Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
Who should be president
Ron Paul
Goku
View Results
 
  • Locked thread
Gianthogweed
Jun 3, 2004

"And then I see the disinfectant...where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that. Uhh, by injection inside..." - a Very Stable Genius.

Republicans were pretty much always considered the conservative party and Democrats the Liberal Party. But back in the 1800s Liberal and Conservative meant totally different things. Andrew Jackson was considered an ultra-left liberal even though he's pretty much the 1800s equivalent of Donald Trump. Thomas Jefferson, also considered a radical liberal, is like a 1700s version of Ron Paul.

It's hard to imagine early Republicans like Abraham Lincoln and especially radical Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens as conservatives, but most of them were former Whigs (the previous conservative party), and many Democrats felt Republicans, like the Whigs, largely represented wealthy northern industrial interests. Back then conservatism was still associated with big government and the monarchy, and many Republicans (who were the progressives of the 1800s) were very much in favor of expanding government power while Democrats were still mostly classically liberal, opposed to big federal government, and more in favor of local government and states rights.

So it's the switch in the definition of the words "conservative" and "liberal" that has more to do with the party realignment during the progressive era of the 1890s-early 1900s (when the Democrat Party started to become more populist and started to replace the Republicans as the more progressive party). The realignment didn't complete, however, until 1968 with Nixon's infamous Southern Strategy.

Gianthogweed fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Apr 14, 2016

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Gianthogweed
Jun 3, 2004

"And then I see the disinfectant...where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that. Uhh, by injection inside..." - a Very Stable Genius.

Ron Jeremy posted:

If you go back that far you have to be explicit about which government they wanted power for. States rights was more than just a dog whistle at that point and the economic incentives for the north and south were set up very differently. So when northerners wanted federal roads and canals for instance, southerners wanted no part in it since their elites lives mostly on and around coastal waterways and didn't need them.

It's a complicated issue and one that has always been in dispute due to its political nature. I find it interesting, particularly today, because I think we're in the midst of another realignment and things may be going back to the old dichotomy of the 1800s. I actually wrote an article about it last year.

http://drakus79.tumblr.com/post/127448197384/progressivism-vs-liberalism

Gianthogweed
Jun 3, 2004

"And then I see the disinfectant...where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that. Uhh, by injection inside..." - a Very Stable Genius.
https://youtu.be/IMYQ-b7Z6zM?t=45m2s

  • Locked thread