The Former Confederacy & Modern American Politics, Part Two
The 1936 election gave the Democratic Party a landslide victory, with Franklin Roosevelt carrying all former states of the Confederacy (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia). Democrats continued to hold all 22 Senate seats and all but two congressional seats in the former Confederate states.* This situation did not change until the spring of 1950, when a special election was held to replace a congressman who became a judge in Texas. The district was in the panhandle area of Texas and a Republican won the special election, but served only a few months before being defeated by a Democrat in the regular election in November of 1950. In the 1952 election, Republicans picked up three seats in the House in former states of the Confederacy: 1 in North Carolina and 2 in Virginia. ** By the next election, in 1954, the Republicans picked up a House seat in Florida, a seat in Texas and two seats in Virginia; however, all senators in the former Confederacy remained Democrats. In the 1956 election, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower won a major reelection victory, but Republicans could still not win any Senate seats in the former Confederacy, nor could they add any further House seats. So as Eisenhower began his second term, his political party's delegation from the former Confederate states had 2 House seats in Tennessee, 1 seat in Texas, 1 seat in Florida, 1 in North Carolina and 2 in Virginia.
Lyndon Johnson, a Democratic senator from Texas, was chosen by John F. Kennedy as the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1960, and in the election, the Kennedy-Johnson ticket won a close race. A Democrat was appointed to fill Johnson's seat in the Senate, but he then lost the seat to Republican John Tower in a special election a few months later. John Tower became a Senate fixture. The Republicans had cracked the solid Democratic hold on Senate seats in the former Confederacy.***
* As in Part One, Republicans continued to hold the 2 seats in eastern Tennessee; however, unlike in 1930, the one Republican congressman from Texas died in office and was replaced by a Democrat. This is the link to "Part One," if needed:
http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-former-confederacy-modern-american.html
** Republicans held a majority in both houses of Congress, at that time.
*** Just to be clear, during 1959 both Alaska and Hawaii became states, thus adding a total of 4 senators and increasing the Senate to an even 100 senators, where it has remained ever since. In the House of Representatives, each of the two new states received one House seat, until the Census of 1960 could be completed and new apportionment for House seats calculated; thus, temporarily, the number of seats in the House of Representatives rose to 437, from 435.
WORD HISTORY:
Chore-This word goes back to Indo European "ger/gers," which had the notion "to turn, to bend around." It is distantly related to Greek "gyros," "meat that cooks by turning." ^ The Indo European form gave its Old Germanic offspring "karisjanan," which also meant "to turn, to turn around." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the verb "cierran" (to turn, to turn back, change/convert; that is, turn something from one thing to another), which produced the noun "cierr" (a turn, a change, period of time changed from normal use to refer to business matter, work, occasion). "Cierr" then became "cherre," with the primary meaning "odd job;" that is, a change from routine work or time, and this then became "char," now rarely encountered except in the compound "charwoman," a term for a "cleaning lady," still in use at times in England. In the United States, the variant pronunciation "chore" for "char" prevailed, and the meaning "odd job" still remained somewhat, but usually with the meaning "routine personal jobs for one's own household," often, but not exclusively, used in reference to "chores" for kids, like "taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, raking leaves, making small trips to the store." Some other forms in the Germanic languages: German has "kehren" (verb: return, turn around) and "Kehre" (noun: sharp turn, sudden major change), Dutch "keer" (noun: occasion; that is, change in normal time) and "keren" (verb: return).
^ Greek is an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree. English and many European languages have a number of words that trace back to Greek, although some came by way of Latin, which borrowed a number of Greek words, some of which were later passed on to English and others.
Lyndon Johnson, a Democratic senator from Texas, was chosen by John F. Kennedy as the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1960, and in the election, the Kennedy-Johnson ticket won a close race. A Democrat was appointed to fill Johnson's seat in the Senate, but he then lost the seat to Republican John Tower in a special election a few months later. John Tower became a Senate fixture. The Republicans had cracked the solid Democratic hold on Senate seats in the former Confederacy.***
* As in Part One, Republicans continued to hold the 2 seats in eastern Tennessee; however, unlike in 1930, the one Republican congressman from Texas died in office and was replaced by a Democrat. This is the link to "Part One," if needed:
http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-former-confederacy-modern-american.html
** Republicans held a majority in both houses of Congress, at that time.
*** Just to be clear, during 1959 both Alaska and Hawaii became states, thus adding a total of 4 senators and increasing the Senate to an even 100 senators, where it has remained ever since. In the House of Representatives, each of the two new states received one House seat, until the Census of 1960 could be completed and new apportionment for House seats calculated; thus, temporarily, the number of seats in the House of Representatives rose to 437, from 435.
WORD HISTORY:
Chore-This word goes back to Indo European "ger/gers," which had the notion "to turn, to bend around." It is distantly related to Greek "gyros," "meat that cooks by turning." ^ The Indo European form gave its Old Germanic offspring "karisjanan," which also meant "to turn, to turn around." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the verb "cierran" (to turn, to turn back, change/convert; that is, turn something from one thing to another), which produced the noun "cierr" (a turn, a change, period of time changed from normal use to refer to business matter, work, occasion). "Cierr" then became "cherre," with the primary meaning "odd job;" that is, a change from routine work or time, and this then became "char," now rarely encountered except in the compound "charwoman," a term for a "cleaning lady," still in use at times in England. In the United States, the variant pronunciation "chore" for "char" prevailed, and the meaning "odd job" still remained somewhat, but usually with the meaning "routine personal jobs for one's own household," often, but not exclusively, used in reference to "chores" for kids, like "taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, raking leaves, making small trips to the store." Some other forms in the Germanic languages: German has "kehren" (verb: return, turn around) and "Kehre" (noun: sharp turn, sudden major change), Dutch "keer" (noun: occasion; that is, change in normal time) and "keren" (verb: return).
^ Greek is an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree. English and many European languages have a number of words that trace back to Greek, although some came by way of Latin, which borrowed a number of Greek words, some of which were later passed on to English and others.
Labels: Confederacy, Congress, Democrats, Election of 1936, English, etymology, Germanic languages, Republicans, states of the Confederacy
posted by Randy at 11:34 AM
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