Hey #twitterstorians Inspired by @KevinMKruse @HC_Richardson @rauchway and @TheTattooedProf thought I'd say a little about GOP government giveaway bonanzas in the 1860s, especially helpful to "rugged individuals" who conquered the West.
Why, in 1862 alone, the Republican Congress passed 1) the Homestead Act, giving away millions of acres of public land to (mostly white) men willing to settle in remote places (and UNsettle indigenous inhabitants). Huge entitlement!
2) the Morrill Act, establishing land grant colleges that would anchor education and agricultural development in territories not yet fully under U.S. control. Western universities have always been agents of colonization, folks.
3) the Railroad Act, giving rights of way and millions of acres of land to two corporations, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, to build a transcontinental railroad. Corporate welfare and crony capitalism, anyone?
@GOP is, of course, still banking heavily on corporate giveaways (right, @SpeakerRyan ?) and counting on white male support. Alas, education, not so much. #EverythingHasAHistory
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