[vienna]

The GOP has, since the days of Eisenhower, made a disturbing series of political and tactical blunders. Ike was the last great, thoughtful, and meaningful GOP president. He foresaw the detrimental influence of corporate, financial, and military sway over the progress of the country. His famed comments about the "military-industrial complex" and how it was bad fo the USA was spot on. But, the GOP leadership, seeking to erase the fact they had lost the White House for 5 consecutive terms (20 years) after having held it for three terms (12 years). The GOP occupants, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover were either so corrupt or ineffectual the result of GOP tenancy was the Great Depression. Following FDR and Truman, the only real way the GOP could retake the White House was by running a war hero like Eisenhower. Other than Ike, the GOP had no real candidates.

Rather than taking Ike's warnings to heart, the GOP leadership instead ran Nixon in 1960 and further soiled their nest by adopting the "Southern Strategy". The "Southern Strategy" came about when Civil Rights became an issue starting in the Eisenhower adminisration and alienated a substantial portion of the heavily Democratic southern states. THe GOP had been seen as pariahs by the white population of the South since the days of the Civil War when Lincoln, a GOP president, freed the slaves and defeated the Confederacy. Lincoln was blamed by the white South for their problems and the GOP was painted with the same brush. In 1968, following the civil rights push of both JFK and LBJ, the GOP saw an opportunity for some "cheap votes" by aligning themselves with the disgruntled Southern segregationist element and openly courted their support aginst the Democrats the South now blamed for their new troubles. The GOP even went so far as to clandestinely funnel funds to the 1968 third party presidential run of avowed segregationist George Wallace as a means of futher siphoning off votes fro the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey. The result of the GOP machinations was the defeat of Humphrey and the election of Nixon. We all know what a mess the presidency of Nixon was and the still-felt effects of his corruption on our nation. But the other side-effect was the alienation by the GOP of minority voters and minority-sympathetic white voters as weel as moderates of both parties.

If it hadn't been for the Democrats letting the far-left contingent of their party hold sway and push forward such poor candidates as McGovern, Mondale, and Dukakis, the GOP probably would not have regained the White House. (I view the election of Carter as an aberration since his election was, more or less, the voters' knee jerk reaction to the GOPs Nixon/Ford combo of scandal, corruption and mis management of the nation and its economy; Carter probably would have lost otherwise and, in my opinion, was ill-suited to the Prsidency.)

Reagan came into office, not because he was eminently qualified, but because he was the "lesser of two evils" since his opponent was Carter. It was during the Reagan administration the influence of the "Religious Right" began to take hold and the GOP leadership, again looking for "cheap votes" (a term, by the way, I heard from some California GOP political consultants for whom I had occassion to participate with on an election project, so don't blame me for the term), started to court the Fundamentalists much in the same manner they courted the segregationists.

The Gop has had a long-standing and very close collaboration with big corporations anf big financial interests. It has been the masive wealth of that sector that has supported the GOP in recent years and this perception of the GOP as being the party of "Big Business" has also resulted in the further alienation of the working-class, particularly during and since the "Great Recession".

THscore card seems to go as follows:

The GOP lead isuues and voter perceptions: Big Business; profits before jobs; racial insensitivity; prayer in schools; anti-abortion, sticking the name "God" on everything; anti-anything "gay" or "non-normal"; government support of religion (as long as it's Christian and especially "our" sort of "Christian"); indifference to the problems of the working-class (particularly the middle-class);

The Democrats lead isuues and voter perceptions: Pro working-class; racial, religious, and personal tolerance; jobs before profits; social equilibrium; freedom of personal choices; sensitivity and pro-action of the problems of the working-class voters;


The GOP tried to apologize for the "Southern Strategy" at a meeting of the NAACP in 2005, but it seems to have had little effect. Now, who will the GOP apologize to next for their "Far-Right" and "Religious-Right" startegies? For a once proud party, the "Party of Abraham Lincoln", the GOP leadership has gone down some dark and disturbing roads. If they wish to make themselves viable and releant again, the GOP should take a hint from the Democrats who, after the debacles in the 80s, dumped the over-influence of the "Far Left" wing and righted their ship. As once noted by Mort Sahl, if one wing is heavier than the other, all you do is fly in circles. The GOP seems to be going in spirals...


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