Presidential hopeful Marco Rubio pledges to reverse Obama’s LGBT rights order

[Deborah]

Whoever wins the GOP nomination is unacceptable for a number of different reasons.  I hope this is the death of the Evangelical stranglehold on the Conservative party but I think it's still too soon to tell.  After the two conventions when the debates between actual candidates begin I think things will be more clear.


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[diane 2606]

I feel like we are watching history, watching the death throes of a political party that still lives as if it's 1950.
...
I believe that after the GOP loses this election that will be the end of bigotry as a viable party platform. The times have changed and I think that the majority supports us having rights and they won't abide bigotry anymore.

In 1964, extremely conservative US Sen Barry Goldwater was the Republican nominee for president. He was thoroughly trounced in the election by Lyndon Johnson, 486 - 52 (electoral votes). Everyone said it was the end of conservatism in the US. Mostly moderate republican, Richard Nixon, was elected four years later, and St. Ronnie was elected in 1980. Bigotry and hatred didn't go away for very long, sad to say.

[Deborah]

To be fair, in 1964 most of the southern racists were democrats.  They didn't move collectively to the Republican Party until the 1980s.   


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[diane 2606]

To be fair, in 1964 most of the southern racists were democrats.  They didn't move collectively to the Republican Party until the 1980s.

In 1964, So. Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, plus Goldwater's home state of Arizona, were the only states he carried. Civil rights became part of the national discussion in the early '60s, which caused southern states to begin abandoning the "dixiecrat" party in favor of the republican. JFK wasn't much of an anti-segregationist, but LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, then promptly declared the south was lost to democrats for a generation. He seriously underestimated the time.

[Deborah]

Wow.  I learned something new today.  Thanks for the correction.


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[lisarenee]

...LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, then promptly declared the south was lost to democrats for a generation. He seriously underestimated the time.

After he had filibustered it a decade earlier. As for those states, both Alabama and Mississippi went to a 3rd party candidate in 1960 (4 years earlier) and in 1968 GA, AL, AR, AL, and MS all went to 3rd Party candidate George Wallace and 1 NC Elector voted for Wallace instead of Nixon. In 1948, AL, MS, LA, and SC went to 3rd party candidate Strom Thurmond. Those states hadn't been reliably blue since FDR.

By 1972, Nixon was an extremely popular incumbent, carrying every state but MA and Washington, DC (technically not a state). Democrat Carter carried the Deep South in 1976. 1980 was a referendum on Carter's miserable failure as president and 1984 was a repeat of 1972 with an extremely popular incumbent taking nearly every state.