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Read the history how Republican Party in its beginnings when it was a new party.

Yes but the Republican party at its start was the leftist party. Strongest amoung the left leaning. Republicans in the early years were for a very strong federal government and weak state govenrments. It was Lincoln who suspended habeas corpus. It was Repubicans that treated the killing of Lincoln as a FEDERAL crime. It was the Repubican partyof the 1800s that was the high taxes and lots of government control. The Repubicans fought a war to preserve the supremacy of the Federal government.... They called it the Union ...But that is another name for the supremacy the federal government over our lives ... of don't cha know. The UNION was the federal government wasn't it? When Lincoln said preserve the union, he did not mean pickle it.. did he? Formaldahyde it? Grow it?

In 1870 you would have been a Democrat unless you are really a liberal. The leftists in the early days of the Republican party were all Republicans. Democrats were the conservatives.

Someone once asked the difference between the policies of Republican Teddy Roosevelt and Democrat Franklin Roosevlet.

I replied.

The biggest difference between Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt was their last name.

I cant let the many historical misstatements and biases get un remarked. ...

The Republican party grew out of the Whigs, the free-soilers, and the abolitionists. the Democrats were the dominant party back then, and it left the former Federalists in New England marginalized (as whigs). The whigs hooked up with anti-slavery folks and free soilers in the midewest and the Republican party was born around 1854.

The Republican party was for a slightly stronger Federal Govt? ... that meant maybe 3% of GNP in federal govt instead of 2%. lol. not a real difference.

The real difference was geography and slavery. north and south. Yes, Lincoln grew the power of the GOvernment, but that happened under every wartime president ... however in the peace following prior to the post WWII era, those powers were reduced in peacetime.

"In 1870 you would have been a Democrat unless you are really a liberal. "

IN 1870, the Republicans were under President US Grant, the Democrats were former confederates. only KKKers would identify with the Democrats of that time. The republicans now had support of the Nrotheast industrialists and midwest farmers. Democrats? they were busy lynching black people to initimidate them into giving up their new-found political rights. The strategy worked, as white Republicans grew tired of defending those rights with federal troops and eventually they withdrew - the south "won the peace" and Jim Crow and segregation were born and lived on to the 1960s.

TR vs. FDR? So what? Taft was a conservative. The Republican party of today has not changed as much as is implied. The Republicans ALWAYS WAS A COALITION OF MORALISTS AND FREEDOM-LOVERS AND ECONOMIC INTERESTS ... in 1854 and today: the whigs became the country clubbers, the abolitionist became the christian right, and freesoilers the libertarians.

It is actually the Democrats who have moved, from being populist anti-Federalists to being elitist Socialists. Quite a change!!!