It's important to remember though that politics was less polarized with Republicans being the right wing party and Democrats being the left wing party. There were many urban progressives in the Republican Party and many redneck conservatives in the Democratic Party. Ideologically, Jews were largely on the left side of the spectrum, but that could lead them to support Republicans like Hazen Pingree or Teddy Roosevelt.
Since when were Democrats the left wing party?
I'd argue that politics was more localized (and based on rival political machines in different cities and towns) back before the rise of American mass suburbia (or back before the mass urbanization of the early 1900s, if you want to go back even further).
Political machines were a way for the working classes of the cities to gain influence (though yes, many were dominated by ruthless, corrupt Bosses)-which really makes one question the motives of the middle-class reformers who successfully brought down many machines.
Of course, the Democratic Party later incorporated working-class influences into its electoral coalition in the 1930s. However, how much of that was a reaction to the growing radical labor movements of the 1930s during the Great Depression? That is something that I am more interested in learning about.
