DBWI: hard right Republicans

JoeMulk

Banned
What would a good POD be for getting a timeline where the hard right Goldwater/Reagenites define the politics of the GOP?
 
thats a very hard one, Goldwater was crushed, winning only his home state, maybe if he came out against the Civil Rights act? but nether he or Reagan were southerners so IDK why they'd play to Southern Racism, also they're Libertarian views seem at odds with the Southern populist economics and social conservatism, and long standing Southern hate for the "Party of Lincoln"
 
Maybe if they had formed a coalition with Helms, Falwell and Robertson? That would move pretty much everyone in the Christian Democrat Party (OOC: Nothing like the European parties with similar names) into the Republican camp.
 
Maybe if they had formed a coalition with Helms, Falwell and Robertson? That would move pretty much everyone in the Christian Democrat Party (OOC: Nothing like the European parties with similar names) into the Republican camp.

I can't ever see Goldwater aligning himself with the Christianist far-right. He was half-Jewish and a libertarian, after all. Reagan was a Hollywood actor (which to the crazy far-righters is up there with New York in terms of decadence and sin) & a divorcee, so he's probably out as well.
 
Romney was pretty doofy in 1968. Just get him to say something stupid enough that he can only ensure the nomination by giving the Vice-Presidency to someone like Reagan, then have Romney die in office somehow. Of course, I don't know how well the America which just elected a pro-peace President dedicated to fighting poverty and advancing civil rights will react to President Ronald Reagan *hurk*.
 
Maybe if they had formed a coalition with Helms, Falwell and Robertson? That would move pretty much everyone in the Christian Democrat Party (OOC: Nothing like the European parties with similar names) into the Republican camp.

the CDP is like the anti-Goldwater/Reagenites, the CDP is socially conservative and economic populist
 
With the leftward tilt of the Democratic party beginning in the late 1960s, it was inevitable that the dixiecrats in the South would form the Christian Democratic Party.

When a political party is dominated by the likes of James Eastland, Jesse Helms, Larry McDonald, Fred Phelps, Anita Bryant and Bo Gritz, should we take the CDP seriously?

Would you support a party whose platform since 1976 has called for the abolition of the 17th Amendment?
 
I cant see the GOP going too far to the right unless they start trying to appeal to the south by going against Civil Rights.
 
Well, with Goldwater being out of the running since his 64 fiasco, I'd say the only real candidate who could lead a right-wing takeover of the GOP would be his biggest fan, Reagan -- and I'd stipulate that for this to work, Reagan has to win the nomination and subsequent nomination outright, so the VP-ship isn't going to do it.

As to how -- well, there was his run in 68, but coming just two years after his election to the California Governorship, that was just something of a pipe dream. He decided not to challenge Romney for re-election in 72, which was smart, but did decide to try to snatch the nomination from Brooke in 76 -- and it doesn't look like that was ever going to happen either. Due to his age, his last chance would have been in 1980, but of course then Brooke was running for re-election -- as in 72, he couldn't really challenge an incumbent President.

So where does that leave us? Well, it looks like the only way to even open up a plausible Reagan win after Goldwater's defeat in 64 is to have either Romney somehow lose his re-election bid in 72 or have Udall beat Brooke in 76. And even assuming this happens, and Reagan manages to sell himself as the GOP's best shot at re-taking the White House, and he then beats McGovern in 76 or Udall in 80 -- even then it's not clear sailing for the right. Because -- and this is somewhat relevant -- Reagan was not "religious" in the way the CDP would understand it. Not only was Reagan a divorcee, he signed in CA the country's first No Fault Divorce law.

All told, it looks like after 1964, the Hard Right was just in too vulnerable a position to have any hopes of taking over the Republican party, at least before the Cold War was up -- and of course, once the threat of Communism was gone, American conservative philosophy -- even for the followers of Goldwater -- had to adapt...
 
With the leftward tilt of the Democratic party beginning in the late 1960s, it was inevitable that the dixiecrats in the South would form the Christian Democratic Party.

When a political party is dominated by the likes of James Eastland, Jesse Helms, Larry McDonald, Fred Phelps, Anita Bryant and Bo Gritz, should we take the CDP seriously?

Would you support a party whose platform since 1976 has called for the abolition of the 17th Amendment?
Man, sometimes I almost want to send the CDP money. Without their 10% of the vote wasted on David Dukes or George Allens, they would all either melt into the Democrats again, or the Republicans. Keep them quarantined off from the real discourse.
 
When a political party is dominated by the likes of James Eastland, Jesse Helms, Larry McDonald, Fred Phelps, Anita Bryant and Bo Gritz, should we take the CDP seriously?

Well, they did really mess up the race when they ran George W. Bush in 2000. If they had picked someone who hadn't been the son of a Vice President, McCain would probably have been the clear winner, instead of having to duke it out for months with Rodham in the courts.
 
Didn't that whining loser Nixon talk about a "Southern strategy" (whatever the hell that was) in the late 60's? Before his death in that bizarre plumbing accident obviously.
(I must learn to think before typing. I have a mental picture of an unshaven zombie Nixon right now. Yuk!) :eek:
 
I dunno. The hard right and hard left of the Democrats always seems to tear that party in two despite the 'pressure valve' the CDP provides... but the CDP are still Dems when it comes down to brass tacks and it has cost the Democrats as a whole more than one election. Like this last one when the hard left broke for NooBama, the hard right for Edwards (what a hypocritical joke HE turned out to be :p) and neither could remotely reconcile to win against a Republican Party supposedly destroyed by the Crash of 2006... So now we have President Tom Coburn who in any other election cycle would have been a joke going up against the 'unstoppable' Democrats. :rolleyes: Same as '04 when the far left broke for Dean and the far right for Edwards and a vulnerable McCain swept the south after Dean started calling the CDP 'retards'.

2000 was a huge anomaly with the CDP candidate being one that actually appealed to conservative Dems and Reps... most of the time the CDP only hurts the Dems, but that's been forgotten with the meme that the Reps are all as socially conservative as southern Dems / the CDP...

Both parties are their own worst enemies nowadays with the fiscally liberal Dems being split in half into their respective Social liberal / conservative tents, polarizing each other to no end and the fiscally conservative, socially moderate Reps never being able to find a message that works beyond its base and more winning by default since the Rep candidate isn't THAT ultraleft/right Dem...
 
Didn't that whining loser Nixon talk about a "Southern strategy" (whatever the hell that was) in the late 60's? Before his death in that bizarre plumbing accident obviously.
(I must learn to think before typing. I have a mental picture of an unshaven zombie Nixon right now. Yuk!) :eek:

Wasn't his plan to try to get the Racist's vote?

That was bound to backfire on him. He'd just get a lot of the real nutballs in the south, but meanwhile lose all of the African-American Republicans, as well as much of the north. Meanwhile, the Christian right would stay clear of him anyway, seeing as he was a Quaker.

It's no wonder, and probably a blessing to the Republican party, that he lost the primaries to Romney.
 
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