What a long strange trips it's been

To clarify what happened for the unawares:
After the 1860s the Republican Party rose to power as the party who freed the slaves and (to a lesser extent) supported reconstruction.
Later, both parties had a lot more centrists and it was a time of great social progress around the world after the fall of right-wing fascist Nazi Germany in 1946, but there were also fears about the USSR and the Cold War becoming hot.
During the Civil Rights Movement which sought equal rights for its citizens and protections for segregated racial minorities to live and work freely a bipartisan bill (mostly Republicans of the time) passed congress called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and later the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and to a lesser extent the Food Stamps program and several other welfare bills, but credit for it was mostly given to then Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson aka "El Big Johnson".
There were a lot of reasons for this, perhaps racist conservatives are just easily misinformed or perhaps Republicans thought to muddy the waters of the discourse of their opponents, but more civil rights activists started to shift to the Democrats side. Still, it was a time of little polarization and great centrism until over time political polarization made politicians vote along party lines more and more every year. You could still see widespread examples of Republicans being pro-union in the 70s and 80s, and Democrats still supporting bad crime bills into the early 2000s.
Ronald Reagan being the man to gut regulations and cut taxes for corporations from under 90% to under 20% was a huge instigator of the Republican Party's shift towards conservatism.
So thats why Republicans then supported nearly opposite stances from Republicans now. Both Sides voting base hardly shifted at all, it's just the banner they chose did.
- It’s wirth noting that the majority of social indicators gave the impression that the “bad” crime bills of the 1990s were very effective and it’s only later that we realize the actual causes of the decline in crime were the legalization of abortion (USA only) and the removal of lead from paint/gasoline. In other words were you alive at the time and not involved directly in social sciences you likely would have supported those same bills.
  
  Yes and, for a very specific example, Joseph Biden went before congress in 2010 and 2011 to give a speech asking for congress to completely remove the Crack to Powder sentencing disparity that disproportionately effected African Americans, which he wrote in 1995, citing that expert opinions led him to the inaccurate conclusion that crack was more dangerous. The reason I bring this up is because clearly not every action was done out of hate or malice but simply because politicians can be less informed and lack scientific literacy.
  Still, very saddening that the results of these actions have empowered a private prison system that bleeds this nation like vampires.

Ronald Reagan would be foaming at the mouth if he saw the GOP kowtowing to a Russian who wanted to destroy NATO.
- The Overton window fell from the second story and crashed to the ground.
  
  The Party of Lincoln is destroying DEI
  
  Defenestration is from the Russian playbook after all
- The only bright spot in American politics is imagining Satan strapping Reagan in like Robot Chicken to watch it.
- Pretty sure that actor can play any role.
  
  True story. I am a movie fan, but somehow I never got around to watching any of Reagan's movies. Not even a political thing, there was just always something I wanted to see more.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killers_(1964_film)
  Then I hear about this movie. I like Lee Marvin and John Cassavetes and it's directed by Don Seigel, who did Dirty Harry.
  I watched the movie and I can say that without question, Ronald Reagan was the worst actor in the entire movie. He was nowhere near as good as the guy who played the fuzzy General in the Planet of the Apes, or the dirty landlord from Three's Company.

If anyone ever wondered what "made America great", it was the government provided social services in the 40's and 50's that silent generation set up for their children which led to the economic growth that the boomers enjoyed which they then turned around killed so their children and children's children could not have the same advantages.

Yeah, look up Nixon and the "southern strategy." Basically ask the religious nutjobs switched from Dem to Rep and flipped the roles of the parties. Now the Dems have drifted so far right that I call them Republicrats, except for the few progressives.

Don’t forget his Chance for Peace speech.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
\ This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat.
I mean, don’t forget these people were homophobic and racist AF among many other issues, but socially regarding labor and actually giving a fuck about the middle class they are pretty much the peak of it as far as the republican party goes.
- Great speech, for sure.

Party realignment.
Wonder what the Democrats had at the time
- Further left, but with a racist bent in the south. The civil rights movement of the 60s, which was supported by LBJ, pushed many southern democrats to the republican party.
  
