How the Republican Party became far right

[lpetrich]

How did the Republican Party become so conservative? | Salon.com
In the beginning, the United States had no political parties. The Founders wrote no mention of them into their Constitution, and those who stated opinions on parties, like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, had negative opinions. But this no-party system was soon gone, with politicians in the new nation quickly dividing themselves into the Federalist and Democratic-Republican Parties. The Federalist one was for a strong central government and development of industrialism and banking, and the D-R one for small farmers and a wimpy central government. Thomas Jefferson was a D-R, but in office, he departed from D-R ideals with a military adventure in North Africa and the Louisiana Purchase.

After the War of 1812, the Federalists dwindled to nothingness and the Democratic-Republicans split, producing the Democratic Party. Andrew Jackson updated Jefferson's ideals to an increasingly industrialized nation, and he sought broad popular support, getting called by his opponents "King Mob". At least as long as they were palefaces. The Democrats' opposition was the Whigs, but that party collapsed in the 1850's, with the Republicans being founded in 1854 for opposing expansion of slavery. That party elected its first president, Abraham Lincoln, six years later, an event that provoked Southern secession and the Civil War.

By present-day standards, the two parties were rather ideologically mixed, with both parties having both liberal and conservative positions by present-day standards.

Nevertheless, as a rule of thumb, it can be said that from the end of the Civil War to the years immediately before World War I, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to support national economic policies that invested in infrastructure and provided relief to the poor. They were also, as the party of Abraham Lincoln, more likely to decry discrimination against African-Americans, although they also abandoned the genuinely progressive racial policies of the post-Civil War era known as Reconstruction after selling out the freed slaves to elect Rutherford Hayes in 1876. At the same time, Republicans were often far less kind to immigrants than Democrats, more inclined toward overly-religious stances on social issues like prohibition, more likely to support imperialistic foreign policies and — on many occasions — were less sympathetic to labor unions, instead associating working class interests with issues like protective tariffs.

 

[lpetrich]

As to when the Republican Party started going rightward, some historians point to 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt broke with the Republican Party because he thought that incumbent William Taft was too conservative on some issues. His Bull Moose party became a spoiler, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to become President.

Over the 1920's, the Republican Party had a small-government, pro-business approach, especially in Warren Harding's and Calvin Coolidge's presidencies. Herbert Hoover, another Republican, was a little more interventionist, however.

1932 was an important marker year, because that is when Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected. He had a very interventionist New Deal, and it got supporters like farmers and blue-collar workers. However, it still had the Southern Democrats in it. After FDR's death, some Northern Democrats started talking about civil rights for blacks, and Democrat Harry Truman decreed the desegregation of the armed forces in 1948. This caused some Southern Democrats to become Dixiecrats, and they moaned and groaned about states' rights. Republican Dwight Eisenhower was also good about desegregation, continuing what Truman had started, and a big civil-rights movement emerged.

1964 was another one, with Barry Goldwater being the most influential defeated presidential candidate. He was pro-business and he supported a small government except for military force. He also opposed desegregation efforts as coercive. Lyndon Baines Johnson ran against him, insinuating that he was a divisive warmonger, and won in a landslide. However LBJ in Vietnam was pretty much what BG had wanted. BG's candidacy attracted Southern conservatives and repelled liberal Republicans.

This was followed by 1968, about when Richard Nixon started developing his Southern Strategy for appealing to disgruntled Southern white voters. It was to use dog-whistle language, coded appeals that seem innocuous on the surface. Who could possibly object to law and order? How could there be anything fundamentally horrible about states' rights? That year, however, George Wallace got a lot of votes in the ex-Confederacy, interfering with that strategy. But Nixon continued with it, and he won big in 1972.

Turning to 1980, Ronald Reagan ran on Barry Goldwater's platform and won, and the Republican Party moved farther right. The Southern Strategy continued, making the party the party of Jefferson Davis. Trent Lott - Wikiquote "The spirit of Jefferson Davis lives in the 1984 Republican Platform."

6. It is unclear whether Donald Trump has wrought another revolution within the Republican Party.

As Salon discussed with Fox News personality Steve Hilton, there are specific issues where Trump's policies deviate from those held by both parties since 1932. He is more critical of free trade, less internationalist and more anti-immigration than the mainstreams within the Democratic and Republican parties over the previous 80-plus years.

 

[Valjean]

I recommend Dark Money, by Jane Mayer, for a detailed, step by step history of the takeover.