Written by David Starr   

While today's U.S. Republican Party is heavily represented in the Southern states, its birth was, ironically, in the North. Comprising it were abolitionists, ex-Whigs (a political party which derived its name from U.S. patriots during the U.S. Revolution. It symbolized the hostile opposition to the British king), ex-Democrats and ex-Free Soilers (a single issue party opposing the expansion of slavery).

The Republican Party became a formidable opposition to the Democratic Party, the latter of which had its stronghold in the Southern states, taking a conservative position on slavery, i.e., supporting it. The Republican Party was born out of opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, an act keeping slavery out of Kansas.

By 1858, Republicans dominated most Northern states. Its objectives at that time were progressive: It saved the Union, abolished slavery and promoted equal rights, all this during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods (1861 - 1877).

Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in 1860. Contrary to the assumed beliefs, Lincoln at first wasn't considering the abolishment of slavery as an objective in the Civil War. It was the saving of the Union only. He was considering a negotiated settlement where the Confederacy would stay in the Union if slavery wasn't abolished in the South; while the North would be free of it.

The abolitionists, a radical tendency (unlike today's GOP "radicals") in the Republican Party, pressured Lincoln to make slavery an issue, being the other objective in the Civil War. Frederick Douglass, an ex-slave turned intellectual, orator and writer, also pressured Lincoln. After wavering, Lincoln supported the abolishment of slavery, highlighted by the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Among the leaders of the radical tendency was Charles Sumner, a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. Sumner, as with other radicals, was 100% anti-slavery, and made it more than known. Speaking on the senate floor in 1856, Sumner gave a speech, called "The Crime Against Kansas," opposing slavery like a firebrand. In it, he accused South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler of being like a pimp for “the harlot Slavery."* Two days later in the Senate, Butler's cousin, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks, attacked Sumner, beating him mercilessly. This incident was the spark that began the Civil war.

Over the years, Sumner continued to support civil rights, including voting rights. He and other radicals pushed to keep the South "overseen," i.e., militarily occupied, making sure that slavery would not be reestablished. They also opposed ex-Confederates having political power. These actions were carried out as the result of a vicious backlash after the Union victory. White racists rioted, assaulted and killed blacks repeatedly.

Showing a streak of anti-imperialism, Sumner opposed President Ulysses S. Grant's "Santo Domingo Treaty," which the latter tried to push through Congress in 1870. This was an attempt to annex Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) so blacks in the U.S. South could escape the violence. But Sumner saw it as violating the sovereignty of Santo Domingo. The bill never passed.

It was sometime in the 1870s that the Republican Party gradually morphed into an antithesis of its original self. "The Republican Party is converted into a party of money, rather than a party of humanity and justice,"** Frederick Douglass asserted. There was not another generation of Charles Sumners and a radical tendency.

Laissez-faire, unregulated capitalism became the main priority. The GOP was "intoxicated" with Manifest Destiny doctrine, wanting to expand it worldwide to "Christianize" and "civilize" those they thought were unfit for self-government, i.e., white supremacy myths being the "natural order of things." Republicans like President William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt (later president) embraced the myths. The result was the Philippine-American War, where about 650,000 Filipinos were killed. There was also the taking of Cuba, Hawai'i and Guam.

In the decades that followed, the Republican Party generally followed this course. There were three successive Republicans who won the presidency: Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. What resulted was a scandal called "Teapot Dome," (leasing Navy petroleum reserves to private oil companies at a low rate without competitive bidding; also bribery) which involved Harding and Coolidge. Although Hoover's policies were supposed to be moderate, excessive speculation led to the 1929 Wall Street crash, ushering in the Great Depression.

In 1933, newly elected Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt ushered in a remedy for the Depression. The New Deal implemented programs which provided employment, social benefits and, ironically, helped to keep capitalism going. Republicans fought tooth-and-nail to repeal the New Deal. They and their corporate allies saw it as a threat to perpetual profit-making. The "commoners'" interests, in the face of the Depression, weren't of primary concern.

The next Republican to become president was in 1953. Dwight D. Eisenhower, WWII hero, seemed moderate compared to past Republican presidents. He called the Korean War useless. And in his televised, 1961 farewell address, there was a progressive tone as he warned viewers of the “Military-Industrial Complex.” But Under Eisenhower’s presidency, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) with HUAC, went on an inflammatory “witch hunt” to root out "communist heretics" in the government.

A Republican president who gained unprecedented notoriety years later was Richard Milhous Nixon. Elected in 1968, Nixon made promises to shorten and end the Vietnam War. He adopted the 1960s peace sign more as a gimmick than a legitimate symbol, flashing it with both arms out-stretched, accented by an ear-to-ear grin.

