A Response To The Claim Welfare Is Equatable To Slavery
In the 1850s, inequality in the Northern big government cities, northern immigration in the big cities , and African slavery in the small government south all existed side-by-side. and in ways, so it is today . Northern cities still favor bigger government, and they still have problems of racism and inequality, Rural South still favors small government . This does not make the North of today equatable to the slave economy of the South of yesterday however.
There is this idea that welfare is equatable to slavery in this respect, as in both cases a societal structure is providing basic essentials for a class of people . This argument, often presented in tandem with the claim the parties didnt switch/change is essentially a red herring that misses the nuances we describe on this page .
The southern conservatives who held slaves and fought for the Confederacy essentially switched out of the Democratic party starting in the 1960s, and even continuing to the modern day , in response to LBJs welfare programs . In other words, if the southern conservative had wanted to oppress a class of people with welfare, one would logically assume they wouldnt have switched out of the Democratic party over time in response to welfare programs.
Today it is a Southern Republican who flies to Confederate flag, today it is a Republican who champions small government in America. Yesterday, it was a Southern Democrat.
Democrats Began To Bring Down The Barriers
Trumans civil rights efforts were significant. The website for the Democratic National Party properly acknowledges Trumans important contributions. In fact, in their section called, A Brief History of the Democratic Party Democrats declare, With the election of Harry Truman Democrats began the fight to bring down the barriers of race and gender.
Notice the word, began, that is an accurate description. Starting with Harry Truman, Democrats began, that is, they made their first serious efforts to fight against the barriers of race. Yet, as already noted, Trumans efforts were largely unsuccessful because of his own party.
Look a little more closely at the Democrats history of their party. On their official website, after noting that Thomas Jefferson founded the Democratic Party in 1792, they list a number of years in which they highlighted significant Democratic achievements. 1798, 1800, 1808, 1812, 1816, 1824, 1828, 1832, 1844, and 1848, a long flurry of Democratic activity. Yet, after 1848 what is the next date mentioned? It skips from 1848 to the beginning of the twentieth century.
Why would Democrats skip over their own history from 1848 to 1900? Perhaps, because its not the kind of civil rights history they want to talk about. Perhaps, because its not the kind of civil rights history they want to have on their website.
Dinesh Dsousa And The Party Switch Hoax
The left not impressed with âDeath of a Nationâ film.
Dinesh DSouzas new movie, Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time? is out, accompanied by his new book by the same title. Although it opened decently in its first weekend at 13th place, grossing $2.3 million, it is the weakest box office opening of his documentaries to date.
Everything is normal in Hollywood, however. They still hate him, and Hollywood Reporter labeled his conservative film an alt-right doc.
In the politics of the United States, party switching is any change in party affiliation of a partisan public figure, usually one who is currently holding elected office. Use of the term âparty switchâ can also connote a transfer of holding power in an elected governmental body from one party to another.
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The Rise Of Modern Social Liberalism And Social Conservatism
Later we get a third way with Bill Clintons New Democrats. This third way is an extension;of the;progressive bourbon liberal wing, but mashed-up with the progressive social liberal wing, and Reagan-era;conservatism. These three social liberal ideologies which Clinton embodied can collectively be referred to as an;American liberalism. These factions, which we can today denote as;progressive, neoliberal, and social liberal, can be used to differentiate types of liberals on the political left from the New Deal Coalition and the modern Democratic party of today.
TIP: As noted above in the introduction, there is no one way to understand Americas political ideologies, but each angle we look at things from helps us to better understand;bits of the historic puzzle.
Second Party System: Enter The Jacksonian Democrats 1828 1854
In 1829, the very popular with the people, Andrew Jackson split the;Democratic-Republican Party. The new party;Jacksonian Democrats were born from this, and that movement would grow into the current Democratic party. If you are looking for the Americas first true liberal Jackson hardly fits the bill. Jackson was a man of the people, and his party was out to take power away from elites and monopolies and put it in the hands of the people. In practice, his presidency was more like President Obamas where intentions of change get muddled by the practicalities;of the political environment.
Despite many being classical liberals, Jacksonian Democrats in many ways;mark;the start of right-leaning conservative-libertarians. These Democrats will split into two factions over the 1800s, one the Bourbon Democrats and the other . Other Democrats will join third parties like the anti-slavery Free Soil Party as a response to the far-right faction of pro-slavery Democrats of the Jackson era.
Meanwhile, the Whig Party led by Henry Clay came into power around Jacksons time. The Whigs wanted a national bank,;higher taxes, and power for Congress and importantly they want to end slavery. These social-service lefty Republicans are 1/2 todays progressive, 1/2 Hamiltonian Globalization liberal.
Voting on Tariff of Abominations tally of votes;.
| House Vote on Tariff of 1828 | For |
|---|---|
| 17 | 65 |
Age of Jackson: Crash Course US History #14.
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Summarizing The Party Systems As A Two
Current events and complexities aside, there has almost always been a two-party system in the United States. The mentality of each party can be expressed as northern;interests and southern interests, although I strongly prefer city interests and rural interests . Sometimes we see both;interests;in the same party, as;with Humphrey and LBJ, and sometimes it is less clear cut, but we can always spot it in any era.
