One of the blogs I follow is that of Andrew Tobias, who writes about finance and politics. He recently posted the platform and goals of the 1956 Republican Party, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was running for re-election against Adlai Stevenson.
The Eisenhower Republicans were sane and deeply respectful of today’s Republicans, who are controlled by extremists and religious zealots.
Tobias posted this:
1956 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM
- Provide federal assistance to
low-income communities - Protect Social Security
- Provide asylum for refugees
- Extend minimum wage
- Improve unemployment benefit
system so it covers more people - Strengthen labor laws so
workers can easily join a union - Assure equal pay for equal work
regardless of sex
Here is the full GOP platform of 1956.
SHARE IF YOU MISS THE GOOD OLD DAYS!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Today, they’d all be called RINOs — at best — if not socialists.
BUT…
To be fair, if we’re going to put stock in labels…
Many of the Democrat state platforms of the era were more “good ole boys” than “good old days.” Today’s in-power Rs (or, as I like to call it, Neoconfederates) are their spiritual heirs.
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If changing WHAT IS, is a product
of speaking in terms of WHAT WAS,
why are we in such a pickle?
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The day I understand your comments will be the day of my enlightenment.
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If changing WHAT IS,
(the current state of affairs)
is a product
(a result)
of speaking in terms of
WHAT WAS,
(history)
why are we in such a
pickle?
(in trouble)
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wrong, wrong, wrong. We ignore history at our peril. It is extremely important to learn its lessons.
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You left out this one: “5-yr program of Federal assistance in building schools to relieve critical classroom shortage” To this day this hasn’t happened because of GOP opposition.” https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1956
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Yes, the broad goals of Eisenhower’s Republican Party were admirable, and in those days there were many admirable Republican politicians. I was not able to vote in ’56–old enough to be drafted to the Army, though–and watched the election from Fort Knox. After voting for JFK in ’60, I found myself drawn to moderate Republicans such as Gov. Scranton of PA., Romney of Michigan–whom I campaigned for President, being turned off by the personality and foreign policies of Lyndon Johnson. But even then, the Republican Party was infected with McCarthyism, to Eisenhower’s dismay. “Jumpin’ Joe” McCarthy’s lawyer became developer Donald Trump’s lawyer–and we know where that led. Today, McCarthyism as Trumpism leads the Republican Party. Sad.
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Thanks for this history, Jack.
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In those days union membership was much higher, and the government actually tried to work for the people. Eisenhower is credited with helping to build a strong middle class, and he built our interstate highway system. Today’s politicians talk about helping the working class during an election cycle. Behind closed doors though, they mostly work to serve the interests of corporations and the 1% while they may toss the poor and working class a token bone or two.
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Nice, quick recounting of history, Jack.
I was thinking of something to add on this post but what you said is plenty to think about for this morning.
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It’s also around the time that President Eisenhower pushed successfully to raised the maximum marginal tax rate to 92%. It was I believe in 1952 with Republican support!
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A snippet from a letter Ike wrote to his brother Edgar, circa 1954: quote – Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid. End quote
Sadly, that political party, the GOP is still here, still trying to destroy SS, Medicare, Medicaid and any other social programs that we still have. The GOP/Trump party stacked the SCOTUS with hard right wingers who will be there for d e c a d e s.
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Unfortunately, Democrats are helping destroy public Medicare. Medicare Advantage programs overspend by billions of dollars, estimated between $12 billion and $25 billion annually. They are draining the Medicare fund. Trump implemented Directing Contracting, which Biden is continuing, under the name of ACO Reach, privatization of Medicare from the inside out, under the guise of equity and accountability. It allows companies to reach into Medicare dollars and extract profit. Sounds a lot like charter schools! The real goal is to put a profit-driven third party in charge of seniors’ Medicare without their consent or even knowledge. The objective is to deny care in order to funnel public dollars into private pockets. Also, sounds familiar? Some of the Medicare Advantage companies that are ripping off taxpayers are also administrators of ACO Reach! What could possibly go wrong with such a scheme?
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Medicare Advantage programs overspend by billions of dollars, estimated between $12 billion and $25 billion annually.”
It’s important to point out that the “overspending” is a result of “overcharging” by the health insurance companies, much of it actually fraudulent.
Many of the major health insurance companies are basically criminal enterprises.
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“Straight up Fraud: data confirms private insurers use medicare advantage to steal billions”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/10/09/straight-fraud-data-confirms-private-insurers-use-medicare-advantage-steal-billions
The companies involved in the fraud should be dissolved and their CEOs jailed.
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Yup. That is why it is absurdly scandalous that we are walking into another privatization ruse, ACO Reach, which is known as “Medicare Advantage on steroids,” and few seniors know about it. Like Charter Schools the amount of profit extracted from Medicare will be a great unknown because the scheme is constructed to conveniently withhold that information. The public funds go behind a wall of private ownership. Once again, sound familiar?
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BTW on page 112 of the 2023 Medicare guide, seniors can call to opt out of ACO Reach this coming year by calling 1-800-633-4227. If your doctor already participates, you may have to switch doctors.
