The Democrats made their big left turn in 1896 when William Jennings Bryan electrified the national convention with his "Cross of Gold Speech. Prior to that, they had been the more conservative party, most recently under the leadership of Grover Cleveland. Cleveland was a small government, fiscal conservative who supported the Gold Standard. Conservative authors have written biographies about him. His best know motto was "A public office is a public trust." Bryan's policy was to allow the unlimited coinage a silver. Since a silver dollar contained roughly 50 cents with of silver, it was profitable to bring your silver to mint and have it made into silver dollars. This situation was explained in some detail on these "comparative Bryan Dollars," which were made of coin silver (90% silver, 10% copper). This one was made by Tiffany & Co., the famous jeweler. Bryan's rise attracted the attention of the People's or Populist Party. They gave him their presidential nomination. The Populists didn't like the Democrats choice for vice president, Arthur Sewell, who owned a shipyard in Maine. They nominated Thomas Watson instead. Bryan and Sewell Bryan and Watson The Democrats became a little more conservative in 1904 when they nominated Judge Alton B. Parker, who supported the Gold Standard. Bryan declined to run that year because he knew that no one was going to beat Theodore Roosevelt that year. The gold background on this button symbolizes Parker Gold Standard stance. From that time forward, the Democrats have been the more liberal party.
I think Woodrow is the demarkation. The day he took office, democrats never looked back. Democrats have been rolling towards communism ever since. The terms Eugenics, Malthusianism, social experimentation have all taken hold of a collective of like minded authoritarians.
Yes Wilson was also part of “the big left turn.” He was for authoritarian, police state style government, and he also wanted a third term despite the fact that he had suffered a massive stroke and was unable to execute the requirements for the office. His wife had been the de facto president for some time. Still it must be remembered that Bryan used his considerable influence in the Democrat Party to win the nomination for Wilson. Wilson rewarded Bryan by appointing him Secretary of State, the top cabinet position. Bryan and Wilson had a parting of the ways when Wilson got us into the First World War.
Back in reality, the Democrats are a centrist party that has drifted a little right with time. The Republicans, in contrast, are a radical extremist party that has lurched wildly to the fringe-right over time. The GOP isn't just flirting with fascism, it's accepted a wedding ring. Democrats are the counter to that authoritarianism. Democrats work for liberty. We're aware that's why so many Republicans hate us. We're okay with that hatred. If some of these people didn't hate us, we'd wonder what we were doing wrong. If anyone disagrees, they should name exactly what the supposedly "leftist" policies of the Democrats are. It's always funny when they try, because they either just make crazy stuff up, or they name mainstream policy positions.
Yea, the Democrats work for "liberty." Is that why you push for high taxes, choking regulations and one party rule? Is that why you won't even discuss if Joe Biden is ethically compromised because of the millions of dollars his son has collected from foreign governments? Back to the subject at hand. The sitting Democrat president, in 1896, Grover Cleveland, was a conservative who supported the Gold Standard. William Jennings Bryan was a populist who supported massive increases in the money supply. Whether or not Bryan understood the consequences of his policies is debatable. He said that he'd study the issue after he had been elected.
So you chose the "make crazy stuff up" option. Understandable. You know that the actual Democratic policies are mainstream, and so you don't want to talk about them, because it would make you look so extreme and out-of-touch. We discuss it. We point out that your side is making everything up. You seem to be okay with your side's organized fraud campaign. Which, coincidentally, aids Russia big time. Funny how that works.
This not forum for this. As for Trump, go after him because I don’t want him to run. If AOC and Bernie Sanders are “main stream,” then yeah you party is main stream.
Funny how you didn't say that to the conservatives making posts on this thread. You had no problem with them screeching that Democrats were communists. And thus we see your intent.
They brought up Woodrow Wilson, was a past president, and cited him as the big left turn for your party. Do we discussed history. As for your party being Marxist, if the shoe fits, wear it. Why are you afraid of Marxism? It’s what they taught you school. It’s what they tried to teach me to be a Marxist.
Hmm, not sure. Maybe it was the same evening that the entire republican party went to sleep one night and woke up the next morning being the "racist" ones.
What you mean by 'liberty' is the freedom of businesses and corporations to dump toxic waste into rivers, serve food borne illness to restaurant patrons, work children 12 hour days, build fire traps and call them clubs and theaters, construct unsafe housing to sell to mortgage owning middle class Americans, force workers to work in dangerous conditions and then break the unions that try to get a living wage for those that can survive with all their limbs intact. I am so disinterested in the 'liberty' of the 19th century and early 20th century America that you laud.
The common answer is that the Democrat Party began its big Left turn with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. The Great Depression was a big factor, and many were looking to sweeping government policy under "The New Deal". How it happened was Herbert Hoover (Republican) was the incumbent, was still very popular despite the Depression, and the Democrat Party was looking for inroads to be able to win the election, so they went with Franklin D. Roosevelt as their candidate. Beginning with the 1964 election, the Democrat Party ceased being the party of the South. The South had become a little alienated by some of the policies of the previous president John F. Kennedy and especially his successor Lyndon B. Johnson. So when the South finally dumped the Democrat Party with Nixon (Republican), the Democrat Party started going in a very different direction.
Actually both Parties 'turned left' in the 1950's and 1960's, when they started dismantling the banking regulations and demanded the removal of anti-trust enforcement. 'Too Big To fail' was an actual agenda, and the shift from industrial and retail capitalism to financial capitalism began with JFK's Fed appointments. They both support technocracy and monopolies and 'managed economies' and work to crush 'populism', which is defined as anything to do with democracy and pro-American policies. People like Richard Hofstadter and John Kenneth Galbraith agreed with people like Milton Friedman and Robert Bork on 'Big Is Better' and people should be seen as consumers and not citizens in a democracy. When they started getting paid big bux for speaking fees and writing propaganda the rest of academia then fell in line with those agendas. See the 20t Century Fund, the Ford Foundation, and many others from the 1940's and 1950's for the shifts in rule by elitism.
There aren't any conservatives, at least I dont see any. Republican party abandoned conservatism and never looked back. Only 6 years ago there were still quite a few of them left, but now they are a rare breed.
