Posted on 11/01/2021 4:33:35 AM PDT by cotton1706
The Tennessee Republican Party, nicknamed the “party of Lincoln,” passed away last Thursday as it was being carted between state House and Senate committee hearing rooms.
A full historical autopsy won’t be carried out for 50 years.
snip
The GOP, as it was also sometimes called, was born in the mid-1960s with the influx of Tennessee Democrats, particularly in and around Memphis, who were disaffected by President Lyndon Johnson’s embrace of the civil rights movement. Observers saw this as an early indication of the chronic diseases that would plague the GOP in its later years.
However, the election of Sen. Howard Baker Jr. in 1966 and his seemingly moderate approach – even helping President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, win approval of the Panama Canal treaty – held out promise for a healthy Republican Party that understood the difference between campaigning and governing. The election of Winfield Dunn as the first Republican governor in 50 years seemed to confirm this prognosis.
However, concerns for the GOP’s long-term health surfaced that same election with the racist dog whistles of Congressman Bill Brock’s successful 1970 campaign to unseat Sen. Albert Gore Sr. Brock’s tenure in office as a conservative but not rigidly ideological Republican, though, allayed some concern for the health of the state Republican party, and its adolescent years helping the Reagan administration dismantle federal government programs appeared a typical teen-age prank.
Lamar Alexander’s transformation from suit-wearing Nashville lawyer to red-and-black plaid-shirt-wearing hiker promised a new maturity and healthy outlook for the almost-adult party. Creating Democrats for This and Democrats for That groups, working with a lefty teachers’ union on education reform, and bringing a union-shop auto company to the state, Alexander, as governor, was barely recognizable as a Republican.
(Excerpt) Read more at tennesseelookout.com ...
Howard Baker, who helped the Democrats give the Panama Canal away, Lamar Alexander "barely recognizable as a republican"
Oh, but they didn't like Bill Brock's "racist dogwhistles." Those were terrible!! Why, he defeated Al Gore's father!! (who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so SHOULDN'T he have been defeated?? Make up your mind!)
But take a look at Terry McAuliffe's "racist dogwhistles" just this pay Friday (or his black-faced or Klan-hooded lieutenant governor, now governor). NOTHING TO SEE HERE! MOVE ON!I
We're not playing the game of electing republicans who are really democrats anymore. And they don't like it at all.
“ even helping President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, win approval of the Panama Canal treaty –”
I’ve been waiting for a leftist to explain how this was a beneficial thing for the nation….I guess for 45 years. I still haven’t got a coherent answer.
The closest thing to a reasonable answer is “it was their land and they could sabotage it if we don’t”. Which I don’t agree with, as if no land has ever been transferred from one nation to another:
Treaty of Versailles
Louisiana purchase
Seward Folley—Alaskan Purchase
On and on
Yet they still bizarrely brag about it.
Almost insane. Are they really that blind to what is happening with actual voters?
They just don’t get it. You can’t “reach across the aisle” to Marxists. Being Marxist Lite just isn’t a viable option.
And it turns out that reaching across the aisle to the “old school” Dems wasn’t either as it lead to where we are today.
So if RIP GOP means saying goodbye to those who mouth the word of Conservatism as a means to fool the rubes, then let’s make it an Irish Wake.
A full historical autopsy won’t be carried out for 50 years.It only took 36 years and a rigged election for Tucker Carlson (AKA Fox News) to inform us on what Joe Biden is...
Will we still be around in 36 yrs. for Fox And (not your) Friends to tell us what he's done?
For America to survive there must be no reaching across the Asile, there must be grenade throwing across the aisle.
The plague across the aisle must be destroyed
Someone doesn’t know their Tennessee history very well.
East Tennessee (including 3 of Tennessee’s 5 metro areas) has been solidly Republican for the entirety of the Republican Party’s existence, the most consistently Republican region in U.S. history. It was never part of the union like West Virginia only because it was so deep in Southern lands.
Nail on the head comment!
As I recall, Jimmy Carter didn’t give away the Panama Canal; he PAID them to take it!
If we wanted another leftist party like the elites want, there’d be no need for a GOP. Oh, wait...
Forget it, they’re rollin’...
Lamar Alexander was a “one hand washes the other” politician. The got a sweetheart dealt where he “invested” $1 and a few months later reaped a $100,000 benefit. The DemocRats are hating the new politicians like Trump who won’t play the game.
Speaking of that, are there any countries that collect their citizens tax dollars and send them to the US?
55? TN GOP is 155. Assine farticle.
They’re counting from November 1966 when Howard Baker, Jr. won on his second try for the Senate. Absurd, of course, when you consider the GOP had the strongest presence of any Southern ex-Confederate state from readmission up to that point a century later.
Had it not been for JFK’s assassination, the GOP would’ve captured both Senate seats that were up in 1964 (one by a very Conservative Dan Kuykendall, who should’ve taken out Albert Sr., who decided to change positions and run as an ultra-segregationist that year). That, of course, would’ve messed up the author’s blather.
“Invested a $1 and got back $100,000”. Is that a figure of speech or did it really happen?
Yep, it really happened. Of course that deal was only available to special individuals.
Isn’t Marsha Blackburn from TN?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.