not the little white house which isn't exactly what Obama would aspire to.
Posted on 08/27/2008 6:37:53 PM PDT by SJackson
Former congressman Leach's endorsement of the Democratic candidate in line with the GOP's original values
RIPON -- When former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach -- a Republican stalwart with close ties to the Bush family -- endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, he made a point of noting that he was not switching parties.
"As a Republican, I stand before you with deep respect for the history and traditions of my political party. But it is clear to all Americans that something is out of kilter in our great republic," explained Leach, who argued that Obama's "transformative campaign" represents "a clarion call for renewal rooted in time-tested American values that tap Republican as well as Democratic traditions."
Leach said those Republican traditions include a commitment to individual rights, fairness, equality and "progressive internationalism."
Leach's outline of traditional Republican values is correct.
Democratic loyalists might debate how far back in the party's history one must go in search of those values. But if you go all the way back, to a little white schoolhouse located just off the main street in this quiet eastern Wisconsin college town, you will find roots that look very much like those described by Leach on the day that he endorsed the first African-American candidate ever nominated for the presidency by a major American party.
In many senses, Obama's nomination is the culmination of a political journey begun not in the southern precincts to which the Democratic Party traces its roots, but to a March 20, 1854, meeting where a political provocateur named Alvan Bovay called together his socialist neighbors in order to form a new party that would fight for "free soil, free speech, free men."
In the 1850s, Ripon was a hotbed of radical ideas. A decade earl
ier, in the winter of 1843, a series of lectures at the Franklin Lyceum in Southport (now Kenosha) inspired several dozen men and women to adopt the views of Charles Fourier, a visionary French socialist thinker who sought to restructure society into cooperative agricultural communities called "phalanxes." The newly committed "Fourierites" pooled their meager resources and purchased land on the edge of what is now Ripon. Their Wisconsin phalanx, known as Ceresco, proved to be a success, eventually growing in population to a peak of 180. By the early 1850s, the utopian agricultural community -- including buildings that stand to this day -- had been incorporated into Ripon.
Bovay initially preached the anti-slavery gospel on the streets of New York, where he had sought to organize working men into a radical political party. He had limited success there and eventually followed the advice of his friend and mentor, newspaper editor Horace Greeley, to "go west, young man."
In Ripon, Bovay found plenty of support for his view that the "old parties" of the day -- the conservative Democrats and the slightly more liberal Whigs -- had failed to respond to the moral requirement that the United States end the practice of slavery. The campaigner gathered his followers at Ripon's schoolhouse on a cold, late-winter night and formed a new party that they named "Republican" because the word was, to Bovay's view," suggestive of equality."
The new party sought that equality not just for slaves, but for all workers, declaring in an early platform that its intent was to join "the old battle -- not yet over -- between the rights of the toiling many and the special privileges of the aristocratic few." That platform promised to promote women's rights, defend immigrants, advance trade union organizing, limit the amount of land that any individual could own and forbid corporate monopolies.
One of the first Wisconsinites attracted to its banner was Carl Schurz, a leader of the radical German revolution of 1848 -- which also had been influenced by Fourier's ideas. By 1854, Schurz had settled in Watertown and soon became a leader of Wisconsin's burgeoning German community.
Schurz rejected invitations to run for office on the Democrat line because he thought the party was too conservative. But he joined the new party and, within a few years, became one of its first statewide candidates.
Shortly before leaving Wisconsin to join the administration of his close friend and ally, Abraham Lincoln, Schurz addressed students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In that speech, he promised that Republicans would establish "a higher order" defined by a commitment to equality, economic common sense and a responsible foreign policy.
Leach, who once chaired the moderate Ripon Society -- a group that took its name from the Wisconsin community when it was formed to fight the rise of the Republican right -- says that he now hears the themes sounded at the founding of his party in the campaign of Barack Obama. That still did not make switching sides easy, says Leach. "Part of it is political parties are a distant analog to families, and you really hate to step outside a family environment," says the former congressman.
But Leach suggests that in this year of transformational politics, there will be many more "Republicans for Obama." Already, state Rep. Jeff Wood, who served several terms as a Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly, has filed for re-election as an independent and has declared that "there have been many of us frustrated with the party because of the abandonment of the principles we believed the party stood for."
