“I will not speak with disrespect of the Republican Party. I always speak with respect of the past.” — Woodrow Wilson
The Republican Party evolved from the Whig Party, whose last president was Millard Fillmore, infamous for signing the Fugitive Slave Act that created more dangers for Harriet Tubman. When the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise allowing residents to vote on slavery in the northern territories, it marked the start of bloody fighting in Kansas between pro-slavery advocates and abolitionists. The 1857 Dred Scott decision in Justice Taney’s Supreme Court allowed slavery in the territories and declared slaves as non-citizens. This issue divided the Whigs. One group, including Abraham Lincoln, created the new Republican Party. The Whigs vanished and the Civil War began.
The current Supreme Court dominated by six conservative judges, three of whom were appointed by former President Donald Trump, appear to value personal viewpoints over an objective analysis of the law. They have abolished constitutional rights such as abortion, eliminated affirmative action, stopped Biden’s student debt relief plan and gutted the Civil Rights Voting Act. On CBS This Morning, Robert Costa talked to Adam Harris of the Atlantic who pointed out the court's “sharp right turn” during a historic week with controversial opinions revealing the court's sharp divide on race, education and gay rights. "The conservative majority has found their way to flex their muscle," Harris said. "It's hard to see how that will change in the foreseeable future.”
Will this “flexing of muscle” help the Republicans as the American landscape rapidly changes? Precedents that lasted for half a century are gone. The Republican Party has become more and more extreme with “thou shalt not” written on every wall. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has launched a crusade against the “woke” and transgender children. What is next, the reinstatement of Prohibition? The end of gay marriage? I am not making a “slippery slope” argument here. The process of eliminating long established rights has begun.
The Republicans might want to draw a lesson from the Whigs. A single issue, slavery, destroyed them. For the modern Republican Party, it will be the issue of abortion. No one is really for abortion, but according to every poll, most Americans believe abortion should be legal and available as a vital health service for women. Former Vice President Mike Pence gave a recent speech exhorting fellow Republicans to fight to keep abortion illegal and protect the unborn. (Does anyone ask how these unwanted children will be nurtured?)
Some Republicans have pulled back slightly from staunch pro-life positions because it is apparent, even in red states like Kansas, that many Republicans support abortion rights. Six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Kansas voters stunned the political establishment by rejecting an anti-abortion amendment “in a landslide.” President Biden commented: "This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own health care decisions."
For Republicans, abortion is a third rail issue.
In the past four years, Republicans have not done as well as they should have, particularly during the midterm elections with an unpopular Democratic president, Joe Biden, a problem Gov. DeSantis noted. Will Joe Biden win in 2024 because the Republican Party has grown too extreme and out of touch? The Grand Old Party could become a relic of another era and disappear from the current political arena.
(7) comments
Nugene, I didn't know you were such a discriminating film fan. I always you spent your waking hours on FOX, late night radio, or just made things up. Bet your favorite film is "Triumph of the Will."
Ewe-Gene is a big fan of the multiple documentaries about the last great white heavyweight champ, Rocky.
The decision was biased.....Axel Schultz whipped the he-ll out of Foreman, the old man got sympathy.
No.......it's Kill Bill.
Nugene, you now speak for the majority of Americans? I think thee protest too much. You speak, stupidly, I might add, for no one but your idiotic self. No one, absolutely no one else.
And you speak for your multiple personalities and absolutely no one else......sybil.
Too extreme and out of touch? You are out of touch if you think that the majority of Americans
Want your extreme transgenda and your bans
Of fossil fuels and internal combustion engine cars.....
The commiecrats are doomed.
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