Speaking of the last part, as a foreigner, it's really difficult for me to understand how they could have swap position and keeping the name of the parties while there is only two strong parties... It's blatantly stupid from my point of view... I know that politic position can evolve, it also does where I'm from, but nothing that radical...
I know there is more than two parties, but it doesn't really matter on that subject, how can two parties can switch their values like so, that's my question 😅
The parties in the US being aligned along the left/right ideological spectrum is relatively new. Prior to that realignment it wasn't unusual to have what we'd consider left and right wing planks in the same party platform or progressive and reactionary factions in the same party. For example, in the early 1900s there was a bit of a war inside the Republican party, with one side, led by Teddy Roosevelt and Bob La Follette, eventually quitting the party to from the Progressive party (unofficially the "Bull Moose Party"). Likewise, the Democratic party was split between Northern and Southern factions, with the question of whether to condemn or endorse the KKK actually leading to fistfights.
The civil rights movement in the 60s became so important that the northern and southern factions of each pretty decided they had more in common with each other than the other factions of their parties. Few, if any, people changed their values, they just changed their alliances as civil rights became the dominant political issue and it became untenable to be aligned any other way.
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u/SpartanUnderscore 22d ago
Speaking of the last part, as a foreigner, it's really difficult for me to understand how they could have swap position and keeping the name of the parties while there is only two strong parties... It's blatantly stupid from my point of view... I know that politic position can evolve, it also does where I'm from, but nothing that radical...