Conservatives Get the Civil Rights Act All Wrong

We've ceded unnecessary ground to the progressives when it comes to the CRA of 1964

Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

Last week I addressed the controversial comments from conservative pundits like Charlie Kirk and Matt Walsh about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While I didn’t dispute their right to question the current narrative, I did question the tone and timing of their criticisms, particularly in light of Trump, winning future elections and outreach to Black voters.

You can hear me discuss it in last week’s episode of Just Listen to Yourself.

This week I decided to dig into The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (CRA). Kirk described it as a “trojan horse” for DEI and CRT madness. Of course, the CRA was established long before most of us had any real concept of critical theory and diversity, equity and inclusion was a mere speck in its Marxist mama’s eye; but is Kirk at least right in theory?

His comments - outside of how unhelpful they’ve been for voter outreach - got me thinking about the CRA a bit more deeply. I realized I couldn’t remember when I’d last read the entire act, so that’s what I did. I think it’s something anyone who wants to jump into this conversation should do. Many people will be surprised to see what is and isn’t in there.

Back to Kirk’s assessment - I certainly agree that progressives have used the CRA to their advantage over the decades. The most recent and glaring abuse is the LGBTQplusalltheotherletters lobby and how they perverted the language against sex discrimination to also mean “sexuality” discrimination. So far it’s been an effective strategy. That made me wonder - why haven’t conservatives used the CRA and the language contained therein to get what they want? Why have we seemingly decided that the CRA was made for progressives and the rest of us just have to deal with the fallout?

A reading of the document reveals some pretty interesting language and some tools I believe we’ve left on the floor. While this act was brought to us with the intention of helping Black Americans, it is constitutional, which makes it for all Americans. Given the divisiveness we’ve seen coming from progressives, it only makes sense to use the provisions of equality and fairness laid out in the CRA to combat their clear mission of segregation.

The conservative influencer crowd is choosing messaging over strategy and the messaging sucks. It earns them more money, but it sets us back in the battle to win elections and dominate the culture.

We should not think of the CRA as something that belongs to the Left. We should think of it the way they do - as a tool to get what we want.

In the latest JLTY I read the CRA and do a surface-level exploration of some of the more interesting parts and how they could be wielded against the current cultural chaos. In fact, I discovered something pretty surprising in the text that led me down a little rabbit-hole in real time…and it’s kind of creepy.

There is no reason for us to be pretending the CRA is some kind of cultural defeat. As usual, we are walking away from what could be a powerful political weapon because we have allowed ourselves to believe we are powerless against ideas that don’t originate on “our side.”

Take a listen and tell me what you think in the comments or write to me at JLTY@protonmail.com