  An outcome which Johnson himself accurately predicted.
- No need to wonder!
  The full Republican platform: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1956
  The full Democratic platform: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/1956-democratic-party-platform
  
  The preamble to the Democratic platform is as follows. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
  In the brief space of three and one-haft years, the people of the United States have come to realize, with tragic consequences, that our National Government cannot be trusted to the hands of political amateurs, dominated by representatives of special privilege.
  Four years ago they were beguiled, by empty promises and pledges, to elect as President a recent convert to Republicanism. Our people have now learned that the party of Lincoln has been made captive to big businessmen with small minds. They have found that they are now ruled by a Government which they did not elect, and to which they have not given their consent.
  
  I'm lazy so I used ChatGPT to summarize and compare both articles since they was a metric fuckton of information and I have shit to do.
  ----CHATGPT Contrast and Summary----
  The 1956 Democratic and Republican Party Platforms reveal several key differences in their approaches to governance and policy priorities:
  1. Foreign Policy and National Defense:
  Democratic Party: Criticized the Republican administration's foreign policy since 1953, accusing it of confusing timidity with courage and blindness with enlightenment.
  Republican Party: Praised President Dwight D. Eisenhower's leadership in securing peace and fostering prosperity, emphasizing a limited role of government in foreign affairs.
  2. Civil Rights:
  Democratic Party: Advocated for voting rights, equal employment opportunities, and the desegregation of public schools.
  Republican Party: Committed to ensuring that all citizens, regardless of race, creed, or color, may know the blessings of freedom, focusing on equal opportunity and protection of individual freedoms.
  3. Social Programs and Economic Policies:
  Democratic Party: Proposed increased spending on social welfare and agricultural programs, emphasizing comprehensive development and conservation of natural resources.
  Republican Party: Praised advancements in social programs such as expanded Social Security, broadened unemployment insurance, improved housing, and better health protection, celebrating economic prosperity achieved under their policies.
  4. Atomic Energy:
  Democratic Party: Supported the peaceful use of atomic energy, highlighting its potential benefits for the nation.
  Republican Party: Did not explicitly address atomic energy, focusing more on the peaceful use of atomic energy.
  5. Government Integrity:
  Democratic Party: Emphasized restoring American leadership and criticized the Republican administration's performance.
  Republican Party: Stressed the importance of unimpeachable ethical standards and irreproachable personal conduct by government officials, pledging to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears.
  In summary, the Democratic Party's platform in 1956 focused on critiquing the Republican administration's foreign policy and advocating for increased government intervention in social and economic matters. In contrast, the Republican Party's platform praised existing advancements, emphasized limited government intervention, and focused on individual freedoms and ethical governance.

Check out our local podcast "A Peoples History of Kansas City" it is done by KCUR's Suzanne Hogan. (I'm a big NPR fan and love my city!) One of the most recent episodes explains how this happened at the 1976 Republican Convention.
https://www.kcur.org/podcast/a-peoples-history-of-kansas-city/2024-10-29/how-a-kansas-city-shoot-out-created-the-modern-gop
- Thanks!

They figured out that about 25% of the US population are literally idiots that would vote to get a hot poker shoved up their own ass if there was half a chance of it happening to a liberal as well.
- They figured out that about 25% of the US population are literally idiots that would vote to get a hot poker shoved up their own ass if there was half a chance of it happening to a Black person as well.
  About 20% of people are in both categories. The combination explains the 30% of Trump voters.

Asylum For thousands of refugees, expellees and displaces person
Correct if I'm wrong but didn't Operation Wetback (actual name, no joke) happen under the Eisenhower administration?
- You're correct.

They had turntables and tableturns!

Yeah but that dude made a career killing Nazis and mic dropping his presidency with warnings about the Military Industrial Complex. That Republican Party died with Reagan.

...and then came Reagan

Make America Great Again?

There were old voters who called themselves Eisenhower Democrats who had moved over as the Republicans changed their goals to what we find now.