Summary: Discussion of how Republicans transitioned from the Lincoln belief system to current day definition of Republicans.
Timestamp 6:53: The modern day definition of a Conservative found its roots during the French Revolution, when they were trying to make society conform to their ideology of tradition stabilizers of society, which include the church and tight knit family. This in their eyes, reduces the possibility of radical change, which is later adopted by the conservatives in the United States.
Timestamp 11:15: Even though Republicans in the United states label themselves as Conservatives, they are not by definition. True Conservatives stand against things like the Fugitive Slave act, and side with the current law, which at the time was against Women's and/or Civil rights. This would label them “radicals”, but by labelling themselves as conservatives, they are no longer seen as “radicals”.
Timestamp 15:37: After the Treaty of Hidalgo Guadalupe, the Northerners who previously were against enslavement in the South are not concerned that if the wealthy Southerners are permitted to expand slavery into the new found territories in the west, it will make it impossible for ordinary White men to bettter themselves and rise.They also fear that it will give them an opprotunity to overtake the entire country, including the North.
Timestamp 17:51: The founding fathers always believed that African Americans are inferior, and promotes a Federal Republic of free white men, which promotes White Supremacy. Abraham Lincoln later adopts the conservative rhetoric claiming that people who defend equality in America are true conservatives rather than “radicals”, and in turn flips the definition of what conservatism is.
Timestamp 27:31: In the Cooper Union speech, he drives home that the Republicans are Conservatives, and the Democrats are Radicals. A “Conservative” government is trying to uphold the principles of the Declaration of Independence, which allows ordinary men to have access to have equal treatment in the law and equal access to programs.
Timestamp 30:04: for this Government to succeed, the need for extra money arises. They get this money by creating manufacturing taxes as well as create a Tariff law to protect American industry. This facilitates restructuring of American Government by supporting people at the bottom . It is proposed that the amount a man can be taxed should be proportionate to what he is able to pay, which angers those who make more. They argue that if a man receives access to the programs they are paying for, the government should have access to his land at will. The Homestead act was passed in 1862 which provided people 160 acres of land for a small fee if they farm it. This leads to the creation of the Department of Agriculture to teach men how to farm the lands they were provided.
Timestamp 34:36: The Republican party also allowed the lands that people received through the homestead act could be sold back and the funds could be used for an education. This is where the creation of State Universities begins. They also embrace immigration, as immigrants would be attracted to possibilities of growth in the United States and would almost always be hard workers with a trade.
Timestamp 37:06: Republican party pushes for the end of Human enslavement, and pushes for the concept of all men are created equal, and starts legislation for equal rights. This is Conservatism in the 1850’s.
Timestamp 39:36: Modern day Conservatism is quite the opposite of Conservatism in the 1850’s. Modern day conservatives support big businesses and de-regulation. They again stand on ideology and the concept that those in power should be of a certain class. After this fails with the economic crash of 1929, people gravitate towards Roosevelt, who offers a “New Deal” and basic safety net.
Timestamp 43:45: A group of Senators and Businessmen in the South and West come together to create what becomes known as the “Conservative Manifesto” after Roosevelt is re-elected in 1936. This manifesto pushes for a return to the 1920’s through de-regulation of business, increase in local government and state rights, and decrease in workers rights. These bullet points in the Conservative Manifesto Mirror what is written in 1960 in the book “The Conscious of a Conservative”. At this point, the “Conservative” label is the polar opposite of what Abraham Lincoln stood for as a Conservative.
[From wikipedia] Richardson’s first book, The Greatest Nation of the Earth (1997), stemmed from her dissertation at Harvard University. Inspired by Eric Foner’s work on pre-Civil War Republican ideology, Richardson analyzed Republican economic policies during the war. She contended that their efforts to create an activist Federal Government during the Civil War marked a continuation of Republican free labor ideology. These policies, such as war bonds and greenbacks or the Land Grant College Act and the Homestead Act, revolutionized the role of the Federal Government in the U.S. economy. At the same time, these actions laid the groundwork for the Republican Party’s shift to Big Business after the Civil War.
In this 2001 book, Richardson "focused on the “Northern abandonment of Reconstruction.” Building on the earlier work of C. Vann Woodward, she argued that a more complete understanding of the period required appreciation of class, not only race. As Reconstruction continued into the 1870s and especially the 1880s, Republicans began to view African Americans in the South more from a class perspective and less from the perspective of race that had driven their earlier humanitarianism. In the midst of the labor struggles of the Gilded Age, Republicans came to compare “the demands of the ex-slaves for land, social services, and civil rights” to the demands of white laborers in the North. This ideological shift was the key to Republican abandonment of Reconstruction, as they chose the protection of their economic and business interests over their desire for racial equality." [From wikipedia]
In this 2007 book, "Richardson presented Reconstruction as a national event that impacted all Americans, not just those in the South. She incorporated the West into the discussion of Reconstruction as no predecessor had. Between 1865 and 1900, Americans re-imagined the role of the federal government, calling upon it to promote the well-being of its citizens. However, racism, sexism, and greed divided Americans, and the same people who increasingly benefited from government intervention—white, middle-class Americans—actively excluded African-Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and organized laborers from the newfound bounties of their reconstructed nation." [from wikipedia]
In this book, published in 2010, Richardson "focused on the U.S. Army’s slaughter of Native Americans in South Dakota in 1890. She argued that party politics and opportunism led to Wounded Knee. After a bruising midterm election, President Benjamin Harrison needed to shore up his support. To do so, he turned to The Dakotas, where he replaced seasoned Indian agents with unqualified political allies, who incorrectly assumed that the Ghost Dance Movement presaged war. The Army responded by sending one third of its force in order to avoid spending cuts from Congress. After the event, Republicans tried to paint the massacre as a heroic battle to stifle the resurgent Democrats." [wikipedia]
In this 2014 book, Richardson "extended her study of the Republican Party into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book studied the entire life of the GOP, from its inception in the 1850s through the presidency of George W. Bush. The party’s founders united against the “slave power,” a small group of wealthy white men who controlled all three branches of government. These Republicans articulated a new vision of an America in which all hardworking men could rise. But after the Civil War, Republicans began to emulate what they originally opposed. They tied themselves to powerful bankers and industrialists, sacrificing the well-being of ordinary Americans. A similar process took place after World War II, when Republicans sought to dismantle successful New Deal policies and prop up the wealthy. However, in both cases, reformers within the party were able to return the GOP to its founding vision of equality of opportunity, first Theodore Roosevelt during the Progressive Era, and then Dwight D. Eisenhower, who enforced integration and maintained the New Deal. The Nixon and Reagan administrations have represented yet another fall from the GOP’s founding purpose. It's ironic, Richardson points out, that Republicans treated Barack Obama with an unprecedented level of disrespect, as Obama's rise from humble beginnings to the highest office in the nation embodied the vision of the original Republicans." [wikipedia]
In her most recent publication, Richardson argues "that America was founded with contradicting ideals, with the ideas of liberty, equality, and opportunity on one hand, and slavery and hierarchy on the other. United States victory in the American Civil War should have settled that tension forever, but at the same time that the Civil War was fought, Americans also started moving into the West. In the West, Americans found and expanded upon deep racial hierarchies, meaning that hierarchical values survived in American politics and culture despite the crushing defeat of the pro-slavery Confederacy. Those traditions--a rejection of democracy, an embrace of entrenched wealth, the marginalization of women and people of color--have found a home in modern conservative politics, leaving the tremendous promise of America unfulfilled." [wikipedia]
