Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule

[RainDog]

123. You miss the point

The article talks about two historic elite factions in American society and what typified them.

Eisenhower, for instance, was a conservative. But he send Nat'l Guard troops for the Arkansas Nine. He funded the interstate hwy system. He didn't mess with tax levels.

That's one sort of elite position - you do public service work for the good of the nation.

The current "no taxes," and "no public good" outside of the church stems from a different mindset. The ratios of poor people in southern states, the lack of public health services, the low literacy rates, the religious fundamentalism - those are the things the Republican Party calls for now.

In my opinion, the current crop of Republicanism stems from the disaffected religious and their affiliation with the KKK to oppose civil rights, evolution, women's rights, personal liberty as in prohibition vs regulation - those are Klan positions and were the former positions of many Southern Democrats into the 20th century, as well as portions of the Midwest.

While they stayed with the democratic party because of economic populism through the first part of the 20th c., they broke with Democrats because of the Civil Rights act of 1964.

iow, Racism and religion, and all that implies, is the reason the current Republican Party has any traction.