What happened to the liberals in the Repubilcan Party?
Teddy Roosevelt supported unions and anti-trust laws. The Republican Party of the 20s pushed through the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote (hindered by their current voter ID laws1). Eisenhower created thousands of jobs via a stimulus--his own highway project--that improved our infrastructure. He even bemoaned the military industrial complex. Taxes on the rich were 90% under him (2). Republicans helped pass for the Voting Rights Act in 1965 but now have gotten SCOTUS to gut it. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and supported health care refrorm (3).
So what happened to the liberals in the Republican Party? Why has the GOP switched positions on all of these issues?
The Republican party is now owned by the corporate elite. It’s as simple as that. They are greedy, hateful, and they are liars.
There are the ones at the top making up all the lies, then the stupid ones who vote believing the lies...and they’ve been doing it for decades. Chipping away at everything from worker’s rights to adding more and more corporate loopholes.
Imagine, I pay a higher tax rate than Romney. And I often pay more in federal taxes than Exxon does. This is the economic work of the Republican party. Sprinkle in some Tea Party insanity, and there you go.
When Lincoln freed the slaves, the racists moved to the Democratic Party. When FDR helped the poor, many of the rich moved to the Republican Party. When LBJ signed the civil rights act, the racists moved back to the other party.
Not to say that all republicans are rich and/or racist, just that the rich and/or racist people are generally republican.
But to tell you the whole truth, people had been switching all through the mid twentieth century. FDR for example wasnt a racist or anything(relative to others of the time). He didn't only help the poor. That's why you hear about the b Democratic governor from way back when, who was in the kkk
Because conservatives have made a big mistake in putting their platform on their voter base. After Bush tore the country they figured that they would have to sit out one election knowing that the country wanted a big change from a norm.. So nearly all liberals went for Obama in his 2008 election even if they weren't democrats. Now the problem with this is after the election they decided not to moderate their party but push it further conservative thinking that their voter base would support them.. Now all they have voting for them is the farming americans and the older voters... They lost any liberals they had because their support was lost with their extreme ideals, same reason why you see republicans on here calling Obama a terrorist and democrats on here trying to be the voice of common sense. It seems that conservative to most americans now associate the word with biased individuals who are against womens rights and gay rights.. This is true because I attend texas a&m university which is supposed to be the republican hub of America but is now seeing itself reformed by the new students being fairly liberal which is basically saying republicans have lost and entire generation of voters. Even my parents who used to be republicans have switched as they don't like what the party represents now. Overall I think its more deep as they constantly chastised Obama who represented change and a movement from looking at people from their skin tone which caused a reaction in its base saying lets take our country back which is very offensive. Now they are trying to recover by supporting people like ted cruz, chis christie, or even that guy Rubio but its far from to late.