Bob Taft: Loathe Him or Hate Him

[Rob]

That's actually not true. Hayseeds and Christian fundamentalists were well represented in the GOP from its founding until the 1930s. It was then that the limosine liberal East Coast set deemed them unworthy of recognition and cast them loose.

Most of the fundies were Democrats, being concentrated in the Democratic South and with no social issues to bother them (with the exception of 1928). Hoover appealed to their simple prejudices, but the New Deal won them over- "limousine liberals" from the East Coast (who weren't "liberal" at all, BTW) had nothing to do with it.

[Rob]

Now I understand your position better. I agree with HL Mencken (one of my heroes, and the ultimate libertarian) on the fundamentalists, but in a broader cultural context I agree with you. The small towns of the Midwest voted Republican through World War II and beyond, but isolationism wasn't a driving force in the GOP.

The GOP remained pleasantly secular through 1980. Reagan pulled the evangelicals (who aren't conservative at all) into the Republican Party, but he could control them. The problem is, after he was off the scene they got real power.