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Before you begin ranting, suggest you familiarize yourself w/a dose of history.
Firstly I'm not a leftist nor have I ever been one, NOT FOR A DAY!!!
FYI, for several years, I personally knew Wm. Buckley, James Burnham and Russell Kirk;
in case you've heard of any of them!!!
As for "classic republican ideals" the Party never had any ideals, merely platforms & promises.
Our core Principled Conservative Party was the Agrarian & Rural Democrats of the Old South, represented by Founders Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Rutledge, Lee; among dozens.
Sadly they were tarred by slavery, then controlled by the Plantation Class, and as a result destroyed by Civil War War.
The Republican Party was a New England Anti-Slavery Party that emerged in 1856 w/Fremont of California as their candidate.
The R's represented Northern Mercantile interests, having nothing to do w/Principled Conservatism.
W/Lincoln's election they remained politically ascendant for some 70 years controlling the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches until Hoover in 1932; as the Party thrived while we industrialized
post-Civil War.
During their ascendancy, they championed strong centralized government opposing States Rights, trade protectionism applying aggressive excises and tariffs as well as judicial activism.
That remains their legacy/heritage to the present moment; despite all the political blather.
As Adam Smith intuitively grasped, when wealth is the objective, self-interest becomes prominent
as greed emerges powerfully.
At their core the Republican Party represent the Fat Wallet Club and has since day one!!!
@Absalom .
I hope you are sitting down when you read this because I don't want you hurting yourself,but times change and both people,and political parties evolve. Conservatives migrated to the Republican Party after the War of Northern Aggression because there was no place in the Globalist (Dim) Party for them,and it made more sense to join and change an existing weak party than it did to start a new one.
Granted,what is "conservative","moderate","liberal" or any mixture of the three is entirely dependent on the viewers POV,but in GENERAL terms the Republicans were more conservative in every sense of the word than the Dims.
This really wasn't that big a deal at the time because there was no income tax and truthfully,not much to spend an income tax on if there had been one. Steam-powered locomotives and ships were high-tech back then,and there really wasn't a lot for the typical voter to spend their money on.
Then came WW-1 and the idea of an income tax to pay the debts ran up by our involvement in the war. After all,an America in debt was a dangerous situation,and what harm could come from a temporary income tax to pay our nations debts off and make us strong and independent again? After all,it's not like it would be a permanent tax,right? <S/>
Then,suddenly,it was decided by the government,who was the sole beneficiary of all that "free money" that they could use it to buy votes with by spending it on on modern conveniences like paved roads,running water,electricity to every farm,etc,etc,etc. There was no real need to stop this personal tax on the income and assets of Americans,so why not use all that "free money" to buy votes?
Now,there is room for reasonable people on both sides of this issue to stake out their claims as being just,and the claims of those who disagree with them to be unjust,if not downright selfish.
And,once again,the taxes weren't really high enough to cause most people to panic. After all,they didn't have much to spend their money on,and they could clearly see the benefits of running water for drinking,cooking,and flushing toilets,and they could also see the advantages of electricity and paved roads.
Any welfare programs for the truly needy were ran back then by organized religions or public-service organizations,which is the way they were supposed to be,so paying taxes to support people who couldn't or wouldn't work wasn't a concern.
Howsumever,"NOW" ain't THEN,and the working class people on or near the bottom of the economic ladder are getting awful damn tired of having to pay taxes to support people who won't work to support themselves and their families now that "welfare/aid to the needy" has evolved from a public service effort to reduce suffering for those who can't provide for themselves into a retirement system with free food,housing,utilities,medical care,and even a paycheck each month for people who want to take advantage of the situation. We now have multi-generations of families who have never provided for themselves. The Dims stay in office by buying their votes with taxpayer money.
This situation is now more insufferable to the lower-economic people of today who pay taxes because they can now see us importing foreigners who are sworn as our enemies into our country and setting THEM up in public housing and early retirement,and the government forcing the working poor to pay all the taxes to support them.
This situation can not stand. Sooner or later it is going to collapse,and it's not going to be pretty when it does.
Frankly,I am surprised Civil War,Part 2 hasn't already started.
