RIP Pete McCloskey

[DanOregon]

Former Bay Area Congressman "Pete" McCloskey, who co-founded Earth Day, dead at 96 - CBS San Francisco

First Republican I liked, growing up in a Democratic household. Such an impactful life. Authored the EPA Act, first Republican in Congress to call for Nixon to step down, co-founder of Earth Day. Challenged Nixon for the GOP nomination as an anti-war Republican, ended Pat Robertson's surge in the '88 primary by outing him as lying about his military service (McCloskey was a Marine who saw action in Korea), He wasn't just a "good" Republican. He was a good American. Didn't win all of the battles he fought, but the battles he fought were just.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Former Bay Area Congressman "Pete" McCloskey, who co-founded Earth Day, dead at 96 - CBS San Francisco

First Republican I liked, growing up in a Democratic household. Such an impactful life. Authored the EPA Act, first Republican in Congress to call for Nixon to step down, co-founder of Earth Day. Challenged Nixon for the GOP nomination as an anti-war Republican, ended Pat Robertson's surge in the '88 primary by outing him as lying about his military service (McCloskey was a Marine who saw action in Korea), He wasn't just a "good" Republican. He was a good American. Didn't win all of the battles he fought, but the battles he fought were just.

I also admired him. I was going to be a moderate Republican. My first Presidential vote was for Gerald Ford. The Republican party changed and I did not go along.

 

[Slacker]

I was going to be a moderate Republican. My first Presidential vote
was for Gerald Ford. The Republican party changed and I did not go along.

Same here. All of that.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Used to be the parties were not necessarily aligned on a left-right continuum. You had cloth-coat New England Republicans and hardcore segregationist Dixie Democrats. There were policy differences between the two parties but they weren't socially-based.

The cloth-coat Republicans went the way of the passenger pigeon and all the Dixiecrats flipped GOP in the wake of Reagan.