When did the Republicans become hateful?

[coloradodem2005]

I am guessing it started with Nixon and hit it's full fruition under Reagan.

[King of New Orleans]

1. 1876

eom

[coloradodem2005]

4. I thought TR and Ike were not so bad.

[Sugarbleus]

That sounds about right, although there were a few leaders

in history that were rather nasty... but the culmination of the "kick ass" republican attitude did seem to take off under the leaders you mention. Oy.

[sandnsea]

2. Rush Limbaugh

Before Rush they were mostly selfish and kept their hatred to themselves. After Rush it was open season.

[mhr]

3. Two Factors - Civil Rights Movement, Meritocracy In Society

White southern males lost a lot of perceived prestige when civil rights legislation took away there whipping boys and girls. The perceived loss of power is an extreme motivator of both good and bad behavior.

Secondly, when the society tried to promote meritocracy many were left without the prestige they once had as minorities of all stripes started assuming positions of authority.

The republicans have played on both events to energize a disenfranchised social and economic base.

To implement the policy of hate, the Republicans turned to agitators like Rush.

------
Never Forget The Face Of American Fascism'THIS IS NO DIFFERENT THAN WHAT HAPPENS AT THE SKULL & BONES INITIATION...I'M TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE HAVING A GOOD TIME. THESE PEOPLE -- YOU EVER HEARD OF EMOTIONAL RELEASE? YOU EVER HEARD OF NEEDING TO BLOW SOME STEAM OFF?'

[VolcanoJen]

In modern terms, during the 1988 Presidential Election.

When Lee Atwater was at his highest form of political genius, Democrats watched, stunned and in silence, as Dukakis was smeared with Willie Horton, the Pledge of Allegiance and the prospects of Kitty Dukakis being raped one day.

It was an ugly, disgusting campaign, and we haven't seen one like it since. For my money, it's as hard as it ever got.

I have a feeling I'm a Girl Scout, compared to how bad 2004 is going to get...

[blackcat77]

5. The 80s, under the tutelege of Lee Atwater... eom

[DieboldMustDie]

6. Nixon and Agnew, definitely!

But it's much worse now.

[Nay]

18. Yep, it started with Agnew.

All the right wingers loved his term "nattering nabobs of negativism" as used against the Democrats. It started getting ugly then, especially after Ohio State. I know from experience that all college kids felt like they had bullseyes on their foreheads.

[LearnedHand]

7. I was JUST reading this article this evening

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0406.glastris.html

"Perverse Polarity: The mainstream media bemoans the lack of civility in Washington--but won't say who's responsible."

By Paul Glastris

<snip>

"While partisanship may now be deeply entrenched among their voters and their elites, the truth is that the growing polarization of American politics results primarily from the growing radicalism of the Republican Party."

<snip>

[JohnnyRingo]

8. I think Newt Gingrich proudly created a turning point

...I always thought that was where "neo con" came from.
Agressive, win at all costs, just fill the seats with republicans was his motto.

[bossfish]

10. Newt...or before..

this generation are the poisoned seed of St Reagan.

[Fovea]

9. Look farther back

To Roy Cohn, to Joe Mc Carthy and the other red baiters.
The communists worked for the Republican two minutes hate until the Reagan era.

There was an infusion of race based hatred with the Nixon southern strategy. Though some of that goes back to the West coast Republicans and the anti zoot suit thugs. That is where Harry Anslinger discovered the drug card in marijuana.

Since the great depression, the Republican party has been characterized by xenophobic baiting of various others. Remember Willie Horton? Remember Welfare Queens? Remember the phrase, 'roving gangs of negro youths' from civil rights protests? Remember the allegations in Rhenquist's senate confirmation hearings that he had been a poll 'literacy test' enforcer in Arizona? Remember Bush mocking the condemned woman in Texas? Remember the attack on Anita Hill? Remember the canuk letter? Trent Butt, Newt Grinch, Grover Norplant?

When did it start? Probably the gilded age. When will it end? When we make it end.

