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Not blaming anyone at all. Simply pointing out that Republicans used to believe that labor unions were integral to the success of American industry and solving disputes with management without involving the government.
Whereas today's GOP wants to pass a national "right-to-work" law and repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. (Davis and Bacon were both Republicans, BTW.)
The Sixties and the civil-rights movement happened, and the backlash eventually inspired millions of evangelical Christians, who had previously abstained from politics, to become enthusuastic participants. Result: Reaganism, neoconservatism, and the complete takeover of the party by a toxic alliance of plutocrats and theocrats. The Tea Party is much more than a reaction to the election of Barack Obama -- it's just the most recent symptom of a very long illness.
I was only seven years old in 1956, but my Dad was sufficiently politically-aware that he allowed mt to stay up for a while to watch the lection returns. What I can remember from those years was that you didn't question some form of Judeo-Christian belief as central to the American way of life. That might not have been the case in the handful of "countercultural" neghborhoods, but those numbers were very samll.
To illustrate, even as late as the mid-Sixties, you couldn't turn on your radio on a Sunday morning without encopuntering a church service, generally mainstream Protestant. There was a lot of evangelizing, but it wasn't structured to demonize those who didn't agree.
There was still a fair amount of suspicion between Protestant and Catholic, which had probably been aggravated by the rhetoric of people like Gerald L K Smith and Father Charles Coughlin years before. One of the major networks addressed this by broadcasting a Caholic Archbishop named Fulton Sheen, who could address his subject matter in a manner that put anyone with a claim to the right to think at ease.
No one thought of issues like abortion, euthanasia or gay lib in those times. For better or worse, issues like that aroused the resentment of people who had never kown another standard, and if that was what it took to stop the growth of what would have shorn the natural rebelliousness from this society and turned us into something like rotted Europe, so be it!
Everything is in flux now, but I believe we posses both the diversity and the common sense to separate the grain from the chaff and find our own answers, We don't need help from either extreme, and the stuff pitched by some of the Resident Lefties here is as intolerat as anything Jerry Falwell or Rick Santorum ever dreamed up.
To illustrate, even as late as the mid-Sixties, you couldn't turn on your radio on a Sunday morning without encopuntering a church service, generally mainstream Protestant. There was a lot of evangelizing, but it wasn't structured to demonize those who didn't agree.
... and it certainly didn't carry an overtly political message, which is precisely my point.
Nowadays you can't turn on your radio or TV on a Sunday morning (or any other time of the week) without encountering ultra-right-wing political propaganda with religious undertones.
The Republican Party Platform of 1956 is a fascinating document to read through as it shows how political parties can drastically change over time. Reading it you'll notice stances that are to the left of the modern Democratic Party and is anathema to the modern GOP, especially in light of the platform adopted in Tampa last week.
Some of the Republican stances from 1956: "We shall continue vigorously to support the United Nations."
"Continuance of the vigorous SEC policies which are providing maximum protection to the investor and maximum opportunity for the financing of small business without costly red tape."
"The record of performance of the Republican Administration on behalf of our working men and women goes still further. The Federal minimum wage has been raised for more than 2 million workers. Social Security has been extended to an additional 10 million workers and the benefits raised for 6 1/2 million."
"All workers have gained and unions have grown in strength and responsibility, and have increased their membership by 2 millions."
"Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;"
"We recommend to Congress the submission of a constitutional amendment providing equal rights for men and women."
"We shall continue to seek extension and perfection of a sound social security system."
There are many, many more extolling the virtues of good governance, protecting the environment, broadening workers rights, enforcing financial regulation and all sorts of other ideas that will get you labeled a socialist around here. So what happened to the GOP? Is there a disdain of Eisenhower within the party, or is there a collective loss of memory on what the GOP used to stand for?
Quote:
"There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with the loss of money or votes or both.
I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate.
I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism."
-Senator Barry Goldwater
Forget Ike, whatever happened to the Goldwater GOP?
The Republican Party Platform of 1956 is a fascinating document to read through as it shows how political parties can drastically change over time. Reading it you'll notice stances that are to the left of the modern Democratic Party and is anathema to the modern GOP, especially in light of the platform adopted in Tampa last week.
Some of the Republican stances from 1956: "We shall continue vigorously to support the United Nations."
"Continuance of the vigorous SEC policies which are providing maximum protection to the investor and maximum opportunity for the financing of small business without costly red tape."
"The record of performance of the Republican Administration on behalf of our working men and women goes still further. The Federal minimum wage has been raised for more than 2 million workers. Social Security has been extended to an additional 10 million workers and the benefits raised for 6 1/2 million."
"All workers have gained and unions have grown in strength and responsibility, and have increased their membership by 2 millions."
"Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;"
"We recommend to Congress the submission of a constitutional amendment providing equal rights for men and women."
"We shall continue to seek extension and perfection of a sound social security system."
There are many, many more extolling the virtues of good governance, protecting the environment, broadening workers rights, enforcing financial regulation and all sorts of other ideas that will get you labeled a socialist around here. So what happened to the GOP? Is there a disdain of Eisenhower within the party, or is there a collective loss of memory on what the GOP used to stand for?
In 1956 the party of the Jim Crow South, Bible belt and hayseeds (aka the Red states) was the Democratic Party. The party of the industrial Midwest, New England, the Left Coast and East Coast was the GOP (Blue States). So it is a better question t ask why did both parties change their spots.?
In 1956 the party of the Jim Crow South, Bible belt and hayseeds (aka the Red states) was the Democratic Party. The party of the industrial Midwest, New England, the Left Coast and East Coast was the GOP (Blue States). So it is a better question t ask why did both parties change their spots.?
The Civil Rights movement triggered the realignment. You could just watch the trajectory of Strom Thurmond's career to see how it went.
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