Quick History: Democrats

The Democratic Party was founded in 1828 by Jacksonians. It was modelled after the party of Jefferson and Monroe (Democratic Republicans) who opposed the Federalists and favored limited over strong centralized government. Democrats were Southerners, and Southern wealth came from plantations which of course at the time depended on the forced labor of slaves. Don't forget, President Washington though a Federalist also owned a plantation and slaves.

There were slaves in the North, but slavery was seen as VITAL to the economy of the South, and the products of the South were VITAL to the North's more industrial economy.

It can be debated, but if the US Constitution had not tacitly approved of slavery and gave the South power through the Three-Fifths Compromise, there would have been no Constitution. You can assign blame for that as needed.

Of the first five Presidents, Washington and Adams were Federalists, Jefferson Madison and Monroe were Democratic-Republicans. John Quincy Adams (son of the 2nd President) was the Sixth President served as transitional figure threatening to turn national politics back toward Federalist (Northern) ideals and supported the abolition of slavery.

The Southern states obviously said no to that shift, and elected Andrew Jackson (the war hero of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815) as President. In 1828 Jackson and his followers really created the first national political party, the Democratic Party, by consolidating support at the State and local levels with a national coalition:

The Democrats represented a wide range of views but shared a fundamental commitment to the Jeffersonian concept of an agrarian society. They viewed the central government as the enemy of individual liberty. The 1824 "corrupt bargain" had strengthened their suspicion of Washington politics.

Jacksonians feared the concentration of economic and political power. They believed that government intervention in the economy benefited special-interest groups and created corporate monopolies that favored the rich. They sought to restore the independence of the individual—the artisan and the ordinary farmer—by ending federal support of banks and corporations and restricting the use of paper currency, which they distrusted. Their definition of the proper role of government tended to be negative, and Jackson's political power was largely expressed in negative acts. He exercised the veto more than all previous presidents combined. Jackson and his supporters also opposed reform as a movement. Reformers eager to turn their programs into legislation called for a more active government. But Democrats tended to oppose programs like educational reform mid the establishment of a public education system.

They believed, for instance, that public schools restricted individual liberty by interfering with parental responsibility and undermined freedom of religion by replacing church schools. Nor did Jackson share reformers' humanitarian concerns. He had no sympathy for American Indians, initiating the removal of the Cherokees along the Trail of Tears.

CITATION: Mary Beth Norton et al., A People and a Nation, Volume I: to 1877 (2007) pp. 287–288.

Sound familiar?

The fundamental challenge of the United States has ALWAYS BEEN the balance of power between the national government and the States.

Slavery was the premier issue that encapsulated that conflict. The Republican Party was founded by Northerners and Abolitionists. The first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, consolidated the power of the centralized National government over the States in a little thing called the Civil War which settled the issue at sword-point.

Southerners used the Democratic Party machinery to establish resistance to Republican domination after the Civil War, and by the end of the 19th Century had bascially reclaimed control of the governments of the Southern states.

Franklin Roosevelt completely reoriented the Democratic Party in the 30s (and argubly the Federal Government) as a response to the economic collapse of the Great Depression, which resulted in the Southerners moving to form their own party (Dixiecrats) in 1948 and to shift to the modern Republcian party began in 1972 and finalized with Reagan in 1980.

And that catches us up.

a reply to: Gryphon66
What year did the famous and powerful racist Lyndon B. Johnson switch to the Republican Party?

Dixiecrats never went Republican... there was never a huge shift of dixiecrats to Republicans. They remained Democrats. IIRC, only three made a switch to Republican party.

The south went Republican mainly due to economics. In the 70s up until today, the south experienced an economic boom. As people start making more money, they often start voting more conservatively.

You didn't check the source of that one , did you ?
Check your source , always.
Then , go out and read some real history books

List of Dixiecrats and their party affiliation end date / party voted for by constituents...

George Wallace died a Democrat...

originally posted by: Edumakated
George Wallace died a Democrat...

I seem to remember him doing some things that were just a tad racist during his stint as Governor of Alabama...

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: Edumakated
George Wallace died a Democrat...

I seem to remember him doing some things that were just a tad racist during his stint as Governor of Alabama...

Ya think? Robert Byrd, a freaking klan leader, died a Democrat. Hillary Clinton's mentor. Bill spoke at his funeral. But yeah, the parties switched.

