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Paul Weyrich passed away this morning. Here’s a blog post on his career from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Weyrich, who is from Racine in my home state of Wisconsin, was like many German Catholic of his age, making the transition from the their traditional home in the Democratic Party to the GOP but keeping his traitional conservatism. He also made the transition from lonely voice in Washington to being part of a new governing establishment. Regardless what we think of that establishment, you’ve got to start somewhere and you have to admire how far Weyrich and his contemporaries came when they first arrived in the nation’s capital. They were pretty low on the totem pol as you can get. But they also understood how to quickly rise and they did so.
It’s perhaps fitting that he passess away as one era closes and another begins.
Weaver on 21 Dec 2008 at 2:22 am #
That’s a major loss for America.
He’ll be missed.
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Btw, Catholics were originally Democratic as with the Southerners? I didn’t know that. When did they switch over? I’m always interested in reading about these mysterious Midwestern Catholics.
My Southern grandfather still calls himself a Democrat, heh and he’s no fan of Obama.
Weaver on 21 Dec 2008 at 2:24 am #
That AmConMag article he wrote with Lind was a classic.
RonL on 24 Dec 2008 at 12:54 am #
Catholics, especially Irish Catholics, were Democrats because with few exceptions, Urban Machines were Democrat.
The Democrat dependency on corrupt urban machines started with Martin Van Buren, although back then it was the Irish Protestants who were the machine.
The Whigs and later the GOP was the part of Industrialists (tariffs, national improvements), yoemen farmers, skilled workers. Slavery and the Civil War sectionalized American politics. In the late 19th century, the Democrats were the party of “Rum (licence, and drunk workers), Romanism, and Rebellion”. This was coined by a Protestant Preacher, Dr. Samuel D. Burchard whose turn of phrase killed James G. Blaines’ presidential aspirations. The irony is that Blaine’s mother was Catholic and his sister a nun and if any Republican could breach the divide it was him. Although I consider Gover Cleveland to be the last good Democrat President, the country would have been better served bya President Blaine.
The actual quote is “We are Republicans, and don’t propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been rum, Romanism, and rebellion. We are loyal to our flag.”
As a nationalist, I actually like it. The Democrats remain the part of licence, religious minorities, and mutliculturalism.