WHY does the Republican BASE yearn for the days of the Cleavers?



Cast of "Leave It To Beaver"

When Republicans and their rabid base say "we want our country back", I almost immediately think of the Cleaver Family in  "Leave It To Beaver".  Now, I am in no way HATING on the Cleavers.  In fact, I watch an episode every now and then when I can.  I'm sure I've seen EVERY episode of this sitcom than ran from 1957-1963.  As big a fan I am of the show, there has always been one fact that has stood out to me: I only saw ONE black actor in all of those episodes.  It was a black actress, in fact, and she played the role of, what else, a domestic.  If her scene lasted a full minute it would be surprising.  In the world of the Cleavers, black people and other minorities didn't exist.  There was ONE episode where Beaver did befriend a Hispanic kid named Chuy.  That character was prominent throughout that particular episode.  But that was IT for minorities.  That was television and LIFE in American in the late 50s and early 60s.  That's seemingly the life in America the majority of the Republican base wants to return to in 2014 and beyond.  WHY does the Republican BASE yearn for the days of the Cleavers? 

In the era of the Cleaver Family (1957-1963), white Americans moved into the middle class in record numbers.  Manufacturing and other blue collar industries paid good wages - in fact, America paid the highest wages in the world in the 1950s.   American workers enjoyed the best benefits and the longest vacations of any industrialized nation in the world.  Over thirty five percent (35%) of Americans working in the private sector were represented by labor unions.  White working class families went from living within city limits to the fledgling and sprawling suburbs.  New modern schools were built and the word "subdivision" became a part of pop culture lexicon.  Things were good for white men in America. 

Conversely, things were NOT so good for minorities - ESPECIALLY black Americans in the era of the Cleaver Family.  Blacks were virtual outcasts in nearly every area of public life from employment, to housing, to education, to civil rights - every CRITICAL area of public life.  Along comes the Civil Rights movement which culminated in two LANDMARK legislation - the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  A spinoff of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  The creation of the EEOC bolstered Affirmative Action which, unbeknownst to many, was created in 1935 during the Roosevelt Administration.  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it easier for black people to vote in this country.  For some inexplicable reason a significant number of white people, ESPECIALLY white people in the South, didn't think black people voting was a good idea - to the point where black people were actually KILLED for wanting to vote.  Imagine that.  It was then and only then that a large swath of black people began edging toward and entering the Middle Class. 

Women weren't exactly welcomed into the mainstream, either.  From 1957-1963, women working in America made from 63.8% of every dollar as men made to 58.9% in 1963.  That right.  Women made LESS in 1963 than they did in 1957.  It got WORSE for women as time progressed instead of BETTER.  (Women's Earnings as a Percentage of Men's, 1951–2011)  If you think wages and employment opportunities were bad for women during the era of the Cleavers, it was absolutely UNTHINKABLE that women actually had enough sense to make decisions regarding their reproductive rights.  Premarital sex was disgusting and immoral and abortions were ILLEGAL.  Women were expected to get married, have kids, stay at home and raise the kids, keep the house, cook the meals, wash the clothes and do whatever their husbands told them to do.  This was archaic thinking to say the least, but it was the prevailing social more of the time.  Along came o woman named Gloria Steinem and a new word, feminism, was

Women burning bras

introduced to the world and the Feminist movement in America was born.  Women in America had decided they had enough of both being TOLD what to do and EXPECTED to do.  Women decided they were free; free to make their own choices about their lives, PERIOD.  In a fascinating sign of solidarity, bra burning became the cause célèbre.  Women were successful in getting a cigarette in their honor along with a slick advertising campaign to boot. 

(Click on this link and check out this Virginia Slims commercial from 1969)

Considering the affect on health we know cigarettes can have, to say a cigarette campaign was successful is relative.  However, in the 1960s, this was a big deal.  In the last 50 years women have made gains in employment, education, politics, sports and freedom of choice.  As the Virginia Slims jingle says, "You've come a long way, baby."  As a result of the feminist movement and some skillful lawyering, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a woman's right to privacy under the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's right to have an abortion.  That January 1973 ruling is commonly referred to as Roe vs. Wade. 

