Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour: on Civil Rights


Bill Clinton: OpEd: Clinton administration has a love affair with quotas

Although quotas are increasingly unpopular with the populace--one poll indicated that 77% of blacks and 73% of whites oppose quotas--the Clinton administration continues to cherish them. A number of truly ludicrous personnel directives have grown out of the Clinton administration's love affair with quotas. For example, the 1994 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) performance standards for evaluating managers and supervisors included such criteria as "speak[ing] favorably about minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and others of diverse backgrounds," "participating as an active member of minority, feminist, or other cultural organizations," and "participating in EEO and Cultural Diversity activities outside of HUD."
Source: Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour, p.148 Apr 25, 1996

Haley Barbour: ADA should allow flexible state & local compliance

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits job discrimination against the handicapped and mandates that public transportation and other facilities be wheelchair-accessible, was intended to help handicapped Americans. But instead it has caused a blizzard of complaints and lawsuits. The principal beneficiaries? Lawyers.

No one is against creating an environment in which disabled Americans can enjoy useful and independent lives, but the ADA may have important flaws that render it inappropriate for that task.

One step that would go a long way toward remedying the situation would be to allow ADA issues to be handled by state and local governments. This would allow more flexibility in compliance. A city with few wheelchair-bound citizens might be able to come up with a creative solution to their problem--perhaps providing door-to-door car service for a fraction of the cost of retrofitting buses with wheelchair lifts.

Source: Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour, p. 25-26 Apr 25, 1996

Haley Barbour: When did affirmative action turn into special preferences?

When the term "civil rights" is used today, it is often a not-too-subtle code word for "special preference." The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was intended to ensure a color-blind society in which only individual character and merit mattered. Affirmative Action has come to mean just the opposite. It now means a system of quotas, preferences, set-asides, & government harassment. In many ways, policies that now pass under the name of civil rights have made us a more race-conscious society than ever before.

When did "civil rights" turn into "reverse discrimination" and "affirmative action" into "special preferences"? Many would argue that the wrong turn was made shortly after the triumph of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of the following year. The acts succeeded. But the emphasis shifted from a quest for equality of opportunity and a color-blind country to one of racial balances and equality of results. The idea, we were assured, was to provide remedies for past discrimination.

Source: Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour, p.147 Apr 25, 1996

  • The above quotations are from The Agenda for America
    A Republican Direction for the Future
    by Gov. Haley Barbour (R, MS).
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Civil Rights.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Haley Barbour on Civil Rights.
Candidates and political leaders on Civil Rights:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Dec 12, 2018