How The G.O.P. Wrecked America

By Kim Popejoy

15 years after World War Two, America reached a nadir of middle class growth. By 1969, Americans had walked on the moon, launched computers, had a civil rights and cultural revolution and nurtured unprecedented sharing of wealth. Something went wrong. America began squeezing its middle class. Here is a fast paced look at some GOP's contributors and the unfortunate policies they championed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kim Popejoy
• Release date: Oct 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452342221

Kim Popejoy

Kim Popejoy has traveled throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and India. Observing the lives and approaches to governance by peoples in many parts of the world has given him a perspective on American lives and politics that few have. Choosing north-central Florida as a home to settle down and raise a family, Kim has been active in his community by leading efforts to reorganize how we govern ourselves at the local level and effect change from the grassroots. Kim brings to his writings an understanding of what is fundamental to the lives of individuals and their communities. He has a particular passion for helping rebirth the American middle class. His prose is fast paced, simple and easy to follow. His research is reliable and documented leading to conclusions that are pertinent, sound and defensible. Through his writings, Kim hopes to encourage the involvement of each of us in our communities public discourse.

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CHAPTER 1. Richard M. Nixon

AKA Richard Milhous Nixon

Born: 9-Jan-1913

Birthplace: Yorba Linda, CA

Died: 22-Apr-1994

Location of death: New York City

Cause of death: Stroke

Remains: Buried, Nixon Library, Yorba Linda, CA

Gender: Male

Religion: Quaker

Race or Ethnicity: White

Sexual orientation: Straight

Occupation: Head of State

Party Affiliation: Republican

Nationality: United States

Executive summary: 37th US President, 1969-74

Military service: US Navy (1942-46)

Source: http://www.nndb.com/people/110/000024038/

COPYRIGHT 2010 SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS

*"Nixon's political career began in 1947 when he was elected to the House of Representatives, after campaigning strongly as an anti-communist.

*By 1952, he had moved to the Senate and was chosen by Dwight Eisenhower to be his running mate in the presidential election. Nixon was embroiled in a scandal and delivered a famous television address that came to be known as the Checkers Speech.

*Nixon served as Vice-President for eight years under Eisenhower. At one stage, after Eisenhower had a stroke, Nixon assumed a more active role.

*Nixon secured the Republican Party nomination and was narrowly defeated by John F. Kennedy in 1960.

*In 1962, he ran unsuccessfully for Governor of California and stated famously that you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore.

*By 1968 he was on his way back, winning the Republican Party nomination, defeating Democrat Hubert Humphrey and becoming the 37th President on January 20, 1969. He was seen as having recovered from defeat, a quality that became associated with Nixon.

*Later in 1969, he was to deliver his famous Silent Majority speech in which he set out his attitude toward America's future.

*Nixon was re-elected in a landslide in 1972, defeating Senator George McGovern, and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 1973. A few days later, he announced an agreement to end the Vietnam War.

*However, by the beginning of 1973, the Watergate scandal was unfolding and the next eighteen months were dominated by damaging revelations and a legal fight between the Executive arm of government versus the Congress and the Supreme Court.

*Nixon was facing impeachment by the House of Representatives when he resigned in August 1974, the first President ever to do so.

*Following his resignation, Nixon devoted himself to rehabilitating his public reputation. He wrote a number of books and traveled widely.

*Nixon died in 1994. His funeral was held on April 27 at The Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace, Yorba Linda, California. Eulogies were delivered by Dr. Billy Graham, the evangelist, Dr. Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, and Pete Wilson, the then Governor of California. President Bill Clinton also spoke. He was flanked by all the living former Presidents, except Reagan. Perhaps the most moving tribute was paid by the man who was Chairman of the Republican Party during Nixon's term, Senator Bob Dole.

COPYRIGHT WATERGATE.INFO 1995-2009

I thought long and hard before putting Richard M. Nixon in our list of Republicans who had radically changed America. One of the reasons for hesitation is that during Nixon's time in office, the American middle class improved its standing in the economy. Mr. Nixon had demons and angels that he brought to his service of America. Unfortunately, in the end his demons won out. And, it is the results of his demons that allow him to lead our list of Republicans that radically changed America.

Richard M. Nixon is the only President of the United States of America to resign from office. In so doing, Nixon sullied the Office of the President like no one before or after and accelerated a general distrust of the central government by the public. With the Watergate affair, in which Mr. Nixon sanctioned the use of two-bit thugs to try to give him and his Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) an advantage over his Democratic rivals, he provided documented proof that the occupier of our most sacrosanct office was irredeemably corrupt. At the time that he chose to resign he was being assured by the leadership of the Republican legislative caucus that he would lose any impeachment proceedings.

It was Richard Nixon's election machinery that began honing what was to become known as the southern strategy. This strategy was a successful attempt by the leadership of the Republican party to exploit the gains the Democratic party had made in the minority communities. The Democrats had gained this advantage through civil rights legislation. The Republicans sought to turn the electoral tide in their favor by appealing to the white voter's fear of loss of their traditional place at the top of the social hierarchy.

In 2005, speaking at an NAACP convention, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said, "By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out. Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/13/AR2005071302342.html

In a May, 1970, New York Times article, Kevin Phillips, one of the primary architects of Richard Nixon's and the Republican party's southern strategy was quoted, "On Negroes and the G.O.P.: All the talk about Republicans making inroads into the Negro vote is persiflage. Even ‘Jake the Snake’ [Senator Jacob K. Javits] only gets 20 percent. From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don’t need any more than that . . . but Republicans would be shortsighted if