It's risky to do a one-for-one comparison of presidents Republican vs. Democrat throughout history (like tallying up good vs. bad) because *the parties changed significantly over time*. And I mean like, hugely. Look at Lincoln, who was a Republican. Back in the 1800s (when democrat and republican parties were formed), the single biggest goal for the Republicans was to end slavery in order to start a free labor society (the alternative to free labor was slave labor). Compare this to nowadays; do you think modern day Republicans are more about siding with African Americans? Whether you do or not, clearly their goals are something entirely different from what they originally were. They're still about free labor, but once slave labor ended, the issues changed. It's actually pretty interesting to track how this stuff evolved -- and I'm no expert.
Both parties started around the early to mid 1800s
Republican party - goal was to support Northern States where there was less slavery, push was to develop free-labor (opposite of slave labor)
Democratic party - goal was to support Southern States where there was more slavery, to maintain slave labor...but they were split between northern and southern democrats, northern believed states should decide, southern believed in slavery...this led to Republican win (Lincoln elected)
This caused civil war...Republicans won, slavery abolished, free labor system took off mainly in the North, led to industrialization and rapid economic growth, Republican party came to be associated with good things such as "anyone can make it in America" philosophy...keep in mind that the South were still mainly democrat and held onto pro-slavery attitudes and their derivatives...obviously African Americans were supporting the Republican party in those days...until some bad things happened, namely working conditions for laborers became bad, this was industrialization at work...Republican party favored smaller government which wasn't doing as much for the people in this regard, they weren't looking out for their workers and protecting them...working in factories with horrible conditions etc., and people would lose jobs, and then there was the great depression, massive stock market crash, loss of jobs, people were stuck...and the Republican party lost a lot of support, the people felt the system had collapsed and failed them. The democratic party also evolved due to its previous northern/southern states division early on (they were split from the start), and by the late 1800s it became something more about increased central government involvement to help look out for its people. The people who were disenfranchised by the depression turned to the democratic party led by FDR to step in and look out for them -- and the democrats did so. From here on was when the democratic party became very pro social welfare and civil-rights and developed many of the values we admire them for today.
They were predominantly in charge of the country from then until 1980...then there was another big recession, and Reagan entered the picture and he was supported in his efforts to help the economy...
So the two parties were all kind of based on economics from the start (the basic measure of "how well a country is doing") -- but Reagan's republicans also espoused conservative American values, such as anti-abortion rights to life and anti gay marriage (both are based on Christian ideals) which were and remain old-fashioned. This is because the Republican party was in some ways old-fashioned, being called the "Grand Old Party" and dating back to its victory in the Civil War. Now I have a problem with this religiosity due to the separation of church and state, which was an important, progressive move for establishing and maintaining liberty in America...so I can't side with Republicans on these issues. The state doesn't impose its religion on the people and that's important, even if it's in the majority. For me this is a big issue and I don't think I can ever be a Republican because of this. I don't want Christians (or people of any religious affiliation) running the country and deciding for me and everyone else what's right based on their religion that I think is, on some level, bs (to put it bluntly).
Trump is similar to Reagan in some ways in his message (he even uses the same "Make America Great Again" slogan that Reagan used) and appeals to working and middle class (mainly white) Americans who were disenchanted with the economic state of the country since the market crash in 2008. Lax immigration and trade policies had led to loss of American jobs. So he was appealing to a lot of Americans and that's how he got elected.
To me, going with modern day democrats is more or less a no-brainer...but I think there are pros and cons to both sides. I've read up on some of the issues and you do find things aren't always so cut and dry between the parties (divisive policies like e.g. Obama reducing Social Security Benefits, and forwarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership...i.e. social security is pro american rights and TPP is anti-american rights, in a nutshell). I could see there being a really good Republican president in the future, but I just don't think Trump is it...I think the Republican party would have to evolve some more in order for that to happen...namely it would have to drop the religious conservative American values which are losing traction with the people, and rightly so.
On some level, modern day Democrats are trying to ride the wave of the good reputation of the democrats started with FDR and continued throughout the decades that followed (with JFK, etc). The modern day Republicans are trying to ride the wave of the good reputation of Republicans that started with Lincoln and was later picked up by Reagan.
22 Aug 2020, 2:05 pm
