the Democratic party was the party of the south and enforced slavery.

[Flagg]

here's what some delusional freeper claims

what do I do ?

[Caution]

1. Agree with him

And then mention that the republican party was the party of small government, against nation building, and anti-deficit. Things change. The Democratic Party has changed in the past 150 years. Where has he been?

[kysrsoze]

10. Repubs also used to work for the common man and equal rights

What happened?

[radwriter0555]

21. Isn't progress WONDERFUL?

My, my, my, how times change.

Now, the GOP is the party of lies, cheating and corruption, run away spending and endless wars!

[DavidDvorkin]

2. He's correct.

And the Republican party was the part of freedom and rights.

But the two have switched sides since then. Only the names remain unchanged. Lincoln would be a Democrat today.

[wyldwolf]

3. that is basically true

[Worst Username Ever]

4. The south

The parties have changed quite a bit at that time... Lincoln would have been considered a liberal. Note that Strom Thurman was a democrat, but as a racist had no choice but to change to the repug party when as the parties evolved.

[Blue Wally]

5. Read some history

The Democratic party in the south was the main party supporting slavery and were the most rabid proponents of secession. The Democratic party in the north was split. War Democrats supported Lincioln in his quest to save the union. Copperhead Democrats wanted to let the slave states go and actively opposed the Civil War with some actively giving aid and support to the Confederates and spying. The Democratic party actively supported black disenfranchisement in the south. The Democratic party only began to show concern for blacks during the FDR administration. We have our warts as well as the other party.

[bluestateguy]

6. It was

No sense in disputing the facts.

You might also remind him that it was the Republicans that pursued the repressive policies of post-Civil War Reconstruction and "northern aggression". White male southerners who revere the Confederacy and vote Republican might need a reminder as to which party humiliated the south after the war.

[Cheswick2.0]

7. and then the republicans became the racist sexist old white boy party

and the democratic party had to become the progressive party of inclusion, fiscal responsibility, human rights and civil rights.

BTW...most of the dixiecrats switched to the republican party long ago.

[fudge stripe cookays]

11. It was Nixon's fault supposedly....

Although I was not there personally (born in 66).

In "We Are Not Afraid", about Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney, the author (I forget his name) asserted that the black activists working in the south at the time tried contacting both presidential candidates when Nixon and Kennedy were competing, and Nixon wouldn't return their phone calls.

Supposedly, Kennedy was understandably nervous about adopting the mantle of Civil Rights president, but then began to embrace it later, seeing that it could be helpful.

Johnson was the one who took it across the finish line when the Civil Rights bill made it into law after K's assassination. From then on, things started changing.

[fudge stripe cookays]

8. The Democratic party is not without its blemishes...

but the Republicans have a lot to answer for. They've managed to destroy the ideals of their party in the last 20 years or so. We've managed to improve ours and give it a human, charitable, warm face.

I just finished a book about the huge hurricane in the Florida Keys in the 1930s.

A lot of people thought Franklin Roosevelt sent World War I vets to work down there to get them out of Washington, DC because they were demanding their benefits earlier than they'd been promised (They called them "Bonus Marchers").

However, Roosevelt could not have predicted the huge hurricane that headed that way, or the incompetence of the supervisors in charge of the men, who didn't even order a train to get them out of harm's way until it was already too late.

Hoover's tactic to get rid of the marchers was still far more brutal: he had Douglas MacArthur and a group of troops shoot at them.

I incredulously read the account of the post-storm inquiries into what went wrong, hearings etc. The Republican woman in charge was amazing-- going after the truth even though the Democrats stonewalled and denied the facts.

It was almost a mirror opposite of what we're going through right now.

I'm glad that our party has evolved, while theirs seems to have regressed. It made me see that there has always been some hostility, but at least before there was some semblance of bi-partisanship to get things done. No longer.

FSC

[izzie]

I would say yes. When the Civil Rights was passed it went to wards--

another party.

[izzie]

9. I would say yes. When the Civil Rights was passed it went to wards--

another party.

