from the Republican Party Platform of 1956 - something to share with your GOP friends-

[Douglas Carpenter]

and from the same year:



and some words from the Republican President of that time:

."Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

― Dwight D. Eisenhower

[Rider3]

1. So what happened?

How could a party change so much and for the worse? These values represented above are what I support. Today's Republicans are not anything like this. How sad.

[toddwv]

5. Trickle-down economics coupled with global corporatism.

The fat cats decided it was better that a few rake in more money than everyone having a chance to prosper.

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. Nixon's "southern strategy". The 1968 George Wallace campaign proved that there was a market for

right-wing working class populism. Up until then and prior to the social upheaval of the 1960's the Democrats pretty much held a monopoly on working class populism. The "southern strategy" was also a social conservative strategy that appealed to those in both North in South who were resentful against liberal support forhuman rights for African Americans as well as liberal identity with the more libertine forces taking place in all the social upheaval of the 1960's. The racial and social reactionaries found a welcoming home in a Republican Party which was adopting a strategy of appealing to them. Originally this was primarily an issue of strategy. But as time has gone by and corresponding with the failed Goldwater campaign of 1964 which did unite reactionaries together and created the Reagan movement. In the late 70's right-wing strategist within the GOP met with and formed an alliance with right leaning white Evangelical Christians appealing to their sense of post 60s alienation At the same time the NRA found that it could flex its muscles by throwing in their support for the GOP. These factions uniting with Southern strategy pretty much created the new Republican Party. There were still moderates and a handful of liberals left in the GOP - but in time they recognized that they were not longer wanted. The rise of Newt Gingrich signaled a new era where the lunatics finally took over the insane asylum.

[pampango]

15. And Nixon's 'southern strategy' originated in the Civil Rights Act which LBJ acknowledged

would cost the Democratic Party the South. It is perhaps not too surprising that such historic and liberal legislation would have the consequence of providing conservatives with a solid geographic base that they had lacked before.

When the South was largely Democratic, republicans had to compete for votes in the rest of the country which was relatively moderate or liberal which meant their platform had to reflect this for them to have chance to win elections. At this time the Democratic party was a mix of Southern conservatives and liberals/moderates from the rest of the country (an oversimplification, I know), but the latter group was larger. This combination produced a Democratic party that was mixed but largely moderate to liberal and a republican party that was relatively moderate, too.

Once the South flipped to being a base for republicans, national politics was ripe for Wallace's appeal to "right-wing working class populism" (a curse still with us today) and Nixon's 'southern strategy' (since used by every republican presidential candidiate).

The racial and social reactionaries found a welcoming home in a Republican Party which was adopting a strategy of appealing to them. Originally this was primarily an issue of strategy. But as time has gone by and corresponding with the failed Goldwater campaign of 1964 which did unite reactionaries together and created the Reagan movement. In the late 70's right-wing strategist within the GOP met with and formed an alliance with right leaning white Evangelical Christians appealing to their sense of post 60s alienation At the same time the NRA found that it could flex its muscles by throwing in their support for the GOP. These factions uniting with Southern strategy pretty much created the new Republican Party.

Excellent analysis. Thanks, Douglas Carpenter.

[another_liberal]

2. That was the Republican Party then.

They Republican Party now thinks unions, all unions, are Communistic and anti-American, they are the dependable champions of "Right to Work" (read as right to work for Less) laws in every State, they promote unrestrained "Free Trade" treaties which allow fatcat financiers to ship our jobs to third world countries and their last Presidential candidate made his fortune buying up troubled American companies to sell them off lock-stock-and-barrel to China and India.

And the Republicans claim that evolution is just an unproven theory?

[Bandit]

9. There were voices in the Republican Party that thought Ike was a Communist

Especially the John Birchers and they were humiliated at the time for their backward beliefs, but now the John Birchers have completely taken over the Party.

