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flintknapper wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2019 3:47 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2019 1:41 pm

John Galt wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2019 12:58 pm There wasn't a choice for me, as I was a conservative Democrat (yes there were conservatives in the Democrat Party back then). I changed to the Republican Party with Reagan.

My family is originally all from Kentucky and Georgia. Before Jimmy Carter, most of them did vote Democrat. Even though conservative Democrats were more liberal than Republicans, they would never have described themselves as liberals. I also know that most of them were working class, hourly worker types from the manufacturing sectors who believed the Democrats were looking out for them while the Republicans were looking out for the big companies they all worked for. Unions had a huge influence on their thinking as well. Once the manufacturing jobs started going away, as well as after 4 years of Jimmy Carter, many of them (my relatives) started shifting to the Republican party.

^^^^^^

Growing up (I am 65 so this goes back a ways) the above pretty much describes what I always thought the basic differences were between the two parties. Republicans tended to be a bit more affluent....but definitely more in tune with the interests of Big Business. Also, somewhat more conservative, but Democrats for the most part were also conservatives. Perhaps more middle class with interests aligned toward the common working man. Good, decent people....all. Political affiliation wasn't something anyone even spoke about.

Very different these days. There is very much a divide and if you ask me...a 'culture war' that has been in place for at least a couple of decades now.

DEAD ON THE MONEY !! The current situation where each side views the other party as enemies has kept our country in "political gridlock" for the last 15-20 years. NOTHING gets accomplished because neither side will compromise on anything - they all want everything their way or not at all. That mindset guarantees that almost no meaningful legislation gets passed. The politicians (controlled by their party) automatically vote against anything the opposing party proposes simply because their party didn't propose it. If they vote against the party line they will be reprimanded and punished for crossing the aisle by their own party. BOTH parties play by those rules today. The fail to realize that "majority rules" doesnt mean that the elected official only represents those that voted for him. Most elections here in Texas are still decided by less than 8% margin. The person elected is still charged with representing 40+% of the voters in his district that didn't vote for him because they are still his constituents.

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2019 12:26 pm This poll was not really to determine the changes in the party platforms. Democrats may not have been liberals by today's standards but they were still liberals as compared to Republicans. Many found the word liberal an insult back then, so they resisted the label. But they were still liberal in their viewpoints.

That may have been the case in the metropolitan areas of Texas, but I can assure you if you went out into the rural areas and asked any rancher or farmer (who voted overwhelmingly Democratic in the 40's thru the 70's) if they were a "liberal" or had "liberal veiwpoints" you'd have gotten a quick response - and it would not have a polite one.

I grew up in the 60's and 70's...had my draft card and turned 18 my freshman year of college. In your poll, you have the choices as Democrat ( Liberal) and Republican (Conservative) and the others. Anytime between 1836 and 1978, voting Democrat was NOT considered "liberal". If you wanted to get elected to an office in Texas you ran as a Democrat. There was only ONE Republican Governor in Texas from 1836 (Elisha M Pease who was listed as a "republican" or "Unionist" from 1867 to 1874 during Reconstruction following the Civil War and he was appointed by the Federal government), until Bill Clements took office in 1979 as the first elected Republican Governor of Texas. John Tower in East Texas was the only Republican Senator for a long time, and he was considered an anomaly because the people didn't vote for him because he was Republican, but in spite of it. It was very difficult to get elected to any County office if you didn't run as a Democrat until it began to change in the latter 80's. Once the shift started, the same people that had been running as Democrats started changing over to the Republican party not because their veiwpoints had changed but because that was what you had to do if you wanted to stay in office. They were never liberals to start with, but the perception had changed. Even then, there were two Democratic Governors elected between Clements, Briscoe and Bush -- Mark White and Ann Richards. Back then there was not the polarization between the parties we have today, and the parties didn't control and demand strict adherence to the party line as they do now, which allowed the legislators the ability to vote their own conscience on most issues. Nowdays, you either vote the way the party leadership tells you to, or you will not stay in Austin more than one term.