02-05-2021, 07:05 PM
The Republican Party has gone from being a mainstream Party with a fascist fringe to being a fascistic Party with a mainstream relic. Nixon miscalculated about the desirability of the white Southern racists in his Party. In 1980, 1984, and 1988 that was good for landslide wins of the Presidency and big gains in the Senate as Dixiecrats joined the Party of Lincoln while holding their nose about Lincoln.
The Republican party used to have genuine liberals like Hugh Scott, Edwin Brooke, George Romney, Mark Hatfield, Jacob Javits, Arlen Specter, Winthrop Rockefeller, and Charles Percy. As late as 1964, Republicans stood behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it was clearly the legislation that enforced the clauses that read:
within the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. After all, the GOP was still the Party of Lincoln in the 1960's, and Republicans sought to remind us all of that.
It seems to have forgotten the heritage that it once had on human rights and civil liberties. The GOP always was the Party of tycoons, executives, and (northern) corporate farmers and ranchers who see class privilege as the highest purpose in human existence -- especially among those who do not enjoy any semblance of class privilege. The GOP did win over the Southern agrarian racists, but at a price of losing the comparatively liberal "Rockefeller Republicans" and the political mainstream. By default the GOP has become increasingly racist, superstitious, and anti-modern. It has adopted a twisted sort of populism, the sort that faults educated people as exploiters, while endorsing a plutocratic agenda that truly exploits and degrades people. The anti-Communist rhetoric of the John Birch Society has become core -- and the definition of Communism is practically anything that fails to exalt pure, dehumanized plutocracy if it isn't overt fascism.
The Republican party used to have genuine liberals like Hugh Scott, Edwin Brooke, George Romney, Mark Hatfield, Jacob Javits, Arlen Specter, Winthrop Rockefeller, and Charles Percy. As late as 1964, Republicans stood behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it was clearly the legislation that enforced the clauses that read:
Quote:Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
within the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. After all, the GOP was still the Party of Lincoln in the 1960's, and Republicans sought to remind us all of that.
It seems to have forgotten the heritage that it once had on human rights and civil liberties. The GOP always was the Party of tycoons, executives, and (northern) corporate farmers and ranchers who see class privilege as the highest purpose in human existence -- especially among those who do not enjoy any semblance of class privilege. The GOP did win over the Southern agrarian racists, but at a price of losing the comparatively liberal "Rockefeller Republicans" and the political mainstream. By default the GOP has become increasingly racist, superstitious, and anti-modern. It has adopted a twisted sort of populism, the sort that faults educated people as exploiters, while endorsing a plutocratic agenda that truly exploits and degrades people. The anti-Communist rhetoric of the John Birch Society has become core -- and the definition of Communism is practically anything that fails to exalt pure, dehumanized plutocracy if it isn't overt fascism.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.