“It’s ironic that race was the issue that created the Republican Party and that race could very well be the issue that destroys it.The G.O.P. was founded to fight slavery, and through most of its history it had a decent record on civil rights. A greater percentage of congressional Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act than Democrats.
It’s become more of a white party in recent years, of course, and adopted some wrongheaded positions on civil rights enforcement, but it was still possible to be a Republican without feeling like you were violating basic decency on matters of race. Most of the Republican establishment, from the Bushes to McCain and Romney, fought bigotry, and racism was not a common feature in the conservative moment.
Between 1984 and 2003 I worked at National Review, The Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and The Weekly Standard. Most of my friends were Republicans.”
Comments
Don Shipp, Homestead Florida 7 hours ago
David is wrong about the Republican Party and its white identity politics, it was an integral part of Republican Party strategy long before 2005. Republican opposition to “big government” was always a metaphor for opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” was a raced based appeal to white voters. Ronald Reagan’s entire presidency was marked by racial dog whistles, opening his 1980 campaign in racially infamous Philadelphia, Mississippi. Reagan originally opposed making Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday. He was against forced busing to achieve integration, and affirmative action. He told false stories about “Chicago welfare queens” driving around in Cadillacs, and referred to “strapping young bucks”. He vetoed the “Civil Rights Restoration Act ” of 1987 and sanctions against the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The notorious Willie Horton campaign was the creation of George H.W. Bush’s campaign strategist, Lee Atwood. Moderate Republican’s must accept the fact that Donald Trump’s blatantly racist appeal to voters is an ugly legacy of Republican Party history.
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David Lindsay Hamden, CT Pending Approval
David Brook’s remarkable op-ed went right by you, Mr. Ship. There is variation and nuance in both parties. John Lindsay was a Republican when he co-authored the what became the civil rights act of 1964. He was part of a bi-partisan group of leaders in congress who forced it to a vote against the quiet wishes of the the Kennedy brothers, who warned it would damage the Democratic party for years.
While you are right that the GOP has moved closer and closer to the white supremacists and racists, a number of Republicans certainly had their great moments in the sunshine of the civil right movement.
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