Stopping the Spread of Slavery Started As A Republican Idea

[TomCADem]

...and Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was a virulent racist. Yet, I doubt that anyone on this board would embrace slavery merely because Republicans at one time opposed its spread while Democrats once regarded it as essential. Nowadays, Republicans are the party of the virulent racists who scream racial and homophobic epithets at members of Congress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_on_slavery

Abraham Lincoln's position on freeing the slaves was one of the central issues in American history. Initially, Lincoln expected to bring about the eventual extinction of slavery by stopping its further expansion into any U.S. territory, and by offering compensated emancipation (an offer accepted only by Washington, D.C). Lincoln stood by the Republican Party platform in 1860, which stated that slavery should not be allowed to expand into any more territories. Most Americans agreed that if all future states admitted to the Union were to be free states, that slavery would eventually be abolished.

[FarLeftFist]

1. This may help clear things up.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixiecrat

[FarLeftFist]

4. I believe the Dems were called the Liberty party then the repubs were Whigs

[TomCADem]

6. So, When Folks Say The Democratic Party Should Return To Its Roots...

...and that an idea like HCR is actually Republican, what roots are they talking point. It seems like we are assuming that the identity and beliefs of a political party are fixed in time. Rather than discussing an issue like HCR on the merits, there appears to be this effort to call it a Republican bill even though no Republican voted for it.

Also, from 1976 to 1984 the Democratic Party platform also included language that hedged on abortion: “We fully recognize the religious and ethical concerns which many Americans have about abortion.” Before that, Catholics were solidly Democratic. Should Democrats "return to their roots" and push to out-law abortion in order to bring Catholics back into the fold?

[FarLeftFist]

11. I don't know anything about that, I'm all about moving forward. Progress.

I think catholics should want to be back into the fold because Jesus himself was a Liberal (jesusisaliberal.org), and the Constitution is probably one of the most Liberal documents ever written besides the Christian bible. We are not a nation of morals, we are a nation of laws, and abortion is a moral decision.

[Cerridwen]

2. The "it was a repub idea first" is usually in response to how liberal

this piece of legislation is.

If it's so liberal, why did the repubs get there first and how are we now defining liberal; especially i relation to repubs from years past.

[TomCADem]

7. There Has Been A Lot Of Posts Like This - Not Too Long Ago, Catholics Were Solidly Democratic

However, due to the issue of abortion, Catholics have steadily gravitated toward the GOP due to the issue of abortion. Does that mean that adopting pro-choice support as part of the Democratic party platform was wrong?

My personal take is that you really cannot apply current models of what is liberal and conservative or Republican and Democrat to the pre-Reagan era. Heck, Reagan would be rejected as not Republican enough, because he signed the California Environmental Quality Act into law as governor of CA, and he raised taxes as President.

[pepperbear]

3. and teddy busted trusts, goldwater hated the religious right, ike warned of the M.I.C...

...and 18 year olds won the right to vote under nixon.

Then along the Gipper.....

[sandnsea]

5. I think the political parties have flipped

They were as hateful to Lincoln then as they have been to FDR or JFK or any other Democratic President including Obama.

Cartoon link



Choice Quotes:

LINCOLN: Now my friends I’m almost in and the millennium is going to begin so ask what you will and it will be granted.

FOLLOWERS:

Oh what a beautiful man he is, I feel a “passionate attraction” every time I see his lovely face.

I represent the free love element and expect to have free license to carry out its principles.

Dah white man hab no rights dat collud persons am bound to spect. I want dat understood.

I want womens rights enforced, and man reduced in subjection to her authority.

I want everybody to have a share of everybody elses property.

I want a hotel established by government, where people that aint inclined to work, can board free of expense and be found in rum and tobacco.

Check it out, it's kind of big:

[TomCADem]

8. Sometimes Its The People, Ronald Reagan Signed The California Environmental Quality Act ...

Into law as Governor of California, which is one of the strictest set of environmental laws in the nation that apply to land use. So, does this mean that those of us who are pro-environmental are adopting "Republican" ideals. Does this mean that environmentalism is bad?

[sandnsea]

10. That was 1967

Things changed a bit after 1967, including Reagan. It wasn't that radical to put some land aside for parks and trails, or do something to clean up the horrific smog in the state. Did you live in California in the 60s? I did.

I've seen the right wing proposals for people to be responsible for their own health care. It is not what we just passed by a long, long shot. It's a stupid comparison, I wish I knew what genius decided it was a good talking point.

[depakid]

9. Actually "Democratic Republican" Senator Jesse Thomas (also from Illinois) is the author of that

In 1820, Thomas proposed the Missouri Compromise to limit slavery above the southern border of Missouri.

Moreover, the various half measures (the Kansas Nebraska Act) along plantation pandering (the Fugitive Slave Act) not only failed to address the root causes of the problem, but inflamed matters to the point where the Civil War was inevitable once Lincoln was elected.

[damyank913]

12. I live in Virginia now and I know guys that still call it "The War of Northern Aggression".

It's astounding how these "god-fearing" ppl can justify the ownership of human beings.

[ingac70]

13. Southern Democrats. That trash is mostly Republican now. n/t