When did the Republicans cease to be the Party of Lincoln?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

When did they become the party willing to sell out whomever they needed to so they could get what they wanted?

I would say 1877--when they allowed the end of Reconstruction in exchange for Rutherford Hayes being president. Perfect example--they sold out every freed slave in the South to get their guy in, and he went down in the age of mediocrity anyway.

[PowerToThePeople]

1. Ceased being the party of Lincoln

the morning after that tragic night in the theatre.

[norml]

2. That's correct. It was when the Stalwarts caved in to the Mugwumps.

Of course TR was still a great Progressive President, and Ike was pretty good too. Other than that, nothing!

[autorank]

3. The Election Fraud of 1876

The Republicans were the party of Reconstruction, then they made their fatal bargain:

"The campaign revolved around the issue of corruption. The Democrats accused Hayes of the crimes of the Grant administration. At the same time the Republicans continued to call the Democrats the party of treason. In the final days of the campaign Tilden was regarded as the favorite, and even Hayes believed that he had lost.

In the end, returns in three states, South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana were disputed. Tilden was one state short of victory. Congress appointed a congressional committee to investigate. The committee decided to award all the disputed votes to Hayes. Hayes, in return, however, promised to end reconstruction. Hayes became the next President."

Swell huh. What traitor to everything the Republican Party stood for.

http://www.multied.com/elections/1876.html

[pnorman]

4. That was a major sellout

of the Abolitionist & Free Soil wings of the Party, to the Corporation wing. But the real transformation commenced when the Dixiecrat Democrats went over en masse to the Republican Party. That was the essence of the "Southern Strategy" that was so vital to Nixon's election. When Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, he predicted precisely that.

pnorman

[johnaries]

5. When the transition started may be a gray area,

but there is no question when it was complete: Newt Gingrich's Contract on America.

[Javaman]

6. Actually during Lincoln's second run for office.

He ran under a different party. :)

Edit: It was the Union Party. A unified version of the republican party. so it's a yes and no sort of answer.

[DianeG5385]

7. Truth be told it happened in the sixties

When the democrats stood for the voting rights act, for LBJ's "Great Society" that gave us medicare. No more Jim Crow. The dixiecrats began to flee to the Pubs, who, following Nixon's "Southern Strategy" that won him the presidency sensed that their brand of bigotry was welcome. They joined bigotry with unrestrained free market capitalism and religious nonsense and the right wing was born. The Contact on America was their first manifesto. We have gone downhill since.

[kodi]

14. southern strategy, Nixon's, from Goldwater's 1964 defeat

Even in 1956 Eisenhower pulled 60% of black voters.

But when Goldwater came out against civil rights legislation, the level of black support the GOP polled was less than 15% in 1964, thus the Republican Party took up the long-time political methods of the Southern Democrats and used racial demagogy to tie impoverished white workers and small farmers to the ruling class.

Race become central to the Republican Party's ascendance to power, especially in the South, which is now the main region of power for the GOP.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. I think it *started* somewhere just south of Ike, got rolling to the north

of Nixon, and came into full flower with ReaganII/BushI. (my completely unstudied opinion)

[AP]

9. A: After the railroads became very powerful. The R's came to power...

...because they represented the railroad industry which was being ignored because they didn't have enough political power. The Republicans took up their cause and it helped Lincoln win the election. Later, the Republican Party became the party that protected the railroads.

The Democrats have done the same thing at least twice. In the early twentieth century, the oil industry couldn't get their business on because Republicans were protecting the coal industry. Democrats took up their cause and rode that right up to LBJ. When the oil industry became super-entrenched they turned to the Republicans to protect their hegemony.

In '92, Clinton took up the interests of CA's high-tech industry which Bush had been ignoring because it threatened the Wall St hegemony he was protecting. Clinton rode that to success.

[sandnsea]

11. Eisnehower was an oil deal

He signed the law that gave states the rights to their own oil fields, Eisenhower was a Texas oil deal all the way. Kennedy wanted to end some of the oil subsidies. Oil started moving away from the Dems before LBJ.

[pnorman]

13. That was OFFSHORE oil fields.

Up until Eisenhower, coastal waters beyond the 3 mile limit (with a few exceptions) were considered to come under Federal jurisdiction. Ike had it declared as coming under State jurusdiction. That transferred it to California and the Gulf States. Big Oil was able to have their way a lot easier with a few States, than with the Federal government.

pnorman

[sandnsea]

15. Well yeah

I guess I figured AP would know what I was talking about.

[sandnsea]

10. When Lincoln died

Or when Teddy broke off from the party, whichever. They've been getting increasingly worse as the years go by. The only time I can ever see that they were remotely a party of the people was with Lincoln though.

[dave123williams]

12. Well, the Civil Rights Act was the nail in the coffin...1964, was it?