The GOP is a hot mess. Should we tear down the Lincoln Memorial?

Some people – mostly Banana Republicans and similar GOP types – have minds like concrete:

Thoroughly mixed, and permanently set.

That includes Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, R-14 (aka “MT-headed Greene”), and most all of the former “Party of Lincoln.”

In fact, the GOP could now be considered almost-fully matured.

But, we should not tear down the Lincoln Memorial, because frankly, the currently sorry, stinking condition of the once-Grand Old Party is not his fault. Not by a long shot.

What we are seeing now is the natural result and full outcome, the fruit-bearing, of seeds that were planted in 1964. This is their natural fruit. That was the year the GOP suffered one of the most significant losses in American Presidential electoral history. Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater was the party’s nominee, and the incumbent Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) was President, having succeeded to the office after the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. He was seeking a second term.

The GOP’s National Convention was held in Daly City, California (adjacent San Francisco on the north) at Cow Palace, a former livestock arena, July 13-16, 1964.

New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller was a keynote speaker, and on one occasion requested, and was granted, 5 minutes to address the delegates. He was booed continuously for over 16 minutes.

Perhaps you’re wondering, ‘Why, whatever for was he booed?’

He was seeking inclusion of language in the official party platform that condemned, and rejected (there’s the so-called “cancel culture” at work) Ku Klux Klan, Communists, John Birch Society members, and other domestic terrorists and White Supremacist racists including Dixiecrats – Southern Democrats who supported segregation, racist policies and laws – who had infiltrated the Republican party.

Read it again:

“…Ku Klux Klan, Communists, John Birch Society members, and other domestic terrorists and White Supremacist racists including Dixiecrats – Southern Democrats who supported segregation, racist policies and laws – who had infiltrated the Republican party.”

Yes, you read that correctly.

Ku Klux Klansmen rally in support of Republican Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, the 1964 GOP Presidential nominee.
Image: Universal History Archive/Getty Images

In 1964, the GOP accepted, and welcomed the inclusion of Communists, the Ku Klux Klan, John Birch Society members, and other radicalized elements, into the party.

That’s a very bitter, and hard pill to swallow, but it’s the unvarnished truth.

Oh… and his motion was overwhelmingly rejected.

Here’s full-length video of his address:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c3807346/governor-nelson-rockefeller-addresses-64-convention

Here’s what Governor Rockefeller said in his address:

Extremists and Radicals in the GOP

Official White House photograph of Vice President Rockefeller, 1975

Tonight was another one for the history books.

It was either that, or one for the nearest comic book store.

There was another Republican “debate” among the GOP presidential nominee wannabes. It’s hilarious – not just in a comédie noir sense, but in a genuinely hilarious manner – because those folks actually believe what they say, and hope to foist it upon the American general public.

But from there, it gets dangerous, precisely because they genuinely believe what they say. And that makes it sad.

The crazy “debate” was held this evening with 8 GOP wannabes.

Starring were:

“These extremists feed on fear, hate and terror.”

At the 1964 Republican National Convention at Cow Palace in Daly City, adjacent San Francisco, CA, then-NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller was granted five minutes to address the delegates. He was booed for over 16 minutes.

At the time, the Republican party’s sweetheart was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, and the party was in jeopardy of being hijacked by subversive ideologues from the Ku Klux Klan, John Birch Society, Communists and others whom Goldwater and the party at large refused to repudiate. Appealing to racist elements, and Southern Democrats, Goldwater later became the party’s presidential nominee, only to be resoundingly defeated  in the November General Election by incumbent LBJ – Lyndon Baines Johnson – whom had become president upon JFK’s death. Goldwater’s defeat was one of the widest margins in American political history.

Ku Klux Klansmen rally in support of Barry Goldwater, 1964.

In his later years, having resigned, then re-elected and succeeded by John McCain, Goldwater’s extremist libertarian ideals included abortion, gay rights, and anti-religious sentiment.

I wonder – to what extent have those same subversives successfully infiltrated the party, our airwaves and national governance today?

The following is the text of Governor Rockefeller’s remarks from The Rockefeller Archive Center, and are available online. See http://www.rockarch.org/inownwords/nar1964text.php.

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FOR RELEASE AT 6:00 P.M., PDT, TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1964 ROBERT L. McMANUS, PRESS SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNOR

TEXT OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER PREPARED FOR DELIVERY BEFORE THE THIRD SESSION OF THE 1964 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION IN MOVING ADOPTION OF THE AMENDMENT TO THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF EXTREMISM, COW PALACE, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA JULY 14, 1964

Mr. Chairman, fellow delegates, I move that the following language be inserted in the proposed 1964 Republican Platform