I can't imagine any true progressive being elected, any more than a Libertarian. But I sure do enjoy watching them in Congress! :D
This is from the 1964 GOP platform. You can see them change to respond to the politics of the day (Vietnam, civil rights)
And yes, I've only included some few parts that are completely different from today, not stuff that is essentially unchanged. These are often things that today, the party is trying to eliminate.
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1. We Republicans shall first rely on the individual's right and capacity to advance his own economic well-being, to control the fruits of his efforts and to plan his own and his family's future; and, where government is rightly involved, we shall assist the individual in surmounting urgent problems beyond his own power and responsibility to control. For instance, we pledge:
—enlargement of employment opportunities for urban and rural citizens, with emphasis on training programs to equip them with needed skills; improved job information and placement services; and research and extension services channeled toward helping rural people improve their opportunities;
—a strong, sound system of Social Security, with improved benefits to our people;
—continued Federal support for a sound research program aimed at both the prevention and cure of diseases, and intensified efforts to secure prompt and effective application of the results of research. This will include emphasis on mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, cancer, heart disease and other diseases of increasing incidence;
—revision of the Social Security laws to allow higher earnings, without loss of benefits, by our elderly people;
—full coverage of all medical and hospital costs for the needy elderly people, financed by general revenues through broader implementation of Federal-State plans, rather than the compulsory Democratic scheme covering only a small percentage of such costs, for everyone regardless of need;
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:eek: Those Democrats! Only offering to pay a small percentage, rather than all, the medical costs for our needy elderly! :eek:
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—adoption and implementation of a fair and adequate program for providing necessary supplemental farm labor for producing and harvesting agricultural commodities;
—tax credits for those burdened by the expenses of college education;
—vocational rehabilitation, through cooperation between government—Federal and State—and industry, for the mentally and physically handicapped, the chronically unemployed and the poverty-stricken;
—revision of present non-service-connected pension programs to provide increased benefits for low income pensioners, with emphasis on rehabilitation, nursing homes and World War I veterans;
—support of a Constitutional amendment permitting those individuals and groups who choose to do so to exercise their religion freely in public places, provided religious exercises are not prepared or prescribed by the state or political subdivision thereof and no person's participation therein is coerced, thus preserving the traditional separation of church and state;
—full implementation and faithful execution of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and all other civil rights statutes, to assure equal rights and opportunities guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen;
—improvements of civil rights statutes adequate to changing needs of our times;
—such additional administrative or legislative actions as may be required to end the denial, for whatever unlawful reason, of the right to vote;
—immigration legislation seeking to re-unite families and continuation of the "Fair Share" Refugee Program;
—continued opposition to discrimination based on race, creed, national origin or sex. We recognize that the elimination of any such discrimination is a matter of heart, conscience, and education, as well as of equal rights under law.
In all such programs, where Federal initiative is properly involved to relieve or prevent misfortune or meet overpowering need, it will be the Republican way to move promptly and energetically, and wherever possible to provide assistance of a kind enabling the individual to gain or regain the capability to make his own way and to have a fair chance to achieve his own goals.
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