Dinesh D'souza dropping a elbow on Larry King from top rope. He addresses this history of Democrat party and addresses the "switch" about 4 minutes in.

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: Gryphon66
What year did the famous and powerful racist Lyndon B. Johnson switch to the Republican Party?

Was this the President Johnson that pushed through the CIvil Rights Act?

I don't think he did.

originally posted by: Edumakated
Dixiecrats never went Republican... there was never a huge shift of dixiecrats to Republicans. They remained Democrats. IIRC, only three made a switch to Republican party.

The south went Republican mainly due to economics. In the 70s up until today, the south experienced an economic boom. As people start making more money, they often start voting more conservatively.

The night that Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, his special assistant Bill Moyers was surprised to find the president looking melancholy in his bedroom. Moyers later wrote that when he asked what was wrong, Johnson replied, “I think we just delivered the South to the Republican party for a long time to come.”

These defectors, known as the “Dixiecrats,” held a separate convention in Birmingham, Alabama. There, they nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, a staunch opposer of civil rights, to run for president on their “States’ Rights” ticket. Although Thurmond lost the election to Truman, he still won over a million popular votes.

Though some Democrats had switched to the Republican party prior to this, “the defections became a flood” after Johnson signed these acts, Goldfield says. “And so the political parties began to reconstitute themselves.”

History Channel

How the Democrats and Republicans Switched Sides on Civil Rights

The GOPs Dixiecrat Problem - New Yorker

a reply to: Gryphon66

Odd stats about that 1964 Civil Rights act.

More Democrats in Congress voted against it than Republicans, and a higher percentage of Republicans voted for it than Democrats.

➡️🌀⬅️

a reply to: Edumakated

Gosh, well-known Republican spokesman Dinsesh DeSouza has an opinion? Nice.

How's the infidelity problem he had for a while?

Seriousuly, why would you present a well known right-wing mouthpiece as evidence of anything.

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: Gryphon66

Odd stats about that 1964 Civil Rights act.

More Democrats in Congress voted against it than Republicans, and a higher percentage of Republicans voted for it than Democrats.

➡️🌀⬅️

Yep. The Southern Democrats, aka Dixiecrats, the same regions which have voted Republican since the switch culminating in 1980.

Try to keep up.

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: Edumakated
George Wallace died a Democrat...

I seem to remember him doing some things that were just a tad racist during his stint as Governor of Alabama...

Ya think? Robert Byrd, a freaking klan leader, died a Democrat. Hillary Clinton's mentor. Bill spoke at his funeral. But yeah, the parties switched.

Hey, remember what the NAACP said when Byrd died?

The NAACP is saddened by the passing of United States Senator Robert Byrd. Byrd, the longest serving member of congress was first elected to the U.S. House from in 1952 and was elected Senator in 1958. Byrd passed away this morning at the age of 92.

“Senator Byrd reflects the transformative power of this nation,” stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “Senator Byrd went from being an active member of the KKK to a being a stalwart supporter of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and many other pieces of seminal legislation that advanced the civil rights and liberties of our country.

The Hill

a reply to: Gryphon66

The problem is the election records say otherwise.

In the video I linked, he shows where the prominent Dixiecrats remained in the Democrat party up until the 80s. Not only that, even when a Dixiecrat left office, the constituents in their area continued to vote for Democrats for decades later.

The civil rights bill that Johnson signed was more supported by Republicans than Democrats.

a reply to: Gryphon66

Democrats have always been Democrats ⭕😎⭕

a reply to: Edumakated

Yes, the Democrats did vote against the Civil Rights act. The Southern Democrats. Reference the quote from Johnson above.

The election records don't say the opposite.

Look at the Presidential Elections. Look at the composition of the State Legislatures.

Yes, I've seen the carefully produced vid from Prager U before. It's not factual.

The facts are easy for anyone to see.

The Southern Democrats opposed the end of Slavery.

The Southern Democrats regrouoped after the Civil War and Reconstruction to impose Jim Crow for another 90 years.

The Southern Democrats formed theiir own party in 1948 headed by Strom Thurmond ... who notably later became a Republican.

Goldwater and Nixon started the process through the "Southern Strategy" and Reagan finished the transition in 1980.

Look at the electoral maps.

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: Gryphon66

Democrats have always been Democrats ⭕😎⭕

Profound.

What you guys try desperately to gloss over is that the South was Democratic until the Civil Rights Acts passed and then became Republican over the course of 1972-1980 and have remained so.

Wonder why?