Texas lawmaker Alger dies, held tea party views
THE WASHINGTON POST
Bruce Alger, a provocative Republican congressman from Texas whose staunch conservative views prefigured the tea party movement decades later, and whose angry confrontation with Lyndon Johnson may have affected the outcome of the 1960 presidential election, died April 13 at an assisted living facility in Palm Bay, Fla. He was 96.
The cause was a heart ailment, said his daughter, Jill Alger.
Alger was elected to the House of Representatives in 1954 from a district that included Dallas, which was considered a cauldron of extremist right-wing views. He was the first Republican in Congress from Texas in more than 20 years.
A onetime Princeton football player, Alger was young and energetic and drew much of his support from Republican women’s groups, which led to dramatic political consequences years later.
During his 10 years in Congress, Alger did not sponsor any significant legislation and was known mostly for the things he opposed.
Alger voted against public housing, integration efforts, Medicare, subsidized school lunches and increases in Social Security. He called the Peace Corps a form of creeping socialism.
In 1963, while speaking to a consortium of conservative groups in Washington, Alger called for the United States to get out of the United Nations, to drive the communists from Cuba and to ban any official recognition of communist states. He said Congress should be required to balance the budget and recommended the adoption of a “flat tax,” in which people would pay the same tax rate.
Many of those themes continue to be bedrock conservative principles and have underscored the growth of the tea party movement in recent years.
Alger also presaged 21st-century politics with his unwillingness to compromise. Asked about the upcoming congressional session, he told Time magazine in January 1958:
“I foresee bitterness and hatefulness. We are going to squabble and fight and make the world think we hate each other and that we can’t solve our problems. We are going to have bigger and bigger budgets, higher taxes, more government spending at home and abroad, and more inflation accompanied by deficit financing. Happy New Year!”