How Democrats Became Liberal Republicans

Interesting assessment. I have been wondering how the Democrats and Republicans managed to switch sides since the time of the Civil War. Back then, the Republicans represented the liberals who wanted to free slaves, and the Democrats were the conservative states rights/small Federal government party that thought slavery was a fine thing for each state that wanted it. By the time of Roosevelt the Democrats had moved to the left. The Republicans seem to have moved to the right after Eisenhower, who would probably be regarded now as a socialist radical for his warning against the military industrial complex. The party was surely way to the right by the time Goldwater was nominated. Now, as the Democrats move right, will the Republicans move left and shed their lunatic wing as they try to get some leverage with the minorities they antagonized in the last election? Will both parties collide in the middle, and realign, or will the nation continue its overall conservative drift, and exit the world, stage right? Watch the headlines for the next few hundred years for the answer. I have no idea :-(

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Source:

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/12/21/How-Democrats-Became-Liberal-Republicans.aspx#mkbiu9WOKY9a9Wio.01

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