What Happened to the Republican Party of Old?

In the 1990’s as a student at Cheyney State University, several friends and I were contemplating on becoming members of the Republican Party.

As a political science/history major, we believed that with recruiting other African Americans, Latino Americans and Asian Americans we could turn the clock back to when the Republican Party was united in serving “all” Americans.

Some of us know of the weird “warping” political structure in the great Republic that saw the Dixiecrats, members of the States' Rights Democratic Party, split into two in which our grandparents saw a sneak preview of the formation of the Democratic Party in 1948. Some members of the Dixiecrats did not approve of civil rights; the reversal of Jim Crow introduced by such progressives as Hubert Humphrey, and with President Truman’s executive order to desegregate the armed forces in the same year, the “schism” was complete. The Democratic Party morphed and became the progressive party for “every” American.

At its founding, the Republican Party was not racist, bigoted, and was far from “conservative.” Abraham Lincoln spearheaded a party that destroyed the institution of slavery, waged an all-out civil war to keep the Union intact, suspended and re-shaped parts of the U.S. Constitution, launched a hugely ambitious social program known as Reconstruction forerunner of the New Deal, imposed a short-lived progressive income tax, as well as created a national banking system, a Department of Agriculture, and a system of land-grants and college education for all Americans. Theodore Roosevelt was a “Trust Buster,” who broke up corporate monopolies, supported the coal miners union during the 1902 strike, and believed that the government should provide quality healthcare for every American. Later Republican U.S. Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover thought of themselves as progressives, and Hoover once remarked "We are a nation of progressives," while President Eisenhower would refer to himself as a "New Republican."

So what happened to the “that” Republican Party?

The Republican Party of today is anything but “progressive.” This Republican Party has expressed its views consistently by “grotesque” rhetoric. The Republican Party now has a very strong racist, bigot, xenophobia backdrop which has frightened and prevented many Democrats to speak out against this vulgarity that is tearing the Republic to shreds. Many in the party take a stance that big government is a bad thing, but when they have the democratic majority, it is in fact the Republican Party that has huge governments and even bigger deficits.

The party that once aided the middle class and poor alike now solely supports the wealthy and fabricates lies to tell an ever decreasing middle class population that the government is over-taxing you in order to waste money on chaotic and foolish progressive legislation to help African Americans and other minorities. The “new” Republican motto should be, "Vote for us, and we will give the money to you instead of in the pockets of big, bad government and lazy minorities."

The Republican Party today resembles nothing of the Republican Party of old. Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were giants and visionaries of a party that was once boasted what seemed like an endless stream of vibrant and brilliant members open to different philosophies dedicated to creating a thriving Republic that the once mighty Roman Empire would have envied. The Republican Party members today are toxic, angry, bitter, resentful, hateful, and narrow-minded. Their philosophy is not only incendiary--it’s un-American and many in the party, including elected officials, publically support the dissolution of America.

Conversely, the 1990’s look like 100 years ago when I considered joining the Republican Party as a college senior. A political party founded on the principals of fairness, equality, justice, and integrity. Unfortunately, the aforementioned characteristics no longer exist in that party in the 21st century that was once mentioned more than 100 years ago as a “truly remarkable entity.”




Anthony P. Johnson