political history

[Gil-Estel]

I am reading about the political history of the USA and I was wondering about the differences between Democrats and Republicans. I read that the Republicans originated from the industrial North and were anti-slavery. The Democrats were popular in the rural south and not very fond of a large Federal Government.
However, when I see the current situation, it seems to be the opposite. Obama, being a democrate is expanding the Federal Government and it seems to me that the Republicans come from the southern states, such as Texas.

My question is: is this correct? Both the early situation as my reading of the current situation? If so, it seems there have to been a shift. Can anyone explain to me where this shift has occured and why?

[Air Power]

There was a major shift in the 1960s when the Democrats embraced equal rights/civil rights for black men (and later on, for women), causing much of the (white) Southerners to shift to the Republicans (which waited longer to accept desegregation).

Democrats, 1960s-2000, were proponents of expanded governmental power, US intervention in foreign states, etc, and Republicans were opposed to these things. 

Post 9/11, President Bush, a republican, started pushing for expanded government power (such as the Patriot Act) and US intervention in the Middle East (the war on terror).  Democrats switched around by 2003 and opposed these things. 

Once President Obama entered office, he reverted the Democrats to expanding governmental power and intervention in other countries (Libya, more troops to Afghanistan), and the Republicans reverted to opposing these things.

In general, it seems that the party in power wants to expand their power while in office, and the party out of power wants to limit it.

[azogsbane]

Your description of the beginning and of now is quite correct Gil-Estel. The only thing that does seem to have stayed consistent is that the Republican party has always favored big business (after all the North was the hub of industry in the 1800s). But then again it was a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, who in the early 20th century broke up the huge monopolies. American politics is so full of contradictions.

I see you are from the Netherlands. I'm a big fan of Kuyperian pluralism. I really wish America had a Christian Democratic party. But unfortunately Americans (of all stripes) are so completely, thoroughly, and even subconsciously devoted liberal conceptions of government that Kuyper's ideas would be incomprehensible to most of them.