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The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by former Whig Party members to oppose the expansion of slavery.
In the 1 8 7 0 s politicians and newsp apers began referring to it as the “grand old party” for pr e s e r ving the Union during the Civil War.
In 1874 the Republican Party of Minnesota pledged, “The grand old party that saved the country is still true to the principles that gave it birth.”
Since Abraham Lincoln served as the first Republican president, 19 Republicans have collectively won 24 presidential elections.
Not all are as noteworthy as Lincoln whose election sparked secession in the deep south and whose perseverance saved the Union.
He brought Emancipation. There have been other Republican presidents who fostered policies that have advanced our American dream and protected our democracy.
Republican Teddy Roosevelt sent “The Great White Fleet,” 16 United States Navy battleships, to circumnavigate the world in 1907. Roosevelt demonstrated there was a new power to be reckoned with in the new century, a democratic power elected by deeply principled people. America would show these bona fides in two World Wars and one Cold War and establish itself as a bulwark against tyranny.
Roosevelt set aside government lands as public parks to preserve the great beauty of America.
Republican Dwight Eisenhower defeated one dictatorship as a general and, as president, drew a line on another that would mark where our country stood for the next 37 years.
Eisenhower envisioned the national network of highways that became our interstate system.
Republican Ronald Reagan led the Free World in facing down Soviet Russia. His affable style won the confidence of the enlightened leader of Russia, Mikhail Gorbachev, to trust that this principled man leading a country of principled citizens was no threat to the Russian people despite past propaganda to the contrary.
The Berlin Wall fell. This same collegial style and mutual respect made Reagan’s work with political opponent “Tip” O’Neill, Democratic Speaker of the House, successful in building compromises.
One hundred years after the Minnesota Republicans’ pledge, the country was embroiled in the Watergate scandal. A Republican president was accused of trying to cover up a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters. After months of denial by Richard Nixon, self-made audio tapes revealed that he had indeed been involved in such an endeavor.
With talks of impeachment in the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate, on Aug. 7, 1974, Sen. Barry Goldwater, House Minority Leader John Rhodes, and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott - all Republicans, too – went to The White House.
Nixon believed there were 30 senators who would back him. “Mr. Conservative” Barry Goldwater is reported to have said his count was four, and he (Goldwater) “was not one.”
Nixon announced his resignation the following night.
We should note the Republican Party’s praiseworthy role in the Watergate investigation. In 1973 the Senate voted 77-0 for what became the Senate Watergate Committee. A year later the House voted 410-4 to authorize an impeachment investigation.
Notable because: Less than two years earlier Nixon had won his reelection with 60%+ of the vote, carrying 49 states.
Nixon was not the subject of 91 criminal counts stemming from four criminal cases.
Nixon never tried to blackmail a foreign government for dirt on an opponent.
Nixon never kept from the American public a discussion he had with the leader of an adversarial country he also had a business interest in.
Nixon was not on tape bragging about his entitlement to grope women.
Nixon didn’t take boxes of classified documents he was no longer entitled to and show them off to unvetted gawkers, like a fifth grader at recess with a “Playboy” centerfold.
The only stain on Nixon was the attempt to cover up a break-in at the Watergate, Nixon could be lauded for normalizing relations with China, but that did not absolve him of abusing the awesome power of the presidency he was entrusted with.
The Republicans of the day were principled enough to accept that he was no longer suitable to serve as the leader of our democracy.
Nixon did not decide to continue denial of the truth and call out his supporters to storm the Capitol in defense of his presidency.
That pledge of 1874 endured.
Today’s Republican Party is no longer “grand,” “old,” or even a “party.” A mere handful of self-serving toadies, anxious to maintain their spot at the trough, have taken control of it. Gone are people of principle like Liz Cheney, Denver Riggleman, Adam Kinzinger, Jeff Flake, and soon Mitt Romney, all either purged or leaving in disgust.
Gone are leaders with the stature of John Warner, Linwood Holton, and John Dalton.
John McCain was invidiously dismissed by the leader of what’s left of this “party” for being a prisoner of war, disparaging him with “I like people that weren’t captured.”
Perhaps this new potentate would have led a charge into the Hanoi Hilton, freeing those imprisoned “goldbricks” and defeating the North Vietnamese, if bone spurs hadn’t robbed of us of his military service.
This “jefe” would do to our country what he’s done to the Republican Party – create a cult of personality, loyal to an individual and not principles, by purging the opposition and inserting his sycophants in positions of power.
History shows whom these governments really serve.
Republicans have been too important to our country’s success to now abandon that pledge of 1874.
