When Eben is driving Loco and her older man up to the lodge, he mentions that the normal driver couldn't make it because he "went to a Republican rally" late and couldn't get up. Loco's reaction is to tie this statement to politics, which is incorrect, based on the men's reactions. So, was a "republican rally" New England slang for a night out drinking? I can't seem to find any references to this term.
shareIt's the day after Election Day and I just finished watching this movie. I am guessing that there is a shortage of people in Maine, and especially Republicans. There probably is no regular driver, and this guy looks different. No wonder Loco mistakes him for being rich, he doesn't look like a working man.
Velvet Voice
I just interpret it for the comment it is, a bunch of republican men getting together to talk politics and yeah, drink a lot.
Fred Clark later asks Rory Calhoun again how come his dad couldn't drive them and Rory responds "he went to another rally". Fred says "maybe your dad should become a Democrat", Rory says "not in Maine, too lonely".
I'm just guessing that Maine was heavily Republican back in the 50s (still could be I don't know) and it was just a joke.
I'm not sure of the voter registration figures, but in the early 1950s -- when this film was made -- Maine had the reputation as the home of "rock-ribbed Republicans" (an allusion to Maine's rocky coastline) who dependably supported GOP presidential candidates in every election. As a matter of fact, between 1860 and 1960, Maine gave a majority of its votes to GOP candidates in every presidential election (although Democrat Woodrow Wilson won a plurality in 1912 when the GOP vote was split between the regular Republican candidate, William Howard Taft, and the Progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt). It wasn't until 1964, when Lyndon Johnson swamped GOP candidate Barry Goldwater, that Maine voted for a Democratic president. In the past five presidential elections, Maine has supported the Democratic candidate, so it's no longer the Republican "bellweather" state that is was six decades ago. But in 1953, there would have been no shortage of elephant-lovers in Maine, and even today the GOP is strong in state and local government (governor a Democrat but both U.S. senators GOP).
Yeah, FMTYWTK.
Since I live in Maine, I decided to put my 2 cents in. The very rural areas of Maine (basically the northern and western parts of the state) are still pretty much exclusively Republican. The Lewiston/Auburn area, the Portland area, and pretty much all of southern Maine tend to be heavily Democratic. The rest of Maine is about half and half. There are also a lot of Mainers who pride themselves on being "independent", but in reality most of them are actually more conservative than liberal.
shareI believe the OP confused Loco's confusion about what a "lodge" was, not about a Republican rally. So the question isn't based on anything said in the film.
The two comments about Rory Calhoun's father getting drunk at a Republican rally, and his reply to Fred Clark's suggestion that he become a Democrat, were based on the fact that at that time Maine was considered virtually a one-party Republican state. In fact, before the Civil War Maine had been one-party Democratic -- the main reason it wanted to separate from Massachusetts and become its own state in 1820 was that the people there disliked the Federalists who had dominated Massachusetts. But its politics swung in the other direction when the Republican Party was formed in the 1850s, and few Democrats won election during the following century.
Actually, in 1953 Maine was about to end its domination by one party. Democrat Ed Muskie was elected Governor in 1954, and since then the state has had a healthy two-party system, with a predilection for electing some independents as well. Today it's much more Democratic than Republican but people of both parties, and often third parties, regularly win.
Like many of the references in this movie, this political joke is long outmoded.
It's important to remember that until the mid-sixties the Republican Party was the liberal one and the Democrats were conservatives.
It all changed after the Civil Rights Act.
Only in some aspects, republicans were definitely against the new deal and social security, but will agree that southern democrats were racist and anti civil rights
shareWow...thanks! I do remember that, Beau_Buffet, the parties sure were different, but it still does get extremely confusing
all the same.