Eisenhower nailed it in 1956. Those words now describe the Repuke party.

[MoonRiver]

?1620911369

[roamer65]

1. If Ike were alive today, he would be a Democrat.

There would be no place for him in the Trumpist Party.

[Wednesdays]

2. Ike!?

Shit, Nixon and Reagan would be Democrats in today's world.

[lookyhereyou]

7. and that shows you

how far they have moved the dialog

to the right. the media runs the country

for their advertisers and owners ; not for the people,

by the people.

the propaganda against socialism

not letting us get to democratic socialism

[Caliman73]

14. Hell, I would take Social Democracy.

You are correct. This country has been dragged to the right when the actual population supports policies that would resemble the Social Democracies more than the austerity that Conservatives and Neoliberals favor.

It has been an extensive project by billionaires paying millions to protect their billions.

[tymorial]

16. Likely true

Manchin types but yeah

[burrowowl]

26. Raygun no, Nixon maybe

[ShazzieB]

30. I agree.

I can't see Raygun being willing to kiss Herr Trumpfuhrer's ring (or anything else of his), though. He'd laugh in that ugly orange face and get together with Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney to plan Chump's downfall.

Raygun was detestable, but he was nobody's toady. Unlike most of the GOP members of the Hiuse and Senate.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

31. Reagan helped make people like donny to get in easier.

I loathed Reagan but if I had the choice between him and donny I would have taken Reagan.

[wnylib]

32. If Ike, Tricky Dick, Nelson Rockefeller,

John McCain, and St. Raygun were all alive today, along with Mitt Romney, they would be THE Republican Party, a mix of moderates and conservatives.

The Turtle, Desantis, Graham, Boebert, Greene, Hawley would be a lunatic fringe party of their own, playing footsies with the orange fascist.

[NBachers]

39. Add Jack Kemp, George Romney, Everett Dirksen, Jacob Javits, Kenneth Keating, and Mark Hatfield of

the McGovern/Hatfield Amendment. Republicans you didn't have to agree with, but their patriotism and commitment to the United States of America and Democracy was firm.

[yellowdogintexas]

47. Don't forget Howard Baker and Barry Goldwater. nt

[KS Toronado]

3. Believe Ike was a Democrat before he was lured by the dark side.

[Chipper Chat]

4. So was Ronnie

[lookyhereyou]

8. so was tRump

didn't he switch to run ?

[GB_RN]

18. Not Quite

He donated to Democrats in the past, yes. But he had an aborted run as a Repuke in 2000.

[wnylib]

33. He was a Dem before that.

[burrowowl]

27. Until he married daughter of John Birch Society.

But I don't think he was a serious democrat.

[BobTheSubgenius]

40. Ronnie was once a big union advocate.

[Cosmocat]

48. I heard a record of him from the 50s or 60s

Doing a screed on "socialized healthcare." Yeah, he was head of the actors guild or whatever but he was a true believer all along.

[BobTheSubgenius]

51. I can't say that I'm surprised or disappointed.

Pretty predictable, I guess.

Did you ever see Republican campaign posters from that era? They were positioning themselves as the Champion of the Little Guy, It seems bizarre now,

[Cosmocat]

52. Here it is ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Speaks_Out_Against_Socialized_Medicine#:~:text=In%20this%20more%20than%20ten,will%20do%20for%20a%20living.

Yeah, they have been circling the toilet drain for a LONG time, slowly at first, but now that really fast swirl before going down ...

[PatSeg]

9. Both parties wanted Ike as their candidate

I'm not sure why he chose the republican party, but perhaps at the time, he felt the republican party represented peacetime and prosperity, after two decades of war and depression.

Over the years, Eisenhower has become more and more impressive in my mind. His speech warning about the dangers of the military-industrial complex was extremely prescient. I think he was the most liberal republican president in recent history, at least since Teddy Roosevelt. When I was a kid, he was just the nice old guy in the White House.

[LastDemocratInSC]

12. The early drafts of his speech mentioned the military-industrial-congressional complex.

But he eventually omitted the reference to Congress because he thought it would anger them.

[wnylib]

34. I'm not sure how prescient his MIC speech was.

The MIC already existed during Ike's terms. He warned about it growing stronger, which it did. JFK had to deal with their hawkish aims in Cuba, and to assert that he was in control as civilian CIC.

[PatSeg]

43. Yes, that is true

It did already exist obviously because of World War II. You are right, his concern was about it growing bigger and stronger. Sadly his warnings weren't heeded. You build a powerful military force during wartime out of necessity, it will want more war and will look for opportunities. It can't just be turned off and on like a light switch and the military leaders aren't going to roll over and play dead. They will fight for their survival.

