So how long has this fractured in-fighting been going on within the Republican Party? Some say since it was formed. Others point to around 1933 as a starting point.
After the defeat of Richard Nixon in the 1960 elections, what can be best be described as a power-grab or attempted hijacking of the party by the hardline conservative wing started to take place. As the 1962 mid-term elections were getting under way, the schism within the party was taking on public proportions, as is evidenced by this exchange on ABC's Issues and Answers from June 13, 1961, between Barry Goldwater, representing the right wing of the Republican Party and Jacob Javits, who represented that all-but-extinct liberal wing of the Republican Party. A heated and testy exchange from the get-go, it got pretty hot when the talk came around to the economy.
Barry Goldwater: “I think my concept of helping people is probably broader than yours. I just want to quit giving this money away in bags and sort of have some control over it, like the Technical Assistance program. I wouldn’t care if we doubled that. Put more people around the world where we can show other people how we can do things with our hands instead of giving them the money . . .”
Jacob Javits: “But people need money for roads and ports and health and education . . .”
Goldwater: “We’ve lost friends we haven’t bought them . . .
Javits: “I’m sorry, we’ve lost a great many more and we’d have lost the world . . .”
Goldwater: “If we didn’t lose many more we wouldn’t be in business . . . .”
Despite his somewhat sheepish denial, Goldwater would emerge as the standard-bearer of the party in 1964.
