Historical Antecedants of the GOP's Contraception Moral Panic

       Again, it shows desperation on the part of the GOP. They are getting no traction from running against the "Obama recession."

       On the one hand, their presumed winner, Mitt Romney is personally the poster boy of everything Occupy Wall Street is opposed to.

       Then too, they have no ideas that will in any way improve things. All they can suggest is tax cuts for the rich and austerity for everyone else.

        And the economy is improving largely because Obama was able to resist their demands for austerity.

        What's interesting is that using "cultural values" has a long proud history. In the late 60s running against contraception was a very common trick in congressional races.

         In 1924 the Republicans ran on a "dry platform" nationally-in NY of course, they always ran against "Tammany Hall." In 1924, the Democrats were so badly divided-you had wets and drys-largely divided along regional lines of rural and city respectively so were easy to beat.

         In 1930, FDR's opponent for New York Governor tried to make a big to do out of running against corruption and "bossism." He railed so much that FDR wondered if he wanted to be Governor or maybe a state district attorney.

          FDR of course won re-election easily. In 1932 the GOP was still trying to beat the old bloody shirt of Prohibition-then like now they had nothing else. After all the economy was in a shambles thanks to their policies. So they could instead dredge up a moral panic over demon rum. After all, since the 1850s they had lambasted the Democrats as the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion."

          Of course, the cultural wars didn't work in 1932 and it won't work this year either. It's a sign of a party in deep trouble.