Passed by Rockefeller Republicans and liberal Democrats.
The Civil Rights Act was opposed by Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and virtually every other conservative of the day. Hannity, Limbaugh and Glenn Beck stupidly claim that it was some conservative idea but it absolutely was not.
The bill gave government employees the ability to prosecute other Americans for thought crimes. See if you can guess how it is that political correctness has been forced on the American public. See if you can guess how a Colorado baker could be sued into oblivion for refusing an order for a gay wedding cake.
I was mostly trying to make a rhetorical point.
When Trump says MAGA, plenty of Liberals interpret that as “Bring back Jim Crow! Bring back slavery! America was great when blacks had no rights! That’s what Trump really means!”
It’s stupid.
So — when was America great? When we gave full civil rights to everyone regardless of race. And the Democrats mostly opposed that. Liberals pretend that wasn’t so, but it was. Civil Rights regardless of race became a law because of overwhelming Republican support.
You may find fault with the law. As you note, Goldwater and Reagan found fault with it. But, as a rhetorical point, for the Liberal who think Trump’s “MAGA” is some kind of racist dog whistle, I think that declaring 1964 as a great year in American history is a clever way to say “Republicans are not racists; Democrats are.”