Reply #25: Gradually [View All]

[felonious thunk]

I think this has happened gradually over the last 100 years. Teddy Roosevelt was probably the last real middle Republican President. Since then, the left has gone Democratic. Then there was the Democratic New Deal, pushed the right into the Republican Party. The Republican party was pretty well set as the "right" to the Democratic "left". Since then, the center has shifted at various points, but the right/left break has been this way.

Goldwater started the real ultra-conservative movement, but though most of us would have disagreed with Goldwater's policies, I don't think we'd have hated him. The Republican party has been taken over by the religious right since the late 80s especially. The Christian Coalition and others made a real push to get into positions of power and influence in the Republican Party, and perhaps more importantly, started a propaganda campaign in their churches. A large segment of previous non-voters started voting in droves, and they voted Republican. Even moderate Republicans couldn't ignore that voting block. And that block has moved the party farther and farther right since then. Traditional Republicans have not yet become disenfranchised enough with the religious rhetoric to vote for another party and/or the Democrats haven't been able to give them a reason to vote Democratic. So the result is a right wing party in power even though they don't really have the numbers to back up that power.

On the bright side, I think we are starting to see a centrist reaction agains the hijacking of the Republican party. Hopefully the election next year will validate that.