When in history do you think it first makes sense to speak of a left-right divide between the American parties?

14 comments

1. 1775 probably. Though the terminology was probably a little bit different.

2. The current left/right divide? 1970s

   If you go back too far, you have the Republican Party that’s staunchly pro-industry (like now) but the “woke” party on racial matters (unlike now). And a Democratic Party that’s heavily working class, populist, rural, and southern (with *other* values that appealed to southerners of the that day).

3. In Washington’s first term. Federalists vs Democratic Republicans. Strong central government vs local government.

   And arguably before then with the Connecticut Compromise. Big states wanting more control over smaller states.

4. Well, no earlier than 1789, since the concept and terminology of a left-right divide originated in Revolutionary France.

5. No. Mostly become left v right back then is almost entirely different from what we associate with it today. Also the fact that left v right as terms originated after the American independence.

6. The terms left and right don’t make sense to use at any time as they have only vague and ever shifting meanings. The terms offer no helpful information or context to any discussion.

7. Mike Dewine’s mom had to write a whole column about how it’s okay to be “right” so I assume it wasn’t proper to act that way before so like 1950ish, unless the other party was you know a minority or non Christian.

   One of the reasons it used to be acceptable to catholic phobic was because of how catholicism ruined Europe through it’s ultra conservatism. Politically it is the farthest right generally speaking of all Christian religion in the U.S. Not all catholics follow this as the president shows, but the actual rules are far right.

   The whole concept of the right is being on “the right side of god” back in France which meant an absolute dictator representing god basically. Which is why the right is always obsessed with big men the view as heroes like Trump, Reagan, Nixon etc and blowing up villains as well, to represent the devil.

   The far right is really just fanaticism, the same fanaticism America was built for people to escape from… or to in some cases, but the religious fanatics in America didn’t control the government until 1954ish. You know the year we outlawed being a communist but not a nazi….McCarthyism is the right and it has existed since became acceptable to be a McCarthyist.

   McCarthy was the prototype for the typical far right catholic lunatic, and somehow that became acceptable. Which goes back to Mike Dewine’s mom, a McCarthyist who spent here time writing a newspaper column about how cool it was to be selfish and xenophobic, and how if people would just accept Jesus they wouldn’t have any problems at all.

   You see this country used to be able to read but the television rotted alot of people’s brains, so maybe the tv created the right really.

8. 1992, before then you still see Democrats that support segregation and Republicans that marched with MLK in office

9. The late mid to late 19th century or so

10. The modern left-right division took form in the 1960s but its been around since at least the mid 19th century.

11. The New Deal at the earliest. Before politics was just different. It would be like asking whether Jacobites are left or right.

12. It’s hard to say for sure but I think it started with LBJ’s embrace of the Civil Rights act. That started in motion the shift of southern conservatives away from the Democrats. The Republicans filled that void which then pushed northern liberals away from the Republican Party. The Republicans then kicked it into overdrive with their embrace of the religious-right in the 80’s.

13. Maybe during the congressional congress. Loyalists vs independence movement.

14. I’m not convinced it was ever absent. Fundamentally, from the very start, federalism and anti-federalism established the roots of American political conflict and that can haphazardly fit into the left-right paradigm as we understand it. I’m not saying “Jefferson = GOP and Hamilton = DNC.” I’m saying that, fundamentally, most of the conversations we were having at the formation of the nation are still being had. Decentralization and centralization. Where individualism starts and ends. The role of smaller states and rural communities in the larger picture of the nation and vice-versa.

    To answer this question more explicitly, I’d argue that the current divide began in the 70s. I associate the opening of this divide most strongly with President Carter.