From the racist creator of "Right to Work" "Laws." (Warning: Offensive Fundie speak from the 40's)

[starroute]

6. These were the same people who tried to pull a coup against Roosevelt

When that failed (because General Smedley Butler wouldn't play along) they shifted their attention to foiling the New Deal by funding various fascist and semi-fascist groups, like the Silver Shirts or Vance Muse's stuff.

The DuPonts and their pals weren't just "conservatives" -- their preferred form of government would have been full-on Nazi. And their primary tactic was to keep the workers and minorities down by any means possible, keeping them poor and dependent and unable to fight back.

That agenda has since become the agenda of the "mainstream" right. If the GOP wants to destroy Medicare today without knowing quite why, it's because they're carrying on a zombie program of long-dead plutocrats.