The Vietnam War wasn't shortened, although peace negotiations were being set up in the early 1970s. In 1969, Nixon added to the war with his order to secretly bomb Cambodia, costing about 300,000 lives. U.S. protesters were enraged.

But what is immediately associated with Nixon is the Watergate scandal. There was a nation-wide breakthrough with, e.g., Woodward and Bernstein's investigative expose of the scandal, which included a whistle-blower nicknamed "Deep Throat," and consistent televised hearings. The once-secret Nixon tapes revealing Nixon's real views on issues were exposed. It appeared there was a window of opportunity for transparent government in the 1970s. But in following years, the window closed and the "shades" were drawn.

But, if Nixon deserves any credit for policy-making, it was his trip to China and signing environmental legislation into law.

Nixon, however, resigned in disgrace over the scandal. His successor to the presidency, Gerald Ford, pardoned him. There was really nothing overtly scandalous about the Ford Administration. It just seemed to fade away.

In 1980 the U.S. right began to reemerge as a force with the election of Ronald Reagan as president. It was the beginning of something akin to a resurrected Gilded Age, being complementary to the title of the Star Wars film, "The Empire Strikes Back." And members of Reagan's cabinet like Alexander Haig, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, G. Gordon Liddy, Elliott Abrams, John Negroponte and the "True Blue American" soldier Oliver North embraced it with an inner relish and a calm, cynical exterior and/or holier-than-thou morality.

Reagan used his skills as a former actor to present a persona expressing glib remarks and an "awe-shucks" attitude. His supporters, like groupies, loved it.

Reagan and his cabinet got down to their peculiar business: A "moral crusade" against the Soviet Union, Reagan calling it "an evil empire." There was his callous remark on his radio show, thinking he was off the air, of wanting to "outlaw the Soviet Union forever" and that "we begin bombing in ten minutes." There was the invasion of Grenada, the usual imperial trappings of stopping "evil" and "saving American lives." But whatever amount of U.S. citizens that were there (mainly students), there was no danger.

Another major scandal exposed under a Republican administration was the Iran-Contra Affair: While Reagan's camp denounced Iran as a terrorist nation and publicly proclaiming that the U.S. doesn't deal with terrorists, secret negotiations were nevertheless made between the U.S. and Iran for an arms-for-hostages swap. This when there was a U.S. embargo on Iran, making it illegal to make transactions. Through this, the U.S. would supply arms for the Contras, a CIA-backed counter revolutionary puppet group opposing the Nicaraguan, Sandinista government. This was another violation, the Boland Amendment, passed in Congress, having froze Contra aid at the time.

Iran-Contra was later publicly exposed. Investigations and hearings probed the scandal. At one point, Reagan was testifying before the Senate Committee to answer questions. He seemed disoriented at times. The impression was given that he really didn't know what was going on. But as president, it was his responsibility to know what was going on behind the scenes to find out what his aides were up to.

Reagan was found innocent of wrong-doing. Lt. Col. Oliver North became the fall guy.

After Reagan's reign, his vice president, George H.W. Bush, won the 1988 U.S. presidential election. Bush proclaimed a "kinder and gentler" administration, implying a comparison with Reagan's. But Bush's was not kinder and gentler. It continued the framework of the aggressive agenda embraced by the right since 1980. One example reflected the U.S.’s imperial foreign policy: The invading of Panama of in 1989.

There was the "psyching up" of the U.S. public through media and government propaganda, to get them to support a "justification" for military action. The invasion was called "Just Cause." In reality, the invasion was quite the opposite. Panamanian Leader Manual Noriega was consistently "lambasted" by the media. While he wasn't a saint, the propaganda portrayed him as some sort of wild beast. And in a story akin to tabloid gossip, Noriega was portrayed as a flashy-dressed gay or bi-sexual. The president's wife, Barbara, called him the most evil man in the world.

What was omitted or hardly seen was the fact that Noriega was a CIA operative since 1972. His drug-running operations were also known by U.S. leaders. Just Cause was No Cause.

Bush led another charge against another evil doer, or "evil doer." Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein discussed the possibility of Iraq invading Kuwait with U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie. Hussein wanted assurance that the U.S. wouldn't intervene. Glaspie replied that the administration/the U.S. wasn't going to interfere in the affairs of Arab countries.

Hussein was encouraged. Reasons for the invasion included the charge that Kuwait was stealing Iraqi oil through slant drilling. Kuwait itself was a part of Iraq, but carved out as its own nation by European colonialism.

