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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA 1956 Young Republicans poster:
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How times have changed....
From the DailyKos.com:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/06/1167701/-Once-upon-a-time-in-1956-there-were-Republicans-who-supported-unions-and-Social-Security#
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DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Could the Republicans sue for copyright?
think
(11,641 posts)Still, the style and substance looks like the kind of posters might be the kind of thing the Democrats might consider creating and using this election year. I'm speaking of a completely different poster but with a similar message.
Promoting safe secure well paying jobs shouldn't be a divisive issue for either party but apparently the current Republican leadership thinks it is.....
WhaTHellsgoingonhere
(5,252 posts)since the Dems looked more like Republicans at one time, too.
mountain grammy
(26,619 posts)under Hoover and during the Depression. During the 50's they respected Eisenhower and appreciated his contributions as president, but, my Mom always said, Joe McCarthy is the real GOP and he may be censured, but there's a whole bunch of them out there.
JohnnyRingo
(18,628 posts)Apparently, your folks shared the political tenets I grew up with. My parents too grew up during the great depression and became lifelong union democrats. Some would call them Kennedy Dems.
I remember coming home from grade school one day in the late '50s and mentioning that we studied about Hoover Dam that day. My mother stopped me right there and corrected me: "That's Boulder Dam" she said. She would eventually explain to my young self why republicans are the sworn enemy of the working class.
Given that home style education of the era, I suspect this poster is another example of republicans taking credit for what democrats accomplished, while actively working behind the scenes to undermine hard working union families.
I guess not much has changed in the last 50 years except the names. They even still sport the same greasy haircuts.
mountain grammy
(26,619 posts)Until then, my folks just didn't see the need for the expense. But we could sure eat beans for a few weeks to watch the Congress take on Joe McCarthy. Ted Cruz is just a McCarthy clone.
I also got the Boulder Dam lecture. I think my mom actually called my teacher.
JohnnyRingo
(18,628 posts)I was going to read your reply and let it go, assuming we're singing from the same choir, but I had to literally laugh out loud when you mentioned that your mother may have called the school. That's a great Boomer story!
My mom didn't call them, but I think she wanted me to go and inform the teacher. I'm still carrying the torch though, and I pass the Boulder Dam meme down to my grandkids as a means to reinforce the point that republicans work tirelessly against their better interests.
We're living proof that they're never too young to become aware of how politics directly affects their lives.
Thanx for sharing.
LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)From a recent British article:
'I put it to X that monetarism had worked and that Mrs Thatcher’s tough medicine had saved the economy. He refuses to accept this. ''It destroyed British industry. The whole of the West Midlands was wiped out and has never recovered.’’ '
Who is X? Ed Miliband? No. Gordon Brown? No. Tony Blair? Certainly not!
It is actually Sir Peter Tapsell, our longest-serving Tory MP, who has been in the House of Commons since 1959 (some years before Cameron was born!) and is now retiring.
Of course, he should have done something about this long ago - though he did vote against the 1981 budget.
In the same interview, he describes himself as a 'Keynesian' - something no modern Tory would dream of saying.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10714396/Sir-Peter-Tapsell-My-biggest-mistake-in-politics-was-to-listen-to-Mrs-Thatcher.html
Times have changed. We had the 'Postwar consensus'; sounds like you had something somewhat similar.
Loudly
(2,436 posts)
TBF
(32,056 posts)we had a strong socialist movement. That influenced how democrats and republicans had to deal with labor - ie they had to actually show some respect. Then McCarthy drove leftists out of the country (with an early assist from Palmer). The rest is history ...
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)Some gems:
We shall continue vigorously to support the United Nations.
We have balanced the budget. We believe and will continue to prove that thrift, prudence and a sensible respect for living within income applies as surely to the management of our Government's budget as it does to the family budget. (I believe this was last time a Republican balanced the budget).
America does not prosper unless all Americans prosper.
Government must have a heart as well as a head.
Further reductions in taxes with particular consideration for low and middle income families. (The top tax bracket at this time was 92%)
The Republican Party has as a primary concern the continued advancement of the well-being of the individual. This can be attained only in an economy that, as today, is sound, free and creative, ever building new wealth and new jobs for all the people.
To meet the immense demands of our expanding economy, we have initiated the largest highway, air and maritime programs in history, each soundly financed.
We favor adequate funds and expeditious action in improving air safety, and highest efficiency in the control of air traffic.
