Today’s Republican Party opposes big government. It’s culturally conservative. Its demographic support is strongest among
white voters, and it usually dominates elections in the South. And its 2016 presidential nominee has been
heavily criticized for inciting racial tensions. But things weren’t always this way. Yet over the past 160 or so years, the party
has undergone a remarkable transformation from the party of Abraham Lincoln… to the
party of Donald Trump. And to understand how the GOP got the way
it is today, you have to go back to when it first came into existence — in 1854, just
7 years before the Civil War. There are two parties at this point, the Whigs
and the Democrats. America is quickly expanding westward and
there’s an intense debate over whether the new states should permit slavery The Democratic Party, with strong support
in the South, has become increasingly pro-slavery. But the Whigs are divided on the issue. Their northern supporters are really afraid
that the growing number of slave states would have too much political influence, which they
feared could hurt free white workers economically So In 1854, the country is debating whether
or not the new states Kansas and Nebraska will allow slavery. The can’t agree and the party ends up collapsing. The former whigs in the north form a new party
that will fight against letting slavery expand further; they call it the Republican Party. By 1860 the Republican Party become increasingly
powerful in the North, enough so that a little known Republican named Abraham Lincoln wins
the presidency. Even though Lincoln promises he won’t interfere
with slavery in the states that already have it, he and his party are still too anti-slavery
for the South to tolerate. So 11 Southern states secede from the Union,
forming the Confederate States of America. The Northern states decide to fight to keep
the Union together, and the Civil War ensues. The result is a Northern victory and the abolition
of slavery nationwide. After the war, Republicans begin fighting
to ensure freedmen in the South have rights. A year after Lincoln’s assassination, the
party passes the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which said black citizens have the same rights
as whites. They fight to make sure that black men have
the right to vote, with new laws and constitutional amendments. But something had happened during the civil
war that began changing the young Republican Party. Government spending during the war made many
northern businessmen really rich. Gradually, these wealthy financiers and industrialists
start taking more and more of a leading role in the Republican Party. They want to hold on to power, and they don’t
think that fighting for black rights in a mostly white country is the best way to do
that. Meanwhile, the South is resisting these new
racial reforms, often violently. And most white Republican voters and leaders
now feel that they’ve done enough for Black citizens in the South, and that it was time
to emphasize other issues. So in the 1870s, the party basically gives
up on reforming the South, deciding instead to leave it to its own devices, even if that
meant black citizens were oppressed and deprived of their new right to vote, and the region
was politically dominated by white Democrats. Fast-forward to the new century. By the 1920s, the Republican Party has become,
essentially, the party of big business. This works out quite well for them when the
economy was booming, but not so well when the economy crashes in 1929 and the Great
Depression begins. Franklin D. Roosevelt and other Democrats
are swept into power, and begin dramatically expanding the size and role of the federal
government, in an attempt to fight the Depression and better provide for Americans. Republicans oppose this rapid expansion, defining
themselves as opposition to bigger government, an identity that the party still holds today. Then, going into the 50s and 60s, race and
the South return to the forefront of national politics, with the civil rights movement attempting
to end segregation and ensure blacks truly had the right to vote. Civil rights isn’t purely a partisan issue,
it’s more of a regional issue with northerners from both parties supporting it and southerners
from both parties opposing. Then 1964, it’s Democratic president Lyndon
Johnson who signs the Civil Rights Act into law. And it’s Republican presidential nominee
Barry Goldwater who opposes it, arguing that it expands government power too much. A massive switch-up takes place. Black voters, many of whom had already been
shifting from Republicans, convert almost entirely to their new advocates, the Democrats. And white voters in the South, who had been
staunch Democrats, start to really resent “big government” interference here and
in other matters, like abortion rights and school prayer. Over the next three decades, whites in the
South switch to the GOP, which makes the South an overwhelmingly Republican region. By the 80s, the party begins to resemble the
GOP we are familiar with today. Republicans elect Ronald Reagan, who promises
to fight for, business interests, lower taxes, and traditional family values. Then, as the 21st century begins, America
is going through a major demographic shift in the form of Hispanic immigration, both
legal and illegal. Democrats and business elites tend to support
reforming immigration laws so that over 10 million unauthorized immigrants in the US
would get legal status. But “tough on immigration” policies and
rhetoric become popular on the Republican right. Then, when Mitt Romney loses his bid for the
presidency in 2012, he gets blown out among Hispanic voters — exit polls showed that
71% of them backed Barack Obama. And the Republican Party starts to look more
like a party for white voters in an increasingly nonwhite country. Given demographic trends, Republican leaders
worry that if they keep losing Hispanic voters by that much, they’ll lose their chances
of winning the presidency. So in 2013, some key Republicans in the Senate
— including rising star Marco Rubio — collaborate with Democrats on an immigration reform bill
that would give unauthorized immigrants a path to legal status. But there’s a huge backlash from the Republican
party’s predominantly white base, which views the bill as “amnesty” for immigrants
who broke the rules. This exacerbates GOP voters’ mistrust of
their own party’s leaders, which had already been growing. And that makes the political landscape of
2015 is fertile ground for a figure like Donald Trump, an outsider businessman who wants to
build a wall on the border with Mexico. Trump isn’t a traditional conservative,
but he appealed to Republican primary voters’ resentment and mistrust of party elites, as
well as their strong opposition to growing immigration trends. And even though he was loathed by party leaders,
he won enough support in the primaries to become the GOP nominee for president. Now, the Republican party is once again at
a major crossroads as it tries to meet the political challenges of the 21st century. It’s possible that the turn toward Trump
and his ideas this year will be remembered as an aberration, and that a new generation
of Republican politicians will find a way to be more than just the party of white resentment
— rediscovering their roots as the party of Lincoln. But it’s also possible that Trump is just
the beginning, and that the party will increasingly play to white voters by appealing to racial
tensions. It’s up to Republican voters and leaders
to decide just what they want their party to be.
The constant unnecessary tilting of that map is rather nauseating.
Damn that was an excellent video.
What this video gets wrong is the concept of "The Big Switch", the theory that in the 1960s the two parties "switched" roles to become what they are now.
In fact "the big switch" happened much earlier and something that was only hinted at in the video: FDR's New Deal is the turning point when Blacks went from being Republicans to Democrats because of the expansion of welfare and the job programs that arose because of the New Deal.
what about a JFK to HRC video?
Despite already having a well known icon, Vox literally made the symbol of the republican party a fat politician stuffing money into his pockets.
There is no bias to be seen here everybody...