Once the November 2014 general election was in the books, the pundits started to break down the results and what they meant for each of the parties moving forward to the 2016 presidential election. As discussion of the goals of the parties began to fill the airwaves, a graphic was circulated on Facebook that claimed what was once the Republican platform is now more in line with the Democratic agenda.
Here's what the Facebook meme said about the 1956 Republican Party platform:
- Provide federal assistance to low-income communities
- Protect Social Security
- Provide asylum for refugees
- Extend minimum wage
- Improve unemployment benefit system so it covers more people
- Strengthen labor laws so workers can easily join a union
- Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of sex
Our partners at PolitiFact saw this Facebook post and decided to look into it. PolitiFact reporter Joshua Gillin says that the meme rates MOSTLY TRUE on the Truth-O-Meter. Gillin says that, while the general concepts are on point, there are a few minor differences that knock it down a notch.
"We hit the archives and did actually find a copy of the 1956 Republican Party Platform," said Gillin. "Now, you have to remember what was happening at that time: Dwight D. Eisenhower was running for re-election in a post-war America where Democrats controlled the Congress and the New Deal was still a part of everybody's memory. Now, some of those positions were not embraced by all Republicans. It's probably hard to believe in today's political climate, but there was a schism in the Republican Party between moderates and conservatives... maybe not quite as stark as it is today, but the experts say that it was there."
But what about the issues listed? Gillin says that you have to dig deeper than the headline to find the true meaning of the particular issue. "Take a look at the first item, which is about providing federal assistance to low-income communities," said Gillin. "Today, you might take that to mean urban communities or cities that have fallen in stature over the years, but in 1956, the view was different. That federal assistance was meant for low-income farm families and the Rural Development Program."
Gillin notes that the other items are similarly vetted, including the statement about equal pay. "The meme leaves out a few crucial words with that one," said Gillin. "The platform says that Eisenhower would "continue to fight to assure equal pay for equal work regardless of sex. Continuing to fight is not quite the same as having something set in stone, which is how that item comes across in the meme."
The Facebook post does list the platform planks, which do generally match up with the platform of today's Democratic Party, but does leave out a few words that could change the meaning or the direction of the issue, which is why it rates only MOSTLY TRUE on the Truth-O-Meter.
Sources: 1956 Republican Party platform
- PolitiFact ruling
- Facebook meme received by PolitiFact
- Republican Party platform, 1956
- Republican Party platform, 2012
- Snopes.com, "Strife of the Party," Oct. 23, 2014
- Email intevriew with M. Christine Anderson, Xavier University historian, Oct. 27, 2014
- Email interview with Jennifer Delton, Skidmore College historian and author of Rethinking the 1950s, Oct. 27, 2014
- Email interview with Stephen Hess, senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution and former staff assistant to President Dwight Eisenhower, Oct. 23, 2014