re: #164 teleskiguy

Alouette (most here know her as The Vicious Babushka) wrote an excellent two part series about this very subject.

Thanks for that. Though I know generally of the reasons for the party shift (and President Reagan’s shameless candidacy announcement in Philadelphia, Mississippi), Vicious Babushka put it all in one place.

As Senator Goldwater put it on the Senate floor in 1981:

I must make it clear that I don’t condemn these groups for what they believe. I happen to share many of the values emphasized by these organizations.
I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in “A,” “B,” “C” and “D.” Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?

And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of “conservatism.” … This unrelenting obsession with a particular goal destroys the perspective of many decent people. They have become easy prey to manipulation and misjudgment.

Goldwater’s wife served on the board of Planned Parenthood in Phoenix. President Reagan signed an order banning open carry in California, and granted the largest “amnesty” in American history.

They would be RINOs today, if wingnuts read history books (they are filled with liberal bias though).