Americans sometimes mistakenly view the Republican Party as monolithic, but its not, and has always attracted factions that dont necessarily agree fully with each other, which has resulted in both ideological inconsistency and internal conflict. The GOPs first platform in 1856, for example, not only lauded rightful liberty under Constitutional law, but also advocated some contrary positions, such as corrupt public-private partnerships, as enforcement of Congressional notions of morality beyond rights-defense. And, for perhaps a century, the GOP has been torn between two major wings. One wing is moderate/progressive and is exemplified by candidates like Teddy Roosevelt and Robert LaFollette and Dwight Eisenhower and Nelson Rockefeller and Newt Gingrich. Another wing is conservative/libertarian and is exemplified by candidates like Calvin Coolidge and Robert Mr. Republican Taft and Barry Mr. Conservative Goldwater and Ronald Great Communicator Reagan and Ron Paul. Arguably, the GOP usually nominates candidates who enact the formers policies while giving mere lip service to the latters principles, and its become rare for the latter to actually put their principles into practice by working within the GOP (and even rarer to do so outside the GOP). Phyllis Schlafly helps to explain, in part, how the Establishment has successfully asserted its dominance over the GOP since 1936 in her book entitled A Choice, Not an Echo published in 1964. Heres a New York Times video clip about this ongoing internal division within the Republican Party.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 22:13:37 +0000
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