At the risk of thread drift... I have just read James Ford Rhodes' History of the Civil War, which made clear a fact I had read before- the Republican Party, under Abraham Lincoln, was seen as the Radical party, while the Democratic Party was the party of vested interests, which voted against Emancipation, increased taxes, etc...
As a non-American, I found this a little surprising. When did the parties swap ends of the political spectrum?
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