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:

Is Government & the process of governing really evil, truly corrupt, and criminal?

Those who assert that government is evil, yet participate in the process by and through their own candidacy & election, are admitting they are evil.

Ironic, eh?

And yet, it’s pure logic… something sadly & noticeably absent in the GOP.

For years I have shared this (astute & regular readers will recognize my quote, and the category of the same name), that

“Politics is the art of compromise, and first begins in the home.
For neither Daddy, nor Mama, nor children always get their way all the time.
On occasion, however, Daddy gets his way, Mama gets her way, and by mutual agreement, the children get their way.
And by this effort, in which on occasion everyone gets their way from time to time, no one is harmed, the family is not harmed, and everyone learns how to get along, to love, and cooperate with each other, and to help one another.
In that way, we teach children how to love, to live, to respect, and increase our own sense of love and respect for each other.”

Regular readers of this blog will also recognize the song which I’ve been singing, which is that the Republican party – since 1964 – has been, as then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller said at the RNC convention at Cow Palace in San Francisco, “The Republican party is in real danger of subversion by a radical, well-financed and highly disciplined minority.” {Ed. note: I encourage the reader to also read the entry of November 10, 2009 entitled “These extremists feed on fear, hate and terror.”}

Further, those who tear down things are destroyers, although through our process of governance, there are some who are hell bent upon deconstructing it.

It always takes more creativity, energy and effort to maintain and operate a thing, than it does to create it, simply because maintenance efforts are ongoing and continuous, whereas once a thing is made, there is no further energy or effort required to make it, for it is already made.

In the same way, our nation’s governance requires more effort now than in 1776 (when it was 2,500,000 – in contrasting comparison, NYC’s population is now over 8,400,000) to operate for several reasons, not the least of which is that our nation’s population is in excess of 300,000,000 (300 Million) – a mere drop in the bucket when compared to China or India – both nations which have 1,000,000,000 (1 Billion) more people each.

Logically and rationally, with the proliferation of inventions, discoveries & patents, it is utterly absurd – so much so as to be insane – to assert that in this era, with all the continual increase of those same inventions, discoveries & patents multiplied by our population – that somehow, we will have fewer laws, smaller needs, and a decrease in any kind of governance, rule, regulation or law is beyond the scope of any rationality or comprehension. Analogously, it’s like asserting that adults should – and can – wear children’s sized clothing.

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How ‘Government’ Became A Dirty Word

by NPR Staff
September 1, 2012

Listen to the Story
All Things Considered [11 min 29 sec] / Download / Transcript

The message at the GOP convention this week was clear: Government is too big, too expensive, and it can’t fix our economic problems.

President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy Reagan, in the inaugural parade in Washington, D.C., in January 1981. In his speech after being sworn in, Reagan called government “the problem.”

“The choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government. And we choose to limit government,” said Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.

There’s nothing new about the message. Anti-big government sentiment is practically part of the American DNA, and it has deep roots in the Republican Party.

“Republicans, dating back to the New Deal, had always voiced their opposition to the expansion of government,” says Julian Zelizer, who teaches history and public policy at Princeton. “It was always part of the party the idea that centralization was bad, bureaucracy was dangerous, taxes were bad.”

But before the 1960s, the Republican Party also had a liberal wing, Zelizer tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

“They had New York Republicans, they had a lot of Midwestern progressives, who still said government is good for a lot of things,” he says.

Extremism ‘Is No Vice’

At the 1964 Republican convention, the party showed a shift away from

Newt Gingrich: A New Liberal

For some odd reason, some folks think Newt Gingrich a conservative.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Seriously!

His track record speaks for itself.

Read on to learn how and why.

Gingrich’s record belies his conservative image

Though many GOP voters prefer him as a more conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich has often supported policies that have strayed from the conservative position.

By Paul West, Washington BureauDecember 8, 2011, 4:26 p.m.

Reporting from Washington—

For months, many Republicans have cast about for an alternative to Mitt Romney, decrying him as insufficiently conservative. Now they appear to have settled on a new front-runner — Newt Gingrich— who is no more conservative than Romney.Both men have parted company with the party’s most active voters on many of the same issues. Both backed requiring individuals to purchase healthcare insurance. Both supported the Wall Street bailoutknown as TARP and government subsidies for ethanol production.Both agreed that human activity is contributing to climate change (though each has backtracked in recent months). In the past, both supported trading systems designed to cap carbon emissions. Gingrich has favored research using

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