Thus, we can use a simple two party answer as to which factions;held which interests over time, which I hope will be seen as helpful, and not divisive.;Remember the U.S. is a diverse Union;of 50 sovereign states and commonwealths where the need to get a majority divides us into red states and blue states as a matter of custom, not as enemies, but as a United Republic with a democratic spirit.
- Northern City Interests: Federalists, Whigs, Third Party Republicans, Fourth Party Progressive era Republicans , Fifth Party Democrats , Modern Democrats.
- Southern Rural Interests: Anti-Federalists, Democratic-Republicans, Third Party Democrats, Fourth Party Progressive Era Democrats , Fifth Party Republicans , Modern Republicans.
TIP: One way to;summarize all of this is by saying the changes happened under, or as a result of, key figures including Jefferson and Hamilton, Adams and Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, Cleveland, Bryan, the Roosevelts, Wilson, Hoover, LBJ, and Clinton. See a;comparison of the political ideology of each President from Washington to Obama.
An Overview Of Platform Switching In The Modern Era From Lbj To Today
The;growing tension between progressive southern Democrats and social conservative southern Democrats came to a boil;with 1954s;Brown v. Board of Education. This Supreme Court ruling;led to divisive issues like;Desegregation busing;causing further splits in the Democratic Party, which Republicans capitalized on as;they did under Hoover.
Tellingly, progressive Southerners like;Albert Gore, Sr.;,;Estes Kefauver,;Ralph Yarborough, and;Lyndon B. Johnson;;refused to sign 1956s;Southern Manifesto;.
By the 60s, the tension was mounting around;LBJs;Great Society programs;;specifically 64s Civil Rights. Some conservative Dixiecrats like;Strom Thurmond began to leave the Democratic Party for the Republican Party and;the George Wallace-led American Independent Party. .
Other;southern politicians and voters followed Strom Thurmond over time. Their exit left the now social-liberal ;Democrats;to support the;increasingly socially conservative Republicans under Goldwater-Reagan-Nixon. The southern strategy these leaders developed was continued into the 80s under;Lee Atwater, and even extended;into the 2000s).
In the transition period of the mid-to-late 60s, progressive Democrats and Republicans usually carried the less progressive Dixiecrats and Republicans on social issues like;Voting Rights 65;and;Civil Rights 68,;but over time, as the Republicans moved further to the political right, this became increasingly less true.
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The Republican Party Was Founded To Halt Slavery
Before you talk about whether the republicans and democrats switched platforms, you must understand their early positions. The Republican Party formed in 1854 in Exeter, New Hampshire. The Republican Partys main purpose was to stop or halt the expansion of slavery in the United States.
During the 1860s, Republicans dominated the Northern states. They planned an ambitious expansion of federal power, helping to fund the transcontinental railroad, the state university system and the settlement of the West by homesteaders, and instating a national currency and protective tariff. Democrats, who dominated the South, opposed these measures. Alexander Hamilton would be very proud. After the Civil War, Republicans passed laws that granted additional protections for African Americans. Southern Democrats largely opposed these expansions of power.
The Fourth Party Progressive Era
The aptly named;Progressive Era or;Fourth Party System;can then be understood best by examining the events leading up to the;1912 elections. Here we can compare;the;northeastern social liberal Republican Teddy Roosevelts New Nationalism plan; to;Woodrow;Wilsons progressive southern Democrat mixed-market;New Freedom plan;.
Ending the;progressive era in the 1920s, with Teddys progressives now largely absent from the Republican party, we we can see a changing Republican party under Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover . The changes can be seen both in their favoring of classical liberal Cleveland-like Gilded Age economics to big government social justice, and in;their related reaction to;the Red Scare;which had resulted in anti-Communism becoming;a major voting issue for a growing base of Republican conservatives;in post-WWI and;Prohibition era;America.
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A Summary Of The Party Switching By Looking At The Presidents: From The Founding Fathers To Civil War To Civil Rights To Today
In the introduction we provided a chronological summary of the parties by looking at the Party Systems, this section expands upon the story by focusing on the Presidents.
As noted in the introduction, to;prove the parties switched platforms clearly,;we need to consider at least;four political types;,;not just liberal and conservative. We also need to think about the single issue third parties like the Free Soil Party, the Peoples Party, and the American Independent Party, and the difference between collectivism and individualism.;This is necessary as collective rights vs. individual rights is the issue at the heart of the debate.
Although the political ideologies are best applied to each issue, some issues dont arise;until the late 19th or even 20th century. The parties have;been factionalized throughout history.;We can describe;the parties, using modern language, as Social Liberal , Conservative , Populist/Socialist , and Libertarian/Classic Liberal .
Hamilton,;who roughly favors Northern interests and a strong;government, was;a hands-on Federalist . Jefferson, who roughly favors Southern interests and less government, was;a hands-off anti-Federalist . In terms of England and France, Hamilton is Whig-like and Jefferson is a Jacobin supporting admirer of the French Revolution;.
