The Democratic Party has changed quite a bit since it was originally conceived. The party was actually originally thought up as the “Republican party” which is rather paradoxical to today’s standards. The party was split in 1824 and became the Democrats that we know of. The other stayed as the republicans. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were the founders of the Democratic Party, which had the original purpose to oppose the Federalist Party. The Democratic Party was the “Party of the common man” which is ideal that still stands today. You can see this through liberals pushing higher taxes and wanting bigger government. The idea of a United States national health service is also a policy that is thought to be more liberal. The party has had a more capitalistic standpoint previously in the 1800’s, which now is something you will not find. Barack Obama seems to want to tax more to have more funding. After the great depression the policy for democrats and taxes changed. There was a program named ‘The New Deal” which regulated business more. The higher taxes played into the original idea of “the common man” and added ways to help the average American. Before this the party was also a belief of smaller government and had a more libertarian standpoint on things. I understand how an event like the great depression can change all of this though. I think the biggest change in the Democratic Party is the way they went from being fiscally conservative to the way they are now. I am sure if James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were to see the way it is know they would not vote for a liberal candidate. Also I recently learned that John Kennedy was in the white house when the Vietnam war started. It was a weird realization for me because I always viewed democrats as presidents that started or went into wars. I suppose that changed over the years as well when America realized that the Vietnam was just a big mistake.
Sources:
http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrfirstfiresidechat.html
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