Once, even GOP had liberals

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/09/05/once_even_gop_had_liberals/

OVER THE past two weeks, Senator Kennedy has repeatedly been described as the last liberal lion, as if he were the lonely representative of a lost cause. But he was not alone in Massachusetts.

At one time, even the state’s Republicans had liberal lions such as Senator Edward Brooke and Governor Frank Sargent, who combined a vision of social justice with a respect for individual freedom and limited government. The most intriguing example, though, was the rangy congressman and governor Christian Herter. snip

Herter’s heyday is long over. Since then, the Republican Party achieved considerable success nationally with a shift to the right. But by allowing Democrats a monopoly on liberalism in this state, the GOP has found itself with only 15 percent of the state legislators, and no congressmen for a dozen years.

Herter’s complex views would fit poorly into either major party today, but those views once kept the state GOP competitive. Long after his death in 1966, Herter still exemplifies the social conscience, fiscal prudence, and all-around excellence that could make Republicanism more appealing in Massachusetts today.

[elocs]

1. Republicans have been concentrated down to the very conservative.

Liberal Republicans have tended to be defeated by Democrats. Republicans can rally around whatever they rally around because unlike Democrats they do not have a wide range of opinion within the party.

[jeffbr]

2. Don't forget Richard Nixon

Yep, that asshole.

He signed the Equal Rights Amendment desegregating public schools, orderd the Justice Department to bring sex discrimination suits under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, ordered the Labor Department to add sex discrimination provisions to federal contract guidelines, increased federal funding for food aid and public assistance programs, signed the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970 for stronger enforcement of environmental regulations, established the Environmental Protection Agency...

[HamdenRice]

3. NY Senator Jacob Javits -- a left leaning Republican of the 60s, 70s

Back then, lots of Republicans were very liberal, but just wanted to balance the budget.

[gratuitous]

4. The Oregon GOP has been running ads

Reminding folks that at one time the GOP did things on behalf of the citizenry. Of course, if you know anything about history, you know that the most recent thing the ad mentions is from the early 1970s. The ad would be laughable with just a little annotation. Not to mention that the Republicans cited in the ad would throw up to be associated with today's Republican party.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Interesting.

A lot of my American connections live in Massachusetts, and I knew people from there who identified as liberal Republicans as recently as the 1980s. They used to say that Republicans in Massachusetts were different from those in many other parts of the USA. It seems to be very different nowadays.

[Mari333]

6. Katrina vanden heuvel:

what used to be called liberal is now called radical;
what used to be called radical is now called insane;
and what used to be called reactionary is now called moderate.. or compasionate;
and what used to be called insane is now solid conservative thinking.
................................................
yes, the norm now is that republicans are neocons
dems are often centrists (like the old republicans)
and anyone left of centrist is called the fringe

this whole country moved to the neocon right and they think thats the norm.

[grantcart]

7. Governor Dan Evans of Washington State