Agree with your assessment of pundits who were formerly "republican". I no longer believe there is a republican party. It began dying before reagan...maybe nixon began the process. The struggle is with this authoritarian/fascist version. Former republicans can't face it IMO.
Agree with your assessment of pundits who were formerly "republican". I no longer believe there is a republican party. It began dying before reagan...maybe nixon began the process. The struggle is with this authoritarian/fascist version. Former republicans can't face it IMO.
I can't pinpoint a date either. Dana Milbank in his very good THE DESTRUCTIONISTS: The Twenty-Five-Year Crackup of the Republican Party dates it to the rise of Newt Gingrich, though he does look at the conditions that made Gingrich -- I cannot stop my fingers from typing "Gingrinch" -- possible. I mostly trace the beginning of the end of the GOP to Nixon's "southern strategy," which brought a horde of white Southern Democrats into the Republican Party in the mid/late '60s.
And earlier than that even! I just read Jacob Heilbrunn's recent AMERICA LAST: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators, which traces it back to H. L. Mencken and others who were enamored with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Heilbrunn's book meshes well with Rachel Maddow's PREQUEL and the Ultra podcasts. I believe that behind this "libertarian political philosophy" are the uber-wealthy and mega corporations who want no checks or balances on their economic "freedom." HCR traces that tendency back to at least the Civil War.
Agree with your assessment of pundits who were formerly "republican". I no longer believe there is a republican party. It began dying before reagan...maybe nixon began the process. The struggle is with this authoritarian/fascist version. Former republicans can't face it IMO.
I can't pinpoint a date either. Dana Milbank in his very good THE DESTRUCTIONISTS: The Twenty-Five-Year Crackup of the Republican Party dates it to the rise of Newt Gingrich, though he does look at the conditions that made Gingrich -- I cannot stop my fingers from typing "Gingrinch" -- possible. I mostly trace the beginning of the end of the GOP to Nixon's "southern strategy," which brought a horde of white Southern Democrats into the Republican Party in the mid/late '60s.
I suppose HCR would date it earlier to the forces opposing FDR. Timothy Snyder describes the gop an extremist libertarian political philosophy.
And earlier than that even! I just read Jacob Heilbrunn's recent AMERICA LAST: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators, which traces it back to H. L. Mencken and others who were enamored with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Heilbrunn's book meshes well with Rachel Maddow's PREQUEL and the Ultra podcasts. I believe that behind this "libertarian political philosophy" are the uber-wealthy and mega corporations who want no checks or balances on their economic "freedom." HCR traces that tendency back to at least the Civil War.
So much to know, so little time
This "History Comes Alive!" thing is sort of nerve-racking.
No kidding. I thought the fist pump etc of the traitor in chief as he was hustled away looked like a nazi salute with a closed fist.