Evolution Of The American Left

The evolution of the left is quite an event if you have lived since the early 50s. Up is down and down is up. The Democrat Party in the early 50s was as conservative as it would ever be in this time frame. Truman was a decent President. Even with the election of Kennedy in 60, he was more conservative than recent Republican nominees. More on that later. I believe the real downhill slide to the left in the Democratic Party took full root with Lyndon Johnson coming to power. Humphrey was nominated in 68 and lost, but was more liberal than Johnson. Then, a big leap into liberalism was formed with the nomination of George McGovern. In 76 Jimmy Carter brought the party slightly back to the moderate side, but his Presidency failed. Then, we start over with a long list of ultra liberals, Mondale 84, Dukakis 88. Then in 92 and 96 Clinton did sort of what Carter did, moderated the party, but it was still liberal. Gore in 00, not sure how to categorize that. Very liberal Kerry in 04 and Obama in 08 and 12. The party is now more liberal than its ever been. One wonders if it is possible to be more liberal.

Then we have the Republicans. They stayed conservative to moderate until 1988 with Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford and Reagan. Of course, Goldwater in 64 was probably the most conservative candidate ever nominated. Reagan was fairly conservative. The downhill slide to the left started with the 88 election. Bush won, but failed to gain reelection in 92. From then on we have liberal to moderate RINOs. Dole, Bush 2, McCain, and Romney. Two candidates have crept out of the woodwork of the same mold for 2016, Bush 3 and Christie. The good news is there are more conservative candidates running this year than in a long time, Walker, Paul, Cruz, Perry, Rubio, Carson etc.

The bottom line is both parties have slipped to the left, and have become indistinguishable from each other. The more we shift to the left, the fewer rights we have, free markets suffer, as does good paying factory jobs. The Constitution is followed less and less. Everyone becomes less accountable and more become wards of the state. What goes around comes around. One day the bill is going to be due for 65 years of increased liberalism.

 

Interesting post TAD but I must respectfully disagree. Perhaps you do not recall but prior to Goldwater the Republican party had the name "Me Too Party". There was a strong desire within the Republican Party to shed that label and become the party of Conservatives. Goldwater and Reagan were leaders in that movement. One of the 2 best speeches I have heard was given by Ronald Reagan in support of Senator Goldwater, I believe in 1960 but can't be sure.

Starting with Eisenhower, who recognized the South as part of the United States, conservative democrats began leaving the party and switching to the Republican Party. The democrat party has moved farther to the left and is now the democrat-socialist party. That movement became a landslide following the Goldwater candidacy. There were a number of well known democrats who switched parties. I was present at a dinner in 1964 when Strom Thurmond switched to support Goldwater.

Conversely, the liberal Republicans began movement to the democrat party which better suited their political philosophy. Right now I cannot recall any big name Republicans who switched parties.

It is apparent that the above is true. The Northeast was historically Republican and moderate to liberal, the South was historically democrat and mostly Conservative. The opposite is now true. { I am certain that Crabby will say the South switched because we are all racists but I was Republican when Crabbie was wetting his diapers.} The midwestern states were at one time Republican and Conservative. They are now swing states but probably lean Republican. The western states are primarily Conservative until you get to the Left coast.

Now I do concur that the Republican Party has made some bad choices since 1992. H. W. Bush should not have run for re-election because I don't believe he had "the fire in his belly" at that time. Bush 2 was Conservative. He just inherited the Clinton ".com recession" and the terrorist mess Clinton refused to act on, Al Queda and bin Laden.

Republicans have one serious problem, one which I believe the democrats are determined to duplicate this year. McCain lost to Bush so the Republican hierarchy thought he should get the nomination in 2000. Romney lost to McCain so the elitist Republicans thought he should get the nomination in 2004. Both were too moderate to liberal for me but compared to the Socialist Obama they were strong Conservatives. Romney certainly had the capability to straighten out the mess that Obama has created.