Speaker 1: You know, I've gotten a lot of emails over the last month or so from people saying,
David, sir, I hear it vaguely mentioned that the Republican Party is now more extreme than ever.
But is that true? Is it true that the Republican Party has actually moved to the right, and
particularly in the context of looking at people like Marjorie Taylor GREENE and Lauren Boebert
and similar extremist lunatics in the Republican Party? It's reasonable to ask, has it always been
like this? And the truth is that it has not. This is not a segment about how great the Republican
Party used to be. This is a segment about how much less extreme the Republican Party used to
be. For those who don't know the history, the Republican Party was once a relatively moderate
political force in the United States compared to where they are today. Over the last 40 years,
there has been a radical transformation in the Republican Party, where it has become more and
more extreme in its views and its policies, in its rhetoric and in the level of extremism
that it is willing to accept within its ranks. Again, I might have to say this 20 times. I'm
not rehabilitating the old Republican Party. I'm comparing what it used to be to what it is today.
And one of the most glaring sort of examples of this shift has been the party's view on social
issues. In the seventies and eighties, there were many elements of the Republican Party that
were generally and sort of superficially at least supportive of abortion rights and of gay rights.
But we know that that has changed dramatically. And it is a party that has won many elections and
raised a ton of money being completely against abortion and completely against LGBT rights.
If you go to the seventies and eighties, you can find that abortion rights and LGBT rights
were simply not as Partizan as were not Partizan. Issues to the degree that they are today. And you
had some Republicans that were actually supportive of those causes. If you look at President
Richard Nixon, one of the first politicians to publicly support abortion rights in a 69 speech,
he said this should be a decision made by a woman and her doctor, not the government. That's the
small government position on abortion. In 72, the Republican Party platform included a plank
supporting abortion rights to some degree. They maintained that for four years, and in 1976,
the Republican Party became significantly more anti-abortion. You go to 1977,
a Republican led Congress passed a bill known as the gay rights bill, and it banned discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation in the federal government and in Washington,
D.C. That was a Republican led Congress at the time. You then look at Ronald Reagan in 86 when
Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, it actually provided some legal protections
for gay and lesbian immigrants to the United States in 87. The Republican Party platform
included language supporting anti-discrimination measures for gay and lesbian Americans. So it's
not that those views necessarily reflected the views of the entire Republican Party at those
points in time. But there used to be support, at least to some degree, for those causes among
Republicans in the seventies and eighties, so that social issues, taxation. In the past, Republicans
were open to the idea that we might raise taxes if it meant funding important programs or if it
would reduce the deficit. Today, they never even acknowledge that increasing taxes to fund certain
programs can actually reduce the deficit by being economically stimulative. They pretend
that that's not an economic reality anymore, and we know the result. It's led to the erosion of
so many different social programs. Immigration is an area where the views of the Republicans
have changed quite dramatically. In the past, Republicans were often supportive of immigration,
saw it as a source of economic growth, sort of rock with the cultural diversity component
of it as well. But now we've seen the Republican Party become obsessed with building a border wall,
cracking down on immigration, saying we shouldn't even provide a path to citizenship to people who
were brought here as kids by their parents through no fault of their own. But when you go back to 86,
I mentioned that immigration reform act that President Reagan signed, it provided amnesty to
millions of undocumented immigrants already living in the United States. And Reagan said at the time,
quote, The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class
of individuals who now must hide in the shadows without access to many of the benefits of a free
and open society. That was Reagan who said that John McCain in 2005 co-sponsored the Comprehensive
Immigration Reform Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Mitt Romney, as recently as 2012, expressed support for comprehensive immigration reform,
which would have given a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants. So this has been a
change. Climate change. I'll mention briefly you had a time in the past when Republicans were open
to talking about what actions should we take to address the issue of climate change. They
didn't necessarily agree with Democrats on what those actions actions should be,
but they agreed on the science. They didn't question the science. You now have much of
the Republican Party that just says, Oh, no, the science is completely wrong. So the Republican
Party's shift to the extreme right is very real. It's been extraordinarily impactful
because it has influenced media coverage of a lot of these issues. Media coverage has
influenced public opinion on a lot of these issues. But the Republican Party has moved
dramatically to the extreme. And I don't know at this point what's going to turn it around.
Let me know your thoughts. Leave a comment. Send an email to info at David Pakman dot com.