1. I was a registered Republican before the best part of you soaked into the mattress twixt your mom's legs. But the Republicans made a huge shift when Goldwater defeated the moderate/progressive Repub. Rockefeller in the primaries, which essentially spelled the end of progressive Republicans influencing anything within the Repub. party.
2. True, conservatives in the south stuck on trying to maintain some semblance of slavery in modern clothes via separate but equal. For the most part, these conservatives were Democrat, although by '64 conservative Republicans were showing up. Sen. John Tower of TX is one such appearance. And conservative Republicans from the south voted unanimously against the Act.
3. Ever wonder why southern Republicans almost overwhelmingly voted against the Civil Rights Act of '64? Just like Goldwater was initially for the Act before he was against it....it was the addition of public accommodations, incl businesses---commerce clause. Couldn't have good white folks being forced to be in the same store as the colored. And this fight continues to today.
4. No, the Democrat party wasn't AWOL on the '64 Civil Rights Act. Hell, Kennedy put forth the bill in '63. But the Republicans were against provisions guaranteeing equal access to places of public accommodations.
5. The previous Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 were just voting rights acts. True, southern conservatives were aghast that anyone would allow blacks to vote. That was and is a sad bit of history. But to compare the '64 Act to what went previously is disingenuous at best.
6. Ummmm....Reagan was a governor, too, so the rest of your shit is just that....shit.
7. Christian conservatives rule in the south....have since it was little more than colonies until today, outside a few exceptions.
8. Ever wonder why Goldwater in '64 only carried 6 states? Arizona, his home state, and SC, GA, AL, MS, LA...the deep south confederate states. No surprise, actually, given the demonization christian conservatives have been plying in relation to blacks in the south. Southern conservatives had used religion as their justification for slavery, Jim Crow, and damned near every other discriminatory policy that existed prior to '64.
9. Ever wonder why 100% of southern Republicans voted against the '64 Act? Nope, you never did. If one actually looks at how the voting in both Houses broke down by region, the south voted against it overwhelmingly, both Democrat and Republican. The rest of the nation....overwhelmingly voted for the Act, both Democrat and Republican.
Dims will forever remain stuck on stupid about this. No matter how you wish to revise history, Dims didn't free the slaves. The Dim party was largely AWOL for much of the original Civil Rights legislation. The south didn't switch from Dem to Rep in 1964, it in fact elected Carter in 1976 and retained a majority of Dim governors. Your party was full of suck in the 1860's right through to the 1960's and beyond. Nixon and Reagan won by landslides in the entire country, whereas Dims ran southern govenors as part of a *gasp* southern strategy. You don't get to claim the R party's historic record, or whitewash the Dim party's shitty history. Those are just a facts your ilk can't deal with.