So the two main parties in America, the republicans and democrats. Is it true there was a time when both parties weren't so different?
I'm from Ireland btw.
41-45, M
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windinhishair · 61-69, M
The parties have always had differences, but there used to be overlap in the middle. Now there is literally none, where the most liberal Republican is still more conservative than the most conservative Democrat. There is essentially no compromise, and no desire to work together to accomplish common goals. The Republicans no longer have a party platform that articulates what the party believes in. They don't see a need to have one.
SageWanderer · 70-79, M
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SW-User
@SageWanderer ahhhh I miss true gentlemen like Andrew Jackson and Joseph McCarthy, they just don't make 'em like that anymore.
SageWanderer · 70-79, M
@JaggedLittlePill I remember the Rockefeller Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats. Still not the greatest but between them could at least pass legislation.
SageWanderer · 70-79, M
@SW-User 🤭Joe McCarthy?
bijouxbroussard · F
There actually was a time when both parties contained different ideologies: Liberal, Moderate and Conservative Democrats and Liberal, Moderate and Conservative Republicans. The Democrats’ platform mostly supported aspirations of the working class, while the Republicans supported those of the owning class.
bijouxbroussard · F
@Graylight And, as you know, what many feared, came to pass—but LBJ surprised them and passed sweeping Civil Rights legislation. Pop’s been a staunch Dem ever since. He knew several of those civil rights activists from his days at Morehouse College, including Dr. King, and one thing he reminds people to this day who try to claim that Dr. King supported the GOP is that with the exception of the late Ralph Abernathy, just about everyone associated with MLK were Democrats by the end of the 20th century. There’s no doubt in his mind (nor mine) that Martin Luther King, Jr. would not be involved with today’s GOP.
dancingtongue · 80-89, M
JaggedLittlePill · 46-50, F
@dancingtongue No.
They switched position well before the 60s.
https://dk.usembassy.gov/da/youth-education-da/the-american-political-system/history-of-the-democratic-and-republican-parties/#:~:text=The%20parties%20change%20course&text=In%201932%20the%20country%20therefore,Roosevelt%20introduced%20his%20New%20Deal.
They were also always very different with very different ideas.
They switched position well before the 60s.
https://dk.usembassy.gov/da/youth-education-da/the-american-political-system/history-of-the-democratic-and-republican-parties/#:~:text=The%20parties%20change%20course&text=In%201932%20the%20country%20therefore,Roosevelt%20introduced%20his%20New%20Deal.
They were also always very different with very different ideas.
There was a time when they were no parties at all actually. Or if you prefer just one big party.
dancingtongue · 80-89, M
@canusernamebemyusername
Not totally true. True that George Washington eschewed political parties and, much like Lincoln later, tried to include rivals and those from political parties in his administration. But his VP, Adams, was a member of the Federalist party, and Washington was very supportive of his Treasury Secretary Hamilton's Federalist economic policies, to the point of joining Hamilton in putting on their old generals' uniforms to lead Federal troops in quashing the Whiskey Rebellion against the Federalist centralized "big government". His Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, despite saying political parties were a necessary evil, became the face of the Democratic-Republican Party in opposition to those positions.
There was a time when they were no parties at all actually. Or if you prefer just one big party.
Not totally true. True that George Washington eschewed political parties and, much like Lincoln later, tried to include rivals and those from political parties in his administration. But his VP, Adams, was a member of the Federalist party, and Washington was very supportive of his Treasury Secretary Hamilton's Federalist economic policies, to the point of joining Hamilton in putting on their old generals' uniforms to lead Federal troops in quashing the Whiskey Rebellion against the Federalist centralized "big government". His Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, despite saying political parties were a necessary evil, became the face of the Democratic-Republican Party in opposition to those positions.
SW-User
There's a lot of mythology about every era in US history, formed by every generation continuing the tradition of saying that everything was so much better in year x, when things in the US have pretty much always been a dumpster fire, even before the US was formally created (just ask the natives)
Shortly after the war of independence from the UK, guess what? Nobody wanted to pay for the war. Imagine that.
We literally fought another war because one side could not agree with the other on enslaving other humans. Talk about your common ground of yore. Hell, the new country was created so as to allow one side to do it, and the other side not to do it, during the interwar period, preferring the stoner unicorn idea of "states' rights" over, well, you know, individual (human) rights so that the two-systems-system could continue and the unpleasant can could be kicked down the road until that other war.
What positive things could we do with the effort we just waste on mythologizing history?
Shortly after the war of independence from the UK, guess what? Nobody wanted to pay for the war. Imagine that.
We literally fought another war because one side could not agree with the other on enslaving other humans. Talk about your common ground of yore. Hell, the new country was created so as to allow one side to do it, and the other side not to do it, during the interwar period, preferring the stoner unicorn idea of "states' rights" over, well, you know, individual (human) rights so that the two-systems-system could continue and the unpleasant can could be kicked down the road until that other war.
What positive things could we do with the effort we just waste on mythologizing history?
bijouxbroussard · F
@SW-User I would say make sure that future generations understand our history—but the GOP seems just as determined to outlaw any teachings that might make white people feel bad (I wish that was hyperbole on my part, but the wording is actually in some anti-CRT legislation). 🙁
CorvusBlackthorne · 100+, M