When did the parties switch platforms?

[Rockefeller GOP]

2010, of course (when the Southern legislatures fell)!

Seriously, though, I know those guys were just DINOs.  When they REALLY switched was the 2000s.  You see, Bill Clinton (a Democrat) talked about an end to the era of big government.  He also like deregulated something or something like that, and he had a Southern accent and won West Virginia (and WV votes Republican now, so that means the Democrats of the '90s were the Republicans of today).  Then, in the 2000s, George W. Bush (a Republican) swept onto the scene, and he expanded government (he was a liberal for this) and also passed No Child Left Behind.  Plus the debt.  Democrats attacked him for this (making them the conservatives of that time period).

For Republicans/the South, couldn't you say the seed was planted in 1964? Goldwater lost, but many Southern states and whites began voting Republican at the presidential level after that. You could see the Democratic stranglehold on Congressional offices cracking after as well, albeit at a slow pace. It took quite awhile for this to trickle down to state offices, though. Likewise, around 1988/1992 many traditional Republican states in the North switched as well (at the presidential level, with state offices following in the decade(s) after).

Though I am only talking about party voting patterns and not the ideological components of this change.

Forgetting for a second that RINO's post was 100% sarcastic and hilarious, Republicans had been winning some races before 1964 in the areas with the most Northern transplants (who brought their fiscally conservative votes with them), mostly in "the New South."  All 1964/1965 did was show Southern Whites that they now had to pick between two (at least on paper) pro-civil rights parties.  Wealthier Southerners started voting Republican first and then other Southern Whites followed as the national Democratic Party became less reliant on keeping the South solid and therefore became more openly culturally liberal.

[Rockefeller GOP]

Depends on the state/region. In the 1940s, guys like Dewey, Willkie or Warren were a lot more liberal than Southern Democrats (they were pretty much racists until the late 1960s) while guys like Bob Taft or John Bricker had almost nothing in common with progressives like FDR or Truman.

But it's really fascinating process. I always wondered, why the liberal wings of both parties didn't unify to a Progressive Party and the conservatives form a Conservative Party.

You keep saying "they were pretty much racists" as if that is a disqualifier from also holding several liberal positions, and it's not.

Also pretty sure this thread was sarcastic response to yours about VT and ME.

[Rockefeller GOP]

It was a gradual thing from the 1960's to the 1980's. Since then it has only been further.

So you're actually prepared to argue the GOP of the 1930s was to the right of the Democratic Party during that same time frame? Because you'd be like factually wrong.

Okay, Jesus, let's just answer the question in the sarcastic OP that so many people took seriously:

THEY DIDN'T.

[Rockefeller GOP]

You're also the party of Strom Thurmond and mind you Robert Byrd.  Jesse Helms I believe was a Democrat.  You listen to the left and this is what happens.

We can't deny that those people were Democrats (even if Strom switched long before he died). Robert Byrd appeared to turn over a new leaf quite some time before he died as well. Obviously I didn't know him personally, but he was definitely not acting racist, or saying racist things, or pushing racist policies for a long time before he died in 2010.

However, now these types of people are Republicans and have been for years, at least in most elections. There are racist northerners but there are quite a lot of racists from the South and will continue to be until the older generation is thoroughly replaced, and even then. It's not that the Republican party in itself has these racist overtones, it's their base of support (the South). Any party that represents these people will end up giving off that image until things change - And as I said, to varying degrees, they are changing.

Yeah I think Byrd gave up his racist plank in the early 1980's.

So did Thurmond and Helms, but they don't get a pass from Democrats.

[Rockefeller GOP]

lmao "the parties never switched platforms"

They didn't, their bases just changed.

Their bases changed because their platforms changed.

I know you're like some high school kid, but parties don't just "switch" platforms.  That's insanity.  If you think it's that simple, there's no way around the fact that you're a moron.

[Rockefeller GOP]

I was under the impression that it began in the 1960s?

LOL, well it didn't begin or happen at all.

Change =/= switch.  Obviously parties change with each decade.  However, there are quite obvious conservative elements of the GOP of every age, and there have been liberal elements of the Democratic Party in every age.