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Ike would not associate with today’s GOP, were he alive today. They are very close in spirit to the John Birch Society, which loathed Ike.
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Eisenhower would view today’s Republican Party as dangerously insane.
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dianeravitch
Actually Ike might fit right in. At least In 1952 when he ran against Truman . Never disavowing Joe McCarthy campaigning with McCarthy, even as McCarthy was attacking Ike’s personnel friend George C. Marshal. Does that sound familiar .
In fairness the Democrats were at that point also a bifurcated party. Dixiecrats in white hoods and Northern Liberals or as ultra right wingers called them “Jew Dealers” .
In 52 the base of the Republican party was behind McCarthy much like they are Trump today. The New Dealers were marginalizing the Dixiecats. Long before LBJ. and the Civil rights acts Truman integrated the armed forces infuriating the Democratic South.
Robert Taft like in “Taft Hartley ” a vehemently anti new dealer and America First Isolationist united with those Dixiecrats to eviscerate the NLRA . Taft became the Republican Majority leader in 1953 , he developed cancer shortly after.
But the point is the seeds of today’s Republican party were planted in the 40s
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Joel,
Some years ago, I read a book about Ike called “The Hidden Hand Presidency.” The thesis was that Ike did lots of good stuff behind the scenes and was instrumental in ousting McCarthy. The hard shell rightwing GOP hated the unions, hated the New Deal. Take the roots of reaction back to at least the 1930s.
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dianeravitch
Agreed, in 52 Ike flirted with calling out McCarthy. But like today’s Republicans electoral expediency got in the way and he decided instead to do a whistle stop campaign tour with him. By 64 we have no questions about where the Republicans were at. Rockefeller nearly was booed off the stage at the RNC by the Birch wing of the party, the large majority at the Cow Palace . And the schizophrenia in the Democratic party come to an end shortly after.
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But with Ike’s urging behind the scene, McCarthy was censured by the Senate and his reign of terror ended.
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The Republican party of 1491 (of the Iroquois Confederacy , the oldest living democracy on earth, the year before Columbus arrived with the relatives of Mitch McConnel) was very democratic and progressive.
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The Republican Party of 1956, for that matter the Republican Party of all the 100 years spanning 1860 to 1960, cruising smoothly at high altitude, began its slow descent in 1964. That descent took a kamikaze nosedive in 1980, culminating in a 2016 fiery crash. What’s left now is hardly the Republican Party. It’s something else entirely, survivors of the crash wobbling and wandering around blindly and irrationally, in shock. And in many ways, the Democratic Party went along for the ride.
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I wasn’t old enough to vote when Eisenhower was president and when I was old enough, a few years later, I registered as a Repulibican because of the GOP’s values back then.
From Lincoln to Eisenhower, the Republican Party was not the same one that we have today.
The transformation of the Republican Party into a racist, theofascist, fundamentalist cult started with Nixon and Reagan, who may have been the last of the Republicans from the Party of Lincoln.
Nixon and Reagan made a BIG mistake when they saw an opportunity to invite racist Democrats into the GOP, after President LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act.
It took decades for those former Democratic racist, theofascist fundamentalists, that switched from being Democrats to Republicans, starting in the 1970s, to gain control of the GOP.
Traitor Trump saw them as the voters that would back him, and he was right even though I suspect the traitor doesn’t have a religious cell in his body.
But the traitor literally handed the Party of Lincoln to his MAGA RINOs to gain the power he craved, and they almost gave him the United States on January 6, 2021.
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What changed in the last 64 years since that was written – and add two more if you take it back to Brown in 1954?
The entitled became the victim and the victims (unemployed, women, minorities) are the entitled!
The “doing ok” “hard-working” American AND the Corporation and CEO have become the victims!
Minorities, unemployed, women, powerless employees have become the Entitled.
(And the former have an ExPresident self-proclaimed billionaire victim who howls at the moon for them).
Those who benefitted from these platform statements were viewed as individuals and classes of individuals in need, often because of circumstances out of their control or choices in occupations that did not meet a cost-of-living standard. “We” the People and supporting others was American in 1956. Not so much today
Today, individuals once views as hard working individuals in circumstances of need are now THE ENTITLED.
Whether it’s the “just making it” people angry about inflation or a CEO angry about taxes; they see government as “entitling” those in need.
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Near the end of Joe Klein’s review of Maggie Haberman’s book in today’s NYT Book Review, he observes, “The story she tells is unbearably painful because [the Idiot’s] success is a reflection of our national failure to take ourselves seriously.” Whatever you may think about the person who wrote that line and the author the book he was reviewing, that’s one hell of an accurate diagnosis.
It reminded me of a quote I read earlier this year in Harper’s Magazine’s excerpt of a PEN conference at the UN. The president of PEN America, Ayad Akhtar when he spoke of technology’s intrusion on the “public space” brings with it an “attendant monetization of our speech [that] has corroded the distinction between emotional response and considered reflection, incentivized speaking over learning, and driven us to trust outrage, self-promotion, and the urge to vilify legitimate instances of critical thought.” The quote has haunted me for months.
