I find it ironic that both parties are the opposite of what they were in 1860.

[Odin2005]

In 1860 the Democrats were the party of RW racists and slave-owners who blocked tariffs, and funding for infrastructure, while the Republicans were the party of equality, investment in infrastructure, protectionism, and free land for farmers.

Now it's the GOP, the party of Lincoln and abolitionism, that's full of RW racist douchebags while the Dems dominate in the places that were core Republican strongholds in 1860, and elected a black guy as president!

[Skidmore]

1. Richard Nixon, the gift that keeps on giving.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Oh this started well before Nixon... by about a hundred years actually

Nixon was the culmination of that switcharoo

[Odin2005]

3. The switch started with William Jennings Bryan and the Populists.

This caused many Northerners to become Democrats.

Then FDR cemented the Democratic Party as the party of labor and poor farmers in the North, absorbing Republican Progressives.

Then the Civil Rights Movement caused African-Americans to become solidly Democratic while white Southerners bolted to the Republicans.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Yup the early part of the 20th century is when it became way too obvious

you will remember though that by the `1870s, under the Grant Administration, themes that were to emerge hard later on took shape. Some of them became way too obvious in the gilded age (when both parties were business friendly).

Then there was this little populist problem called the Granger Party...

But when people blame Nixon for all of this... he was the capstone. The Southern Strategy was the end of that long process. And don't get me started with Reagan.

Trends... Oh and there are some similarities today... OWS is starting to become more political in the way partisans understand it, and some will go third party.