The Republican Civil War...by a Black Republican [View all]
By John Meredith, president and CEO of Meredith Advocacy Group in Huntsville. Meredith was recently named among the top 100 Most Influential African American Republicans.
Few know and fewer care to bring attention to the fact that the Republican party was, not that long ago, for all practical purposes, not that distinguishable from the Democratic party.
Both sought and achieved governance through the middle with Democrats leaning left toward American workers while Republicans tilted right in the direction of business. Bipartisanship routinely lead to win-win scenarios for both constituencies and, as a result, all Americans prospered.
All that changed when South Carolina-based industrialist Roger Milliken began using his vast fortune to fund what we know today as the conservative movement. He sponsored two of their most influential institutions, the National Review and the Heritage Foundation.
He made possible Sen. Strom Thurmond's defection from the Democratic Party that ushered in the GOP's Southern Strategy as well as supporting the Presidential campaign of Sen. Barry Goldwater that conservatives cite as the birth of their political ideology— personal freedom, fiscal responsibility and limited government.
Although the power building technique had been employed sporadically by conservatives before, it was not until the Republican take over of Congress in the 1990s and the rise of Tom Delay that gerrymandering became the preferred method for securing Republican dominance in that legislative body.
The systematic rigging of uncompetitive districts to ensure their majority laid the groundwork for a purge of the remaining moderate, pro-governance Republican lawmakers and their supporters started by Karl Rove and Dick Cheney during the administration of President George W. Bush.
Much more at link. He covers all the bases as to what's wrong with today's Republican party.
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/10/the_republican_civil_war_guest.html#incart_river
= new reply since forum marked as read