As this post further demonstrates, we are on the precipice. Within the next few weeks, we will either lose this democracy through irreparable damage or, at best, hold on for another election cycle to do all over again. And hopefully not allowing ourselves to become complacent. We could have a reelected Gov. Abbott, Sen. Lee, and newly elected Gov. Lee and other assorted whackos at every level of government. We could have a republican House and who know how many ALEC-driven state legislatures. What’s more unbearably painful than unbearably painful?
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Exhibit A:
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As I considered the “debate” above during my insomnia, it struck me what a horrible Democratic candidate this was. We kind of assume it really wouldn’t matter, she will be reelected, but he could have educated the district and laid the foundation for future success. And I guess this is a lesson for all Democrats: not only explain this election is about democracy, but also provide explanations of what democracy and governing mean. He did not do that and did nothing to spark the seeds of doubt in her supporters.
When he pointed out that the district has the largest producer of solar panels in the nation, she countered with how ineffective solar was to address the nation’s energy needs. He could have asked why she didn’t work with a significant employer in her district to expand and promote a national and global need. They could increase employment while serving the world. Missed point one.
When he pointed out that as many as ten percent of the district’s workforce might leave if DACA is repealed, she doubled down and never addressed the percentage. He could have asked, are the potential ten percent of people we may lose, the ones who keep our businesses functioning, crops picked, neighborhoods tidied, are they responsible for bringing fentanyl into this country? Are they all part of a drug cartel? Do they not contribute more to this community than they receive in return? Missed point two.
When he pointed out that he had worked in government and that she had accomplished nothing substantive in the time she has been in Congress, she denigrated his experience and harped on being a “small business owner” who knew what real people felt and got defensive about her constituent services staff. He could have done a number of things here. First he could have asked even she even knew what constituent services were. It ranges from getting tickets for home folks to see the White House and Capitol, to making service academy appointments and seeing them through, dealing on behalf of constituents who have problems with federal agencies like CMS (Medicare and Medicaid), the VA, the Dept. of Interior if there are Native American issues in her district, or any other thing that one might have to do that goes wrong and has federal jurisdiction. He could have asked if she knew the difference between authorizing and appropriating legislation and how she approached being successful in each of the processes. He could have asked how many branches of government her coveted Constitution created and what their purposes were (no, I didn’t say porpoises).
Upon reflection, this was a terrible candidate and a terrible performance. Even in losing, he could have set the stage for himself or someone else in two years to ask what she’s learned about those questions since. My bet is on: Not a damn thing.
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The first question asked of the Democrat was, what is your platform, besides being against MTG? He answered by saying, I have a platform. I’m not just against MTG. Here it is: MTG is terrible.
aie yie yie
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Or he could have talked about education and public education in particular. Democrats who choose to run in elections they will likely lose must educate the public about government and education. Yesterday I read an essay by Thomas Piketty, Measuring Racism, Fighting Discrimination, which is mostly focused on France, but makes occasional forays in other parts of the world. The main points are that all over the world, the focus on identity is ascendant and that of egalitarian general welfare is on the decline. The cause, in large part, can be traced to racism and its effects in society and public policy. Therefore there must be objective measures made to define racism for all to see. They should be updated constantly. They should be part of every public debate. This is a wonderful defense of pluralism, the basis of which is education.
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Please excuse the many typos and grammatical errors!
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And this bit from that platform is a hoot! “We believe that basic to governmental integrity are unimpeachable ethical standards and irreproachable personal conduct by all people in government. We shall continue our insistence on honesty as an indispensable requirement of public service. We shall continue to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears.”
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I suppose this means that Trump would not have been endorsed by the 1956 Republicans. They would have seen him for what he was: a fool and a con man.
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They would never have let him enter the room.
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I grew up in a Republican town outside of Boston in the 1950s and 1960s. (And yes, there were Republican towns outside of Boston. Quite a few, in fact.) At the time, while the parties held somewhat opposing views, their members did not see their opposite numbers as tools of Satan. In my Republican town, the Republicans worked to bus kids from Roxbury, the black area of Boston, to our town to give them a shot at a decent education. They championed service to the community with no strings attached.
Party leaders did not demonize their opponents. The two sides were at war, in a manner of speaking, but no one was looking to take prisoners, much less shoot them. So while I did not hate Republicans (I even dated a few), I did not wish them harm. Nor did they wish me ill.
The ugliness got bad under Gingrich. Since then, the Republican and right-wing viewpoint has devolved to a snarling, malignant impulse to hurt and destroy without cause or justification beyond the gleeful infliction of pain on the Left. It is a sign of a mentality that is overbearingly sadistic. It has no foundation, because a foundation built of lies is simply a sludge heap.
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In the 90s I attended a talk at William Paterson U (NJ) given by then-Mayor David Dinkins. He said Newt Gingrich’s plan should be called “Contract On America.”
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