Summary: History of the Republican party after the election of 1896
Timestamp 2:14: During this time, the term “Liberalism” changes drastically. It was originally associated with small government that didn’t overtax individuals to the idea of needing an active government to reign in big business in order to allow individuals to have quality opportunities. The group of people who lead the way into this are actually Republicans, including Theodore Roosevelt.
Timestamp 9:59:On February 14th of 1884, Roosevelt lost his wife during childbirth and his mother due to an infectious disease. He proceeds to give up politics and pursue cattle ranching. When Roosevelt attended the Republican convention and disagreed with the direction it was going in, he left the party
Timestamp 16:52:Back East people are pursuing re building the Navy. During the Civil war, copious amounts of money were pumped into the Army and Navy, but after the war the Navy fell into disrepair. The Army continued to be funded due to various Indian wars. There was not much opportunity for advancement within the Navy because of this, which affects the Republican party because it is referenced in a book that you can’t have a strong government without a strong Navy. Roosevelt’s family has a history in the confederate Navy, so it resonates with him.
Timestamp 20:51: The McKinley tariff of 1890 assisted with expansion, namely by taxing Sugar. This is why the Sugar trust becomes the biggest and most important in the country. This tariff makes sugar growers consider moving to the states to avoid the tariff. This is how Hawaii became a state.
Timestamp 23:53: Cuba is still run as a Spanish colony, and there is a lot of business done there with Sugar business. They don’t like that Spain is so close to the states, but they don't want a revolution either, and some people Believe Cuba should be part of the states. The United states has interest in gaining control of Cuba, and it is going through a revolution against Colonialism. The revolution puts the United States in an awkward position, as they don’t want Spain in their backyard, and they don't want the native revolutionaries in control. This results in native Cubans being requested to be “concentrated” to certain towns on the island to avoid being considered a rebel. Young Republicans feel compelled to be a conduit to change, which ruffles the feathers of people who have interest in the sugar industry on the island. The Older republicans still have memories of the Civil war, so they have no intention of getting involved.
Timestamp 36:25:Secretary of the Navy is away which leaves Roosevelt in charge as he is the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He directs that a ship be sent to the Philippines and fire when ready as soon as the announcement of war was made for Cuba.
Business men are very against the war in Cuba, but very in favor of the war in the Philippines and they have a lot of parallels. The commonalities are Spain as a colonial power, Sugar, and theUnited States involvement.
Timestamp 50:22: In 1898 younger republicans made taking the Philippines a top priority to spread American ideals, values and greatness, as well as take advantage of their sugar. The new Republicans believe they can get votes with this mentality, but the old school republicans are vehemently opposed. This essentially makes them borderline imperialist.
Timestamp 53:57: Roosevelt has interest in regulating big businesses, and proceeds to win the New york Governor on the premise of the new Liberalism, which believes in regulating big business to protect the individualism of the many.
Timestamp 55:13: Roosevelt is recruited to be the Running mate for McKinley, who is a big business man, but is going to be painted as a reformer. They win the ticket, which is simultaneous with the birth of US Steel, and later the Northern Securities Company. McKinley was killed, which put Roosevelt into the Presidency.
Timestamp 100: Roosevelt becomes ignored after presenting his idea for the Trusts regulations, which leads him to go after the trusts, starting with Northern Securities. Northern Securities proposed working together for a resolution, which was declined. This marks when the government stops working for big businesses. This is reinforced by the start of what is now the food and drug administration.
Timestamp 1:06:04: Roosevelt adopts the Wisconsin Idea, which says if the Government combines labor unions, businesses, and college professors it would create policies and programs that would benefit all.
Timestamp 1:07:49:Taft became president in 1908, after Roosevelt turned down a 2nd term. Taft ends up busting more trusts than Roosevelt did, and tries to continue his legacy. At the end of his term, in the 1912 election, all the candidates were progressives.
[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]
