Democrats used to be conservative and Republicans used to be liberal. What happened?

Question

Did it start with FDR or something? Did Democrats magically transform into Republicans, and vice versa?

Answer 1

It is a little more complicated than that, but it is true that Republicans and Democrats have reversed positions on a number of issues. Democrats did start out as a liberal, anti-federalist party at the time of Jefferson. Republicans did start out as a pro-business party, but also and probably more importantly as an anti-slavery party. So the Democrats at the time of the Civil War and for many years afterwards were not particularly in favor of rights for black people. That started to change at the time of Roosevelt and Truman. Also Democrats at the time of Jefferson were considered less favorable toward a strong central government, but in modern times have been more in favor of a strong central government that promotes education, housing, social security, and other values that the Republicans would prefer to stay away from for the most part.

What is also interesting in more recent times is that the Republicans used to stand for balanced budgets and now they stand for deficit spending. The Republicans used to stand for an isolationist foreign policy, and now they stand for an interventionist foreign policy. But what has remained consistent over the years is that the Democrats are still perceived as the party of the little guy, and the Republicans are the pro-business party. That has been true for more than 100 years.

Answer 2

what you stated isnt entirely the case. There has been a shift yes.

I would say that a better explanation is the parties have fragmented.

The more conservative dems migrated over to republicans ( thats your neocons folks , originally they were democrats , look it up ).
This was due to the radical left movement in the dem party.

So you have throwback dems like a zell miller or a joe lieberman.

Also you have cross party candidates.
example. Maybe you have an incumbent democrat somewhere. And maybe there is a newer democrat who wants to run but to do so they have to switch parties and run as an R. It happens.

Then you have 3rd party candidates who join one of the two major parties because they cant get elected otherwise.
Example Ron Paul... libertarian who joined the repubs.

It all has caused shifts in the parties and fragmentation as well.

Answer 3

Not with FDR, before then. And it is a shift which has happened over time, not in any single stroke or event. FDR's rise came because the GOP were too conservative to address the depression. So, you are looking at sometime between the Civil War and The Great Depression.

Answer 4

This project is going so a strategies previous any message board - it really is a nationwide epidemic! i imagine your outlook the following is going to rely which area of the political spectrum you're on. i'm an truly liberal democrat, so at first i had to rant and rave about each and each of the undesirable nasty issues conservatives (Ann Coulter all of us?) have suggested. Then i concept about it and realized that i'm even to blame of it myself. Politics has develop into very polarized. i imagine the petty call calling comes from immaturity - on both area. And it takes position in basic terms as oftentimes on one as the different. when I step decrease back and picture about this, I comprehend that it really is the fringe on both area that are to blame for truly some the publicized namecalling lately. There are liberal nut-jobs (Michael Moore all of us?) in basic terms as there are precise-wing nut-jobs. the precedence is that those human beings have too a lot of a platform to toss out their innane "arguments" and this stuff have a tendency to bypass as real political discourse at the same time as they do no longer some thing for politics yet decrease the bar. the real subject matters that want to be addressed are being passed over so as that politicians and liberal/conservative media can play "i understand you're yet what am I?" it really is unhappy

Answer 5

Pretty much. Not only that, but Republicans aren't even conservative anymore- they've inflated the size and reach of the federal government with DHS and the Patriot Act, managed to raise both the defecit AND taxes at the same time, disassembled alliances forged by over 100 years of foreign policy, opened up our borders to outsourcing of tech jobs while making noise about the illegal immigration of avocado pickers, and still haven't done anything about that either. They've become a party for the arrogantly pious, but not for anyone with vision for the country.

Not that the dems are much better, but at least they don't massively screw things up while they don't accomplish things.

Answer 6

It's interesting that in a recent poll about 60% of Democrats labelled themselves as liberal and about 66% of Republicans labelled themselves as conservative.

That means about 40% of Democrats do not consider themselves to be liberal and 33% of Republicans don't consider themselves to be conservative.

Most people are in the middle. In fact, most people who are in one of the two major parties are in the middle.

Answer 7

Hey, what if we all just be "america first" and not follow lying politicians? We'll start our own party and kick all the corrupt liars out of washington dc. We'll run on a platform of affordable healthcare, job creation, energy independance, less foriegn interests buying up our land, secure our borders and make america strong again. Oh, and we'll string up the traitors in washington dc and show it on pay per view!

Answer 8

You are half right. Repubs ended slavery, fought for civil rights and were against the US entering WW-ll. Then the Neo-conservatives swarmed into the southern repub party when a Dem president, LBJ, dared to give Black Americans the right to vote. They were known as "Dixie-crats". Their famous, Dem Alabama Gov, George Wallace said "Segregation now, and segregation forever".

Answer 9

Democrats were conservative because they had what they wanted in government.
Republicans were liberal because they didn't have what they wanted in government
The opposite is true now.

Answer 10

Southern democrats were conservative in the nineteenth century (i.e. slavers). Then in the twentieth century things changed. Why that is I'm a bit hazy about. (Don't live in the US.)