On Being Republican -- 1

In my post of August 20 entitled "Blog Name," I suggested that I was a Republican, and not a Democrat, because my mother was a Republican.  There are other reasons.

In 1951, Dwight Eisenhower, the WWII general of note, ran for president.  And my grandfather was subsisting in Oklahoma on an "Old Age Pension."  At a time when many older people, like  Grandpa, had been forced off the farm, and out of other pursuits, by old age and declining health, Oklahoma undertook to provide such persons an "Old Age Pension."  Most of them did not have Social Security benefits.  This "Old Age Pension" was funded with a 1 cent (one percent of a purchase) sales tax.  In grandpa's case, his monthly check was c. $100.

The county in which we, and grandpa, lived was heavily Democrat.  The Democrat primaries determined who would hold the county offices.  Even if people were Republicans, they often registered Democrat so that they could vote in that party's determinative primary.  And I know that it was the case that the holders of some of the county offices had ran and been elected as Democrats but were secretly Republicans.

A point of anger that arose in that 1951 election, and remains with me unto this day, is that the local Democrats convinced my aged grandpa that, if Eisenhower were elected, his "Old Age Pension" would stop on the day of the vote.  When the old man heard that Eisenhower had been elected, he went as white as a sheet of copy paper: he almost died of fright.  This scare-the-old folks-to-get-elected tactic continues unto this day, and it still alienates me from the Democrat party.

BTW, that 1 cent regressive sales tax that was only opposed by a minority, and that few begrudged the elderly the proceeds of, grew to 2 cents and them became a monster tax in Oklahoma.  Sales taxes now fund an array of things other than benefits to the elderly.  In many jurisdictions, they push up toward a dime on every dollar.  If you give politicians an inch on taxes, they'll take a mile.