Conservatives are RINOs? That's a bit of a revisionist view, to put it mildly. Conservatives are the ones who habitually accuse any Republicans who don't subscribe to a lengthening list of right-wing positions of being "Republicans in Name Only." If a Republican doesn't sign Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge, or oppose abortion under all circumstances, or claim that evolution is a myth and global warming a hoax, he or she likely will be tagged as a RINO, or worse yet as a moderate.
But a different view of Republicanism emerges from my new book, "Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party" [Oxford University Press, $29.95]. From the time of its founding in 1854 and for most of its history, the Grand Old Party - GOP for short - was an ideologically diverse party, which included moderates and even some progressives. Though the Republican Party identified itself as the party of small government, it nonetheless laid the groundwork for modern society through such active-government achievements as abolishing slavery, opening up Western public lands for homesteaders, chartering the first transcontinental railroad, and passing the first conservation legislation. The Democratic Party, though it was usually considered the more "liberal" party, derived much of its political strength from its monopoly of the racially segregated South, and Southern Democrats were the most conservative element in Congress.
Starting in the 1960s, Southern populists and their conservative allies began to take over the Republican Party. But it was only in the last decade that conservatives finally succeeded in repelling or expelling moderates from the party they once dominated. In the past, ideological issues used to be debated within both parties as well as between them. Today, for the first time, the most "liberal" Republican in Congress is politically to the right of the most "conservative" Democrat, and the parties give every indication that they will draw even farther apart in the future. In the course of this transformation, the GOP has become a wholly ideological party unlike any that has ever existed in American history, and the country's political system is coming ever closer to a breakdown.
Conservatives now have little in common with the principles and attitudes that the Republican Party used to stand for, which explains why few Republicans express loyalty toward former GOP heroes such as Dwight Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Even Ronald Reagan would be unable to pass all of the litmus tests that conservatives lately have set up to determine who's a "real" Republican. This list of changes that have taken place in the GOP over the past few decades suggests that it may actually be today's conservatives who have diverged from the real meaning of Republicanism.
Jon-Christopher Bua: The Grand Old Party In Crisis
The far-right is a Frankenstein monster that the Republican party created. And now it has escaped their control and is running amok. Republican candidates can't win *without* the support of the far-right. And now many of them can't win *with* the support of the far-right, because they have grown so extreme that they scare away swing voters, who Republican presidential candidates *also* can't win without.
Decades ago the Republican party made a deal with the devil. They started using extreme and hateful propaganda directed at the far-right---the targets of their propaganda. And today the farthest of the far-right are the religious-right. The far-right and the religious-right are virtually synonymous now. And now Republicans are forced to live with the consequences of that deal. It's too late for them to reverse course and remain a viable party. Smart Republicans should start thinking of abandoning their party ship, and very soon.
If the thought of joining the Democratic party is a pill that's too bitter to swallow, then maybe they should beat the rush and join the Reform Party. It's better than being left out in the cold on election day.
because it was pro worker.
"With the disappearance of moderates from the GOP, and the belief of many Tea Party conservatives that they can achieve their goals through unbending refusal to negotiate or compromise with Democrats, America may prove unable to cope with the massive challenges that confront it, no matter who wins the presidency in 2012."
I could not agree more with that and have been saying as much. I feel this very thing, that we cannot resolve extremely pressing problems at this critical time, is the greatest danger to our nation. Any greater influence of this radical GOP intractability will absolutely bring us crashing down in a very short time.
We can no longer risk having any more of these people in our government at any position.
Insightful statement only because I've been saying this since the '80's.
The GOP went looking for Southern populists and their conservative allies.
If he were still alive, the extremists in the GOP would be burning Reagan in effigy for not being extreme enough.
The democratic party is the party of Jefferson and Jackson. Jefferson was always for small government and the democratic-republicans of his day formed in opposition to the federalists who were for a strong federal government. Republicans rose from the liberal wing of the Whig party. They were socially liberal. They sought the abolition of slavery and eventually evolved into the party of big business and the wealthy. (Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive among republicans) The democratic party evolved into a socially conservative party based largely in the South. They were pro-slavery and later segregationists.
Transformation in this party branding began during the New Deal. The New Deal democrats under FDR became champions for the poor and more socially liberal. Republicans continued to represent the interests of big business and the wealthy. The democrats started losing their southern base under Truman (Southern democrats under Strom Thurmond walked out on the party in 1948 largely over desegregation). The fissure was more apparent 20 years later in 1968 when Wallace ran a third-party campaign. Nixon followed up with his Southern strategy and the old conservative Southern democrats have been bed fellows with republicans ever since.
As GOP governor of California in the 1940s, Earl Warren almost got universal health care enacted here. He was a competitor of IKE's for the GOP presidential nomination in 1952, and he was popular nation-wide. One of the reasons given for IKE nominating him to the US Supreme Court was so that Gov. Warren could not compete against IKE in the 1956 primaries. I was around back then (I helped stuff and stamp envelopes for Adlai Stevenson), and I remember quite vividly the many signs of hatred directed toward Justice Warren and IKE by the Right-wingers, who in those days were working hard to preserve the Jim Crow laws, and to keep African Americans from getting the vote and other civil rights. Remember, it was IKE who first pushed for desegregation of public schools.
The Right-wing conspiracy nuts have shifted from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, as part of Nixon's Southern Strategy. Our nation is worse off because of that shift. At least when the extremists were in the Democratic Party they weren't able to chase everyone else out.
Care to comment on the Progress of the Democrats ?
Hmmm