There were, of course, the expected labor troubles, Taft-Hartley and such, and the usual ups and downs of the capital markets. The biggest worry people seemed to have back then was inflation But, by and large, these were years of pretty good prosperity for many people and years of embarrassing wealth for the very few -- and, on many critical issues, a parade of ostriches whistling past the graveyard (how's that for a mixed-up metaphor?).
So now I began my digging into the Platform and the first thing that jumped off the very first page was this: "Our great President Dwight D. Eisenhower has counseled us further: "In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with people's money, or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative' ."
Could you find a paragraph like that in today's GOP platform? I'll bet Mitch McConnell was behind that!
Or this one: "We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs--expansion of social security--broadened coverage in unemployment insurance --improved housing--and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people."
Sound like Paul Ryan?
Then came this bit of triumphalist rhetoric: "We have balanced the budget. We believe and will continue to prove that thrift, prudence and a sensible respect for living within income applies as surely to the management of our Government's budget as it does to the family budget."
Funny, didn't we believe that Bill Clinton was the first president in decades to balance the federal budget?
What the Grand Old Party really meant to say was that Ike became the first Republican in 40 years to balance a budget.
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