[JohnnyRingo]

13. Good point....

any one of them is at least as notorious as "Newty"

Perhaps it streches back as far as mental illness itself.

[bullimiami]

11. Civil Rights and the 60s

This is the backlash from the jealous, hateful, racist crowd. The southern part which used to be dixiecrats. All of the bigots found their refuge in the Repug party.

[leftofthedial]

12. truly hateful

started during the Nixon administration and flowered when Reagan ran in 1980.

[necso]

14. The party as a whole became hateful in 1991.

This is when the "new conservatives" effectively took total control of the republican party and turned on their own sitting president, because he lacked "core conviction".

Being hateful and acting hatefully are twin hallmarks of the "new conservatives". Together with their arrogance, intolerance, ignorance, willful blindness, naivete, pettiness, venality, hypocrisy, brutality, ruthlessness, relentlessness and spite, their hatefulness makes a toxic brew unlike anything that the republican party as a whole has ever demonstrated. (Their mastery of marketing techniques and tools must also be conceded.) Sure there are been plenty of bad actors and groups of actors in the republican party in the past. But before the "new conservatives" took over, it is was never required that a "good" republican had to approve, support and glorify "bad acting". The new conservatives do not merely suppress dissent, they enforce their own "code" of hateful behavior on the entire party.

This is new. This is different. This is ugly and hateful... and this is something that must be recognized and reacted to for what it is.

[iamtechus]

15. It seems to come naturally

When I was a mere toddler (in the 40's), my little playmate next door was the son of a republican state rep. The kid was sneaky and hateful and he stole my toys. He lied about it and his hateful father always stood behind him. The only way I could get the toys back was to steal them!

The kid grew up and became a republican state rep like his hateful, lying father. That's how I learned to stay away from republicans. I guess I'm lucky to have had such wonderful learning opportunities.

[VolcanoJen]

16. Cool story! I've always considered myself a "Reagan Democrat"

Not in the traditional sense, mind you... I didn't know I was a Democrat until I watched Reagan at work. He turned me into a hard-core Dem, even after I wasted my first, youthful vote on him. :D

A blessing in disguise, I think that's what they call it.

[fishface]

17. When their mothers quit breast feeding them on their 10th birthday.

They've been sniveling about that ever since.

[oscar111]

19. history, and psychological

Somewhere after lincoln, they flipped into RW ideas. I think lincoln said "labor is ever the superior to the bosses".

Psy'ly, the anal-sadistic type gravitates to the RW party, whatever it is called. {anal-retentive was freud's term for the infant-age experience, the real origin of adult greed}
We must figure how to raise kids so they do not develop such a persnality type. Otherwise , all we do later is probably mostly futile. Tho not totally. Just a lot harder.

Persnality is thought to be hardwired by the age of three. Basic, that is. Two general types...Sadists or normal,.... pain-loving, or pleasure loving..... Repub. or dem...... Nazi or Progressive.

I welcome anyone who might have a more recent knowledge of psych... give us any more up to date terms.

[onecitizen]

20. Publicly, it was Newt and the......

contract with America when it spun out of control and on to the airwaves...I think. Clinton getting elected blew their little ol' minds! But deep down inside they've been hateful for years and years. It just wasn't so visible till they started using the airwaves to spread their hate.

[no_hypocrisy]

21. I started to say Nixon, but I'm going along with G.Bush (41) & Lee Atwater

Talk about selling their souls to the devil. Lee Atwater started the burnt earth campaign in order to win a presidential election: it wasn't enough to just win. You had to literally destroy your opponent and demoralize his base. Look at Dukakis in 1988. He was ahead in the polls. Atwater introduced Willy Horton to America and made people think that Dukakis let him walk out of jail to rape and pillage, that being a member of the ACLU was akin to being a communist and anti-American, that Kitty Dukakis was a raving alcoholic, etc. Character assassination was the modus operandi.

Nixon was dishonest, sent thousands of kids to die in Vietnam. That was pretty bad, but the republicans didn't get behind him. They stood behind G. Bush (41) and they have never looked back.