Early in his presidency Donald Trump was startled to learn that Abraham Lincoln had been a Republican. It might have better settled his mind, had he troubled to learn more about this predecessor. Lincoln’s was the first candidacy of a new party based on opposition to the extension of slavery. In contrast with Trump, Lincoln provided treasured national leadership.
By the 1870s, newspapers were calling this the Grand Old Party or GOP. The label stuck; the grandness began to fade.
To gain power during the disputed presidential election of 1877, Republicans secretly committed to end post Civil War reconstruction of the South. Imposed by Lincoln and enforced by President Ulysses Grant, Reconstruction was focused not on punishing the South insurrection but upon transforming it into a region where freed slaves had educational and social opportunities, as well as full constitutional and civil rights.
Republican negotiators agreed to end Reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops from the South. Rutherford Hayes became president and the Southern states restored both their pre-Civil War economy and full control over of their Black population. For the next 100 years Blacks who resisted or stepped out of line became victims of lynching.
Theodore Roosevelt proved to be the last accountable Republican president. A naturalist and conservationist, he saw to preservation of areas of our country from exploitation by mining and logging interests. By 1906, he abandoned the party, disparaging it for narrowly supporting the interests of big business. He shifted to embrace labor and the general welfare of people.
Histories cite an assassination in Serbia as triggering World War 1. Rather, it was an obscene imperial competition that led to war deaths of 20 million.
Democratic President Woodrow Wilson committed U.S forces, helping bring Europe to an armistice. His popular, sweeping plans for democracy and self-determination and for a League of Nations were rejected by the GOP.
That “members undertake to prevent aggression” was a commitment they would not accept. Isolationism during GOP control of government (1921-1933) led directly to the rise of fascism in Japan, Italy, Germany. and Spain, and to World War II.
Claiming big business success helped everyone — Reagan later called it “trickle down” — Republican policy gave rise to reckless financial speculation. In fact, the rich grew richer, the poor poorer, farmers were neglected, and there was over production of goods. When economic depression resulted, Republicans had no idea how to address it.
Despite GOP opposition and a hostile Supreme Court, Democratic programs went far to relieve suffering brought on by this Great Depression. After World War II, Republican’s historic hostility to the interests of unions continued to associate labor with socialism. Senator Joseph McCarthy alleged lists of communists extent throughout government and society intensifying the Cold War.
Then came Reagan, Oliver North, and selling arms to Iran to fund war against Nicaragua.
Instead of seeking world support to bring 9/11 perpetrators to justice, President Bush launched two costly, unsuccessful wars.
Broadly supported Democratic legislation has just now been passed and appropriate investigation of possible crimes by Trump are being investigated. Termed a virtual inquisition, in response Republicans seeking power suggest putting on trial the Bidens, Pelosi, Dr. Fauci, and others.
By politicizing the Supreme Court, they have availed a route to undo not only legal abortion but contraception, same sex marriage, mixed ethnicity marriage, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security because these weren’t envisioned in the Constitution. Will we experience a further rise in anti-Semitism, rebirth of the eugenics movement, and reopening of so-called idiotic asylums.
For most of 250 years we have had political parties that managed to debate and work respectfully with each other. The Constitution is meaningless to the Trump-led maga element that has gained control of the GOP. For decades admittedly flawed Democrats have delivered what the mass of people want and deserve from government. Republicans are presently on the wrong side of history.
Dick Cheney spoke up. Where are the others?
In our time, rather than offering programs appealing to persons of color, Republicans promote fear that non-whites will become a majority of voters in the country, diminishing Republican’s opportunity to govern. This white supremacist mindset has led the GOP to block immigration, limit voting by persons of color, and control election procedures.
They follow Joseph Stalin’s dictum, “The people who cast votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” Carrying out such authoritarian and unconstitutional measures in the states, Republican office holders now hustle down that path.
Charlemont resident Carl Doerner is an author and historian currently at work on a re-examination of and challenge to the “American narrative.”