We stand for forward-looking programs, created to replace our war-built merchant fleet with the most advanced types in design, with increased speed. (The U.S. merchant fleet is pretty much a joke these days)
Beginning with our creation of the very successful Small Business Administration, and continuing through the recently completed studies and recommendations of the Cabinet Committee on Small Business, which we strongly endorse, we have focused our attention on positive measures to help small businesses get started and grow.
Small Business can look forward to expanded participation in federal procurement—valuable financing and technical aids—a continuously vigorous enforcement of anti-trust laws—important cuts in the burdens of paper work, and certain tax reductions as budgetary requirements permit. (This would be the same SBA the GOP has gutted and wants to get rid of these days).
We favor loans at reasonable rates of interest to small businesses which have records of permanency but who are in temporary need and which are unable to obtain credit in commercial channels.
The Eisenhower Administration has brought to our people the highest employment, the highest wages and the highest standard of living ever enjoyed by any nation. (Probably the last Republican who could claim this).
In addition, the Eisenhower Administration has enforced more vigorously and effectively than ever before, the laws which protect the working standards of our people.
Workers have benefited by the progress which has been made in carrying out the programs and principles set forth in the 1952 Republican platform. All workers have gained and unions have grown in strength and responsibility, and have increased their membership by 2 millions.
Furthermore, the process of free collective bargaining has been strengthened by the insistence of this Administration that labor and management settle their differences at the bargaining table without the intervention of the Government. This policy has brought to our country an unprecedented period of labor-management peace and understanding.
We applaud the effective, unhindered, collective bargaining which brought an early end to the 1956 steel strike...
Continue and further perfect its programs of assistance to the millions of workers with special employment problems, such as older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups, and migratory workers;
Strengthen and improve the Federal-State Employment Service and improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system;
Protect by law, the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits;
And the hits just keep on coming...
Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;
Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts;
Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable;
Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex;
Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment;
And the hits keep on coming. Read through to find your favorite.
packman
(16,296 posts)and in their face - if the Dems used that platform today word for word (except for obvious dated items). It would drive them bat-shit crazy .
joshcryer
(62,270 posts)think
(11,641 posts)Wish Republicans would revisit this era they speak so fondly of.
The vulture capitalism they currently represent is a far cry from those goals and creeds......
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)Ask a conservative (especially those of a certain age) "If I could wave a magic wand and make everything like it was under Eisenhower, would you like that?"
When they say yes, hand them that manifesto, along with this:
http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/fed_individual_rate_history_nominal.pdf
(You need to cull out all the sheets except the 50's, though you could keep Reagan years in their for giggles).
Under Eisenhower the top tax rate was 91% for ALL income over $400.000
It was 77% by the end of the first Kennedy term
By the end of LBJ's term it was 70% of income over $200,000
It was pretty much unchanged under Nixon and Ford.
Under Carter it was 70% of income over $215,000
Under most of Reagan's term it was 50%, but the income bracket varied from $85,000 to $175,000 making apples to apples comparisons harder. His last year though, it dropped to 28% for incomes above $29,750, which blew the deficit sky high.
This led to Bush Sr. raising it to 39.6% on income over $250,000 by the end of his term.
It was 39.1% on income over $297,000 at the end of Clinton.
35% on income over $373,000 at the end of Bush the Lesser.
And 39.6% on income over $450,000 today.
One of these days I am going to have to create a chart that looks at inflation adjusted incomes and the tax burden since that introduces a more nuanced argument, but this should hold your average tea party nut with 3rd Grade math skills.
calimary
(81,222 posts)
NYC Liberal
(20,135 posts)I remember listening to the radio on election night in 1946. Joseph Martin, the Republican Speaker of the House, said very solemnly, and I quote,
"We Republicans intend to work for a real increase in income for everybody by encouraging more production and lower prices without impairing wages or working conditions", unquote.
Remember that promise: a real increase in income for everybody. But what actually happened?
The profits of corporations have doubled, while workers' wages have increased by only one-quarter. In other words, profits have gone up four times as much as wages, and the small increase workers did receive was more than eaten up by rising prices, which have also bored into their savings.
