History Overview

The Cold War changed everything, as an America, reluctant to get involved in foreign entanglements since President Washington, became an empire society post 1945 dominated domestically by high levels of military spending, a Permanent War Economy as stated by the great Seymour Melman in 1970.  Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential candidate, launched the modern conservative movement as future president Ronald Reagan nominated him in the Republican Convention of that year.  America operated much like pre-World War II America until Reagan's election in 1980 entrenched the modern empire state.  George Orwell's book 1984, written in 1948, does a brilliant job of describing Reagan's re-election year 1984 as I re-read it that year, with rhetoric like short range Peacekeeper missiles were installed in Europe (Orwell's war is peace) and the opposition Nuclear Freeze won on ballots in 1982 in Wisconsin and elsewhere.  The Goldwater campaign began the process of turning the solid South from Democratic to Republican, an historic reversal of the Lincoln Civil War election of 1860.  The modern Republican party has become the party of Jefferson Davis, president of the 1861 Confederacy, no longer the party of Lincoln, as the Confederate flag of 1861 flew for the first time ever in the US Capitol building during the January 6^th, 2021 Trump insurrection.  (160 years is only 2 years off a 54x3=162 years perfect long cycle)

Evolution of the Republicants

Lincoln, the first Republican president, started the transcontinental railroad during the Civil War.  Republican President Teddy Roosevelt championed the trust-busting progressive movement after 1900.  My middle namesake grandfather William Markham secured funding in 1927 for the dam creating the third largest wildlife refuge in North America, the Horicon Marsh, after his election to the Wisconsin State Senate in 1926.  Republican president Eisenhower started the Interstate highway system in America in the 1950s.  These are examples of the old Republican Party before the modern reversal.  Even Senator Barry Goldwater accepted the 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalizing abortion and told President Richard Nixon he needed to resign in 1974.  Richard Nixon followed his Southern Strategy into office in 1968 and turned the tide in economics from Keynesianism to Monetarism through his funding, two staples of the modern Republicans.  Newt Gingrich stopped forty years of Democratic rule of the House of Representatives in 1994.  But Senator Mitch McConnell of former slave state Kentucky began the party of "no" Republicans of today, hence the term Republicants, adding the "t" to the name, the extreme "can't do" philosophy of obstructionism Republicans of today.  This reflects the twisting of the name by Republicans to calling the Democratic Party the Democrat Party to emphasize the "rat" at the end of the name as the modern Republicans have waged war against and demonized their opponents.  Under Obama and Biden this party has deviated from the American tradition of the loyal opposition and violated the two principles essential to democracy of "tolerance" of the opposition party and "forbearance" of doing all you can do against your opposition.  Instead, the modern Republicants falsely ascribe all manor of evil about "liberals" and attempt to reverse all opposition policies, especially health care.  Much of this dates to the 1987 Reagan reversal of the "equal time" doctrine of mass media, starting with Rush Limbaugh in 1988 and FOX news in 1997.  Our national discourse has become increasing argumentative leading up to the one-sided cult of Trumpism.  No longer do they think "there but for the grace of God go I" or give their opponents a honeymoon period after presidential elections, as in the past.

Policy Reversals

Small government conservative and Mathew 25 Christian Joe Scarborough of the Morning Joe show on MSNBC has become an independent in the face of McConnell and Trump Republicanism.   Once the party of local and state government under the theory of that government closest to the people is the best government, now the Mitch McConnell Republicans decry state and local government funding as a "blue state bailout" as if red state governors and mayors don't need funding in the pandemic to keep from "defunding the police" and healthcare workers and educators.  They oppose masks and want businesses and schools to open prematurely in the pandemic, as if that and Trump rallies are not super-spreader events that lead to mass sickness and death.  They defend gun sellers over the rights of people to avoid gun sales to criminals and the mentally ill.  They make voting hard for elderly young and low-income people trying to maintain white supremacy and the oligarchy of the rich.  In hard economic times, they accept Democratic support for stimulus under Republican presidents but not for Democratic presidents.  Instead of putting country first, they put partisanship first, seeking to hurt us all to hurt Democrats at the polls in the next election.  They deny reality to gaslight and use big lies to control the political order.  They support calling investigations into their law breaking and pandemic mistakes hoaxes.  Trump calls his law breaking and his cabinets law breaking support for law and order.  Trump supporters think his 30,000 lies are candor and honesty.  Honest news is stereotyped as fake news, Trump big lies are called alternate reality.  Small cuts in other programs and big military buildups have make the so-called small government conservatives just another big lie as Republicans increase government spending more than Democrats decade after decade.  Balance the budget is replaced by unfunded tax decreases in decade after decade.  Biggest sinner ever is supported by fundamentalist Christians who want a conservative court.  The myth that Republicans are good for the economy and small business are denied by the historical record that shows Democrats usually have a much better economic growth rate and Republicans favor big business over small business in policy after policy.

History of the Presidents Economics 1910-2009:

https://www.academia.edu/4044532/HISTORY_Presidents_Military_Economy_1910_2009_3p_2013

Please cite this work as follows:  Reuschlein, Robert. (2021, March 3), "Not Grandpa's Republicans" Madison, WI, Real Economy Institute.  Retrieved from:  https://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Not-Grandpas-Republicans,2021253088.aspx

Dr. Peace, Professor Robert Reuschlein, Real Economy Institute, Nobel Peace Prize nominee 2016-2021 with accelerating interest from the deciding Norwegians.  A consistently growing pattern shows intense interest in my work on my expertclick.com website; daily "hard looks" per year have gone from 2 to 3 to 48 to 128 to 200 to double last year's pace (118/62) so far, this 144 days.

Contact: bobreuschlein@gmail.com  Info: www.realeconomy.com