Ok let's do a quick dive into the origins of the modern GOP. Everything I am about to post is very easily found by doing simple google searches, with search words like John Birch Society origins/founders, dixiecrats, and paleoconservatism. you can verify what i am posting there.
Let's start with the origins of the modern day GOP. In 1948 civil rights issues revealed philosophical differences between northern & southern democrats, like never before. This is when the move of southern states moved from solid dem to solid republican. Dixiecrats & the
southern strategy was born. At the 1948 DNC convention a group of northern dems led by Hubert Humphrey proposed some controversial civil rights planks of racial integration & reversal of Jim Crow laws. Southern dems were dismayed to say the least.
Harry Truman caught in the middle because of his executive order integrating the armed forces, proposed a compromise. he proposed that they only include the planks from the 1944 convention platform. This was not enough for the northern dems. Truman's own civil rights initiatives
made the civil rights debate unavoidable. The planks were adopted that the northern dems wanted, and 35 southern dems walked out in protest. They formed the States Rights Democratic Party. States rights, sound familiar? GOP screams this constantly. With NY moderate
Nelson Rockefeller's defeat in the GOP presidential primaries, it marked the beginning of the end of moderates and liberals within the GOP. GOP moderates & liberals converted to the Democratic party, and conservative democrats began their migration to the GOP. That year the
Dixiecrats nominated Strom Thurman as the presidential nominee & Miss. governor Field J. Wright as VP. Their platform represented the openly racist views of most white southerners of the time. They opposed all abolition of Jim Crow laws & endorsed continued racial segregation.
Their ticket carried 4 states. Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina. they received over 1 million votes and 39 electoral college votes. By 1952 southern dems concluded they could exercise more influence through the democratic party and therefore returned to
the fold. They remained there until the candidacy of ultra conservative Barry Goldwater for the GOP in 1964 after the passing of the Civil Rights Act and later the Voting Rights Act, both of which gave newfound rights to POC. Goldwater liberated them by refreshing some Dixiecrat
ideologies & therefore accelerated the transition of solid south for the dems, to solid south for the republicans. Thurmond and other Dixiecrats switched parties and have remained there. Nixon used the southern strategy to win election in 1968 with the help of George Wallace and
other Dixiecrats. The John Birch Society espoused many of the views and ideology of the Dixiecrats. I will get to that in a few. Goldwater did however warn the GOP in 64 of the fringe evangelical group within the Dixiecrat movement as radical and uncompromising. For a time
they were banished from the GOP, but with the defeat of Goldwater by LBJ in 64, they returned and started wielding more & more influence within the GOP. They then began reshaping the image of and takeover of the GOP. With the loss of segregation as a central point of their
platform, they were basically drifting until Roe v Wade became law. They saw this as their central rallying point for evangelical voters and those of strongly held rigid religious beliefs. They along with the John Birch Society's wealthy donors used the issue by spinning it as
the murder of the unborn, rather than what it was truly about, privacy and the right to choose. This was there central defining issue for dividing the electorate, and is still central today, though less prominent except among hardcore evangelical voters. They still use
it today and have now reverted back to the central tenets of the openly racist views, values and ideology of the Dixiecrats and JBS anti-government, anti-immigrant platforms.
Now let's talk about the John Birch Society. Their 3 central founders were Robert Welch Jr., Revilo P. Oliver & non other that the Koch bros father Fred Koch. They are a radical, far right organization. They espoused what is known as paleoconservatism, which is economic
nationalism (sound familiar), anti-government, anti-regulation, anti-immigrant, and anti-multicultural society. Hmmmmmmmmm. Since the Koch bros are prominent $ backers of the GOP, let,s talk about Fred Koch. Fred Koch found early business success aligning with American Nazi
sympathizer William Rhodes Davis. He haired Koch to build the 3rd largest oil refinery of the 3rd Reich, which was a critical industrial cog in Hitler's war machine. See the emerging similarities? That wealth Koch amassed was then gave to his sons. The brothers along with
Richard Mellon Scaif of the Mellon Banking fortune, and brothers Harry & Lynne Bradley who made ther wealth from military industrial complex contracts poured millions into anti-government philanthropy. The Kochs and other wealthy families are the hidden and self-interested hands
behind the rise and growth of the modern conservative movement, i.e. paleoconservatism. They poured millions into think tanks, political organizations (PACs) that helped win acceptance for anti-government anti-tax policies that would protect their businesses
and personal fortunes under the guise of promoting the public interest. The Kochs, Bradleys, Scaifs and DeVos families among other small rarified hugely wealthy arch-conservative families have for decades poured millions with little public disclosure, into influencing how we
think and vote. Groups financed by them, provide $ support for the Tea Party movement & public relations strategies used to shrink support for the ACA & proposal to mitigate climate change. They are behind funding to fine tune proposals and messaging from Paul Ryan to cut
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social safety net programs of FDR's New Deal to make them more palatable to voters. you see this in Ryan's past messaging and recent messaging from Mitch McConnell's tying these programs to the deficit & debt. Scare the voters
into thinking their hard earned money paid into the programs for their benefit are the problem, making it easier for voters to swallow.
Ladises & gentlemen, that is a condensed history of the origins of the modern day GOP and their ideology with the anti-government, anti-immigrant, racist policies. Newt Gingrich upon becoming speaker, used these and the $ of those wealthy donors to bring about the
divisiveness we see today with his inflammatory rhetoric and uncompromising leadershi. 2016 brought that entire vision to fruition. The vast majority of this country repudiates this ideology and policies. The 2018 midterms will be the beginning of
digging the grave in which we will bury this hateful ideology. VOTE VOTE VOTE!!! we must elect democrats until moderate, principaled republicans can rebuild their party in the image of Lincoln & Teddy Roosevelt. We cannot and must forget that they are citizens and voters also.
We cannot be hellbent of denying them re-entry back to the political arena at some point once they clean up their mess, or we become them, and will otherwise be no better off than we are now. Always country over party. UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL.
@threadreaderapp please unroll
