The Republican, first of all, was because in 1950 I won the Republican nomination. I did not win the Democratic nomination. In 1952, I won the Republican nomination, not the Democratic nomination.
And I felt I had a loyalty to the party and won. But even more importantly, in Massachusetts, it was the Republican Party that had desegregated the National Guard. It was the party I believe much more progressive than was the Democratic Party.
It was a party later on that the Democrats were supporting McCarthyism, for example. I was against McCarthyism. And the Republican Massachusetts Party were against McCarthyism.
It was sort of a moderate wing of the Republican Party, and I think Republicans in Massachusetts are more moderate than conservative. Now, I'll... Barry Goldwater and along the line, a lot of that changed.
The organization, the Conservatives, took over more. But if I'm anything, I'm a moderate to liberal Republican. On social issues, I have to admit that I'm a liberal. There's no question in my mind about that. And no one ever, I never deceived anybody about it.
No one expected me not to be pro-civil rights or pro-women's rights. or pro-civil liberties. And if they expected them, then they were sadly, grossly misreading me. I've never been anything but that.
On other issues, on some economic issues and some things, I've always believed that man or woman should do for themselves what the government and the government should do. Only those things which man and woman can't do for themselves. And that was not a... Goldwater statement, that was an Abraham Lincoln statement. But I believe that the party should have a heart as well as a head and recognize the fact that there are things that people can't do for themselves and therefore government must do it for them.
But I don't like huge government. I have a conservative bent in that regard. I don't like huge government, huge bureaucracy.
I believe in problem solving and that's what I wanted to be, a problem solver. I'm sure that... Not bound by ideological, philosophical or party constraints.
I'm sure that since most black politicians were Democrats... Yes....that there was a fair amount of pressure put on you. About being a Republican and why and switching over and isolating yourself from the other black politicians.
Was there and how did you handle that? Well I've never isolated myself from black politicians. I am a Republican. I was elected as a Republican.
I believe that most blacks are Democrats because They represent districts that, I'm talking about the Congress now, they represent mostly predominantly black districts. I mean, Adam Clayton Powell, the Abyssinian Church, the New York constituency, black constituency. And I could go on one run after another.
When I went to Washington finally, as the only black in the Senate, And I guess the first one to ever been elected by popular vote because the two senators who served from Mississippi in Reconstruction days were sent there by state legislation. It wasn't until the 13th Amendment was passed that senators were elected by popular vote. So the carpetbag has put them in at that time, taking nothing away from them. One of them did serve a term.
The other one, I think, only served a matter of months. in the Senate. So when I went there, I used to joke that I could have my own caucus in the telephone booth because there was nobody there but me. Most of the congressmen who were there at the time were Democrats and were constantly, of course, fighting the Republican administrations and whatnot.
It was uncomfortable for them as well as it was for me. And then I wasn't in the House. I was not a part of it.
I was in the Congress, but not in the House. I was in the Senate. And there was no other reason than that for not being a member of the Black Caucus.
I don't remember ever being officially invited to join the Black Caucus, number one. But I would have had to give some thought about it because it was... It was a democratic organization, pure politics.
Forget the race, the racial issue. We're talking pure politics now.