Ever since John Boehner accused Dems last week of "snuffing out the America that I grew up in," people around the Web have taking stabs at defining the America of Boehner's youth. On a slow news day, here's another contribution: Let's check out the Republican Party platforms of Boehner's childhood and formative years, which reveal a GOP that was very different from the party Boehner helps lead today.
Boehner was born in 1949. In 1956, he was seven; in 1960 he was 11; and in 1964 he was 15.
* The Republican Party platform of 1956 called for "broadened coverage in unemployment insurance" and "better health protection for all our people." It vowed to "continue vigorously to support the United Nations."
It pledged support for "progressive programs" to expand workers' rights. It vowed an immigration policy that ensured that America would remain a "haven for oppresssed peoples."
* The Republican Party platform of 1960 hailed the GOP's success in extending unemployment insurance. The GOP counted as an achievement its efforts to raise the Federal minimum wage.
The platform hailed expanded Social Security coverage and pledged an aggressive Federal effort to help those struggling with health care costs (in those pre-Medicare days, the primary focus was on the elderly). It pledged to continue robust Federal intervention to preserve the environment.
The outlines of today's GOP became more visible in the Republican Party platform of 1964, which makes sense, since it came after Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency. It decried Johnson's efforts to expand the Federal government and called for more market-based solutions to poverty.
Johnson's War on Poverty and the passage of the Civil Rights Act, of course, led to GOP control of the south and started the party down the road to the conservatism we associate with it today.
Of course, it's also true that in some respects the America Boehner grew up in was a far more right wing country, particular when it came to what constituted acceptable treatment of minorities, gays and women.
But as Mike Tomasky notes, the Republican Party of Boehner's youth was fairly moderate and embraced Big Government spending -- a far cry from today's GOP. Contemporary conservatism was merely a gleam in Bill Buckley's eye. If this is what Boehner is nostalgic for, that would be news indeed...
