05 May 2015

Edward Brooke: Why Republican?



I have heard many conservative media political commentators and entertainers claim the Republican Party has always been a conservative party. This is not so. At one time, the Republican Party was the moderate-liberal party in the United States when compared with the Democratic Party. One man who was part of that wing of the Republican Party was former Senator Edward Brooke.

Senator Brooke died earlier this year. The National Visionary Leadership Project interviewed Sen. Brooke shortly before he passed away. This video, below, is part of that interview. Here, he explains why he identified as a Republican. It is important to understand that originally, the Republican and Democratic Parties were not defined by conservative and liberal ideologies, but there was still a significant difference between the parties. Those differences come out in this interview.