I remember a long time ago having an argument with a conservative over the movement Black Lives Matter. One thing that struck me was when he said that the Republican Party cannot be accused of racism, as it was founded by Abraham Lincoln, who of course abolished slavery.
It's interesting to remember now. We talk a lot about the party "identities" of the Republicans and Democrats, as if they are static and immovable, and that to align against them is treason. But in reality, both parties have gone through remarkable changes since their founding.
Now, the two parties disagree on most issues, flip-flopping positions over time, but there are two divides that historically have stood above everything else. They are the role of government (being either more involved in the market or less) and that of social issues, historically being around race.
The Democratic Party was founded in the 1820s, and its first notable POTUS was Andrew Jackson. A retired general who fought the British, he is remembered for fighting against a central bank (which happened later anyway) and forcefully removing Native Americans off their land. Later Democratic presidents went to war with Mexico and ended up annexing Texas, Oregon and California.
The rapid expansion of U.S. territory led to the founding of the second party, the Republicans. Their first president was Abraham Lincoln, who wanted to the new territories to ban slavery, but not the original slave states. Several southern states still declared independence anyway, founding the Confederacy and leading to the Civil War.
After the war ended and Lincoln assassinated, slavery was abolished. The Republican Party became the dominant party nationally, with the Democrats labeled the party of the "traitors," who subtly supported the Confederacy. Even so, the Republican Party became more pro-business and capitalist, and moved away from social issues to remain in power. Although the Democrats were effectively locked out of the presidency, they remained in control of southern states, and implemented racist policies that created systemic racism stopping blacks from voting.
The Republican Party eventually stumbled into its own ideological split that the Democrats took advantage of. Ex-president Teddy Roosevelt, who was more liberal in supporting conservation and health standards policies, challenged sitting president Taft (who was very anti-regulation) for the Republican nomination. After Taft won, Roosevelt founded a third Progressive Party in an attempt to take the Presidency anyway.
Instead, Democrat Woodrow Wilson beat out the split Republican electorate, becoming President just in time to enter World War I. Wilson implemented several liberal policies including the Federal Reserve Act, the very policy Andrew Jackson opposed. He also tried to eliminated the balance of power in international politics, by espousing his Fourteen Points and pushing for the formation of the League of Nations. Funnily enough Congress ended up stopping the U.S. from joining.
Wilson was also a racist and tough nationalist, who implemented endorsed racial segregation, believed the KKK was simply a reaction to a period of lawlessness, and oversaw the first Red Scare against potential communists. Although women were granted the right to vote during his presidency, Wilson was at first opposed to women's suffrage and jailed many protestors.
The Republican Party soon took back the presidency, and again pursued de-regulation of the government. Then the Great Depression hit, and Republican deregulation was blamed for the market downturn and high concentration of wealth among the few. Democrat FDR took control of the Presidency, and his New Deal policies worked to improve the economy, the most notable being Social Security. America then fought in WWII which sealed the American economy's recovery.
But although Wilson and FDR were similar in government policy, FDR's policies helped a great many of non-white Americans. FDR is probably the first iteration of the "modern Democrat" as he was definitively pro-regulation, but also sympathetic to the plight of non-white Americans.
This change became more stark later on, as both parties found it difficult to share the shared values of "melting pot America." The choice finally became clear when President Lyndon B. Johnson publically supported legislation to promote Civil Rights for black Americans. His rival, Barry Goldwater, was so anti-regulation that he opposed such laws, saying that it would give the government too much power. Blacks overwhelmingly supported LBJ over Goldwater, and the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were later passed.
Later Republican presidents continued this trend, with Nixon famously campaigning on "Law and Order" which has led to much of the institutionalized racism that has lead to extraordinary high imprisonment of blacks. Ronald Reagan continued these policies, and declared single black mothers as "welfare queens."
Reagan is notable also in that his policies of deregulation led to high economic growth, so much so that later Democrats like Bill Clinton were far softer on regulatory policies than previous candidates. But after the Great Recession in the wake of George Bush's excessive deregulation, another Democrat Barack Obama campaigned on ending the wars and improving healthcare.
Which all leads to 2016. Economic growth has been steady, but largely unequal. The most pivotal of the states in the election were Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, the Rust Belt. This group has largely been hollowed out of manufacturing jobs, partly due to trade but mostly because of automation.
Clinton tried to win on social issues. She was the candidate of inclusion, the first female president who was for against the bigotry of the Republican Party. She tried to support regulatory policies, but was always considered more in line with her husband's presidency that was pro-business.
Donald Trump clearly wasn't that. But at the same time it wasn't clear what his stance on regulation was. He wanted healthcare for everyone that was cheaper, but also wanted to lower taxes. He wanted to boost the military, but fight neighbors on trade.
Faced with these muddled options, the Rust Belt decided that social issues wasn't nearly enough to make them vote Democrat. And the old policies of both the Clintons and Bushes wasn't working for them, so they voted Trump.
For the Rust Belt, they hoped that Trump's Republican Party would be like Woodrow Wilson's. Sure he clearly stood against Latinos, blacks and Muslims. But hopefully he would promote policies that would help the people get back their old jobs, and stop favoring big business over the little guy.
Clearly that hope was unfounded, as Trump has largely embraced and promoted Bush-era policies in his presidency. It remains to be seen whether the Democratic Party is going to stick with the Clinton strategy of fighting mostly on social issues, or is going to take steps closer to LBJ, FDR and Obama.
