The U.S. is in a time-warp, created by the constitutional election system that enables a small minority to control the government. Thus, a small group of white men who do not even represent the majority of their own party, let alone society at large, utterly dominate the GOP, and with the 250+ assured electoral votes of the "Red" states, are practically assured of winning the Presidential election. Most reports hold that more than two-thirds of Republicans do not want the government regulating abortion, but like the New Hampshire "Tax Pledge" (requiring candidates for governor to pledge to veto a sales of income tax), the "Pro-Life" Pledge was out in full force.
Except for Rudy Giuliani, not one of the candidates was in touch with the 21st century. It might has have been 1964 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Let's look back at 1964, the year the "conservatives", i.e., reactionaries, hijacked the Republican Party.
The triumph of Barry Goldwater and the reaction against the “Eastern Establishment” that had dominated the Republican Party since at least the 1876 Presidential election was ratified at the convention held at San Francisco’s Cow Palace in between July 13 and 16, 1964 Goldwater’s triumph was complete when convention delegates rejected moderate William Scranton, the moderate governor of Pennsylvania who had won the delegations of 10 states, whose name was put into nomination by none other than Milton Eisenhower, the brother of the only Republican to hold the Oval Office in 32 years. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the scion of the Eastern Establishment, had been bested by Goldwater during the primary season, which was still a relatively new vehicle for allotting convention delegates.
When they weren’t gamboling at the Cow Palace, Republican delegates frequented North Beach, where the new phenomenon of go-go dancing had reared its…top. Miss Carol Doda, one of the dancers at the Condor Club, was touted with a variation of Goldwater’s “In Your Heart You Know He’s Right” slogan when she made her debut, sans top, on the last night of the convention:
IN YOUR HEART YOU KNOW SHE’S RIPE.
The country, still to be racked by urban riots and the escalation of the Vietnam War, was not ripe for Goldwater’s brand of reactionary conservatism, but Doda‘s daring act signaled the sea change in morality that would create the “Silent Majority” that would be tapped by Richard Nixon and later by Ronald Regan, a Goldwater supporter who rose to prominence at the ’64 Convention.
Rockefeller had attacked Goldwater for being an ostrich with his head in the sand when it came to the problems of 1960s America: "Americans will not and should not respond to a political creed that cherishes the past solely because it offers an excuse for shutting out the hard facts and difficult tasks of the present.”
In the race for the critical California primary, the forces supporting Goldwater, down 13 points in the polls behind with a fortnight to go, pulled out all the stops to counter Rockefeller’s expensive campaign. Rockefeller bankrolled an expensive, negative campaign that cast Goldwater as a dangerous extremist politician who might pilot the world to a nuclear holocaust. In response, the Goldwater forces engaged in “disruptive tactics that included bomb-threats made to the Rockefeller headquarters.”1
The forces of hooliganism that culminated in the 1995 Oklahoma City attack were clearly on display during the St. Pete debate, with videos from gun fetishists and fundamentalist Christians.
Except for Rudy Giuliani, not one of the candidates was in touch with the 21st century. It might has have been 1964 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Let's look back at 1964, the year the "conservatives", i.e., reactionaries, hijacked the Republican Party.
The triumph of Barry Goldwater and the reaction against the “Eastern Establishment” that had dominated the Republican Party since at least the 1876 Presidential election was ratified at the convention held at San Francisco’s Cow Palace in between July 13 and 16, 1964 Goldwater’s triumph was complete when convention delegates rejected moderate William Scranton, the moderate governor of Pennsylvania who had won the delegations of 10 states, whose name was put into nomination by none other than Milton Eisenhower, the brother of the only Republican to hold the Oval Office in 32 years. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the scion of the Eastern Establishment, had been bested by Goldwater during the primary season, which was still a relatively new vehicle for allotting convention delegates.
When they weren’t gamboling at the Cow Palace, Republican delegates frequented North Beach, where the new phenomenon of go-go dancing had reared its…top. Miss Carol Doda, one of the dancers at the Condor Club, was touted with a variation of Goldwater’s “In Your Heart You Know He’s Right” slogan when she made her debut, sans top, on the last night of the convention:
IN YOUR HEART YOU KNOW SHE’S RIPE.
The country, still to be racked by urban riots and the escalation of the Vietnam War, was not ripe for Goldwater’s brand of reactionary conservatism, but Doda‘s daring act signaled the sea change in morality that would create the “Silent Majority” that would be tapped by Richard Nixon and later by Ronald Regan, a Goldwater supporter who rose to prominence at the ’64 Convention.
Rockefeller had attacked Goldwater for being an ostrich with his head in the sand when it came to the problems of 1960s America: "Americans will not and should not respond to a political creed that cherishes the past solely because it offers an excuse for shutting out the hard facts and difficult tasks of the present.”
In the race for the critical California primary, the forces supporting Goldwater, down 13 points in the polls behind with a fortnight to go, pulled out all the stops to counter Rockefeller’s expensive campaign. Rockefeller bankrolled an expensive, negative campaign that cast Goldwater as a dangerous extremist politician who might pilot the world to a nuclear holocaust. In response, the Goldwater forces engaged in “disruptive tactics that included bomb-threats made to the Rockefeller headquarters.”1
The forces of hooliganism that culminated in the 1995 Oklahoma City attack were clearly on display during the St. Pete debate, with videos from gun fetishists and fundamentalist Christians.
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This post is more fully developed at Associated Content.
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