Outside the South, approximately zero of Democrats from a half-century ago would fit with today’s Republicans.
I guess Mr. Farnaby is answering OP that JFK maps to Democrat. Still, I might differ on some parts of this post.
If JFK stepped into a time machine in 1962, and came out today, he’d be regarded as a fairly conservative Republican.
But in reality, no one goes through a time machine. People evolve over time. So, there’s no intelligent way to judge what JFK would think of the current issues, had he lived to see them develop.
That quote would seem to exemplify minimum wage supported as a reaction and remedy to the racist practice (paying non-white workers less) that would prevail in its absence.
JFK would be a Chuck Schumer Democrat; someone the netroots hate but the voters/regular people love.
I think you’re half right. Schumer is a very liberal Democrat, but he’s a New York Democrat and the top New York Democrat is always going to be a netroots target. Their real ire is directed at the state of New York, but since they can’t live without New York’s electoral votes, they just pick on the most Jewish and Wall Streetish candidate they can find.
That’s bullshit slander that the netroots would pick a target for ire based on being Jewish.
Then how come they aren’t interested in Gillibrand, or Clinton before her, given that they hold the exact same views of Wall Street and Israel as Chuck Schumer?
And who was their major target before Schumer? Joe Lieberman.
There are plenty of other differences (like Schumer’s opposition to the Iran deal, unlike Gillibrand and Clinton), and they have criticized Gillibrand and especially Clinton many times anyway. Lieberman deserved the criticism, considering his unrepentant war-mongering and support for McCain over Obama.
Lieberman was singled out. He wasn’t the only guy to vote for the war, or to be hawkish in general(ahem, Clinton again). And he was singled out long before he endorsed McCain.
There’s also a big difference between criticism and treating someone as basically just being a traitor. The Blue Dogs don’t even get that much hate(more disdain than anything else). I’ve only ever seen Jews targeted in that way.
He was by far the most hawkish Democrat – wasn’t he pretty much the only major Democrat who continued to support the Iraq war in 2004 and later? That’s a pretty giant difference.
Lieberman was a traitor to the party. Schumer isn’t treated with as much ire as Lieberman, since he’s still a pretty reliable Democratic Senator. He gets a lot of criticism, but then so did Hillary Clinton in '08 (just as much or more than Schumer), and even Bill Clinton.
You’ve pretty much only seen Lieberman “targeted” in this way, and it was deserved. Good riddance to that war-mongering, America-weakening prick.
Kennedy would fit right into the Clinton mainstream of the Democratic Party today. Indeed, 1964’s conservative icon Barry Goldwater would fit right into Clintonist centrism.
Now Goldwater’s an interesting case, because he was far to the right of the party but ended up being more libertarian as time went on.
Then again, George McGovern also changed. He was the far left of the Democratic Party in 1972, but by the 90s probably would have fit in more with the DLC.