A ‘Letter to the Editor’ by Ms Ginny Feenstra is headed “GOP led passage of Civil Rights Act.”
She writes: “…far more Democrats voted against the Civil Rights Act than Republicans. According to Wikipedia, ‘Most Democrats from the southern states opposed the bill and led an unsuccessful 83-day filibuster, including Senators Albert Gore Sr. (D-Tenn.); J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.)” (whom Bill Clinton claims as his mentor); “and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who personally filibustered for 14 hours straight.’ ”
WATCHDOG: Ms Feenstra make an excellent point. However, that was an ‘Eisenhower Republican Party’ (to which we belonged), not the party of George W. Bush (which we left). As a result of the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 during the Kennedy Administration and further civil rights reforms under President Lyndon Johnson, the Democrat parties in the Southern states broke away and joined the Republicans.
You keep saying you are an Eisenhower Republican but your views are congruent to Woodrow Wilson progressives. None of the Eisenhower Republicans I have found seem share your views.
EDITOR: President Eisenhower accepted the New Deal reforms and also was the prime mover for the nations most massive government sponsored project: The Interstate Highway Network.
He also worked behind the scenes to bring about the total integration of the armed forces and sent the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas to enforce school integration.
Also, during his administration the top bracket for federal income taxes exceed 90%.
He quickly got the nation out of war and then kept it out of war. His last act as president was to warn the nation about the “military industrial” complex.
Of course he differed with Democrats of his time on many issues.
Let me calibrate a little.
New Deal: Eisenhower had no choice. Republican President, Democratic Congress.
Integration: Harry Truman integrated the military via executive order, not Ike. Republicans were trying to integrate the USA for years, starting with Lincoln. Ike did continue the process. Southern Democrats fought like hell against it.
EDITOR: Truman gave an order which was largely ignored by the services. Eisenhowe actually implemented the order, as we said.
Yes, FIC was 90% with loopholes for the rich the size of the grand canyon.
EDITOR: Like today?
The interstate highway system was justified for defense (war) purposes. We had no way to efficiently move war materials around if were were attacked. People are still debating whether it was a good idea or not. Many say we should have invested in mass transit, not personal transportation (cars).
EDITOR: Dwight Eisenhower used military purposes as a rationale to sell the program, although there was merit to it. He had seen and been impressed by the German Auto Bahn.
The argument for “mass transit” had to do with how the Interstate Highways led to suburban sprawl. But this is a different issue from providing highway to tie the entire country together and promote commerce. Think of how Lincoln authorized the Continental Railroad lest California might decide to become a country.even though the Civil War was ongoing
Ike promised economic and military assistance to Vietnam. He saw the expansion of communism and was prepared to do something about it.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#Diem_era.2C_1955.E2.80.931963
EDITOR: Eisenhower refused to intervene on behalf of the French in Viet Nam. He did not want to fight a landwar in Asia…or anywhere if he could help it. However, he later may have advised Lyndon Johnson to carry on the intervention begun by President Kennedy.
As I recall those days, when we had a Democrat we got a war (WW1. WW2, Korea, Vietnam). When we got a Republican we got a recession.
EDITOR: World War II and Korea were likely unavoidable and had strong bi-partison support. Republican George W. Bush got us into Afghanistan and then forgot what we were there for and started nation building. He purposefully went to war against Iraq for no sound reason.