how the “American political parties switch sides”?
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Historically the Republican Party under Lincoln had its power base in the north and were very progressive (freeing the slaves and such) while the Democrats were conservative and rooted in the south.
When the Republicans today refer to themselves as “the party of Lincoln” it’s rather ironic because Lincoln wouldn’t even recognize today’s Republican party.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive reforms started a trend of progressive movements in government which were continued during the Great Depression by both parties.
The so called new-deal was Americas push to create social programs like medicare and implementing the minimum wage, which continued throughout the Depression and was championed by FDR, a democrat.
This caused the Democrats to start leaning left.
The Republicans meanwhile in the *gilded age* started to support big business in the North which caused them to start leaning right.
Throughout the Civil Rights movement the Dems continued to move left. Kennedy and LBJ saw winning over African Americans as key to getting elected during the Civil Rights movement and Hippie movement causing them to be more progressive.
Nixon meanwhile saw this as a chance to steal the south from the Dems and began appealing to conservative white folks.
This caused the two parties to effectively switch platforms and traditional territories.
By the 80s the Republicans went extreme in Right Wing ideology under Reagan.
It should be noted though that what is considered left vs right varies country to country. By Canadian standards for example the US doesn’t have a Left Wing party at all, the US has a right-wing party and an extreme Right-wing party. Even “radical leftist” politicians like AOC and Bernie Sanders would be considered centrist in Canada.
I agree with a lot of what u/DarkAlman wrote, but at the same time, the idea that the two parties “switched sides” is a a little too simplistic and a bit of an overstatement.
The Republican Party rose to power in the industrial north, with close ties to big business. Even though it tends to be more of a Southern party today, those ties to business are still very apparent today. They’ve lasted more than 150 years, with only some minor blips (such as the Teddy Roosevelt-era).
The Democratic Party, which had it’s base in the south and had no such ties to the industrial north, was a natural ally to the labor unions in the north. Once again, 150 years later, the Democratic Party is still much more closely aligned with labor.
Also, as African-Americans became a more powerful political block in the south, it makes sense that the Democratic Party began to evolve and promote policies that were more favorable African-Americans. Without doing the party wouldn’t have survived. They needed that support.
And as u/DarkAlman states, the Republican Party (and more specifically, Richard Nixon), used the close ties of the Democratic Party and African-Americans to shift the Republican Party further right on race issues.
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