For more than 20 years after the Civil War, the U.S. entered a period of reconstruction as they tried to transform the Southern states that had seceded to form the Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln’s assassination at the war’s end put reconstruction up in the air. Through his prior actions, it’s believed Lincoln would have taken a moderate stance during reconstruction, with his priority being the speedy healing of the nation. His death allowed a radical wing of his party to take control of Congress, which pushed through several important measures to protect newly freed slaves.
The party pushing through such drastic legislation? The Republican Party, which may seem a little surprising in today’s climate. In 1860, the Democratic Party had run on a platform focused on the protection of slavery and won the entirety of the South. After the war, Southern Democrats attempted to resist the reforms laid forth by the radical Republicans, and eventually created Jim Crow laws.
Essentially, the two parties entered into the 20th century with their modern platforms reversed. During this time, Republicans dominated national elections. Just three of the 16 presidents between 1865 and 1928 were Democrats.
It was the Great Depression — the nation’s worst economic conditions ever — that initiated the switch of the parties. The economic woes began almost immediately after Herbert Hoover took office in 1929. Hoover, a Republican who had swept the electorate minus the deep South and a couple Northeast states, had strong beliefs against welfare, worried it would erode people’s “rugged individualism.” He did, however, raise taxes significantly on the wealthy as well as corporations, which a Republican president would balk at now.
Unsurprisingly, Hoover lost his re-election bid in 1932 to the Democratic challenger Franklin D. Roosevelt. But more remarkable is the manner in which Roosevelt was able to do so. Of course, Roosevelt won the South, but taking advantage of poor economic conditions allowed Roosevelt to gain support, turning the nation blue, except for just a few Northeastern states.
Roosevelt’s relief efforts — the sweeping New Deal programs — helped create the New Deal coalition, a surprisingly diverse group of voters. For example, the 1932 election was the last time to date that the Republican Party received a majority of the African-American vote.
From there, the stage was set for an alignment of the two parties as we recognize them today. Roosevelt’s far-reaching programs helped him and Democrats create an unlikely hodgepodge of voters. This included blue-collar workers, farmers, white southerners, unions, some minorities and city machines.
This was when the modern use of liberals and conservatives began: liberal became associated with the New Deal, while conservative described its opponents.
The coalition wasn’t perfect: there were internal divisions — mostly on matters concerning race — but that’s to be expected when bringing together so many different people. The party came together during election time, and that’s all that mattered for a few decades. Roosevelt’s death marked the end of his three-term (he had just been inaugurated for his fourth term) rule. Harry S. Truman, Roosevelt’s vice president who took over in 1945, was able to win in 1948 thanks to the coalition his predecessor created.
The Democrats might have lost the elections of 1952 and 1956, but they did so to Dwight D. Eisenhower who was not only a national hero helping to win the European theater during World War II but also favored the New Deal. In office, he expanded social security and several New Deal programs.
After Ike’s two terms, it was time for someone new to take the reins. John F. Kennedy was able to win, aided by strong turnouts in major cities and his vice president, a Southerner named Lyndon B. Johnson. In his inauguration, Kennedy spoke of a Great Society, which became the umbrella name for his domestic programs, not unlike the New Deal. After Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Johnson was sworn in and the New Frontier became the Great Society, which was a war on poverty, while also promoting civil rights.
A crafty politician, Johnson was able to pass a significant amount of legislation in the wake of Kennedy’s death, in an honor to the fallen man. Five days after Kennedy’s death, Johnson pleaded with Congress, telling them, “No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy’s memorial than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill which he fought so long.” Congress responded by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed the South’s rampant segregation. The following year, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, which reaffirmed African American’s voting rights by instituting federal protections.
These two laws were the nail in the coffin for the Southern Democratic support, the first casualty of the New Deal coalition. When the 1968 election rolled around, a wildly unpopular Johnson declined to seek re-election, setting off a struggle for the Democrats to find a worthy candidate. The party — and coalition — further split during this time. It became labor unions and city machines against a group of upper middle-class whites and college students, minorities and the remaining Southern Democrats.
The Republicans won a landslide election in 1968, ushering in a new era of Republican prosperity. Nixon ran on a platform of “law and order” signaling a tougher stance from Republicans and a shift to the right.
It was also around this time that the Republican Party emerged as a leader for foreign policy. Democrats enjoyed taking responsibility for winning World War II, but the stalemate in Korea followed by the disaster of Vietnam allowed Republicans to ‘own’ foreign policy. During the following decades, Republicans would focus more on moral issues such as abortion to further gain support, especially throughout the Bible Belt.
In the election of 1980, which pitted incumbent Jimmy Carter against Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, Reagan won in a landslide, taking 489 electoral votes (even more impressively he received 525 out of the total 538 four years later). Reagan, a conservative icon to this day, signaled a shift to the right for the country, Democrats included. It wouldn’t be until 2008 that they got a president in office who was as liberal as Kennedy or Johnson had been.
Though political shifts occur, and national parties change in regard to their respective ideologies or platforms, there is one change we do not see throughout history that underlies all of it. The people of major geographical region, by and large, maintain their political belief; the South remains conservative, the coasts more liberal, etc. This can be difficult to understand when viewing voting habits purely by party, as one aligns historical party voting patterns with modern party platforms (i.e. the South in the 1890s voted democratic and therefore held liberal views similar to modern democrats.)
The reality is that the parties have shifted their views to appease the public, but political public belief hasn’t experienced drastic demographic shifts. If there’s anything to draw from that conclusion, it’s that the people have significantly more influence in the two political than may seem.
Contributing reporting by Caleb Lundquist.