After Iraq invaded Kuwait, Bush banged the war drums again as with Noriega. Hussein was portrayed as another "wild beast." Iraqi soldiers were accused of going into a hospital and taking babies out of incubators to kill them. The story was told by a 15 year old female of the royal al Sabah family ruling Kuwait. But it was later exposed as a lie.

As with Noriega, Hussein was a U.S. client, being "courted" by the U.S. under Reagan during the 1980s.

Bush led the charge in launching the Persian Gulf War. Hussein, thus, was kind of stabbed in the back by his former benefactors. About 250,000 Iraqis died. What was once a highly organized society became a virtual wasteland.

The Republicans lost the White House after Democrat Bill Clinton won the 1992 election and was re-elected in 1996. During this period, the Republicans got control of Congress, further pushing its agenda in the form of the Contract with America. Those on the left called it the "Contract on America." Deregulation was continuing. Wall Street and the bankers took advantage, being more and more financially speculative. The financial sector was becoming more influential within the U.S. economy. Religious fanaticism and imperialism were becoming more transparent.

During this period an embargo was forced on Iraq by the UN; or more accurately, the U.S. The eventual results were the deaths of about 500,000 children. And it was looking evident that the Democratic Party moved toward the right. In an interview, Clinton cabinet member Madeleine Albright was asked if the embargo was worth the deaths of 500,000 children. She responded in the affirmative. The "new" Democrats were having more in common with the Republicans than the New Deal Democrats.

But, the GOP still conducted a "moral crusade" against Bill Clinton. What outraged Republicans especially was the Monica Lewinsky scandal. There were vicious attacks against Clinton's behavior. It got to impeachment. The House voted yes, but the Senate voted no. But no matter how hard they tried, the right could not effectively deal with Clinton's charisma.

The year 2000 marked the beginning of a more transparent insidiousness and Orwellian-like hypocrisy within the GOP that goes on today. George W. Bush Jr. became U.S. president after a controversial, drawn-out effort to find who really won the election. It was finally decided by the Supreme Court. It did go along political lines, with a conservative edge that "officially" proclaimed Bush Jr. the "winner." It was also convenient for Bush Jr. that his brother, Jeb, was governor of Florida, the state being contested to name who won.

The right-wing was becoming bolder. The 2001 9/11 attacks gave a further "justification" for it. In the aftermath, some U.S. citizens became violent and xenophobic. The Arab/Muslim was the target, since the attackers came originally from the Middles East. Specifically, the majority came from Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally. Bush Jr. proposed and Congress enacted the Homeland Security Act, and the Patriot Act. State of siege would be an applicable phrase.

The results of Bush Jr.'s regime: An Iraq war based on lies, with about one million dead, a torture scandal, and the use of white phosphorous and depleted uranium. Pushing a borrow-and-spend mentality, where money management was discarded for the illusion of a "booming economy." An historic, 10 trillion dollar debt, inherited of course by the Obama presidency. The U.S. Constitution being chipped away at. The 2008 Great Recession erupting. (It actually has its roots within the Reagan era, with both Republicans and Democrats contributing in a corporate-government employment "merger.")

It was in the Bush Jr. era that the Republican Party matured into the Party of Orwell. After the election of Democrat Barrack Obama for president in 2008 and his re-election in 2012, Republicans have continued behaving like the country of Oceania in George Orwell's novel "1984." They have solidified an agenda that has more portrayed a B/W of view of the world, with pure good vs. pure evil; similar to that of Oceania.

It has expressed double-speak-simply put, saying one thing and doing its opposite. Accusations have been child-like, using a simple tit-for-tat, but without accuracy and content. Greed is now "great." Religious fanaticism has lowered the intellectual bar within the U.S. social/political climate. Neo- con, arm-chair warriors-as well as neo-lib-still trying to use already, discredited "justifications" to provoke another imperial war with the next "evil-doer" while militarily aiding "rebels" without a proper prioritization of any democratic concept.

Rape has been called legitimate, rape is looked at more as a method of conception rather than a crime, Obama is a "Hitler," gays are "abnormal," religion is perfect, hordes of "evil-doers" worldwide are trying to destroy the USA, and on and on.

It's likely that the Party of Lincoln is forever resting in peace. The Party of Orwell, however, is rearing its "ugly head."

* Quote from "The Crime Against Slavery: The Apologies for the Crime; The True Remedy,” U.S. Senate Speech, May 19-20, 1856

** Quote from "Slave and Citizen: The Life of Frederick Douglass" (1980), by Nathan Irvin Huggins.

© David Starr 2013