What Does it Mean to Be a Democrat or a Republican?

Civics 101

This episode traces the historical evolution of the Republican and Democratic parties, highlighting how both have undergone dramatic ideological realignments over

Key takeaways

• The Republican Party formed in 1854 as an anti-slavery third party before evolving into a conservative coalition under Ronald Reagan's fusion of social and economic conservatives.
• George Will left the GOP after the 2016 election, arguing it drifted from its historical roots in limited government, free markets, and institutional rigor.

Main topics

• Historical origins and name changes of both major parties
• Ideological realignments driven by slavery, civil rights, and economic policy

Notable quotes

"Political parties are useful until they're not."

Conclusion

Understanding the fluid history of both major parties reveals that today's partisan

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:01) Well, September has come to a close. Spirit Halloweens have started to open and recently shuttered businesses. School is in full swing, which means that our back to school series is coming to a close. And next week, we're going to get back to some new Civics 101 episodes. So for our final salvo, it is the last of our shows most used in classrooms around the country. It's all about parties. Our two parties. We're talking the R and the D. What does it mean to be a Republican or a Democrat? How have those labels changed over the last 150 odd years? And what might they become in the next 100 years? It is a complete breakdown of the Republican and Democratic parties today on Civics 101. Stick around. Speaker 8 (0:56) You know, Nick, I was born on an election night. Speaker 3 (1:01) Oh, you don't say. You know, I haven't heard this before, Hannah. What a surprise. The Speaker 8 (1:07) 1990 Massachusetts gubernatorial election between Republican Bill Weld and Democrat John Silber. Speaker 4 (1:14) All right, Mr. Weld, the question now for Mr. Silber. Can you tell us, doctor, what is your program for controlling health care costs in this state? Yes, I'm highly concerned about that and have made a consistent and steady study of it since the campaign began. I think first and foremost, we've got to stop. Speaker 3 (1:29) You know, I wonder, Hannah, if maybe, just maybe, your mom ever tells the story like, you were born and they said, it's a girl, and who's the governor? Speaker 8 (1:38) Okay, alright, I've told you this before. Speaker 3 (1:40) Once or twice, Hannah. Speaker 8 (1:42) But the reason I am telling all these people. Speaker 3 (1:44) These people. These people out there listening to us. Speaker 8 (1:48) Yes, these people. Is that I grew up being told that I was born on the night of an election between two very strong, very smart. Very engaging candidates. And, or so my mother claims, she would have been content no matter who won. Speaker 3 (2:09) I cannot imagine anyone saying such a thing today. Speaker 8 (2:13) Nor can I. So today, what happened to us? Whatever happened to, I take either candidate happily. Speaker 3 (2:22) Wait, seriously, are you going to actually answer that question in this episode? Speaker 8 (2:25) I am absolutely not. I also don't necessarily believe that that ever really existed. But I did think that today we could do a little storytelling. Because I can tell you how the Republican and Democratic parties became the Republican and Democratic parties. And sometimes it helps us. Maybe it only helps us for the duration of a podcast. Sometimes it helps us like each other a little more when we know each other a little better. So this is Civics 101. Speaker 5 (2:55) And Speaker 8 (2:55) we're partying down with the Republicans Speaker 5 (2:57) and the Democrats. Hello. Hello. Is this Mr. George Will? Speaker 4 (3:01) This is me. Speaker 5 (3:02) Hello, this is Hannah McCarthy at New Speaker 8 (3:05) Hampshire Public Radio. How are you doing this afternoon? Speaker 4 (3:07) I thrive. This Speaker 8 (3:09) episode first dropped, as they say, back in 2020. Oh, Speaker 3 (3:12) 2020. You remember that? I Speaker 8 (3:15) honestly am not sure how clearly I do, Nick, but I do remember this man, that's for sure. George Will. Conservative political commentator, writer of columns and many books, most recently, The Conservative Sensibility. Speaker 3 (3:33) Right. The thing you need to know about George Will is that this lifelong Republican is not a Republican at the current time. He Speaker 5 (3:40) severed ties after the 2016 election. He is now unaffiliated. You Speaker 4 (3:45) know, leaving the Republican political party is not leaving a church or like leaving your family. It's not a wrench to your identity. Political parties are useful until they're not. And I decided the Republican Party wasn't useful to me anymore. Speaker 5 (3:59) George Will is... discontented at the moment. Which is kind of perfect because discontentment, the writing of a new political philosophy, the sloughing off of the old and no longer useful, that is where the Republican Party all started. And that is why it has changed over time. Speaker 4 (4:19) People ought to remember that the Republican Party started as a third party. Americans periodically say, gee, can't we break up the... The duopoly of our two-party system, well, we did once. And that is the Whigs