Immigration laws in the 1950s to mid-1960s were a lot more stringent than they are today - ESPECIALLY when it came to Asians and Africans.  They were stringent for some Europeans, too.  The immigration laws then favored northern and western Europeans as opposed to eastern and southern Europeans.  The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 changed all of that.  The law, signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson, opened the doors to the United States for immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

If you were gay or lesbian in the era of the Cleavers, you were a social leper.  You had to live your life in shame, face public humiliation - up to an including assault or worse.  Some simply HID who they were.  They felt compelled to be attracted to the opposite sex in order to conceal their identities.  Some married and produced children.  There were few options available.  Homosexuals were even objectified by the government and the clergy.  The government and the clergy desperately sought "cures" for homosexuality.  Homosexuals were FREAKS and ABNORMAL and something had to be done.  In the 1960s, gay men starting moving to San Francisco and setting up shop in the Castro District.  Gays from all over the world started migrating to San Francisco - the one city in America where they could be totally free.  In 1973, a dynamic and charismatic gay man by the name of Harvey Milk moved to The Castro and the lives of gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals and transsexuals changed forever.  Harvey Milk became the first openly gay politician to be elected in San Francisco and from that power of power, he led the charge in passing landmark legislation that favored the gay community.  As recently as the 2004 presidential election, same sex marriage was the third rail in American politics.  George W. Bush was re-elected president in 2004 basically on the promise to outlaw same sex marriage by Constitutional amendment.  Today, same sex marriage is LEGAL in 19 states.  The cultural landscape sure has changed since 2004.

The Republican Party's primary base is made up old, angry, bitter, frustrated (socially and otherwise), mean spirited and bigoted white men.  In the 2012 presidential election, 88% of Mitt Romney's voters were white and he won 59% of the white vote overall.  The Daily Kos referred to that voting bloc as a "white identity organization". 
(Daily Kos: New Gallup Data Details How the Republican Party Lurches forward as a Shambling Corpse of Whiteness)  Gallup backs up the Daily Kos with some indisputable evidence, too.  (Gallup Politics: U.S. Whites More Solidly Republican in Recent Years)  Of course, these hard numbers will be disputed.  One thing about Republicans and their followers - FACTS mean NOTHING.  As always, I fully expect to be inundated with email calling ME a racist and a race baiter among other things. 

Political correctness was unheard of during the era of the Cleavers.  People in the majority commonly and openly referred to people different from them as niggers, japs, gooks, spics, kikes, faggots, queers, camel jockeys ... I could go on.  These hateful and despicable pejoratives were widely accepted.  They no longer are and those who yearn for the era of the Cleavers can't understand WHY they can't say those words as freely as they once did.  To them, being unable to insult and dehumanize people as often and openly as they would like is an attack on their freedom.  Never mind that others may be violated in the process. 

The country is getting browner and more diverse.  The Republican base KNOWS they will be the in the MINORITY in approximately 25 years.  That is inevitable.  So instead of broadening their agenda and appealing to a more diverse electorate, they have chosen to attack and eliminate Affirmative Action; to generate voter suppression legislation targeted at reducing the number of voters who traditionally vote for progressives and Democrats; they want to abolish Roe vs.Wade and a woman's right to choose; they want to establish harsh immigration laws; they don't believe in a woman getting paid the same as a man for doing the same work; they don't believe in funding public education; they don't believe in equal rights for all because they absolutely ABHOR same sex marriage; they oppose raising the minimum wage that would actually allow people to support themselves and their families with dignity; they oppose universal healthcare; they want to eliminate social safety nets such as Social Security and Medicare; they HATE political correctness and they are absolutely OUTRAGED that a black man is President of the United States and that he and his black family actually LIVE in the RESIDENTIAL area of the White House and not in the domestic's quarters.  Some apparently are outraged that a black woman can be a camera operator for one of the major news gathering agencies in the country.  Patricia Carroll, a camera operator for CNN, was

Patricia Carroll

 pelted with peanuts at the 2012 GOP Convention in Tampa in the course of simply doing her.  As they threw peanuts at her, her attackers were heard saying, "THIS is how we feed ANIMALS."  (Washington Post: RNC ejects attendees for assaulting an African-American camera operator with peanuts)  For some reason, it is popular to refer to black people as animals.   A black woman with a job like that?  How many white men were passed over in order to fill that racial quota established by Affirmative Action?  NONE of these things were true in the era of the Cleavers. 

Men worked, women had babies and stayed at home to raise them, black people and other people of color were marginalized, excluded and knew their place and white men ruled the world.  THAT was their vision THEN and that is what they want to return to.  Their world has been TAKEN from them and everything has been GIVEN to women and minorities.  They have been victimized and they're hurt and angry.  They WANT their country BACK.  They intend to get it back, too, by any means necessary.  Senator Lindsey Graham (R - South Carolina) said it best two years ago: “The demographics race we’re losing badly.  We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”  (From Outside the Beltway: Running Out Of Angry White Guys)   The answer to the following question is now crystal clear:

WHY does the Republican BASE yearn for the days of the Cleavers? 

Peace, peace.

Craig Riggins
Email: therigginsreport517@gmail.com
Facebook: The Riggins Report
Twitter: @CraigRiggins