1954 was the year that conservatives moved from their central issue of making lists of suspected communists and jailing and blackballing Hollywood liberals – rather than just hating them and calling them names as they do today – to instead, making racism the underlying political force of their ideology. Shortly after the unanimous decision by the Supreme Court to integrate public schools, American highways were inundated with IMPEACH EARL WARREN billboards put up by the Tea Party of the day, The John Birch Society. What was it that Earl Warren did to create such ire? He manged to get all 9 members of the Supreme Court to DO THE RIGHT THING.
Notice my use of CONSERVATIVE rather than REPUBLICAN. The two words did not become synonymous until January 2009. When things changed as described in the famous song, Gonna turn your White House, gonna turn your White House, black…
