I was amused by the MSNBC article today, "On MLK Day, Biden Boosts Voting Rights", for two reasons.
First, Democrats historically opposed(!) voting rights for minorities and it was Republicans who historically created and passed such legislation close to 100%. Democrats were still voting in big numbers against voting rights acts less than 60 years ago ... on the 1957 Voting Rights Act for example. It wasn't until the 1960's that Democrats began supporting voting rights in a significant way. And it wasn't until the 2007 Voting Rights Act that Democrats finally caught up with Republicans in the percentage of votes supporting it. Now they talk as if they're the ones who invented this civil right (and others). Go figure.
Second, what far too many uninformed Americans don't know is that Democrat opposition to minorities' constitutional civil rights wasn't limited to the area of voting rights. Contrary to their 'leadership' claim on the party website history page they historically opposed all major constitutional minority rights efforts. It was Republicans who created and passed the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments to the Constitution. Democrats opposed them all, nearly 100% in most cases. They defeated Women's Voting Rights bills three times until the 19th
Amendment was finally passed by a Republican-controlled congress. And it was Democrats who filibustered(!) against and had twice the percentage of no votes (as Republicans) on MLK's landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Which makes Vice President Biden's support of voting rights on MLK day as ironic as it is welcome.
Here are a couple of references regarding the truth of this matter if you're interested:
Kevin Williamson's 2012 article.
My historical summary.
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