J.D. Vance isn’t your grandfather’s Republican. But maybe he’s your great grandfather’s Republican.
Pre-1952, the Republicans were split between eastern Republicans like Thomas E. Dewey of New York, and western Republicans like Robert A. Taft of Ohio.
Dewey was urban and urbane. A dapper fellow. He was a moderate conservative. Taft was a conservative of the “Old Right.” The “Old Right” was America First during the run-up to World War II (it shifted along with the country as Germany first invaded Poland and then France, and especially when Japan attacked us).
Both wings of the Republican Party advocated a strong economy as the best remedy to poverty and racial disparity. We believe in work, not welfare, and we look at Social Security and Medicare not as entitlements but as earned benefits.
Both wings of the Republican Party advocated a policy of peace through strength. (However, for a time, the neocons took over the party for a time, with their naive idea that we could easily make countries into democracies.)
For a long time, we Republicans thought a “balanced ticket” combined a Presidential candidate from one of the two wings with a Vice Presidential candidate from the other.
For example: McKinley (Ohio) and T. Roosevelt (New York); Harding (Ohio) and Coolidge (Massachusetts); you could even include Reagan (Illinois via California) and G.H.W. Bush (Connecticut via Texas).
This current ticket could be said to indicate a kind of end to the east-west dichotomy within the Republican Party in that both Trump (New York via Florida) and Vance (Ohio) share similar approaches to many issues.
Yes there’s change, but there’s also continuity.
Deeply appreciate your lesson on Ohio/NY politics. It’s an area in which I’m quite interested but haven’t read that excellent summary anywhere. Great grandfather was appointed Attorney General for the So District of NY by Taft and then Roosevelt, and started the Ohio Society of New York. Fascinating to get that perspective on the period. Thank you.
That’s very interesting.
Thanks.
L