Which Former Presidents would Switch Parties Today?

[vcczar]

New poll

[vcczar]

Eisenhower switches over Trump and Ukraine policy. 

[Pringles]

Funny you make this poll as I saw a tweet on this, mocking the premise and the state of modern politics. It's so silly to me. 

 

[Fbarbarossa]

It's not that simple really, a lot of things don't cross over today. It'd be easy to call Teddy Roosevelt a progressive Democrat but scratch the surface and you'll see he was also a big imperialist. Times were different and our binary views of what goes in what party can't always be applied.

[ConservativeElector2]

I'd say Cleveland could have made the switch. On the other hand Eisenhower, Lincoln and Th. Roosevelt seem to be likely candidates as well, but especially with Eisenhower and Lincoln, I think they would have chosen the "Romneyian way" of staying in their party, but criticizing it loudly when needed.

[Edouard]

It's amusing how almost everyone agrees that JFK would still be a democrat nowadays.

I do agree by that, and I did vote for everyone else.

The point for me is that democrats started becoming what they are from the FDR era, progressively they became more and more tolerant on society at the exception of some southern democrats like Thurmond but those had already started deflecting from the party as soon as the 40s and 50s. I think that JFK despite the debate on abortion would have remained a democrat, certainly a more blue dog but he would have remained with the democratic party of today.

I strongly believe that Abraham Lincoln would be a democrat as of today both in link to his cultural and federal visions and his stance on rights. Maybe that Lincoln was pro business but his handling of the US was quite centralist even if explained by the period, also he definitively would have become a liberal by the time considering how he behaved in his time.

I always believe that Eisenhower could have become a democratic or a republican president, he was quite a centrist president who could embrace both major party legacies already in 1952 so today he would be a perfect match.

An interesting question is what Reagan would do today, I think he would behave like the Bush in their time, still republican but not voting for Trump.

Ford could probably be a democrat as of today.

Calvin Coolidge would certainly be a libertarian at this point.

I don't know if Wilson would be a democrat or a republican. On all issues but economy and some issues on foreign policy (but not all) he would be a republican compared to today.

[pilight]

I don't even know what Republicans stand for anymore, besides restricting abortion and drag shows.  Their leading candidate is vowing the biggest tax increase in the country's history.  None of them favor fewer federal restrictions on people's lives.  What the heck is the GOP's core philosophy?

[The Blood]

2 hours ago, pilight said:

I don't even know what Republicans stand for anymore, besides restricting abortion and drag shows.  Their leading candidate is vowing the biggest tax increase in the country's history.  None of them favor fewer federal restrictions on people's lives.  What the heck is the GOP's core philosophy?

Trump is actually expressing the purist form of regressivism by literally reverting us to mercantilism. 

[Pringles]

2 hours ago, pilight said:

I don't even know what Republicans stand for anymore, besides restricting abortion and drag shows.  Their leading candidate is vowing the biggest tax increase in the country's history.  None of them favor fewer federal restrictions on people's lives.  What the heck is the GOP's core philosophy?

The party of economic freedom, free trade, individual liberty, states rights, and a strong defense, has indeed traded it all away for a one man show of egotistical populism sprinkled with old left ideas combined with social extremism.

[vcczar]

I don’t understand why anyone would think JFK would be a Republican today. 
1) He’s a politician from Massachusetts.

2) The GOP is basically MAGA. JFK would not stand for that. 

3) Most of LBJ’s domestic policy came from ideas within the JFK administration. JFK would have advocated LBJ every step of the way. No supporter of LBJ’s social policy is going to be a Republican in the 21st century. 

4) JFK would not be weak on Russia as Trump is. He’d support Biden’s Ukraine effort. 

5) While he did reduce taxes, it was only because Eisenhower had raised them to like 91% on the top bracket. 

I actually can’t think of a single issue in which JFK would side with Republicans over Democrats. He’d likely just toe the line. He was basically just a mainline Democrat during his career, with very few exceptions. I’d imagine 21st century JFK would be about where Biden or Pelosi are on a chart. 

[Pringles]

24 minutes ago, vcczar said:

No supporter of LBJ’s social policy is going to be a Republican in the 21st century. 

What social policy exactly? I support aspects of LBJs “social policy” if this is including most of the Civil Rights Acts and Voting Rights Acts. 
 

On a percentage level Republicans as a whole, in the House and Senate back then supported most of the bills more than Democrats (percentage wise.) This is an obvious fact given the time, and maybe your factoring in realignment changes. But I’m just wanting to elaborate on this. 
 

Nevertheless I still agree JFK would not be a Republican today. However, he was a decently moderate Democrat for his time, and I think he’d especially be one today compared to where the Democratic Party is currently at as a whole. 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Pringles

[Edouard]

If there's one president I think could switch to Trumpism it could be Andrew Jackson.