Here is a history of that quote.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/24/heart-head/
Noted Churchill scholars maintain he never said it. Regarding the movement of people from left to right and visa-versa, note the voting pattern of single-women vs married-women. In the last election, single-women voted overwhelmingly for Obama, while married women voted for Romney. As these younger single-women age, get married and have kids, will they switch parties?
Ironically, Lincoln would be horrified and the Radical Republican politicians during the Civil War/Reconstruction period would be moreso if they somehow came back to life and saw what the Republican party has become.
Especially after the 1950’s and '60s when large numbers of conservative former southern Democrats like Strom Thurmond left for the Republican party due to increasing influences of Democratic politicians more sympathetic to Civil Rights and ending Jim Crow laws in the south. Nixon’s Southern Strategy campaign in 1968 cemented and largely completed this trend.
One more fun fact…Karl Marx supported the Union and Lincoln’s efforts to fight the Confederacy’s efforts to maintain their proclaimed right* to own and keep slaves as property:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/iwma/documents/1864/lincoln-letter.htm
Wonder how’d they reply to this tidbit in reply to their citing “We’re the party of Lincoln”.
A corollary study, @romanigypsyeyes, that I recall once reading, is that people become less empathetic as they accumulate wealth, something which you’re bound to do as you move through the workforce.
Among those older women could be many within Gen X who were “children of the Reagan/Bush I years” who were part of a generation which on average were already predisposed to being more conservative even during their adolescent/young adult years than older generations or younger generations at the same age ranges and maintained those beliefs into their older adult years along with some who became more conservative as they grew older.
It can be difficult to disentangle how much of it is due to age versus generational factors or whether both factors could interact to change or maintain one’s political beliefs as one evolves through one’s life.
There’s also the confounding factor of one’s vote being influenced by one’s spouse/spouse’s family. Granted, this could go either way depending on how dominant/passive a given spouse/spouse’s family of either gender happens to be.
Circuit, I believe one of the studies you are referring to note that geography intersects with empathy in a significant way. If you are affluent and live in a place where you see actual, real poor people on a daily basis (let’s call this the Upper East Side of NYC- a solidly affluent and liberal place but where you cannot live your life without interacting with the poor) you are more likely to “vote” with empathy vs. living in a gated community where you can leave your garage, push a button, and never have to deal with homeless people, poor people, etc. except when they are mowing your lawn.
There have been several analysis of this phenomenon, trying to explain why some very, very rich people stay solidly Democratic and liberal even after making it big- and others shift to the “I did it myself, why can’t they” mindset.
Fascinating.
Oh that’s really interesting, blossom. That makes a lot of sense but that’s not a body of research I’ve come across.
@blossom I don’t know that I would say the Upper East Side is solidly liberal. The Upper West Side is though
Some of this may reflect individual personalities combined with personal values they were raised with or strongly adopted after repudiating less empathetic attitudes they were raised with in their formative years.
This was the experience of some HS classmates’ parents who came of age during the '60s and became hippies active in various protest movements who became wealthy through their professional efforts. If anything many of them became more empathetic and got them involved more actively in charitable organizations and personally helping out the homeless and others in need.
This could also go the other way due to a combination of adolescent/teen rebelliousness and generational influences as shown by many HS classmates who pulled Alex P. Keatons to irk and stick it to their “do-gooder parents”. Some of it may have also been resentment at being “forced by parents” to put in community service time when they’d rather be doing other things.
“I must have missed all the student protests led by conservative students demanding “safe spaces” free from political and social opinions that violate their delicate sensibilities. “Oh dear” indeed.”
Adults created those safe spaces already. They’re called Liberty and Bob Jones and Oral Roberts.
Those Radical Republicans of the 1860s would be mortified that we now have a federal income tax. How they might go left from there is poppycock.
Republicans believe – then, as now – in economic liberty and the personal responsibility (and, at times, necessary support) that’s necessary to accompany that liberty.
We generally support a safety net (which would horrify those 1860s Republicans, but which I support), but not one that leads to familial generations of welfare recipients. (because some will always take advantage)
We believe the key to a strong economy is creating a business-friendly environment, one that lowers red tape for entrepreneurs and investors so that they become more likely to take on the incredible risk of starting or funding businesses, thus creating the vast majority of our jobs.