[tom_paine]

12. Well, it was. Then in 1964, `1980 and in 2000 the process was complete

Now the Imperial Party is the Party of Enforced Slavery and the South.

Lincoln would be a Proud Democrat today.

Teddy Roosevelt would be a Proud Democrat today.

Jefferson Lee would be an Imperial Bushevik.

So would Nathaniel Beford Forrest.

The entire KKK has become the slightly more respectable CCC and is wholeheartedly Bushevik.

As usual, the Totalitarian Bootlciking Bushevik takes a grain of truth and wraps it with a Cloak of Lies.

[PurityOfEssence]

13. Republicans were the party that wanted to subjugate everybody

From the beginning, it's been the party that exalts property to the detriment of labor. They were on the right side of slavery, but much of that was simply pragmatic: you don't want your competitors to have free labor, hell, it's hard enough to get away with paying starvation wages.

The Republican Party is the party of the rich and always has been; even Lincoln warned that the monied elites were as much or more of a danger to the country as the secessionists were.

[amjsjc]

14. Just point out that...

Every last Confederate state voted Republican in the 2000 election.

Yep, the parties essentially swaped power bases after the Democrats supported civil rights (with a nod of the cap to the best and worst president of the century, LBJ). Blacks (those who could vote) were rabid Republicans until FDR came into power. Interestingly enough if you compare an electoral map of the 1896 and 1996 elections they're almost perfectly opposed...

[AP]

15. Tell him that the Democratic Party has believe for a while now in

making sure that all Americans have an equal opportunit to compete on a level field. They're the party for removing irrational barriers to the participation in the economic life of this country, including the irrational barrier of race. And they do this because they believe our democracy is strongest when political, economic, and cultural power flows down to the people.

The Republicans believe that power should flow to the top of a narrow power pyramid to a very few people, and have always put up barriers to prevent competition from people who just want to particpate in the economy, work hard, and derive a fair percentage of the wealth they create.

You can see this everywhere, and not just with the issue of race. You can see it with gender, education, the tax code, labor rights. Everywhere, the Democrats want more opportunity for more people. The Republicans want guaranteed outcomes and less competition for fewer people in order to protect and accumulate power.

[sangh0]

16. I say "And you're pissed because they changed"

.

[Q]

17. What's up with these divisive threads...

...that have nothing to do with current issues? Is this a FReeper invasion in disguise?

- Hayzeus...anyone can come on a board and SAY that someone said this or that....but what's the point? To smear Democrats?

- Why not read history instead of starting these flame threads?

[KT2000]

18. Remind freepers: This is 2004

If they are going to vote for a Republican in the year 2004, it is not because they are the party of civil rights now. They would have to vote for a Democrat if that is really their concern.

If they are truly going to vote for a party platform of the late 1800's, their problems are more "cognitive" and not political.

[SharonAnn]

19. The Republicans took over that agenda when Dems changed

to support Civil Rights.

Racists are now Republicans.

[David Zephyr]

20. It Is True. But Your Freeper Friend Trades in Simplistic Thinking.

But, the Republican Party long abandoned the socially progressive traditions of Thaddeus Stevens and his fellow "Radical Republicans" who served with him in Congress. Stevens and his Radical associates fought against the Planter Class within the South to provide the first universal and public education in that region of the country, voting rights for former African and African-American slaves and more. Most all of the Radical Republicans policies were resisted by the Democratic Party at the time.

Still, the Republican Party was always the Party of the Corporate Elite. Even its first President, Abraham Lincoln, had been a railroad lawyer. The Republicans allied themselves with the Rockefellers, Mellons, Goulds, Carnegies and the privileged and propertied and their government subsidized corporations against the working class and unions.

The great majority of African-Americans understandably stuck with the Republican Party throughout the 1800's and up until the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt where a sea change in American politics began to take place with the Democratic Party becoming the champion of Civil Rights. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voters Rights Act of 1965 during the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson, the Republican Party began its formalized transformation from the Party of Abraham Lincoln to being the Party of David Duke.

Hope this helps.

John Hope Franklin, for my money, chronicled the period of Reconstruction better than any other historian.