Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Lee Rankin, born July 8th 1907. He studied law at University of Nebraska. This life-long Republican volunteered with Thomas Dewey’s 1948 presidential campaign. In 1952, he managed the state’s Dwight Eisenhower presidential campaign. The new President named him Assistant Attorney General. Rankin argued before the Supreme Court for the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education . His opponent, representing the segregationists, was the 1924 Democrat presidential nominee. In 1956, effectiveness merited promotion to Solicitor General. Later years, Rankin served as general counsel of the Warren Commission and corporation counsel for New York City. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our part...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I cherish the Aloha State. July 7th 1898, President William McKinley signed legislation that annexed Hawaii. Though introduced by a House independent, this joint resolution was passed by the GOP-controlled 55th Congress with overwhelming Republican support. Republicans understood that unless they took action, the islands would be conquered by Japan or Britain or Russia or France or Germany. Objecting were Democrats opposed to conferring American citizenship on native Hawaiians and immigrant Asians. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com .  Here is a YouTube Video about this article. Here is a TikTok ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I fondly remember visiting Anchorage and Fairbanks, to speak at the 2006 state GOP convention. July 7th 1958, Dwight Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act. Months earlier he had called on Congress to pass it. Republicans overcame opposition from the Democrat Speaker of the House. In a message to the territorial governor, the President sent his "very best wishes for the people of Alaska." January 3rd 1959, President Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska as the forty-ninth state. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com .  Here is a YouTube Video about this article. Here is a T...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute John Beveridge, born in update New York, July 6th 1824. His family later relocated to northern Illinois. Six years he taught school in Tennessee before returning for law studies. During the Civil War, Beveridge enlisted as captain with the state’s 8th Cavalry and was promoted to major. His regiment fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. He then recruited the 17th Illinois Cavalry, being commissioned its colonel by a Republican Governor. This new regiment served in Missouri. Peace restored, Beveridge was elected Cook County sheriff. The ambitious Republican won a seat in the state senate in 1870, and a year later, a special election for the U.S. House of Representatives. A year after that, he was elected Lieutenant Governor. Ten days after his inauguration, the legislature elected his running mate a U.S. Senator, making Beve...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I appreciate the Republican Party's glorious heritage of achievement. July 6th 1904 – at Jackson, Michigan – John Hay delivered a classic address on the GOP fiftieth anniversary. Hay was Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of State and had been Abraham Lincoln's personal assistant. "A party was brought into being and baptized, which ever since has answered the purposes of its existence with fewer follies and failures and more magnificent achievements than ordinarily fall to the lot of any institution of mortal origin. And even the beginning of the end is not yet. This historic party is only now in the full maturity of its power and its capacity for good. We look back upon a past of unparalleled usefulness and glory with emotions of thankfulness and pride; we confront the future and its exacting problems with a confidence born of the exp...