Reply #13: LaFollette [View All]

[bluedogyellowdog]

The old progressive Republicans like Lafollette, Lemke, Teddy Roosevelt, George Norris and so on came from an era when what party you belonged to hinged on geography and family tradition more than anything. They were from states where the Repubs were the only functioning party, or from Republican families. So there was a situation where the local Republican party had competing progressive and conservative wings. There were some states like Minnesota and Wisconsin where the party you belonged to depended on what part of the state you lived in or what synod of the Lutheran Church you were raised in, and some states like North Dakota where there was no Democratic party to speak of, just the Republicans, the Non Partisan League and a few smaller parties. We had the same thing in the South in the 1950s and 60s in the Democratic party. A progressive wing at odds with the larger conservative wing.

The Eisenhower and Taft Republicans, and even Nixon and Ford, were from a later era still very much removed from today. They governed in an era when the New Deal was considered settled national consensus. So we got some progressive legislation out of them (Eisenhower: Interstate Highway System and desegregating the high schools; Nixon: the EPA and Consumer Product Safety Commission and so on.) But they weren't progressives at heart, just biding their time while the conservative wing of the party was in ferment.

Times have changed - the idea of a progressive Republican is long past and I doubt there will ever be such a thing again. What is going on today is many conservatives trying to save their own political hides by distancing themselves from the Bush administration and the neocons. Case in point, John McCain. That doesn't make them progressives, not by a longshot.