Tax-reduction bills have been passed to benefit the higher-income brackets alone. The average worker saved only $1.73 a week. In the false name of economy, millions of children have been deprived of milk once provided through the federal school lunch program. This was the payoff of the Republicans' promises. And this is why we must have new faces in the Congress of the United States: Democratic faces.
bullwinkle428
(20,629 posts)
K&R.
niyad
(113,279 posts)
erpowers
(9,350 posts)That is so surprising it makes me want to ask if it is actually real. Yes, the Republican Party had made some major policy changes since that poster came out.
think
(11,641 posts)as posted by another DU member:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024741857#post7
Yes, I saw it. Another thing that makes it surprising to see how that party has changed. Back then they supported equal pay for equal work and boasted about the great job President Eisenhower had done to support labor. The policies changes they went through is just amazing.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)They not only have their own platform to work on, but the traditional Republicans' too!
happyslug
(14,779 posts)William Jennings Bryan, Democratic Candidate in 1896, 1900 and 1908, was noted as the greatest speech maker of his day. In 1905 in Composed a list of Greatest Speeches of all time. Seven chapters consist of Speeches made out side of the US (Including speeches made in Ancient Rome and Greece). The last three chapters are American Speeches, Pre 1837, 1818-1865 and 1861 till 1905 when he composed his book. He picked his dates to keep certain orators speeches together, for example six of Lincoln's speeches are in the 1818-1865 Chapter.
He gives seven speeches of Abraham Lincoln in Chapter IX, but in the X chapter he has this speech by Grant:
I am a Republican, as the two great political parties are now divided, because the Republican party is a national party seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens. There is not a precinct in this vast nation where a Democrat can not cast his ballot and have it counted as cast. No matter what the prominence of the opposite party, he can proclaim his political opinions, even if he is only one among a thousand, without fear and without proscription on account of his opinions. There are fourteen States, and localities in some other States, where Republicans have not this privilege. This is one reason why I am a Republican.
But I am a Republican for many other reasons. The Republican party assures protection to life and property, the public credit, and the payment of the debts of the government, State, county, or municipality, so far as it can control. The Democratic party does not promise this; if it does, it has broken its promises to the extent of hundreds of millions, as many Northern Democrats can testify to their sorrow. I am a Republican, as between the existing parties, because it fosters the production of the field and farm, and of manufactories, and it encourages the general education of the poor as well as the rich.
The Democratic party discourages all these when in absolute power. The Republican party is a party of progress, and of liberty toward its opponents. It encourages the poor to strive to better their children, to enable them to compete successfully with their more fortunate associates, and, in fine, it secures an entire equality before the law of every citizen, no matter what his race, nationality, or previous condition. It tolerates no privileged class. Every one has the opportunity to make himself all he is capable of.
Ladies and gentlemen, do you believe this can be truthfully said in the greater part of fourteen of the States of this Union to-day which the Democratic party control absolutely? The Republican party is a party of principles; the same principles prevailing wherever it has a foothold.
The Democratic party is united in but one thing, and that is in getting control of the government in all its branches. It is for internal improvement at the expense of the government in one section and against this in another. It favors repudiation of solemn obligations in one section and honest payment of its debts in another, where public opinion will not tolerate any other view. It favors fiat money in one place and good money in another. Finally, it favors the pooling of all issues not favored by the Republicans, to the end that it may secure the one principle upon which the party is a most harmonious unit—namely, getting control of the government in all its branches.
I have been in some part of every State lately in rebellion within the last year. I was most hospitably received at every place where I stopped. My receptions were not by the Union class alone, but by all classes, without distinction. I had a free talk with many who were against me in war, and who have been against the Republican party ever since. They were, in all instances, reasonable men, judging by what they said. I believed then, and believe now, that they sincerely want a break-up in this “Solid South” political condition. They see that it is to their pecuniary interest, as well as to their happiness, that there should be harmony and confidence between all sections. They want to break away from the slavery which binds them to a party name. They want a pretext that enough of them can unite upon to make it respectable. Once started, the Solid South will go as Kukluxism did before, as is so admirably told by Judge Tourgee in his “Fool’s Errand.” When the break comes, those who start it will be astonished to find how many of their friends have been in favor of it for a long time, and have only been waiting to see some one take the lead. This desirable solution can only be attained by the defeat, and continued defeat, of the Democratic party as now constituted.
http://www.bartleby.com/268/10/13.html
Tikki
(14,557 posts)Then came reagan and 'greed is good' and many Americans started looking for the way they could join
the greed train and in many churches and institutions they preached this.
Now if I post the phrase "hard-working American" on a generic bulletin board, I am often accused of
being a socialist, a job destroyer and the most confusing reply .."What is that supposed to mean?"
Tikki
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)
Cha
(297,184 posts)Your fucking answer right here..
napkinz
(17,199 posts)
Exposethefrauds
(531 posts)Interesting read
If one is interested in history although many of us lived it.