Re: the party system explained

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

Wow.  It's sort like magnetic north moving over thousands of years.

 > From: Noelle <noelle>
 > Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2023 08:42:00 -0700 (PDT)
 >
 > F.J. in Brussels, Belgium, asks: You wrote that in Abraham Lincoln's 
 > time, the Republicans were the left-wing party and the Democrats 
 > were the conservatives, and that previously, the Whigs tried to play 
 > both sides. I understand that parties are heterogeneous and 
 > evolving, but I did not realize that Democrats and Republicans 
 > actually switched places, nor did I know that a major party (i.e., 
 > the Whigs) could be that much fractured.
 > 
 > I was wondering if you could broadly summarize throughout U.S. 
 > political history which parties or factions of parties had been on 
 > the right and which had been on the left?
 > 
 > These terms right-wing and left-wing may be tricky, especially over 
 > various periods of time, but let's say the left are those who seek 
 > changes towards greater equality and the right those who mostly 
 > defends social order as it is.
 > 
 > (V) & (Z) answer: Political historians generally divide U.S. history 
 > into five, six, or seven "party systems" defined by various 
 > political alignments. We'll use six; those who use seven just divide 
 > the final era into two, usually breaking it at the year 1994 (the 
 > year of the "Gingrich Revolution").
 > 
 >      First Party System (1796-1810s): At the outset of this period, 
 > the Federalists were the dominant party and also the conservative 
 > party. Eventually, they were overtaken by the 
 > Democratic-Republicans, who were the more liberal party. That said, 
 > consistent with how long ago this was, this is the period where the 
 > current liberal-conservative spectrum works the least well.
 > 
 >      Second Party System (1830s-1856): There was only one party from 
 > the late 1810s to the late 1820s/early 1830s, namely the 
 > Democratic-Republicans. Then the Democratic-Republicans evolved into 
 > the Democrats, who were a center to center-right party, and were 
 > predominant. The Democrats were opposed by the Whigs, a party that 
 > included the center-left Northern Whigs and the right-wing Southern 
 > Whigs. You can see why the Whig Party struggled to maintain 
 > cohesion.
 > 
 >      Third Party System (1860-1896): The Republicans were dominant, 
 > and were the more liberal party. The Democrats were in the minority 
 > nationwide, though they dominated the South, and were the more 
 > conservative party.
 > 
 >      Fourth Party System (1896-1932): The Republicans remained 
 > dominant, though less so. Both parties had a progressive wing, the 
 > Republicans also had a fiscally conservative wing, while the 
 > Democrats also had a socially conservative populist wing.
 > 
 >      Fifth Party System (1932-1968): The Democrats became the 
 > dominant party, and enjoyed control of the federal government to an 
 > extent not seen since the Republicans during Reconstruction. The 
 > Republicans were the more conservative party, on the whole, although 
 > there was a significant liberal-leaning wing centered in the 
 > Northeast. And the most conservative faction of all was actually the 
 > Southern Democrats.
 > 
 >      Sixth Party System (1968-Present): The Southern Democrats 
 > largely began leaving for the Republican Party, and Black voters, 
 > who had been Republicans for a century, largely finished leaving the 
 > Republican Party. Many of the so-called Rockefeller Republicans (the 
 > liberal-leaning Republicans) joined the Black members of the Party 
 > in departing. The Republicans have been the minority party 
 > throughout this period, although that has not stopped them from 
 > having a lot of presidential success. They are the more conservative 
 > party by a large margin.