John Quincy Adams | 60-Second Presidents | PBS.;Adams, Clay, and Jacksons stories intertwine to describe the end of the First Party and start of the Second Party system.
Did The American Political Parties Switch Clarifying The Semantics
People often ask,;did the American political parties switch?, but this question is semantically wrong, and thus we should address it before moving on.
- People can switch parties;.
- Parties can switch general platforms and ideologies .
- Voters can switch parties .
- However,;the parties themselves only switch when they hang-up their hat to become a new party;.
Where US Politics Came From: Crash Course US History #9. This is one of many videos from CrashCourse. American history is long and complex; if you want to really understand things, I suggest watching the CrashCourse series on U.S. politics.
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Democrats Wanted To Entice Western Settlers With Money
Democrats thought they figured out a strategy. Republican federal expansions in the 1860-70s favored big businesses in the Northeast, such as banks, railroads and manufacturers. Yet small-time farmers who had gone to the West received very little.
Both parties tried to exploit this frustration, by promising the little guy some of the federal monies. Democrats stuck with this stance favoring federally funded social programs and benefits while Republicans were gradually driven to the opposing position of smaller, hands-off government.
Understanding The Changes In Pre
To recap before moving on: In the late 1700s the American factions won their independence from Britain and formed a new country by compromising and coming together as Federalists and Anti-Federalists, in the early 1800s they found some unity under Jefferson as Democratic-Republicans, but from Jackson to the Civil War their differences pulled them apart with greater force than their commonalities united them together. The divisive new platforms of the parties create two polarized groups splitting America into Democrats/Confederates of the South and Republicans/the Union of the North by the start of the Civil War in 1861 under the Republican Lincoln;who ran on a platform which opposed the expansion of slavery.
To;understand how things went south so quickly, one has to understand how classical liberal positions can become socially conservative over time. The classical liberalism of Jefferson did not allow individual freedom for everyone, as it allowed for the freedom to own slaves and the freedom for states to be slave states. Thus, what was once progressive had become socially conservative over time, it was still technically liberal in the classical sense, just certainly not socially progressive but of course, let us not paint any party in any era with a broad brush, as both parties in any era are compromised of factions who agree only to varying extents.
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Republicans And Democrats After The Civil War
Its true that many of the first Ku Klux Klan members were Democrats. Its also true that the early Democratic Party opposed civil rights. But theres more to it.
The Civil War-era GOP wasnt that into civil rights. They were more interested in punishing the South for seceding, and monopolizing the new black vote.
In any event, by the 1890s, Republicans had begun todistance themselvesfrom civil rights.
The First Party System: The Federalist Party And The Democratic
To start, the founding fathers can be put into two groups: the;Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party .
Alexander Hamilton favored central Government and had ties to Britain, and wanted centralized banking. He favored national power over state power. He is todays Washington Liberal/Conservative. Hamilton wanted free-market capitalism and globalization with Britain/America, as a world leader hundreds of years before his time. He is an impressive character.
The Democratic-Republican Party, headed by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, generally opposed Hamilton and his views . In simple terms, they are todays Social-Libertarians . They are more in-line with what people think when they think rebelling from the authority of the King to be free.
In this scenario we can say the big government aspect of the current American left is with the Federalists, and the socially liberal of left, and anti-big government of the right, part is with the;Democratic-Republicans. But remember, the who far-right thing simply doesnt exist yet. So the divisive politics of today arent anywhere to be found .
The duality of the;Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party;is well displayed in the clip below in a discussion between Hamilton and Jefferson .
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The South And The House Go Republican
I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come, President Johnson said shortly after signing the Civil Rights Act, according to his aide . And indeed, Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina switched his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican specifically for this reason.
Yet party loyalties take a long time to shake off, and the shift of white Southerners from being solid Democrats to solid Republicans was in reality more gradual.
And while race played an important role in this shift, other issues played roles too. White evangelical Christians became newly mobilized to oppose abortion and take stands on other culture war issues, and felt more at home with the conservative party. There was that suspicion of big government and lack of union organization that permeated the region. And talented politicians like Ronald Reagan promised to defend traditional values.
Still, Democrats continued to maintain control of the House of Representatives for some time, in large part because of continued support from Southerners, as shown in this map by Jonathan Davis at Arizona State University. But in 1994, the revolution finally arrived, as Republicans took the House for the first time since 1955. And many of the crucial pickups that made that possible came in the South.
Era Of Good Feelings 18171825
Monroe believed that the existence of political parties was harmful to the United States, and he sought to usher in the end of the Federalist Party by avoiding divisive policies and welcoming ex-Federalists into the fold. Monroe favored infrastructure projects to promote economic development and, despite some constitutional concerns, signed bills providing federal funding for the National Road and other projects. Partly due to the mismanagement of national bank president William Jones, the country experienced a prolonged economic recession known as the Panic of 1819. The panic engendered a widespread resentment of the national bank and a distrust of paper money that would influence national politics long after the recession ended. Despite the ongoing economic troubles, the Federalists failed to field a serious challenger to Monroe in the 1820 presidential election, and Monroe won re-election essentially unopposed.
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