[Map of Electoral College States in the presidential election of 1976. Blue is Democrat, Red Republican.]

There have been many moments during this campaign when I wondered what the late George Romney would have thought. No doubt whom he'd vote for, but the GOP his son now leads? Romney Sr refused to campaign for Barry Goldwater, and the bitterness lasted long after. The following are some things said by George Romney to Barry Goldwater about the direction of the party and the Southern strategy that now looks as if it could bear final fruit in Romney's Dixie firewall.

[Current RCP Electoral College map with no toss-ups.]

It's a fascinating letter and well worth reading if you are a moderate or independent thinking of voting for the Ailes-Atwater-Rove GOP that Mitt Romney panders endlessly to. Its warnings about the Southern strategy just emerging in Goldwater's opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are perhaps best illustrated by the maps above, where you can see how in three decades or more, the parties have switched positions geographically. In 1976, the Democrats under Carter won the whole South and lost the entire West and large swathes of the Northeast. By today, the GOP is the inheritor of the Confederacy geographically, and the West and Northeast - previous GOP strongholds - are now the Democratic base.

With that context, check out George Romney's disdain for the idea of ideological parties of the European kind:

First, as to your remarks in Jamaica concerning the possible realignment of the Republican and Democratic parties into “conservative” and "liberal" parties. Whatever the circumstances of the statement, you have indicated that you believe that might be "a happy thing." I disagree.

We need only look at the experience of some ideologically oriented parties in Europe to realize that chaos can result. Dogmatic ideological parties tend to splinter the political and social fabric of a nation, lead to governmental crises and deadlock, and stymie the compromises so often necessary to preserve freedom and achieve progress. A broad based two party structure produces a degree of political stability and viability not otherwise attainable.

Tell that to Hugh Hewitt. Romney then complained to Goldwater about the 1964 GOP Convention platform and had wanted to meet Goldwater in person to convey his concerns. The meeting didn't happen. Back to Romney:

Let me interject that that time the need for such a meeting had become all the more important. You were just about to take a position the 1964 Civil Rights Act contrary to that of most elected Republicans in and out of Congress, and there were disturbing indications that your strategists proposed to make an all-out push for the Southern white segregationist vote and to attempt to exploit the so-called "white backlash" in the North.

The delegates' mail was beginning to contain much of what I'm sure you would regard as "extremist," "hate” literature, backing you. A clear understanding of your position was needed, and I persisted.

It didn't satisfy Romney, who wrote Goldwater further:

A platform whose basic emphasis was on state, local and individual rights and responsibilities but which failed to pledge state, local and individual action in the civil rights field was clearly vulnerable to charges of inconsistency, and more important, of bowing to the segregationists in the South. With respect to the extremism amendment, as I said at the time:

"Experience shouts the differences between success and failure are small. I do not believe our country will survive present perils unless the Republican party provides the program and the leadership that will recapture the interest, respect and support of a majority of voting Americans.”

"With extremists of the right and left preaching and practicing hate, and bearing false witness on the basis of guilt by association and circumstantial rationalization and with such extremists rising to official positions of leadership in the Republican party, we cannot recapture the respect of the nation and lead it to its necessary spiritual, moral, and political rebirth if we hide our heads in the sand and decline to even recognize in our platform that the nation is again beset by modern 'know nothings.’"

Sounds like David Frum, no? The peroration:

The real challenge for us lies in the expansion of voter support for the Republican party in all parts of the country, urban or rural, North or South, colored or white. Without common dedication to this fundamental, our rehash of 1964 positions may become of interest only to the historians of defunct political institutions.

Below the fold is the full, prescient letter, Dec. 21, 1964 and published on November 29, 1966, in the New York Times. The shift from the father's Republican principles to the party the son leads is, well, striking.

Dear Barry:

Thank you for your letter of December 8. My apologies for not having answered sooner.

You have requested "an explanation" from me with respect to certain matters raised in your letter. I will try to cover them as frankly and fully as I can.