Eisenhower versus Tea Party Republicans

I am always amazed by how extreme the Republican Party has become and thought it might be interesting to do a rough impressionistic comparison of the difference between what I might call the Eisenhower Republicans of the late 1950s and today’s Tea Party Republicans. Here goes (actually the real difference is between grown ups who had been through the Depression and fought a major war, and adolescences who can’t tell the difference between Sweden and North Korea):

‘Eisenhower Republicans’	‘Tea Party Republicans’
Pragmatic realists	Ideological extremists
Steady	Hysterical
Balanced the budget	Cut taxes but fail to cut spending
Accepted Medicare and Social Security	Destroy Medicare and Social Security
Skeptical of the Military-Industrial complex having fought in war	Throw money at defense contractors not having fought in war
Cooperate with Democrats	Demonize Democrats
Expect rich to pay higher taxes	Let middle class subsidize the rich
Racist but getting better	Racist and getting worse
Believed in savings	Believe in credit cards
Tolerant	Bigoted

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