State Rep. Gordon Hintz, an Oshkosh Democrat who represents a district near Ripon, thinks Obama should campaign in the region, perhaps even in Ripon.
"Republicans of today are nothing like the Republicans who founded that party," says Hintz. "Barack Obama should be talking about that fact, and suggesting that he is the candidate that people who appreciate the old Republican values should be supporting."
It might not be all that hard.
In the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Obama carried Ripon -- not merely with more votes than his challenger for the nomination, but with more than any of the Republicans.
In fact, in the birthplace of Republicanism, Obama got more votes in the 2008 Democratic primary than George Bush got in the 2004 general election.
Perhaps Leach should open his "Republicans for Obama" headquarters in Ripon.
Doubtless, Alvan Bovay would approve.
I was struck with just how much race could be a determining factor in this fall's presidential campaign during none other than a Major League Baseball game the other day.
While the crowd awaited the singing of the national anthem, two guys in the row behind me were discussing the Barack Obama versus John McCain contest.
"I'm a longtime Democrat," one fan told the other. "But I don't think I'm going to vote for a black man."
That brought a rejoinder from his friend, who, I'm glad to report, told him that was a "really ridiculous" thing to say.
Indeed, it may have been ridiculous, but there continues to be a concern that this worried-about-blacks Democrat is far from alone.
Charles M. Blow, the "visual" op-ed columnist for the Saturday New York Times, put together an interesting graphic recently in which he concluded that racism will be a major factor in November's vote. Blow, an African-American himself, wrote:
"According to a July New York Times/CBS News poll, when whites were asked whether they would be willing to vote for a black candidate, 5 percent confessed they would not. That's not so bad. Right? But wait. The pollsters then rephrased the question to get a more accurate portrait of the sentiment. They asked the same whites if most of the people they knew would vote for a black candidate. Nineteen percent said that those they knew would not. Depending on how many people they know and how well they know them, this universe of voters could be substantial. That's bad."
In other words, that baseball fan behind me might not admit to a pollster that he wouldn't vote for a black man, but he would confide his true feelings to his friend.
Other commentators attribute the puzzling disparity between Americans' views on major issues -- a sizable majority gives GOP stands a thumbs down -- and Obama's neck-and-neck poll numbers with McCain to a lingering racial fear.
U.S. News columnist Kenneth Walsh says many white working-class Americans, "worried about competition for their jobs and anxious about the future, seem to harbor vague fears that Obama will side too much with fellow African-Americans in setting policy."
What's more startling is the extent to which many in McCain's camp are going in an attempt to capitalize on these sentiments.
We saw that a couple of weeks ago when McCain himself accused Obama of "playing the race card" when Obama said the Republicans were trying to scare the electorate by saying "he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and five-dollar bills."
Suddenly, it became a huge issue, fanned as usual by the national media and 24-hour cable, that Obama was insinuating that he was being singled out because he is black.
This all was engineered by the same operatives who were behind the blatantly racist Willie Horton ads in the 1988 presidential campaign and produced the racially charged TV ads that sent black candidates Harvey Gantt in North Carolina and Harold Ford in Tennessee down to defeat in 1996 and 2006 in races they were expected to win.
A black man might understandably worry that Karl Rove and the other below-the-belt political strategists will do anything to inject the race issue when the chips are down.
We're already seeing that as new attack books and accompanying whisper campaigns insinuate Obama will favor his race and, despite his denials, is really a closet Muslim.
Even here in Wisconsin we have the leadership of the state Republican Party "studying" how newly installed Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman beat incumbent Louis Butler, an African-American, earlier this year by appealing to blue-collar voters with a subtle racial message.
As Charles Blow concluded:
"Think racism isn't a major factor in this election? Think again."
Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times. dzweifel@madison.com
not the little white house which isn't exactly what Obama would aspire to.
Yeah, and that was a rousing success of socialism, wasn't it?
Absolutely correct! Racism most certainly is a huge factor in this election.
98% of blacks will pull the lever for Obama the Magic Muslim, for no other reason than his race.
Any “true republican” who thinks that a Marxist from Chicago is “in line with the GOP’s original values”, has gone to the bong one too many times. Leach is NOT a Republican. He’s a RINO.
