This Is President Trump’s Boldest Move So Far — Even Reagan Chickened Out on It
By now no one should be surprised at President Trump’s sweeping reversals of the conventional wisdom on everything from A (asylum) to W (wilderness access) — sorry, no executive orders affecting anything beginning with Z yet.
But in revoking President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order 11246 that launched our decades-long imposition of de facto racial quotas under the euphemism “affirmative action,” Trump has gone beyond the boldest imagination of any previous administration.
A brief history: When the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s Title VII — the clause banning racial discrimination in hiring — was debated in the Senate, opponents charged it would lead to racial quotas.
The Civil Rights Act’s floor manager, future Vice President Hubert Humphrey, denied the claim, saying, “If the senator can find in Title VII any language which provides that an employer will have to hire on the basis of percentage or quota related to color, race, religion or national origin, I will start eating the pages one after another because it is not in there.”
Humphrey lied, essentially. The civil-rights lobby was already planning for Johnson’s executive order that called for federal contractors to adopt “affirmative action” — that is, quotas by another name. (Read more from “This Is President Trump’s Boldest Move So Far — Even Reagan Chickened Out on It” HERE)
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr
