Reply #24: The key difference is that there were no corporations in the 1790's

[Hippo_Tron]

The federalists were the party of big government and the anti-federalists, later the Democratic-Republicans were the party of small government. But back in 1790's, big government was something that the elites wanted, not the average joe. For example, the elites wanted a national bank and a stable currency, the average guy wanted to be able to take out a cheap loan. More importantly perhaps, Alexander Hamilton didn't really hide the fact that he wanted a government run by the elites and not by the common people. Jefferson and Madison and later Andrew Jackson wanted a government controlled by the common people and at the time that consisted of a smaller federal government.

The shift came (in my opinion) in the election of 1896 (Bryan vs McKinley). By then, corporations had become prominent in American society. What they soon discovered is that the only way to keep corporations from screwing them over is to have an activist government that will regulate them. So Bryan, who was represented the same people that Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson represented, pushed for a bigger role for the government. McKinley, who represented the people that Alexander Hamilton represented pushed for a smaller government that would allow corporations to do whatever the hell they wanted.

I believe that every democratic president of the 20th century, as well as Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft all followed in the populist but "big government" populist tradition started by Bryan.