AHC: Have 'Liberal' and 'Conservative' become synonyms in the USA

Repeat what happened in the UK, have a trade union party arise, forcing them to either work together and/or have one of the factions collapse over time.
 
Repeat what happened in the UK, have a trade union party arise, forcing them to either work together and/or have one of the factions collapse over time.
Neuter the Progressive movement in the Dems and GOP would be a good start to encourage the rise of Labor.
 
Neuter the Progressive movement in the Dems and GOP would be a good start to encourage the rise of Labor.

You're going to need a stronger Labour movement besides that.

Of course there is that TL that had the rise of a Labour Party in the early Nineties... ;)

[/shameless plug]
 
We need one where the Liberals and Conservatives are in the same party. ;)

That's pretty much been the case throughout US history, just that it's been the case for both of the duopoly. Even today you still have your Blue Dogs and your RINOs, although who knows, 'Down the Road' might go down that road eventually. :p

EDIT: Doesn't present day Reds have the Democrat-Republicans who are basically this? Although still pretty left-wing by OTL's European standards let alone Americas...
 
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Doesn't present day Reds have the Democrat-Republicans who are basically this? Although still pretty left-wing by OTL's European standards let alone Americas...

They're social democrats who are called liberals, which means conservative.
 
1. Have the Democrats collapse after the Civil War, and be replaced by the Liberal Republicans, later just the Liberals.
2. Have the OTL Bourbon Democrats be the ones in control of the Liberal Party.
3. Have the Progressives take control of the Republican Party, driving the conservatives of their party toward the Liberals. With progressives controlling the Republicans, they will never take control of the South, so the Southern Conservatives will also stay with the Liberals.

With that, the Liberal Party will be controlled by the conservatives, making the two terms synonymous in the minds of the people.
 
The modern American conservatives have a lot in common with the 19th century British Liberal party. You'd need a 19th century American party that held similar views and ended up being nicknamed the "liberals" and accepting the name in defiance, the same way the British conservative party ended up being known as the tories.

Then have this party have little overall change in its policies over a century and a half (simple!) and end up on the conservative wing of late 20th century American politics.
 
1. Have the Democrats collapse after the Civil War, and be replaced by the Liberal Republicans, later just the Liberals.
2. Have the OTL Bourbon Democrats be the ones in control of the Liberal Party.
3. Have the Progressives take control of the Republican Party, driving the conservatives of their party toward the Liberals. With progressives controlling the Republicans, they will never take control of the South, so the Southern Conservatives will also stay with the Liberals.

With that, the Liberal Party will be controlled by the conservatives, making the two terms synonymous in the minds of the people.
I like this idea very much.
 
It's all about an expression and bringing attention to what it means.

All one would need would be a frustrated FDR circa early-mid 1930s excoriating "these damn free-fall liberals, who insist that allowing Americans to die in the gutter is some kind of freedom."



edit: Compound it with several additional speeches by FDR, lambasting "the liberal free-fallers who think the American people can be seen as a an obliging exploited natural resource, malleable as gravel, and just as easy to shove aside."



edit: remember that the word "progressive" a generation before had meant robust government intervention as practice by the likes of FDR's cousin, Teddy Roosevelt, with his trust-busting and what-not.
 
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As a bonus, one could have the word "entitlement" tied to the political right as well.


"These free-fall liberals, who insist that our country's plutocrats are entitled to use people as a concrete-maker would use grains of sand" or something like that.
 
As a bonus, one could have the word "entitlement" tied to the political right as well.


"These free-fall liberals, who insist that our country's plutocrats are entitled to use people as a concrete-maker would use grains of sand" or something like that.


Edit: "liberal" and "entitlement" could be used by the likes of Upton Sinclair marveling at how business owners justified how sausage was made.
 
I know the leftists on this forum are not going to like this idea but have Al Smith win the Democratic nomination and the presidency in 1932, and the New Deal get butterflied out. Since you can make a case for Smith being both liberal and conservative, his four term presidency will set the new standards for the Democratic Party. So ITTL when we discuss the various political parties we will call the Democratic party the liberal conservative party or something of the like.
 
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