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Not to mention that this in the middle of party realignment; the Democratic and Republican parties were in the middle of switching sides on the political spectr

• philwelch 10y ago
  That's an oversimplification. Democrats have always been the pro-labor party and Republicans have always been the pro-business party, it's just that during the Civil War, northern businesses were competing for economic and political power with southern planters (and were thus anti-slavery), hence the Republicans became the anti-slavery party. Resentments over the Civil War led a majority of southern whites to the Democratic camp up until the 1960's, when the Johnson administration went all-in on civil rights and the Republicans deployed the Southern Strategy to sweep up the southern white vote.
  • justinlardinois 10y ago
    And the relevant effect here is that the parties essentially switched sides on social issues.