Dem/Rep when was the switch?

[Keebs]

I know that somewhere in history the 2 sides sort of switched "values". Does anyone know when the switch was?

[JohnKleeb]

1. I'd say 1928

on edit maybe 1912 hmmmmmmm.

[BJ]

2. The real switch was the founding of the pro-big business DLC

[ramapo]

3. Ongoing

It has been a long, continuing process.

The South was a Democratic stronghold, held by segragationists, through the mid-60s. LBJ signing the voting rights act signaled the end of Demo-control of the South. Many Dems have switched over the years.

Many like examples over the past 80+ years of switching issues.

[TN al]

4. 1912 looks good...

...I would say that TR would be a dem today. When the progressives broke away from the GOP to form the bull moose party is probably the single event. Wilson would still be a dem today. Taft is a logical precursor to what the gop has become. Of course you have to ignore the southern democrats when you consider the change over. They are the worst kind of repubs, their racism and hatred still thrives and is the motivating force behind much of what the gop does. They were dems only because they saw the gop as responsible for the civil war.

[SharonAnn]

5. Nixon - "Southern Strategy" for Republicans embraced

Racism and "Aristocracy" values. This became more and more entrenched as more and more of the Dixiecrats switched parties.

Before that time, as I think I remember it, the Democratic Party had the Dixiecrat faction and the northern moderate/liberal faction.

As the Republicans incorporated the Dixiecrats, then the Democrats must have felt they couldn't be just moderate/liberal, they needed to get back their right-wing, thus the DLC.

Just my perceptions.

[jaysunb]

6. Voting & Civil Rights Era

1965, at the start of the Voting Rights Act.
1968 Nixon called it " the Southern Strategy "
Which ever time you place on it, it comes down to race and racism. It's the only reason so many people would consistently vote against their own self interest.

[msmcghee]

7. They didn't switch values . .

. . they switched labels as a political tactic.

Don't get confused by the labels. People do not switch values - unless they go through some traumatic, life-changing event.

[9119495]

8. Think of it like weather fronts moving simultaneously in parts of the US

There were a few shifts going on: Progressivism from 1912-1928 brought people to the Democratic party up North. However, the party in the South was nothing like that. As tendencies towards reforming the South began with Roosevelt, and notably under Truman who desegregated the armed forces, people began to look elsewhere. Republicans began to craft a message that reflected "conservative" (read: unchanging) values--These were different from their Republican friends up North. With the Voting Rights Act/Civil Rights Act, the South began to realign. Thus, there was actually a continuation of SECTIONALISM that can be traced back to at least before the Civil War and the Constitution. I think Sectionalism is still with us. Even now, both parties represent a wide range of views even though minority interests seem to dominate them at times.