Democrats & Progressive Republicans

hey, all. for my ATL, i decided to switch around the positions on the political spectrum of the two major political parties in the US.

the POD for this is that the Depression ruins the image of the Republican Party and, as a result, the Democrats dominate US politics until the end of World War II. during this time, the Republican and Progressive parties merge into the Progressive Republican Party (PRP).

basically, what side of the spectrum would each presidential candidate from FDR's time onwards belong to with this swapped around? remember, for this supposition, that the Democrats are the conservative party while the Republicans are the liberals.

also, another thing that i was wondering is if the Democrats could conceivable adopt 'Grand Old Party' as their moniker instead of the Republicans in this timeline because their party has more continuous history than the PRP, and because the PRP may want to distance itself from the old Republicans
 
Are you aware that the Democrats and Republicans were largely swapped in their policies until the Civil Rights Act caused all of the archconservatives to jump ships?
 
The premise here is slightly flawed. Up until the rise of the Progressive Movement neither party was too ideological in the contemporary sense. Even then, up until quite recently the Democratic Party has had an active conservative wing (Rick Perry was a Democrat until the mid-'80s). The Republicans had a powerful "liberal" wing as well, led by the likes of Nelson Rockefeller. The parties's "switching" simply means that the conservatives take control of the Democratic Party (butterfly away Al Smith's nomination in 1928 and FDR's in 1932 for that to happen) or the liberals take over the Republicans (Dewey wins in 1948).
 
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