General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A question for older DUers and those who study history: Were repubicans always this nuts? [View all]brush
(53,764 posts)LBJ, believe it or not, had a lot to do with how the repug party is now constituted. In 1964 he ordered the seating of Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Democratic Party, an African American, pro-civil rights group, at the Democratic National Convention to the dismay and huge disagreement of the Southern Dixiecrats. He remarked at the time that he had probably just given away the solid south but he did the right thing. Those dixiecrats joined the Republican party and brought with them their antipathy towards blacks and blacks voting. This feeling is still being echoed in today's repug effort to suppress the urban vote in as many ways as possible. And of course the repugs have huge issues with women, Latinos, passing jobs bills, and on and on. So no, they haven't always been crazy, but they definitely are now.