this is part of a greater effort to be better informed about the actual issues of this presidential election. check out this post for background.
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I’m splitting Civil Rights up into a two categories: Gender Equality and Racial Equality. While I strongly feel that Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered issues also fall under the Civil Rights umbrella, I will address those later.

Gender Equality

What Their Websites Say:

McCain: The Issues section of his site does not address gender equality at all.

Obama: Obama and Biden will work to overturn the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that curtails racial minorities’ and women’s ability to challenge pay discrimination. They will also pass the Fair Pay Act to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work…

What The Media Says:

Scripps News on McCain: On average, according to these data, women in John McCain’s office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes. In fact, all other things being equal, a typical female staffer could earn 21 cents more per dollar paid to her male counterpart — while adding $10,726 to her annual income — by leaving Barack Obama’s office and going to work for John McCain.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer on McCain: On every issue of concern to women — from education to equal pay, health care and physical security to retirement and financial security — John McCain and George W. Bush are identical and abysmal. It is their best-kept secret.

One World on Obama: Several women’s advocacy groups have publicly declared their support for Barack Obama and Joseph Biden in the U.S. presidential election, citing the senators’ support for issues of particular importance to women and expectations that they will keep their promises to promote women’s rights if elected.

Scripps News on Obama: In short, [...] statistics suggest that John McCain is more than fair with his female employees, while Barack Obama — at the expense of the women who work for him — quietly perpetuates the very same pay-equity divide that he loudly denounces.

Racial Equality

What Their Websites Say:

McCain: McCain’s website does not address racial equality.

Obama: Obama mentions a slew of civil rights issues addressing racial inequalities:

What The Media Says:

The Boston Globe on McCain (Registration required): He joined the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at the invitation of Bill Richardson, a New Mexico Democrat, and created his own Hispanic Advisory Committee, in part to help recruit Latinos into his office.

McCain took charge of the House Republican Task Force on Indian Affairs and accepted a seat on an Indian Affairs subcommittee because, he has said, “nobody else wanted it.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer on McCain: In 11 grading periods since he began serving in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1983 and the Senate in 1987, McCain has earned an F for every period, according to an annual report by the NAACP.

MSNBC on Obama: His approach is five-pronged: (1) rid the Department of Justice of “political cronies” and instead staff the civil rights division with qualified attorneys; (2) create a voting rights division within the DOJ to track and prosecute voter fraud and intimidation; (3) recruit more qualified public defenders by providing college and law school loan compensation as incentives for new attorneys; (4) close the disparity between punishment for crack-cocaine and powder cocaine; and (5) review mandatory minimums, offering first-time, non-violent drug offenders the chance to serve their sentence in rehab instead of jail, when appropriate.

New York Times on Obama: It can be an awkward discussion for Obama supporters who argue that the success of the candidate — the man who might become America’s first black president — might make it somewhat more difficult to advance an ambitious public policy agenda that helps blacks. Some of Mr. Obama’s black supporters say that Mr. Obama himself, by rarely focusing on racial discrimination and urban poverty while campaigning, has often fueled the notion that the nation has transcended race.

Voting Records in the U.S. Senate:
John McCain
Barack Obama

There are, of course, hundreds of articles out there about the candidates’ stances on civil rights. I’ve linked you to just a few and encourage you to read each of the articles in their entirety to get a full picture of the candidates’ ideas.

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