When looking at the expulsion of Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, and Mike Pence from their conservative peers, many Never Trumpers and even liberals scratch their heads at how the Republican Party could be gripped by a seemingly radical madness. When taking a trip down memory lane, this is hardly a new phenomenon as seen by the treatment of Nelson Rockefeller by his peers for being a “secret communist” or even treasonous. Simultaneously, many hopeful liberal supporters of Rockefeller also expressed disappointment and dismay as he “moved rightward” throughout his political career, especially on segregation.
As the Civil Rights movement intensified in the early 1960s, Rockefeller envisioned a Republican Party recommitted to its Lincolnian heritage as a defender of Black equality. But the party’s extreme right wing, encouraged by its successful outreach to segregationists before and after the nomination of Barry Goldwater, pushed the party to the right. With his national political ambitions fading by the late 1960s, Rockefeller began to tack right himself on social and racial issues, refusing to endorse efforts to address police brutality, accusing, without proof, Black welfare mothers of cheating the system, or introducing harsh drug laws that disproportionately incarcerated people of color. These betrayals of his own ideals did little to win him the support of the party faithful, and his vice presidency ended in humiliation, rather than the validation of moderate ideals.
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When looking at the expulsion of Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, and Mike Pence from their conservative peers, many Never Trumpers and even liberals scratch their heads at how the Republican Party could be gripped by a seemingly radical madness. When taking a trip down memory lane, this is hardly a new phenomenon as seen by the treatment of Nelson Rockefeller by his peers for being a “secret communist” or even treasonous. Simultaneously, many hopeful liberal supporters of Rockefeller also expressed disappointment and dismay as he “moved rightward” throughout his political career, especially on segregation.
As the Civil Rights movement intensified in the early 1960s, Rockefeller envisioned a Republican Party recommitted to its Lincolnian heritage as a defender of Black equality. But the party’s extreme right wing, encouraged by its successful outreach to segregationists before and after the nomination of Barry Goldwater, pushed the party to the right. With his national political ambitions fading by the late 1960s, Rockefeller began to tack right himself on social and racial issues, refusing to endorse efforts to address police brutality, accusing, without proof, Black welfare mothers of cheating the system, or introducing harsh drug laws that disproportionately incarcerated people of color. These betrayals of his own ideals did little to win him the support of the party faithful, and his vice presidency ended in humiliation, rather than the validation of moderate ideals.
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