Old Presidents' Parties Today

[TNF]

Not doing any President before the 20th Century

T. Roosevelt: Democratic
Taft: Republican
Wilson: Democratic
Harding: Republican
Coolidge: Republican
Hoover: Republican
FDR: Democratic
Truman: Democratic
Eisenhower: Democratic or Independent
JFK: Democratic
LBJ: Democratic
Nixon: Democratic
Ford: Democratic
After Carter would be the same 

Um... what? Nixon almost certainly would not be a Democrat.

If he had the political views he had in the 1970s, he'd be some sort of an authoritarian Lieberman-esque Democrat. Of course were Nixon alive to-day he might "adjust" some of his views as is the case in TNF's model.

Nixon was always a conservative. The fact that he signed off on some liberal legislation does not make him a moderate or a liberal. Arguing otherwise is like arguing that W was a liberal because he supported Medicare Part D and signed off on a minimum wage increase.

[Yank2133]

Cleveland and JFK would be GOP'rs today. In fact they'd be Tea Partiers. It's sad many on the left think JFK would stand with them. The guy was a fiscal hawk who believed in sound currency (unlike the left of today).

Lmao, the man who created The New Frontier and pushed demand side tax cuts would be in the Tea Party? Give me a break, the Tea Party's precurser(the John Birch society) hated Kennedy and they would hate him now.

Kennedy was pretty much a precursor to the "New Democrat' that gave us Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

[Mechaman]

Cleveland and JFK would be GOP'rs today. In fact they'd be Tea Partiers. It's sad many on the left think JFK would stand with them. The guy was a fiscal hawk who believed in sound currency (unlike the left of today).

Lmao, the man who created The New Frontier and pushed demand side tax cuts would be in the Tea Party? Give me a break, the Tea Party's precurser(the John Birch society) hated Kennedy and they would hate him now.

Kennedy was pretty much a precursor to the "New Democrat' that gave us Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Wow good post.  And right on the mark as well!

For every person who mentions MUH GOLD STANDARDS! or something about the "tax cuts", I should briefly mention that JFK was advocating for a state ran healthcare program:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhgOzQUGZAQ

Seriously, listen to this whole video and tell me with a straight face this guy would've been a conservative Republican.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Cleveland and JFK would be GOP'rs today. In fact they'd be Tea Partiers. It's sad many on the left think JFK would stand with them. The guy was a fiscal hawk who believed in sound currency (unlike the left of today).

JFK would definitely be a Democrat, although he'd be a moderate or conservative one, as he was in the 1960s. I agree with you that a liberal or left-wing JFK is wishful thinking on the part of today's progressives, but there's no way he'd be a Republican. I could see him as a Cuomo-Clinton type Democrat, though.

Only because his dad was a Democrat.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

Uh, Grant would obviously be a Republican today, considering his gold standard stance.

[H. Ross Peron]

Cleveland and JFK would be GOP'rs today. In fact they'd be Tea Partiers. It's sad many on the left think JFK would stand with them. The guy was a fiscal hawk who believed in sound currency (unlike the left of today).

JFK would definitely be a Democrat, although he'd be a moderate or conservative one, as he was in the 1960s. I agree with you that a liberal or left-wing JFK is wishful thinking on the part of today's progressives, but there's no way he'd be a Republican. I could see him as a Cuomo-Clinton type Democrat, though.

Only because his dad was a Democrat.

If anything JFK was to the left of his father. I don't understand why some right-wingers are so desperate to claim JFK has their own.

[Free Bird]

Cleveland and JFK would be GOP'rs today. In fact they'd be Tea Partiers. It's sad many on the left think JFK would stand with them. The guy was a fiscal hawk who believed in sound currency (unlike the left of today).

JFK would definitely be a Democrat, although he'd be a moderate or conservative one, as he was in the 1960s. I agree with you that a liberal or left-wing JFK is wishful thinking on the part of today's progresses, but there's no way he'd be a Republican. I could see him as a Cuomo-Clinton type Democrat, though.

Only because his dad was a Democrat.

If anything JFK was to the left of his father. I don't understand why some right-wingers are so desperate to claim JFK has their own.

Same reasons Dems are claiming Lincoln and TR

[H. Ross Peron]

Cleveland and JFK would be GOP'rs today. In fact they'd be Tea Partiers. It's sad many on the left think JFK would stand with them. The guy was a fiscal hawk who believed in sound currency (unlike the left of today).

JFK would definitely be a Democrat, although he'd be a moderate or conservative one, as he was in the 1960s. I agree with you that a liberal or left-wing JFK is wishful thinking on the part of today's progresses, but there's no way he'd be a Republican. I could see him as a Cuomo-Clinton type Democrat, though.

Only because his dad was a Democrat.

If anything JFK was to the left of his father. I don't understand why some right-wingers are so desperate to claim JFK has their own.

Same reasons Dems are claiming Lincoln and TR

Except TR actually had views on economics that were far more "progressive" than even the most moderate Republican would claim to-day.

[Yank2133]

Cleveland and JFK would be GOP'rs today. In fact they'd be Tea Partiers. It's sad many on the left think JFK would stand with them. The guy was a fiscal hawk who believed in sound currency (unlike the left of today).

JFK would definitely be a Democrat, although he'd be a moderate or conservative one, as he was in the 1960s. I agree with you that a liberal or left-wing JFK is wishful thinking on the part of today's progresses, but there's no way he'd be a Republican. I could see him as a Cuomo-Clinton type Democrat, though.

Only because his dad was a Democrat.