What percentage of the black community is voting for Senator Obama just because he's black? It is far greater than the percentage of the white community voting for Senator McCain because he's white.
Jim Leach endorsed Obama at the RAT Convention??? Wow. I wonder what they found in his FBI file.
He writes that race is a factor, and probably it is, but its Democrats who are making it a factor, because race-obsession is part and parcel of who they are.
If you don't care about race, if you aren't interested, if you are far more interested in a man's character and philosophy, you are probably a Republican, or you are headed our way.
If you would vote for someone, or against someone based on his race, you are probably a Democrat. God bless you, you are in the party you belong in.
You'll note that the Democrat quoted in the article didn't say, "I just couldn't vote for a guy who has never held productive employment of any kind in his entire life". He didn't say, "I just couldn't support a socialist", nor did he say "I couldn't support anyone who would throw Petraeus' victory in the dumpster". Had he said those things, I'd have thought he might be Republican quality.
But, no, he just focused on Obama's race, like most of Obama's supporters and like a disappointing number of his Democrat opponents. Which means, he may vote McCain this time, but he's not a Republican until he can get over his race issues.
"Character". "Philosophy". These are the things that matter. Vote for a man who could look Putin in the eye without wetting himself.
Race baiting - and too many conservatives bite on it.
There are so many legitimate reasons why the Democratic candidate is paper thin, but they still serve to weaken the arguement by trotting down into the mud.
“When former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach”
He knows Obama will up the ethanol subsidies, which he can’t count on McCain for; so he sold his party affiliation to him who will pay more for it.
Leach is not a “true” Republican nor is he like “old-school” Republicans. He’s a a socialist RINO.
Anybody out there mind being in a foxhole with Jim “the leach”?
That would NOT include a personal right to bear arms. It WOULD include a right to crossdress at the office and drop trou in whatever bathroom you choose. And it DOES apparently include support for the global poverty tax because if we can't get rid of the world's poor with the money from the American taxpayer, at least we can increase poverty at home to "equalize" things. You can't just set your thermostat at whatever you'd like y'know...
What is a man? I guess not a baby. Babies have no protected rights to freedom in the Democrat Party.
The author needs to point out just when his Democrat Party changed into the "original Republican Party".
Sounds good, let's limit the amount of land non-citizens can buy. In Mexico the standard is ZERO.
DO IT. DO IT. DO IT. And THEN tell us all how Republicanism was founded on SOCIALISM and that there is no bigger SOCIALIST candidate for the presidency than Barack Hussein Obama. PLEASE come out of the closet and tell people to vote SOCIALIST. Please please please!!!
Americans find the tyranny of socialism repugnant. Let's take the mask off and we can get past this phony slur that people who won't vote for Obama are "racists". We hate the guy's politics and personal aliances with known antiAmerican radicals. We don't hate his skin color or ethnicity.
Operation CHAOS?
And I guess this puts an end to the myth that "Republicans won't vote for him because he's black". I voted for Alan Keyes in the Texas primary.
It's RACIST to call people of my skin color "a white" and to refer to "a black candidate". I am against people using a color as a noun instead of an adjective when discussing SOME people. It dehumanizes the person based on skin color.
The black (author) properly used the word 'black' to refer to a black (candidate). But not when he discussed how whites (potential voters) won't vote for "a black" (candidate).
I'm getting sick and tired of hearing the term "whites" in this racist campaign and I am serious. We all deserve the dignity of not being called a color. We seem to have gotten beyond the notion of calling black people "blacks". The point has been stressed by calling them the latest term that they have insisted on being called "African-Ameericans".
Note the same ill advised use of these terms...
And this follows the media's template in push polling.
When asked in the economy how YOU are doing, poll respondents say "not bad". When asked how they think the economy is going, they say "terrible".
It is projection and wholly unscientific. These people are making up answers and guessing how bad a problem is or isn't based on media portrayls.
And to think they called Senator Joseph McCarthy a paranoid hate monger...
Theoretically, if the Democrat who wouldn't vote for Obama because he is black lied to a pollster, his lie would be negated by his friend who would out him to the media authorities as a bigot when that friend is polled.
Poll samples ARE that random, right? RIGHT?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.