{"id":16018,"date":"2009-10-15T00:45:47","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T06:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=16018"},"modified":"2009-10-15T00:46:14","modified_gmt":"2009-10-15T06:46:14","slug":"we-dont-need-another-hero-says-the-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/10\/15\/we-dont-need-another-hero-says-the-gop.html","title":{"rendered":"We Don’t Need Another Hero (says the GOP)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

The new GOP website has a page (or two) lauding GOP heroes<\/a>. Blue Texan<\/a> suggests that quite a few of these might not consider themselves Republican heroes — or wouldn’t be heroes by the lights of today’s Republican party if they did now what they did then.<\/p>\n

\n

Susan B. Anthony<\/strong>: a feminist lesbian<\/a> Unitarian civil rights leader<\/a> from Massachusetts? Yeah, right.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Definitely the most laughable of the lot. Oh, and she supported Women’s Suffrage (duh), and probably would have supported the ERA. She voted for Republicans, yes. See three paragraphs below. That doesn’t make her a modern Republican hero. Phyllis Schlafly would try to scratch her eyes out, and Rush Limbaugh would spew about her “Femi-nazi” leanings.<\/p>\n

\n

Pinckney Pinchback<\/strong>: hard to tell, but he fought on the Union side during the Civil War<\/a>, so I\u2019m going to go with no.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pinkney was the first black to serve as a governor of a US state — Louisiana, for 35 days, having been lieutenant governor when the governor was impeached. He also claimed seats in both houses of the state legislature, but couldn’t get anyone to seat him (perhaps by the Norm Coleman scale that makes him a Republican hero).<\/p>\n

Blacks in high political position were relatively common during the Reconstruction, which means they were Republican. They vanished from the South — and the North, and from both parties — very quickly thereafter.<\/p>\n

I’ll note here once again that the Republican Party of 2009 bears no resemblance to the GOP of the 19th Century. Their insistence on drawing on Republicans of that era is understandable, but of dubious historical quality, any more than, say, Barack Obama’s Democratic party is the same as the one that took over the post-Reconstruction South. Through the early part of the 20th Century, the GOP was much more progressive than the Democrats; that flipped as of the Great Depression, but prior to that anyone who was a support of women’s suffrage or the abolition of slavery was probably Republican, even if neither of those are particularly associated with the GOP’s current party platform.<\/p>\n

It does give them a chance to show a bunch of black faces, though. For example:<\/p>\n

\n

Octavius Catto<\/strong>: African-American civil rights pioneer from Philly<\/a>. Doubtful.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He does not seem to have been particularly “Republican” — he was of that party because that party was the one that had freed the slaves. He was also an “activist” and an “intellectual,” which are bad news in today’s GOP. He was killed by Irish mobs in 1871 who were trying to stop blacks from voting. Today the GOP simply determines ways to disqualify blacks before they can vote. <\/p>\n

\n

Jackie Robinson<\/strong>: Oops<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Everett Dirksen<\/strong>: tried to amend the Constitution to allow prayer in schools<\/a> and was a favorite of Joseph McCarthy<\/a>. Probably.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He was also a strong civil rights legislator, a bipartisan who worked with both Republican and Democratic presidents, and a supporter of the Viet Nam war. The picture is mixed enough that it’s clear he’d not be considered intellectually pure enough to be a GOP leader today.<\/p>\n

\n

Frederick Douglass<\/strong>: no fucking way.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A very strong civil libertarian, suffragist, abolitionist, and reformer. He supported both Lincoln and Grant, but only insofar as both men fought for black civil rights. His second wife was a white woman and radical feminist. He was the first black man to receive a vote for president at a major party convention (yes, the GOP), but it’s difficult to see him as an exemplar or hero of the modern Republican party.<\/p>\n

\n

Edward Brooke<\/strong>: introduced legislation banning missile testing<\/a>, championed Title IX and fought for Medicaid-funded abortions<\/a>. Off the reservation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Seems to have gotten the nod because the first black man elected to the Senate since Reconstruction (in 1967, and in Massachusetts of all place). He was a liberal Republican, though, a supporter of Nelson Rockefeller, and he fought to retain Johnson-era Great Society civil rights works by the federal government when the Nixon administration sought to phase them out. He helped organize opposition to two of Nixon’s Supreme Court nominees, and was the first Republican to call on Nixon to resign during the Watergate Scandal. <\/p>\n

Yeah, not likely he’d get any GOP party support were he to magically re-enter politics.<\/p>\n

\n

Ellen Foster<\/strong>: who the hell is Ellen Foster?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Judith Ellen Foster<\/a>. Female lawyer and temperance leader around the turn of the previous century. She did some work in Republican organizing, creating Republican Women’s Clubs around the country. Not much “there” there, but it does let them put another woman on the page. Doesn’t even show up in Conservapedia, fergoshsakes.<\/p>\n

\n

Abraham Lincoln<\/strong>: expanded the power of the federal government, created the IRS and the income tax, questioned the divinity of Christ and freed the slaves<\/a>. \u2018Nuff said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Well, of course, Lincoln has to be trotted out for this bit of Republican hagiography. As noted, hardly modern GOP material.<\/p>\n

\n

Dwight Eisenhower<\/strong>: expanded socialist fascist New Deal programs<\/a>, created department of Health Education and Welfare<\/a>, raised already record-high taxes<\/a> to pay for massive federal highway project<\/a>, warned against \u201cMilitary-Industrial Complex.<\/a>\u201d Any questions?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I have no doubt that Ike would be mildly embarrassed to be considered a “hero” of the GOP — and appalled to see what the party has become.<\/p>\n

\n

Ronald Reagan<\/strong>: liberalized abortion<\/a>, raised taxes<\/a>, signed a treaty against torture<\/a> and cut-and-run when the A-rabs attacked. Sorry, Ronnie.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Heh.<\/p>\n

Others on the list which Blue Texan didn’t name:<\/p>\n