AHC: Keep the Republican party Radical leftist, and the Democratic Party right wing

When the republican party first arived on the scene in the mid 19th century, it was considerably more progressive and left leaning then it's modern counterpart, while the democratic party, for most of it's life was fairly conservative. Your challenge, with any POD following the 1856 election, is to keep the republicans left leaning and the democrats right leaning.
 
One obvious route is to have the progressive elements of the Republican party that emerged in the early 20th century remain strong and not die out. A number of possibilities:

1. TR runs for a third term in 1908. This prevents the divison of the 1912 election and likely further cements progressive positions in the Republican Party.

2. TR acts earlier to defeat Taft in 1912, securing the support of the party bosses before the convention. This gives TR the nomination and a victory then strengthens progressivism in the Republican party.

3. A more progressive Republican President in the 1920's, such as Leonard Wood or Robert La Folletee (as a Republican, not an Independent).

These ideas can be further strengthened by preventing any Democratic President elected in this time period being identified as progressive. Say a conservative Democrat wins the 1912 Democratic nomination and the election, instead of Wilson.

Whatever the case, this needs to be done before the Great Depression and the rise of the New Deal Coalition. Once the New Deal becomes the dominant ideology of the Democratic party, the Republicans will likely be forced to become the right wing party to find a new ideological base.

Another way might be to get a Conservative Democrat elected President in the 1920's and have them in office when the Great Depression hits. A progressive Republican then runs and wins.
 
Last edited:
Bourbon Democrats keep control of the Democratic Party in the late 19th Century, and the conservative pro-business Republicans like McKinley defect to the other side. Meanwhile, the Populist Party allies and merges with the Republicans. Boom, done.
 
The first essential is to remove William Jennings Bryan.

He is the key figure. His nomination clearly established the Democrats as the party of reform (since the end of Reconstruction, if not earlier, there had been little to choose) and drove large numbers of more conservative easterners over to the Republicans, which in turn strengthened Conservatism in that party. Thus from 1896 former swing states like NY, NJ and CT moved definitely into the Republican camp.

There was a rather similar pattern in the Border States, where since 1876 (earlier in KY) Republicans had had about as much political clout as Buddhists, with the Border becoming virtually part of the Solid South. From 1896 through the 1920s, this became a "swing" Region, with Border States (KY again a partial exception) going Rep as often as Dem, while DE and WV became fairly safe Republican States, as did Indiana, which never went Dem again in a straight fight until 1932. Again, this weakened conservative forces in the Democratic Party, while strengthening them in the Republican.

This set the pattern irreversibly. Even TR could do little more than "rattle the bars", hence the speed with which onservatives regained control of the GOP once he was gone. Even had he gone on longer, WW1 would have forced him into alliance with prowar conservatives like Lodge so that they would regain control another way.
 
Last edited:
Top