I'm reading To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party, by Heather Cox Richardson. Fascinating.
The early Republicans led a war to save the Union from secessionists. Today, it seems only Republicans ever talk about pulling their states out of the Union.
The early Republicans assumed Congress has broad powers; it was the Democrats of the day who insisted Congress can do nothing not expressly enumerated in the Constitution. Today, only Republicans take that latter position.
The early Republicans were dedicated to racial equality and used government power to try to impose it on the South during Reconstruction. Today, it is only Republicans who want to roll back the federal civil-rights legislation of the 1960s.
The early Republicans greatly expanded the size and power of the federal government, and not only for war-effort purposes. They enacted a homestead act to plant settlers on Western land, rather than selling the land to rich speculators. They enacted an income tax to increase the budget and spread the burden. They assumed Congressional power to create a corporation (something only state governments had done until then) to build a transcontinental railroad. Today the GOP has a significant faction that wants to make the federal government small enough to drown in a bathtub.
The early Republicans created a national currency to supplant money issued by state-chartered banks. Today's GOP has a faction that screams "End the Fed!"
The early Republicans wanted and enacted a high protective tariff to encourage the development of American industry. Today's Republicans are free-traders.
The early Republicans were dedicated to Lincoln's theory of political economy, that an activist government should create economic opportunity for all through internal improvements, land distribution, tariffs, etc. Today's Republicans are economically laissez-faire.
By today's standards, the early Republicans were practically socialists. In fact, Marx himself ran a column in Republican Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, and Lincoln appointed Marxists to high civil and military offices (you can read the story in The "S" Word: A Short History of an American Tradition . . . Socialism, by John Nichols).
This is how the Republican agenda was viewed by their opponents when they got started: Negro equality, vegetarianism, free love, women's suffrage, redistribution of wealth, and . . . popery!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/1856-Republican-party-Fremont-isms-caricature.jpg
Does any of this bother you Pubs?
(For my part, as a Democrat, I don't mind at all that in the Civil War period the Democrats were the party of elitism, the "slave power," racism and states' rights; we got better. Eventually.)
The early Republicans led a war to save the Union from secessionists. Today, it seems only Republicans ever talk about pulling their states out of the Union.
The early Republicans assumed Congress has broad powers; it was the Democrats of the day who insisted Congress can do nothing not expressly enumerated in the Constitution. Today, only Republicans take that latter position.
The early Republicans were dedicated to racial equality and used government power to try to impose it on the South during Reconstruction. Today, it is only Republicans who want to roll back the federal civil-rights legislation of the 1960s.
The early Republicans greatly expanded the size and power of the federal government, and not only for war-effort purposes. They enacted a homestead act to plant settlers on Western land, rather than selling the land to rich speculators. They enacted an income tax to increase the budget and spread the burden. They assumed Congressional power to create a corporation (something only state governments had done until then) to build a transcontinental railroad. Today the GOP has a significant faction that wants to make the federal government small enough to drown in a bathtub.
The early Republicans created a national currency to supplant money issued by state-chartered banks. Today's GOP has a faction that screams "End the Fed!"
The early Republicans wanted and enacted a high protective tariff to encourage the development of American industry. Today's Republicans are free-traders.
The early Republicans were dedicated to Lincoln's theory of political economy, that an activist government should create economic opportunity for all through internal improvements, land distribution, tariffs, etc. Today's Republicans are economically laissez-faire.
By today's standards, the early Republicans were practically socialists. In fact, Marx himself ran a column in Republican Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, and Lincoln appointed Marxists to high civil and military offices (you can read the story in The "S" Word: A Short History of an American Tradition . . . Socialism, by John Nichols).
This is how the Republican agenda was viewed by their opponents when they got started: Negro equality, vegetarianism, free love, women's suffrage, redistribution of wealth, and . . . popery!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/1856-Republican-party-Fremont-isms-caricature.jpg
Does any of this bother you Pubs?
(For my part, as a Democrat, I don't mind at all that in the Civil War period the Democrats were the party of elitism, the "slave power," racism and states' rights; we got better. Eventually.)