[another_liberal]

17. You are quite right . . .

You are quite right. The Birchers would be squarely in the Republican main stream today. I guess one could say they were just born too soon. (sigh)

[MadHound]

3. What was once the Republican platform is now the Democratic platform,

Just goes to show you how far to the right both the 'Pugs and Dems have moved. And a sad statement on our current political climate as well.

[JHB]

4. Another item from that era, the tax brackets

The image below shows the 1955 tax brackets, adjusted for inflation to 2011 dollars. Even more than the actual tax rates (reduced a few years later during the Kennedy admin), look at where the brackets fell:

For a married couple filing jointly, there were 24 brackets (compared to 6 in 2012):
16 of them (two-thirds of the total) affected incomes above the equivalent of $250,000 income (taxable income, not gross);
11 of those affected incomes over the equivalent of $500,000.
The top rate kicked in on (taxable) income over ~$3.4 million.

Just a reminder of what was in effect here in the non-socialist Free World during the height of the Cold War, to put in perspective the wailing claims about "socialism" these days.

[another_liberal]

18. If these were . . .

If these were the tax brackets today, there would be no deficit; furthermore, the national debt would never have mushroomed into the size it has, and there would be no need to call for sacrificing the old, the young and the poor to austerity schemes.

[JHB]

19. Keep in mind that Romeny's father was in or near the top brackets for the 12 years...

...for which he released tax information in 1968. The rates were changed during the Kennedy administration (typically, there were cuts across all incomes, but the top rates had a chain saw taken to them), so roughly half the time with a top rate of 91% and half with 70%. Even with those high rates and top-heavy bracket structure, his effective tax rate over those 12 years was just under 37%. Obviously there were ways to reduce the taxable income (the infamous "loopholes" that get closed, only to quietly return).

Also, rates that high have other effects that can cause problems (it's part of what helped the Republicans stoke "anti-tax fever&quot .

The point is, one doesn't have to advocate these rates to use them to point out how far "the center" has been pushed to the right, and to point out that it's conservatives who are engaging in demagogery, ignorance, and outright shrieking hysterics when they go on about "socialism". Going by their present definitions, they grew up in a "communist" country.

[reformist2]

6. The GOP is naturally pro-business. The Great Depression kept them restrained for 50 years.

Call it shame, call it embarrassment - the GOP was in full blown retreat after that disaster that they caused.

Only when the memory of the Great Depression began to fade away did pro-business, laissez-faire policies begin to make a comeback.

[slackmaster]

7. I love reading old GOP platforms. Their transition to the Dark Side began in earnest in 1976.

By 1980 it was complete.

[Bake]

10. Eisenhower was the last decent Republican.

The rest of them, ever since, are just garbage. Greedy effin' garbage.

Bake

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. I'll give this a kick

[colsohlibgal]

12. The Whole Left/Right Baseline has moved hard right

In general the democrats have become the old republicans, the republicans have moved to Ayn Randville.

There are outliers like Elizabeth Warren, Alan Grayson, Maxine Waters, and a few others but the Dem party apparatus is mostly well to the right of Eisenhower and even Nixon on a lot of issues. Obama would have been a semi moderate republican pre Reagan.

The damage caused by all the distortions, fiction, and outright lying by Fox News, Limbaugh and others is going to be hard to sufficiently undo anytime soon.

I was behind a van today that had a 3 part horizontal sign on his back end, top to bottom it was "TRAITOR/Obama/ stupid people shouldn't be allowed to vote". This person has been brainwashed to think we're dumb when he/she ought to look into the mirror.

Again, if someone came up with a pill that made it impossible for someone to vote against their own self interest republicans and non liberal dems would quickly be relics of the past.

[sad-cafe]

13. wow

so much has changed

[onethatcares]

14. I was listening to the dvd "Heist"

on our local listener supported radio station yesterday (plug--WMNF.org) and was sickened by how fast the corporations were able to
mobilize against we the people and workers starting in 1971.

You all might want to watch this dvd.

[steve2470]

16. k&r nt