Episode 112 Hour of Decision: Eisenhower (9) Ike Invades the South and Neuters the GOP

Lew enters controversial waters criticizing Eisenhower’s selection of Earl Warren for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, his philosophy of judicial supremacy, and the ramifications of the school integration decision, Brown vs Board of Education. That decision by the court destroyed local control of education, state’s rights, and to a significant degree public education in both the South and ultimately the urban North through the disaster known as “bussing.”Lew also discusses how Eisenhower’s continual promotion of internationalism and opposition to America First Republicans like Sens. Joe McCarthy and John Bricker depressed the GOP base and led to Republican congressional defeats in 1954, ’56, and ’58. Eisenhower himself was not affected and easily won re-election in 1956. He surrounded himself with a sophisticated P.R. operation and let others do his dirty work to the greatest degree possible while he quite successfully stayed “above the fray” for lower information voters that come out in large numbers in presidential election years.