[The section, “ Did Paul Singer really Destroy Sidney, Nebraska?” needs editing.]

I don’t think the Republican Party has “sold its soul” to anyone. It never had one. It was founded (in 1854) to benefit very rich people and Big Business (which was just getting started at the time). From day one it has pandered to people, from abolitionists back then to ‘values voters’ today, to get votes to be able to further its one and only agenda.

The Republican Party fought the Civil War, not to free the slaves, but to destroy the ‘Planter class’ of the South — the only group with enough wealth to challenge the (emergent) power of Big Business and those it was making incredibly wealthy. The money spent fighting the Civil War ensured the development of Big Business in America. The decades of unchallenged Republican rule at the national level following that war cemented the place of Big Business in the governance of this country; that period of time is not commonly called “The Robber Baron Era” for nothing.