Conservative GOP with an unideological leader in Governor Jim Holshouser
Republican Governor Jim Holshouser sees the Republican Party as a moderate party with conservative coalitions, but to Guillory, the Republican Party is essentially conservative, but with moderate coalitions. He describes Holshouser's problem-solving style, which is relatively modest and results-oriented. Holshouser is not ideologically opposed to social services or taxes.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Ferrel Guillory, December 11, 1973. Interview A-0123. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- FERREL GUILLORY:
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Let me explain, from what I saw in Atlanta over the weekend and in my prior experience, I see the Republican Party in the South as more of a conservative with a few moderate coalitions. Okay, and I think that there's a distinction there. I hope I made myself clear with all this poppy junck after you get through with it, because my experiences are so limited and this is the first time I have ever lived in a state with a Republican. So I don't know which sort of drift is going to prevail yet.
- WALTER DE VRIES:
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You use the word drift, do you really mean that? Don't you see him actively taking the role of party leader in North Carolina and even enlarging that to the other Southern States and indeed even beyond that in the wilder moments to the entire country?
- FERREL GUILLORY:
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Philosophically speaking I would like to see him do that. I don't know if he will or not. I think he is becoming visible and I don't see him yielding to conservative pressures within his own party. You know, just the other day he said he wouldn't favor cutting taxes or anything like that. He going to come with programs to increase pending in education and mental health, parks and a bunch of other things. He going to go for this 25-30 million dollar rural health education center thing. So its hard to judge his impact yet because he keeps a very low profile, he doen't talk in philosophical terms and all that kind of stuff. I find him very pragmatic, I don't find him a pusher and a shover. People told me that Bob Scott (the way he would work) was that he opposed something big and really put the issue in front of the people and say look we've got a massive problem here and we have got to really get out and attack it. Holshouser doesn't work that way. He goes to all of these little committee meetings and he gets a little piece in here and he goes to another committee meeting and he gets a little piece in there and his public speeches tend to be very dry and bland and just sort of keep things calm and smooth and show people that we are getting there. And so, I don't know if he's going to be effective, his style is very much of lets work together, lets see what we can do over here. Maybe he has adopted that because he's in a minority position, maybe he feels that he's got to
