As the Republican party finaly sinks into that vast ocean of ill-will it has generated over the past 8 years, it’s worth remembering that the elections of 2008 were simply the latest battle in a broader political and cultural war with historical roots reaching back many decades.
While the modern Republican party is apparently looking for a way to escape the toxicity they so adroitly and perhaps permanently attached to their brand, voters would be wise to remember the precedents in Republican governance that led us to this point and be cautious of any re-invention that does not specifically address the historical positions of the party with regards to these particular events:
McCarthyism and the Red Scare, Watergate and Nixon’s use and understanding of executive power, the Vietnam-era anti-war movement, the civil rights movement and the Voting Rights Act of 1964, the Church Committee and intelligence operations conducted by the government upon its own people, the Iran Contra affair and Reagan’s use and understanding of executive power; and George W. Bush’s use and understanding of executive power and the so-called "Bush doctrine" in consideration of the "Downing Street Memos," the pre-emptive war doctrine, international law and the Geneva conventions, extraordinary rendition, torture, suspension of habeas corpus, warrantless illegal spying, FISA and the granting of retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who knowingly violated the law.
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