In 1854 the Republican Party emerged as the progressive anti-slavery advocate for the Union..
After the civil war the Republican Party consisted of the progressive northern populace, factory workers, farmers, businessmen and the now freed black slaves. They had very little support from the southern white Democrats who saw this new black voting block as a threat. Around 1912 the GOP began an ideological shift towards conservatism when the then Republican Teddy Roosevelt left to form a more progressive party (he took many republicans with him). The GOP lost many congressional majorities during the Great Depression and the democrats began to appeal to the working class by ushering in legislation like the New Deal. As the GOP became more conservative, the democrats began working on the “southern strategy” to win over the black vote with candidates like JFK. This all culminated in 1965 when then Democrat LBJ, signed the civil rights act forcing many southern whites to reject the Democrats and become solidly Republican. As many white voters increasingly identified with the GOP throughout the 60s, and 70’s, this relationship was cemented with the presidency of Richard Nixon and then the election of Ronald Regan in the 80’s. The shift was complete!! The progressive party of Abraham Lincoln is now the party that embraces the confederate flag…
Great text, but the shift from 1980 to 2023 is STILL pretty amazing.
We'll see if they nominate Trump again, but even if they don't, I don't think there's any way for the brand to survive as anything but the party of chaos, hate and the enemy of civilization without a major purge and repudiation of everyone who's ever supported Trump.
@MistyCee They don't care. Republicans will continue to win elections no matter how horrible and incompetent they are. Hurting others is part of their dogma.
Too bad so many of today’s conservatives are unaware of that evolution.
They still somehow think they’re allied with the abolitionists who fought to free blacks, even while they’re disenfranchising those former slaves’ descendants.
@Quetzalcoatlus They’re not aware. They wouldn’t make the claims they do if they were still the "Party of Lincoln". And they certainly wouldn’t fly the flag of the people who assassinated him. When you ask them about that, they have no clue.
SW-User
Among the many sad ironies of history. But what I find angering is when some Republicans want to wrap themselves in the mantle of Lincoln and claim that progressing heritage while at the same time effectively furthering the agenda of the old racist white South.
Fortunately as a Canadian I'm just looking in on all that from the outside. We have our own hypocrisies to deal with.
Oh, yeah. Without a doubt, if Lincoln was alive today, with his progressive liberal (by the modern definition) views, Republicans would vilify him. They would do so without any sense of irony whatsoever.
