(August 5, 2021 at 3:31 am)The Grand Nudger Wrote: The dems knew they'd lose the south in advance and still did it, giving lie to the idea that all politicans only do whatever they do because they believe it will get them more votes, since Biker mentioned it and all.
100% true. Truman, Kennedy and Johnson all pursued civil rights agendas that they absolutely knew were unpopular with whites, but they did this out of a moral conviction for justice.
Quote:As for lincoln the extremist progressive in a progressive gop...that's probably modern mythmaking. Lincoln was a moderate, at best - and consider what that means for the rest of his party if he was "the most progressive".
Let me be more precise. Lincoln was not the most extreme voice on slavery in the mid 1800's, not by a long shot. There were voices calling for full integration of blacks into white society, which Lincoln acknowledged he didn't think was possible. He even contemplated shipping all freed slaves back to African nations, but realized that was logistically and financially impossible, not to mention cruel as a large percentage would die in the process. BUT, Lincoln was definitely a progressive of the time and on the far edge. He did want to end slavery, no question about it if you study his biographies, but he didn't really want to do so unconstitutionally. If you read just one of the speeches he made or a single debate he had with Douglas, it becomes abundantly clear that Lincoln hated slavery and wanted it to end. Lincoln was barely notable as a politician before he was elected POTUS, but his position on slavery was what got him there. Keep in mind that he left the Whig Party to join the more extreme Republican Party. So it's not modern revisionism, all the facts are there.
Quote:Whatever progressive element existed within the historic GOP was gone by 1912.
That's somewhat accurate. Taft was less progressive than TR, but I wouldn't say he embraced conservatism. When WW out-did the GOP in progressivism, I think that was the end of progressivism for the GOP and they began to become conservative again.
Quote:The dems knew they'd lose the south...and they didn't even try to keep those southerners from voting. Compare that with the gop response to having lost the entire country more than three decades ago. The republican party no longer believes in the united states or the validity of it's form of government. They're christo-fascists on a mission to secure minority control over the majority in perpetuity.
It sort of reminds me of the Apartheid system in South Africa or I supposed you could compare it to the old plantation south.
Why is it so?
~Julius Sumner Miller
~Julius Sumner Miller