although it was in plain sight: Modern American conservatism began in the 50s and that can hardly be considered a "farl left" or "radical left" era. William F. Buckley started the National Review in 1955 and ilyka reminds me that:
In 1955, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was still two years in the future; the Civil Rights Act of 1960, five; the Civil Rights Act of 1964, nine; and the Voting Rights Act, ten.
On November 19, 1955, the date Buckley’s Publisher’s Statement saw print, it had been less than 90 days since the murder of Emmett Till, a scant 18 months since Brown v. Board of Education. It would be eight years before the first Mexican-American and one year before the first Asian-American would serve in the U.S. Congress. The first white woman had landed a seat in the U.S. House almost 40 years prior, but it would still be a decade more before the first woman of color did.
Of the 531 members of the 83rd U.S. Congress (1953-1955), a whole 15 were women. Of the 531 members of the 84th U.S. Congress, 18 were women. For those of you with a head for numbers, that’s right: Women made up about 3% of the 83rd and 84th Congresses.
For American conservatives back then, even Eisenhower was a socialist.
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