Rockefeller Republicans

[Fuzzy Bear]

Without reading the dozens of paragraphs above, I need to chime in to remind everyone that "Rockefeller Republicans" had some of the most brutal views on crime, urbanism, and race in the history of the country. The movement is literally named after the governor best remembered for his response to the Attica prison riots. They were not suburban intellectuals; they were the last political movement appealing to the concerns of a now politically extinct class: upper-class urban whites. Their "moderate" views on abortion and gun control largely stem from paranoia regarding black crime, and the common view of them as broadly "liberal" is misguided, as is liberal nostalgia for them.

P.S. Having written this out, I did go back and see that Al and NCY largely hit the mark.

I'll tack on that the narrow WASPishness (at least in public reputation) of the Rockefeller set prevented them from appealing to ethnic minorities, which would have preserved their power another decade or so. And the acceleration of Northern white fears after 1964 pushed voters past what even the Republicans were offering. Instead, ethnic  voters went for Wallace (before later abandoning the cities) while wealthier voters abandoned the cities as soon as possible for Rye, Greenwich, Orange County, etc., forming the basis for the Reaganism of the 1980s.

And none of this is to say that there weren't "liberal Republicans" as there are today. But they were never a coherent enough movement appealing to enough voters to, say, elect a President. Or even a Governor of New York.

The "Tough On Crime" aspect of Rockefeller was not a consistent part of his record.  He was the Governor who signed the bill abolishing the Death Penalty in NY. 

Rockefeller pushed through a Draconian bill to give life sentences to Drug Dealers as part of his drive for a 4th term in 1970, but he did not enact the full gamut of "tough on crime" legislation.  He used force to quell the riots at Attica, but force was justified; that situation was way too out of hand.  That being said, he began to implement the reforms called for in the wake of the riot at Attica. 

That being said, Rockefeller did have a "conservative" side to him.  I remember discussing Rockefeller with one of my teachers (a Ramsey Clark liberal) who agreed with me when I asked him why conservatives hated Rockefeller so much when he seemed, aside from being a big spender, to have much in common with them.  Rockefeller DID move to the right after his 1968 run for President; he was more conservative in 1970, he nominated Nixon in 1972, and he was conservative enough to be selected as Ford's VP.  Most people did not view him as a "Liberal Republican" when he died; they just viewed him as "not a conservative".  The term "Moderate Republican" doesn't really fit, however.  He was for big government and big spending in a way that Eisenhower cringed at.

[King of Kensington]

On the contrary. In the early Progressive Era, Northeast and Midwest Republicans tended to be more conservative relative to their counterparts out west with some variance and support for local parochial concerns obviously. Nelson Aldrich (Nelson Rockefeller's own grandfather on his mother's side) was seen as a tool of industrial concerns, and very often got in the way of Teddy Roosevelt's agenda. Senator Wadsworth of New York, opposed the FDA and later opposed women's suffrage. Taft's "conservative" VP was from New York.

This was a good point.  There was a time when populist Republicans were to the left of establishment Republicans.  The "switch" probably happened by the 1940s.

In Canada this is true as well with the Conservative Party.  In the 1950s the quintessential "Red Tory" was from Saskatchewan, rural-populist John Diefenbaker.  He was to the left of the Bay Street wing.

But today, when the term "Red Tory" is used it's the socially liberal/fiscally conservative Bay Street type.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

On the contrary. In the early Progressive Era, Northeast and Midwest Republicans tended to be more conservative relative to their counterparts out west with some variance and support for local parochial concerns obviously. Nelson Aldrich (Nelson Rockefeller's own grandfather on his mother's side) was seen as a tool of industrial concerns, and very often got in the way of Teddy Roosevelt's agenda. Senator Wadsworth of New York, opposed the FDA and later opposed women's suffrage. Taft's "conservative" VP was from New York.

This was a good point.  There was a time when populist Republicans were to the left of establishment Republicans.  The "switch" probably happened by the 1940s.

In Canada this is true as well with the Conservative Party.  In the 1950s the quintessential "Red Tory" was from Saskatchewan, rural-populist John Diefenbaker.  He was to the left of the Bay Street wing.

But today, when the term "Red Tory" is used it's the socially liberal/fiscally conservative Bay Street type.

I tend to view it as a situation driven by concentration of wealth (in this case geographically speaking) and their relative influence on the politics of a state. That is not to say that the wealthy don't have influence in New York today, more to the point that at the same time relative to other states, it was one of the most wealthy states and thus a larger number of middle class voters willing to opt for the status quo as opposed to backing some kind of Prairie or Mountain radical.

Its also a case where the Democratic coalition, since it included so many Irish voters courtesy of the Tammany machine, had thus come to have a substantial contingent of "not so hard up voters" and many of those who were sometimes even sided with the Republicans against the machine. It was not until the progression of the New Deal era, where you have a consolidation of support along class lines and thus a decided shift leftward, which the establishment then dove after to maintain its own power and clout becoming either liberal Republicans or Democrats.

The people most angry at the big business trusts and railroads would be the farmers and miners of the South and West, though obviously anger at the them was all over, this is more about relative concentrations.

At the same time the Dust Bowl and similar shifts towards mechanization of farms, occurring after and alongside urbanization meant that the depopulated rural areas, shift more conservative than was the case when there was a large base of debt laden small farms.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

One point of confusion is whether 'liberal Republican' means 'liberal in a broad sense' or 'liberal in a relative sense within the Republican Party'. Looking at the second third of the twentieth century, the likes of Rockefeller, Stassen, Willkie and Warren were more towards the former whilst Dewey and Eisenhower were more towards the latter.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

I read that Italian Americans were swing voters with a slight Republican lean prior to 1928 and didn’t align that much with the Irish-dominated Democratic Party machines in big cities. I would imagine that Italian Americans went Democratic in 1876-1888 and 1912-1916, but Republican in 1860-1872, 1892-1908, and 1920-1924.

I'm curious why they would flip in 1892?

[Unpoisoned Chalice]

I read that Italian Americans were swing voters with a slight Republican lean prior to 1928 and didn’t align that much with the Irish-dominated Democratic Party machines in big cities. I would imagine that Italian Americans went Democratic in 1876-1888 and 1912-1916, but Republican in 1860-1872, 1892-1908, and 1920-1924.

I'm curious why they would flip in 1892?

The McKinley Tariff of 1890 dampened the public's view of protectionism and brought voters back to the free trade Democrats.

[Fuzzy Bear]

I have no idea why Lowell Weicker was a Republican (and is currently registered as a third party) rather than being a Democrat.

Weicker was far more conservative in 1970; he had only a 30 ADA rating his 1st two (2) years in the Senate.

Weicker was a moderate Republican who was tapped to run against Rev. Joseph Duffey, an anti-Vietnam War liberal.  At the last minute, incumbent Sen. Thomas Dodd reentered the race as an Independent; he had been censured by the Senate in 1967 for converting money from political fund raisers to his personal use, and he was an alcoholic who died in 1971, not long after leaving office.  Dodd was a more hawkish Democrat who was a supporter of LBJ's Vietnam policies and ran as a third party.  His effect was to siphon off Democratic voters who found Duffey too liberal.