (WIHR) said this was because Democrats used “their domination of powerful committees” to water down the meaningful rights Eisenhower had hoped to deliver.
- Then there was the Civil Rights Act of 1960. In the final vote, 81.5% of Republicans in the US House of Representatives voted for it but only 59% of Democrats did.
- Sadly this trend continued. If not for Republicans, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would have never survived. Democrat senators had filibustered for 60 days to prevent it. This was in spite of the fact that Lyndon Johnson (a fellow Democrat) had submitted it to Congress under recently assassinated President Kennedy’s name! Again it took Republicans to break the filibuster. In the end, 82% of Republican senators and only 68% of Democrat senators voted to end the filibuster and eventually voted to pass the Act.
What about the Constitutional Amendments?
- The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870. The 15th prohibits the government from denying American men the right to vote based on that his “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” In Congress it was supported by 144 Republicans and only 39 Democrats! Notice it was for men’s vote amendment. Women came next followed by Black & African American voting rights.
- The 19th Amendment, known as the Anthony Amendment for Susan B Anthony, was introduced by Republican Senator Sargent (R-CA1878. Sadly it was “defeated … by a Democrat-controlled Senate“.
- Democrats continued to withhold women’s voting rights for a long time.
- Republican states revolted by giving women the right to vote at the state level. But things stated to change at the national level in 1918.
- Democrat President Woodrow Wilson made the mistake of breaking a campaign promise by joining the World War I efforts. This infuriated his Democrat base. To spite Wilson for this move, the Democrat base supported Republicans in the midterms in order to show how angry they were with Wilson’s WWI efforts.
- Wilson was also known as Kaiser Wilson because of open hostility to women’s right to vote. After his own party put more Republicans in congress, Wilson realized he was going to be on the wrong side of history if he didn’t start to support women’s rights, so he started speaking more kindly of the idea! Typical politician.
- Republican House Rep Mann (R-Ill.) re-introduced the 19th Amendment in May 1919. It passed the House 304 to 89, with a whopping 91% of Republicans supporting it and only 59% of Democrats. Republican support was also strong in the Senate. It passed the Senate 56 to 25 with support from 82% of Republicans but only 57% of Democrats.
- And then we waited for the 24th Amendment…
- The 24th Amendment prohibited “poll taxes”. Poll taxes started in the 1890s because “Democrats wanted to prevent another Populist-Republican coalition“. Again Democrats’ manipulated the system.
- Again Republican states took their own action and prohibited poll taxes.
- The 24th Amendment almost passed in 1944 until Southern Democrats decided against it. They wanted to keep poll taxes because a Supreme Court decision banned “white primaries,” another Democrat manipulation scheme. Everyone knew that only a Democrat president could sway those within his own party.
- Although President Roosevelt (D, 1933-1945) was against the poll taxes, he choose to put a higher priority on keeping Southern Democrats happy to pass his New Deal programs than to address the poll tax issue.
- President Truman wasn’t was able to do it either. But to his credit, Truman (D, 1945-1953) issued Executive Order 9981 in 1948, which desegregated the armed forces!
- Legislative Republicans continued to fight for civil rights in the 1950s, as mentioned earlier. And the Democrat establishment seemed to recognize the benefits.
- Many give credit to President Kennedy for passing the 24th Amendment. That is absolutely correct! It was Kennedy, who finally pushed the 24th Amendment across the finish line.
- To start he process, he convinced one Southern Democrat, Senator Holland (D-Florida), to introduce the amendment. This created fractures between the Southern Democrats.
- The bill passed in the House by a 295 to 86 vote, with 90% of Republicans and 70% of Democrats in favor. It passed the Senate in a 77 to 16 vote with 96% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats supporting it!
- Yes, the 24th was passed under the Kennedy administration. But don’t forget that doing so required him to convince several within his own party.
- Kennedy didn’t need to convince Republicans – we already wanted it!
Did the parties “switch”?
You might have heard that the parties “switched” during this time period. That’s another manipulation of history. What’s true is that racist Southern Democrats joined the Republican Party. What you probably didn’t know is why they did that. They did it because Democrat President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They left the Democrat Party because they were angry at Johnson and they weren’t smart enough to realize that it had been the Republicans fighting for it all along! They were just a bunch of ignorant Democrats who switched sides and most Republicans ignored them.
If you have more to add to this history, please comment below.