Heather Cox Richardson is an historian and a professor at Boston College. She also puts out a news letter (more or less daily) that generally relates current events to historical trends – among other things. I will confess to not reading everyone of her newsletters, but I read many.
Today’s topic was the Republican Party. It has not always been the Tea Party infused lackey of corporations and the excessively wealthy, for much of its history it cared about the common individuals and sought to use government to do social good. Her April 6, 2021 newsletter starts out:
“I spent much of today thinking about the Republican Party. Its roots lie in the immediate aftermath of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in spring 1854, when it became clear that elite southern slaveholders had taken control of the federal government and were using their power to spread their system of human enslavement across the continent.
At first, members of the new party knew only what they stood against: an economic system that concentrated wealth upward and made it impossible for ordinary men to prosper. But in 1859, their new spokesman, Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln, articulated a new vision of government…”
The whole article can be read here: Letters from America – April 6, 2021 It is well worth the time it takes to read it. If you like that sort of thing, it is a good newsletter to subscribe to.
Keep well.
For a Deep Dive into Republican Party you can also read her book, “To Make Men Free“. It is the history of the Party. She is one of our best historians.