Roles Reversal of the Democratic and Republican Party Research Paper

Roles Reversal of the Democratic and Republican Party - Research Paper Example Currently, democrats can be described as the real stewards of the status quo while Republicans are now struggling to bring changes in the United States. As much as the two parties have undergone modifications such that they appear to have reversed their positions, the royalty from the public has not changed. By this, I mean that those regions that were loyal to the conservative Republican remain loyal to the somehow radical Republican while the region royal to the radical Democratic Party remain loyal to the less liberal Democratic Party. However, it is irrefutable that certain aspects remain unchanged in either of the two parties. This paper argues that the Republican and Democratic parties have reversed their roles but most people remain loyal to either of the party because they do not know the history of the Democratic and Republican parties. Background of Republican and Democratic Parties Democratic Party origin can be traced back to the period before America attained independenc e from British. It was enhanced by Anti federalist factions. On the contrary, anti-slavery objectors instituted the Republican Party in 1854. However, Republican Party remained less popular until the Election of Abraham Lincoln who was the first Republican Party. During its foundation, Democratic Party was grounded on liberalism ideology while the Republican Party was based on conservatism. The different ideologies are depicted in personal and economic issues (Meyers web; Berg-Andersson Web). Liberalism advocate for individual autonomy over morality in addition to favoring economic equality over freedom. Liberalism also supports government actions to reduce poverty by redistributing the wealth. On the other hand, conservatism approves of personal morality over freedom and advocate for economic freedom over equality. Conservatives promote traditional principles such as strong patriotism (Parla Web; ProCon Web). Additionally, conservatism supports the idea that the government should n ot involve itself in role such as helping individuals and opposes attempts to redistribute income between the wealthy and the poverty-stricken. The ideologies also dictated the possible ways of reacting to different issues with Republicans being more likely to put economic freedom above equality while Democrats were likely to put equality over economic freedom (Berg-Andersson Web; Parla Web). Democrats are considered to be on the left side of the political spectrum and commonly referred to as the leftist while the republican are considered to be on the right. With time, the two parties have been characterized by change in their ideological platforms and specifics. Currently, neither of the two parties fully represents the same ideologies it did during the initial stages of the foundation. Additionally, the parties have undergone drastic changes in the past four decades, which has been portrayed by the change in the leadership styles by recent presidencies from each of the two partie s (Meyers Web; ProCon Web). The Democrats were initially a States Rights party, and strongly supported slavery. On the other hand, the Republicans started as an abolitionist party, whose members strongly opposed slavery. Currently, Republicans advocate and support States Rights, and are against any attempt by the government to increase taxes. On the other hand, Democrats prefer to use Federal funds and power to improve the lives of the poor as demonstrated by