Eisenhower republicans

[rurallib]

Being from an older generation, I have vague memories of the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower. One thing I remember of that era is that there was a nearly a consensus on a baseline of government services. These included social security and some welfare, especially for widows of fallen soldiers.
There was a small faction which was mostly Southern Democrats and very right wing republicans that never bought into the government as a safety net provider. But the Eisenhower republicans did. Even the dastardly Nixon bought into at least some base level of safety net.
As memory of old and poor people living on the street in total squalor faded from the collective memory with the death of the generation that lived through it, the fantasy memory of each man as an island able to provide all for his family took its place. As with the holocaust time faded the memories. And with a compliant media the bad memories were erased and replaced with a picture that never was except for a few wealthy.
Now we edge closer to the reality of people without government safety nets. As we do slowly some republicans are re-awakening to the concepts that prevailed during the Eisenhower years. I believe these folks will be looking for the democratic nominee to help return this country to some sense of balance. It is obvious that the republican nominee will not, with his promise of more war and harsh treatment for undocumented workers and promises to attack so-called entitlement spending.
Not sure if I am making sense. to put it into a short sentence, there are republicans who no longer feel welcome in their party and are looking for a home this fall. People who see that the extremes of their old party is wrong.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I know of at least one Eisenhower Republican who will be voting Dem

that's my mother, who will turn 90 just before the election.

[Warpy]

2. My dad bought into the whole low taxes, small government BS

of Goldwater on.

I'm glad to say he finally woke up and voted for Kerry in 2004. It was his last vote.

The Katrina disaster woke a lot of decent (but wrong) Republics up in 2005. It's the great tragedy of this country that it didn't happen a year sooner and get them out of power then.

When a whopping 78% of the population says the party in power is leading the country in the wrong direction, it's time for that party to reassess its dogma. Unfortunately, the party is being led by the dogmatic and has been ever since Harding, Coolidge and Hoover led us into the Great Depression.

The words in the speeches might have changed, but the dogma is essentially the same. I'm just glad more people have realized it. I just hope it's not to late.

[rurallib]

3. Good for her!

Last cycle when I was running absentee ballots around, this little old lady (97) told me that she may not have long to live, but she'd be goddamned if she let the republicans stay in power. Almost knocked me off my feet.

[SCantiGOP]

4. heartbreaking

heartbreaking when we see how far this country has gone in 50 years. Here's a quote from a true American hero who had seen death and knew what war was like and what it meant for society:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

Can you imagine Bush or McCain saying something like this today?

[Mythsaje]

5. Compared to the Republicans today,

Nixon was a liberal.

Crazy as a shit-house rat, but a liberal.

[Winterblues]

6. Eisenhower was a good man

I am proud to have lived during his time though I was too young to vote for him..I only wish more Americans were of his caliber.

[Thothmes]

9. If I remember correctly

what I read many years ago, Ike was basically apolitical while in the Army. After his retirement both parties lobbied him to run as their candidate.

[damntexdem]

7. Why are you talking about them libruls?

Ike was an effete, latte-drinking liberal who opposed the military and its industrial complex. Why, he probably knew nothing about the military. After all, in WWII, he was head of something called the ETO -- sounds terrorist to me.

;-)

[femmedem]

8. I canvassed door-to-door with a self-described Eisenhower Republican

last year for Lamont. He changed his party registration so he could vote for Lamont.

[ReformedChris]

10. A Republican Party that wasnt yet hijacked by Fundies..Too bad it changed..

They would have been so much more civil to debate. Especially after McCarthy was pushed to the wayside and the 50's were allowed to roll. Eisenhower was underrated as a politician. Truly a man of principle in the center of American politics at the time. His farewell speech will always be one for the ages. He flat out warned us against the military industrial complex in addition to the "scientific elite" comment that targeted Werner von Braun and Edward Teller. Very courageous speech and one that still resounds to me.

[EndElectoral]

11. Check Corp tax rates, and upper income rates during Ike....unbelievable!