If anything JFK was to the left of his father. I don't understand why some right-wingers are so desperate to claim JFK has their own.

Same reasons Dems are claiming Lincoln and TR

Except TR actually had views on economics that were far more "progressive" than even the most moderate Republican would claim to-day.

Exactly, JFK views are pretty much in-line with the Democratic platform then and now. Hell, go listen to Obama talk about tax cuts, it isn't all that different from what JFK said in the early 60's.

[TNF]

There are many things that Theodore Roosevelt was, but progressive was not one of them. Roosevelt was an opportunist who tried to make the progressive movement his own in order to blunt its appeal and dilute its outcome. The best way to think of Roosevelt is an American Bismarck, given that he referred to the La Follette progressives as the 'lunatic fringe' and was less concerned with most progressive pet issues than he was with making sure the country didn't descend into anarchism or whatever the line was a century ago.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

TNF, is your assessment of Grant based solely on Reconstruction?

[Mechaman]

TNF, is your assessment of Grant based solely on Reconstruction?

Yeah, Grant is a little bit of a hard duck to classify by today's terms.  He supported the Civil Rights amendments to the Constitution and the Reconstruction program, which even back then would be seen as pretty radical.  However, at the same time he was a staunch goldbug and protectionist, which at the time both positions would be seen as solidly conservative and right wing.

It was like he was the perfect Republican president for his time.

[Mechaman]

There are many things that Theodore Roosevelt was, but progressive was not one of them. Roosevelt was an opportunist who tried to make the progressive movement his own in order to blunt its appeal and dilute its outcome. The best way to think of Roosevelt is an American Bismarck, given that he referred to the La Follette progressives as the 'lunatic fringe' and was less concerned with most progressive pet issues than he was with making sure the country didn't descend into anarchism or whatever the line was a century ago.

Yes, and let's actually examine what Teddy Roosevelt did that was like so super duper left wing shall we:

• Gave the US Navy a hardon by dramatically expanding the size of the fleet and going on a nationalistic chest beating world tour to show off how big our you know what was.
• After inviting Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, the Brave Progressive Roosevelt, afraid of scaring well meaning whites in the South (aka, a region that Republicans had no hope of winning), decides against further dinners with the prominent black leader in fear of giving people the wrong idea.
• Supported the Gold Standard, Protectionism, and lower taxes.  I'll give you a clue: None of those things were considered liberal.
• Said he supported labor and proved it by helping JP Morgan dissuade anthracite coal workers from forming unions.  Yes, how left wing.
• Made a hurrah about "Americanism" and questioned the loyalty of "hyphenated" Americans incessantly.  Of course, this had nothing to do with nativist backlash against German distillers, Fenian revolutionaries, Sicilian socialists, Czech anarchists, and others.
• Again, if you didn't hear it the first time, he had a hardon for war.
• In the Panic of 1907 he took the amazing left wing view of Republicans that the banking industry should intervene to save the country over the reactionary view of Democrats that government control over the money supply was necessary.  Of course he took a moment to briefly whine about corporate influence, like he did about all of his other pro-business actions as president.
• Supported the construction of the Panama Canal.  As long as it remained under US control.
• His response to the abuses of the Meat Packing Industry was to put labels on everything while totally ignoring the actual point made by socialists like Upton Sinclair about workplace conditions being more than a little unsavory.
• So-called "trust-busting" done by TR did very little to actually contain corporate abuse outside of breaking down the domination of industries by a handful of companies and instead giving domination to several dozen large corporations that would in effect act like a cartel in all but name.  But hey, let's pretend like an oligarchy is actually different from a monarchy shall we?  Really, feel good policy done to keep the activists from getting restless and what was pretty much a PR for the President.  Excessive wealth was not in any way meaningfully contained, but in fact grew after these policies were made.

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• Finally, in closing:
  

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And this is before we get to what he thought was the moral duty of the white man to civilize the "savage races".  If there is any poster here who is closest to Teddy Roosevelt, its dead0man.  Not Marokai Blue, jbd, or Alfred (you're welcome by the way).

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

"...and then he didn't stay bought." - H.C. Frick.

Just throwing out the next part of that quote. *grovel grovel* please don't hurt me with your treatises. Also, is there anyone on this forum who is actually ambivalent about TR?  It seems like half the forum wants to suck his dick and the other half thinks he's the second coming of Grover Cleveland.

[Deus Naturae]

I don't see what's so non-leftist about eugenics.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I don't see what's so non-leftist about eugenics.

I see the forced sterilization of the poor and minorities to be inherently anti-leftist values, but that might just be me.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Eisenhower is the only President from the last century that I think would switch.
Cleveland would probably be a Republican.
Lincoln would probably be a Democrat.

[Mechaman]

"...and then he didn't stay bought." - H.C. Frick.

Just throwing out the next part of that quote. *grovel grovel* please don't hurt me with your treatises. Also, is there anyone on this forum who is actually ambivalent about TR?  It seems like half the forum wants to suck his dick and the other half thinks he's the second coming of Grover Cleveland.

Hey if you want to go on thinking the biggest warmonger in American History who was rahrahrah American Nationalism and strongly opposed the various socialist and anarchists of his day was some sort of left wing hero be my guest.  Everything I listed is fact and can be easily looked at just on the mans Wikipedia page.
Of course it's worth mentioning that Ted belonged to the elite crust of society, so of course Historians and others will oversell his actual Liberalness.

Also, you forgot he people on here who probably think that Teds was proto-Stalin.  Which isn't really surprising, given his loud and boisterous personality.  Kind of hard to be ambivalent of such types.