We believe in the rights to Life, Liberty, and Property, as stated clearly in the Declaration of Independence. Forced economic equality (socialism) operates contrary to both Liberty and Property.
Lincoln would likely have possessed the wisdom to see that promising people handouts indefinitely would only lead to generational poverty. That is among the chief lasting legacies of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Over fifty years later, we still have lots of people on welfare.
Look, I don’t blame welfare programs per se; I think most people do want to work and provide for themselves and their families. Multiple regulation forces have made it less attractive for entrepreneurs and investors to engage their dreams and their money – the profit incentive is not furthered by a war on economic liberty.
Republicans believe that lasting good jobs are the best way to bring the poor up into the middle class. Not artificially and arbitrarily doubling the minimum wage; not by handouts paid for by the fruits of others’ labor and wealth. People are happiest when they are working good jobs. We wish to destroy some of the barriers to entry keeping those jobs from being created. Like our world-highest corporate tax rate. Not every company has a magic tax shield. Lincoln’s Republicans would, again, be dismayed at the degree to which the federal government interferes in our lives.
But enough about taxes and money.
Republicans have not changed much – nor have democrats – in terms of military responsibility. Had a democrat been in office in 1861, he likely would have listened to the vast majority of his Democrat constituents and backed away from the armed invasion of the Confederates. That’s right: the Civil War was unpopular among Dems.
Not much has changed: give the poor what they vote for, not a real way out to actual prosperity. Republicans know that lasting success cannot be taxed into existence; it must fostered by sensibly regulated free enterprise and the profit incentive: the hope of riches leading the few to produce opportunity for the many. And in so doing, leading to good jobs, investment opportunities, and products high in value.
I realize this is a heavily liberal forum. I’m trying to provide some balance.
What the HECK does the Civil Rights Act of 1964 have to do with welfare?
Sorry – thanks – the correct reference is LBJ’s Great a Society.
I’m thinking more like 30 years before that…
I’m not so sure about that considering Lincoln and the Radical Republicans did actually pass an income tax to support the war effort in 1862…and the tax wasn’t repealed until the early 1870’s:
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/warfare-and-logistics/logistics/tax.html
Also, one other thing to think about was one of the themes of the war positioned the Republicans as effectively arguing in favor of greater role for the Federal government whereas the Democrats of that era…especially the southern Democrats were arguing against this by emphasizing the primacy of the states over the Federal government summarized by their cries for “states rights”. A question which has mostly been settled in favor of the primacy of the Federal government over that of the states after the Confederacy’s defeat in 1865. A defeat one historian of the Civil War and the Confederacy cited as having been caused by “too much states rights”.
Ironically, this very cry of “states rights” has now been associated mainly with the Republican party over the last 4 odd decades. Not too surprising considering many folks who have become senior members of the Republican party over that same period were southern Democrats before the 1960’s.
@zoosermom I think the one thing conservatives feel most passionate about is that virtually everyone should be allowed to have an assault rifle with unlimited rounds of ammunition including people on the terror watch list and alot of the mentally ill
Actually, a substantial percentage of conservatives favor requiring background checks for private gun sales and sales at gun shows, according to http://www.people-press.org/2013/05/23/broad-support-for-renewed-background-checks-bill-skepticism-about-its-chances/?utm_expid=53098246-2.Lly4CFSVQG2lphsg-KopIg.0&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.people-press.org%2F2015%2F08%2F13%2Fgun-rights-vs-gun-control%2F#total . 57% of Republicans favored the Manchin - Toomey bill on the subject, and 81% favored the general concept of increasing background checks (the difference being that some did not like the specific bill for some reason).
Didn’t Liberty invite Bernie Sanders to give a speech fairly recently?
When was the last time Berkeley invited a conservative speaker?
Let’s try and be fair here…
You may be able to find some here:
https://haas.berkeley.edu/haas/about/deansspeakers.html
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/haas/about/commencementspeakers.html
Speaking of Berkeley…aka Bezerkeley. The People’s Republic of Berkeley, etc. etc. etc.
When I graduated - in 1980 - the biggest club on campus was the Young Republicans. And there were Reagan signs posted on the front laws of Frat Row.
Schools are more diverse than either the right or the left would have you believe. That was true then and true now.