Are Republicans Nostalgic for the Gilded Age?

The Republican Party today could be rechristened the Party of the Second Gilded Age. Hostility to abortion and affirmative action, deregulation of industry, tax breaks for the wealthy (i.e., “job creators”), and union-busting embody an attempt to undermine the progressive social programs that came out of the 1960s, as well as the economic reforms of the New Deal. But the Republican Party’s effort has an even longer backward reach. Republicans are deeply committed to undoing the Progressive Era reforms of the early 20th century that curtailed the power of large corporations and the extreme inequality of the first Gilded Age. In fact, one might say Republicans are… Read more…