Why did I join The Union? I joined because I was tired of being wrong, and I want to make amends for my mistaken beliefs and actions.
Why Change, I’m Comfortable?
Here’s what today’s conservatives mean when they demand an end to changes: Life (my life) is good; cultural changes might diminish my good life!
I know this to be true, because I was a conservative who vehemently and actively resisted change … until I became tired of being wrong.
The Political Parties’ Parting of the Ways
Historically, the Republican Party was composed mostly of progressives who advocated for changes—particularly for abolishing slavery, for civil rights for all people, and for voting rights for all citizens, regardless of race, gender, or religious belief. In that bygone era, it was the Democrats who fervently resisted change.
But as informed folks know, over the course of a few 20th century decades, a gradual-but-complete reversal occurred. The Republicans became the Status Quo Party while the Democrats became the Transformation Party.
I came of age in the 70s, in the latter part of that reversal period. By then, Congress had passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. In the Senate vote, 27 of the 33 Republican senators voted for the act, while 46 of the 67 Democratic senators voted in favor. So, even then, most of the Senate’s opposition to the advancement of civil rights came from old-line Democrats, mostly from the South.
The Times Were Changing
But, as Bob Dylan wrote and sang in that same year, the times were changing. Both political parties were gradually changing, eventually trading places. In 1972—the year of my first vote—incumbent President Richard Nixon conspired with his cronies to dig up dirt on his rival, and the resultant Watergate scandal hastened the reversal. So did Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” which, as most folks know, sought to bring southern voters into the Republican Party by—at least tacitly—embracing the anti-progressive stance on civil rights.
In the 1976 elections, 83 percent of Black voters and 82 percent of Hispanic voters voted for Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate. But the reversal really began 40 years earlier, with FDR’s first election in 1936. In that year, the African-American-owned New York Amsterdam News printed this headline: “BIG NEGRO VOTE BACKS F. D. R. AS NEW DEAL SWEEPS NATION.” Minorities—particularly blacks—recognized which political party seemed more concerned with their needs. So, not surprisingly, most aligned with the more progressive Democratic Party.
Throughout the elections of the following decades, racial, religious, ethnic, and gender minorities have overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates. Meanwhile, Republican candidates could count on the support of most White voters—those who agreed with the National Review’s yell to “Stop!” That is, “Stop changing things that might disrupt my comfortable life.”
Confession Is Good for the Soul
I was one of those comfortable White voters. Although I voted for McGovern in 1972, from 1973 until 2016, I voted a straight Republican ticket. I was convinced that the conservative philosophy best addressed the nation’s needs. I was wrong. And I’m tired of being wrong. So, it’s time for me to renounce my conservative beliefs.
Conservatives—first conservative Democrats, then conservative Republicans—were wrong on civil rights for minorities. We conservatives have been wrong on voting-rights bills. We were wrong on women’s rights issues. We’ve been wrong on Second Amendment (gun rights) issues. We’ve been wrong on environmental and climate-change issues. We’ve often been wrong on economic and tax issues. We’ve often been wrong on wars and military-spending issues. And for far too long, I was with the conservatives, on the wrong side of too many policy issues.
George Bernard Shaw was right when he said, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” I’ve changed my mind; I admit my many previously mistaken views and actions. I choose to leave in the past my beliefs that were rooted in the past. For the sake of the nation, I choose progress and advancement over stagnation and decay. So, that’s why I joined The Union.
Post submitted by Jerry Gramckow
Jerry Gramckow is a volunteer with The Union from Colorado Springs, Colorado. You can read more from Jerry on his blog, Grumpy’s Grumblings.
Note: The views and opinions expressed by volunteer contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of The Union, a single-issue organization that welcomes all and is dedicated to protecting democracy.
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