The Civil Rights Act's Main Beneficiary Has Been Washington, D.C.

Amidst flowery February orations, in retrospect, the Civil Rights movement’s main beneficiary appears to be Washington. State segregation ceased, which is well, but forced federal integration remains, well, wrong. Washington rightly overturned denials of freedom oppressing southern blacks, but did so by infringing on others’ liberties elsewhere. En route, civil rights became the sine qua non of American statism. Civil rights legislation provided the primary catalyst for government’s escalation since WWII. Sadly, the Civil Rights Act brought neither legal equality as proposed in theory; nor equality of outcomes to which the Left strove in practice. The CRA failed doubly. First, rather than ending, it merely redirected public discrimination. Second, it empowered public officials to invade previously private spheres. Such legislation lubricated the machinations of muscular government redistribution. President Johnson, soon after the CRA’s passage, shifted to begin promoting Great Society initiatives by promising blacks, “not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.” To lessen inequality, Washington’s principle endeavor has become leveling wealth through massive redistribution schemes. It’s said, “Hard cases make bad laws.” Smashing segregation yielded Washington legitimacy it wouldn’t otherwise enjoy to intrude where Americans wouldn’t otherwise allow. Because the civil rights movement was rendered just, Americans readily sacrificed freedoms of association and previously sacrosanct property rights; state sinecures then sped gleefully ahead aggrandizing government. George Washington predicted, “Let there be no change [to the Constitution] by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.” Once the Feds nosed into the tent under pretexts of combating prejudice, bureaucrats now routinely trample individual liberties and property rights. Meanwhile, Washington smothers state and local bodies to meddle in education, housing, healthcare and other matters which were not previously federal concerns. Those glorifying government, from the Nanny State to new entitlements, generally try to reclaim the moral certitude of the civil rights cause. The triumphal entry of Mrs. Pelosi to pass Obamacare even preposterously invoked the Selma March. continue article here.