were there, and then suddenly they weren't there. They were replaced by this insurgent third party, the Republicans, founded in 1854 in Wisconsin. The Speaker 8 (4:40) Republican Party that started in Wisconsin in 1854, by the way, looked dramatically different from the party that George Will decided to leave back in 2016. Speaker 3 (4:51) Wait, before you take us to the establishment of the party, Can we just talk a little bit about what the Republican Party platform is today? Speaker 8 (5:02) So the last time the party published an official platform was 2016. Official meaning that it is drafted and voted on by elite party members and then unveiled and adopted during the party's respective national conventions. Speaker 3 (5:17) Wait, and the last time the Republican Party did this was 2016? It's 2023. It Speaker 8 (5:23) sure is. In 2020, the Republicans passed a resolution saying, look, it's 2020, you know. That 2020. And because of restrictions on gathering sizes, because not enough people could get together and vote on a new platform, and because, the party said, they, quote, would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed to reassert the party's strong support for President Donald Trump and his administration, unquote, among many other reasons. Any motion to amend the 2016 platform or adopt a new one would be ruled out of order. Speaker 3 (5:59) Wow. OK. So no new platform as of September 2023 or since 2016. Seven years. And Speaker 8 (6:08) keep in mind, either way, few members of the party outside of politicians and pundits actually read platforms. But lawmakers do tend to vote along the lines that platforms establish. So the Republican platform reflects social conservatism. It supports restrictions on abortion and immigration, but fewer restrictions on gun rights and corporations. It's big on states' rights as well as school choice. Fiscally, the GOP is all about low taxes and free market capitalism, which is, most basically, a system where the market regulates itself and government stays out of it. Speaker 3 (6:50) Socially conservative. generally opposed to government interference with economics and state lawmaking. And that's the brand of the GOP. Speaker 8 (6:59) Right. Speaker 3 (7:00) Wait, why do we call them the GOP? Speaker 5 (7:03) Oh, yeah. GOP stands for Grand Old Party, which used to be a moniker used by the Democrats. But the Republicans kind of took it over following the Civil War and it just stuck. Speaker 3 (7:17) OK. And despite them being the Grand Old Party, the Republican Party is, in fact, younger than the Democratic Party. Speaker 5 (7:23) It is, indeed. For a few decades in the 19th century, it was the Democrats. and the Whigs. And they're holding down the fort, trading the presidency back and forth. Speaker 1 (7:35) Well, the Republican Party, as we know it, formed in 1856, and it was the first time that. The Republicans, as a party, had a national convention. This is Catherine de Paolo Gould. Speaker 5 (7:48) She's Speaker 1 (7:48) a professor of political science at Florida International University. And really what had happened previous to this is the Democratic Party, created in 1828, really with the election of Andrew Jackson, had existed alongside the Whigs. And the Whig Party had competed with the Democrats up until about the 1850s. So mid-1850s, the Civil War is on the horizon. At that point, slavery became such a huge issue, and the Whig Party refused to take a stance. And by the 1850s, slavery wasn't something you could just sort of go, meh. So what happened was the Whigs split apart, and those that had supported slavery became Democrats, and those who... wanted slavery abolished became the Republicans. So Speaker 3 (8:38) the Whig Party just vanishes? Speaker 5 (8:40) It couldn't agree on slavery, an issue powerful enough to tear the country apart, and it tore the Whigs apart as well. So the Republicans stake their platform mostly on being anti-slavery. Some of them are outright abolitionists, want to get rid of slavery entirely. Some just don't want it to expand. West as the country expands west. There's a whiff of small government and states' rights in there. But fighting slavery is the great unifier for this young party. Their first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, loses to James Buchanan. But their next candidate is Abraham Lincoln. So Speaker 3 (9:20) a completely brand new party manages somehow to elect the guy who's later considered the greatest president of all time. Speaker 5 (9:27) Well, you can't discount the fact that this party bursts onto the scene in what is essentially a perfect political storm. You've got the weakening of the Whigs. There's this division in the Democratic Party and this really strong, simple platform of being the anti-slavery party. Speaker 3 (9:46) OK. But after the war is done, then what are the Republicans? Once slavery is eradicated, what's their new platform? Speaker 1 (9:58) What is interesting is the Republican Party really became this sort of civil rights party even during Reconstruction after the Civil War. They pushed different civil rights acts to protect these newly freed slaves from their state governments for violating their rights. Speaker 5 (10:15) For a while after the war, the Republican Party remained the party on the side of African-Americans. pushed for civil rights