[soldierant]

45. Democrats ran Adlai Stevenson against him both times.

I was just a kid myself, but I knew who my family supported, and it was my impression that Sevenson was the more progressive of hte two.

That was probably the last days of the time when both parties - i won't say bent over backwards, but the did pay attention and take some care - not to offend the opposite party's supporters. That is certainly something that we as a party can no longer afford to do - if indeed we ever could.

[WA-03 Democrat]

11. Nope

He was a politically a Republican through and through. I saw and read the things that he did. I previously thought he was the last good Republican. Then I started reading The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s..

He was Republican first and foremost. Truman tried to get him to join the Democratic Party and failed. He hung out with a lot of good ole boys in Augusta, GA. He was the “pick yourself up by the bootstraps” and “charity should not be asked” for kind of guy. He also had a real religious fundamentalism, completed with moral hypocrisy too. He was supportive of the McCarthy hearings, but indirectly helped McCarthy’s downfall and grabbed the press for himself. He was an absolute hero during the war but if that’s the best the modern Republican Party can do, a strong NO THANK YOU.

[KS Toronado]

22. Appears I was somewhat mistaken.....

Ike done his best to stay out of politics......before being lured by the dark side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

[IronLionZion]

23. America had 20 years of Dems so it felt like time for a change to GOP

FDR and Truman were in office 2 decades, Ike was courted by both parties but chose GOP because American voters would want a different party in power.

[wnylib]

35. Conservatives were eager to get back in control.

[PatrickforB]

42. Absolutely. There can be no doubt of that.

[spanone]

5. K&R

[NNadir]

6. Besides Lincoln and Grant, and perhaps TR...

...Eisenhower is the only Republican president I'd rank among the top ten.

Of course they represented a political party that died some time ago; the modern Republican Party is just a revisited flesh eating zombie risen from the grave.

[TheRealNorth]

10. TR pretty much had his foot out the door of the Republican Party in 1912

When the Republicans went full-Corporate lackeys. The only thing that he supported that would not necessarily be in line with Democratic Party today was his militarism/interventionalism.

[soldierant]

46. And his big game hunting.

[Marcuse]

13. Once upon a time in America

[TygrBright]

15. All that stuff was fine as long as it was for white people. n/t

[Tree Lady]

17. Wow nice to know that was done year I was born!

Very cool, what a complete change but wasn't it the southern democrats that changed because of civil rights in the 60's and turned the republican party into the party of racists?

[Marcuse]

21. The Republicans have recruited Dixiecrats, Tea baggers and deplorables to carry water for the 1%.

[FakeNoose]

25. Oooh, can I play too?

Hard to believe, innit?

[raging moderate]

29. I read somewhere that Ike knew about the right-wing crazies but didn't like them.

I believe he mentioned Armand Hammer? I think he referenced the people like James Buchanan and Harry Byrd down in Virginia. But he thought they were not intelligent enough to gain much power in the US.

[wnylib]

36. Yup. They took advantage of resentments

among working class Dems toward the civil rights and women's rights movements of the 60s and 70s to recruit them as Reagan Democrats. The racists and misogynists flocked to the Rs and made politics about racial and gender "culture wars" instead of about economics and rights of ALL the middle and working class people. Rs were happy to tell their new recruits that "the other" was responsible for all economic and social problems, and the fools believed them because they wanted to hear and believe what they were told.

[Evolve Dammit]

20. Great posters. How the party has devolved. Now a threat to all of us.

[IronLionZion]

24. The civil rights movement happened

so the Southern Dixiecrats switched to the GOP after Dems embraced civil rights

[burrowowl]

28. Yup!

[czarjak]

38. Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act. Believe me.

[Brother Mythos]

19. Thanks for posting this.

The Republicult certainly does have the determination to advance a cause. Unfortunately, it's not a right and moral cause.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

37. As the Nation has grown more diverse

The racist republican turd has moved ever farther along the large intestine of American life. Now that turd is at the end of the passage, and it’s big, and dry and smelly and full of indigestible crud.

[colsohlibgal]

41. Ike Would Be Appalled At Today's Republicans

He would have had no use for today’s Republican Party. In fact, most of his descendants I believe are now Democrats.....same as the Rockefellers.

Ike would have been flabbergasted by Chitolini.

[Stallion]

44. Nixon/Agnew Recognized the Wedge Issues and Reagan Perfected Them

nationally the wedge issues they designed now work against them

The parasites that infected the Republican Party were spwaned by both

[OneGrassRoot]

49. The irony of his great-granddaughter...

being a pro-Trump QAnon "influencer" is.....so sad.

[malaise]

50. Yah think?