General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My niece stumped with with a question: Why is the Republican Party allowed to even exist today? [View all]Blue_true
(31,261 posts)The Republican Party through 1900 was actually decent. It was ok up to the election of FDR, then it started a long slide.
I think you niece should write her paper by researching the original Republican Party that Lincoln help start versus the Republican Party since 1948. She should do a historical recounting on how the party changed over time, she should use 20 year blocks of time starting from the inception of the party during Lincoln's day.
BTW, until 1960, most African Americans voted republican. That changed with Kennedy embracing civil rights for Blacks after a push. FDR and his New Deal did nothing of significance for African Americans, they were excluded from every New Deal program, including Social Security and the FHA loan program. Truman integrated the Armed Services and ended the dual tier treatment of soldiers that FDR allowed to continue. Lyndon Johnson got AA into Social Security and getting FHA loans, maybe that is why modern republicans so hate those programs today. Also, the modern Republican Party gets most of it's adherents from the old Dixiecrats that left the Democratic Party in 1948.