by Frank Li
Fifty years ago today (July 2, 1964), President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. America was fundamentally changed, for the better in the short run. But how about for the long run? For the worse for sure! Jaw dropped? Allow me to explain…
1. The Civil Rights Act
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States[4] that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.[5] It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as “public accommodations”).
Powers given to enforce the act were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the United States Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, at the White House.
2. The Civil Rights Act: itself
The Civil Rights Act itself is a piece of legislation, long overdue and well written – End of discussion!
3. The Civil Rights Act: its aftermath
The Civil Rights Act opened a flood gate for the passage of numerous laws to create the Great Society as President Johnson envisioned. How well have all these laws been doing altogether over the past 50 years?
While some of them have helped many Americans, together they have changed America for the worse in three major ways:
America became a true democracy, with one person, one vote becoming a reality. Note that democracy has been a proven failure throughout human history, without a single example of lasting success. It was largely for this reason that our founding fathers built America as a republic with full-blown capitalism but a limited version of democracy, specifically precluding “pure” democracy (i.e. one person, one vote). For more, read: We, the Intelligent People of the United States …
American politicians started depicting and calling for a utopian society, in which the poor live like royalty, the “public servants” live better than their “masters” (Detroit, Public-Sector Unions, and JFK), and even work is optional (The Answer Is Work; The Question Is Why). Worse yet, it was at that point that America started creating a new type of slavery: pay without work! For more, read: The Democratic Party is the Party of New Slavery!
America became a huge breeding ground for parasites: career politicians and career welfare recipients. Together, they have been destroying America inside out!
4. Reality check
Let’s do a reality check from five perspectives:
1. Food stamps
2. Single-parent household
3. U.S. jail population
4. Unemployment
5. The American Dream.
4.1 Food stamps
Today, some 50 million Americans receive government-issued food stamps!
For more, read: Food stamp use at all-time high.
4.2 Single-parent household
Too many kids live in “broken” families!
For more, read: Almost half of children in single-mother homes live with never married mothers and More Millennial Mothers Are Single Than Married.
4.3 U.S. jail population
One percent of the U.S. population is in jail (Incarceration in the United States)! Yes, the U.S. is the largest jailer in the world!
For more, read: America Has More Prisoners Than High School Teachers.
4.4 Unemployment
One key reason the unemployment rate has come down recently is because the labor force participation rate has dropped to the 1978 level! Here is a chart:
For more, read:Labor Market Participation Rate Continues to Slump.
4.5 The American Dream
Most Americans no longer believe that the American Dream, by any definition, is achievable.
For more, read: The American Dream is out of reach.
5. Discussion
With the reality check above, do you still think the Great Society is the way to go? No! Simply put, the Great Society is largely communistic, and will hence have a communistic fate: a disastrous failure!
The Civil Rights Act is a piece of well-written legislation, as good-looking as the theory of communism! However, many things have gone wrong since then, with some being even worse than communism! For example, in communism, work is still required (according to your ability), while in democratic America, work has been optional (The Answer Is Work; The Question Is Why)!
Fifty years later, it’s payback time, finally! Today, America is deeply in trouble, with stubborn high unemployment and huge national debt of more than $17T being the top two problems!
What’s worse? It is becoming increasingly questionable whether American democracy can even last as long as Soviet communism (Longevity: American Democracy vs. Soviet Communism)!
What’s the worst? There is no real diagnosis, nor real solution, except for mine!
6. Closing
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 officially started a period of American self-destruction! It’s time to make a U-turn, starting with an executive order to undo President Kennedy’s Executive Order 10988, which actually predated the Civil Rights Act of 1964!
America’s best days are definitely behind us, thanks to American democracy in general and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in specific! We now face a real hard choice: keep fooling around with democracy, as we know it today, and keep hoping for a recovery that will never come, or start political reforms as I have suggested.
America must be saved with political reforms! For more, read my book: “The GOP Bible for 2016”!
