Polar shifts in politics only occur when extreme changes in the practice of politics make the foundational principles of the party outdated.
The actual switcheroo came in Nineteenth-Century Britain, where Benjamin Disraeli turned Toryism from an ideology that gave unlimited power to the Crown into a Conservative party. Eighteenth-Century Tories were unremittingly hostile to commercial life, and considered landed gentry the only fit wealthy. Disraeli romanticized pre-Reformation England, and had Charles I in his pantheon of Tory saints. Old Tory ideology was about King over Parliament; new Tory ideology was a rejection of Utilitarian attempts at utopia.
The imaginary switcheroo came in Nineteenth or Twentieth-Century America. The Republican Party, after opposing extension of slavery, the Dred Scott decision that black people were farm animals, and secession, supposedly changed place with the pro-slavery Democratic Party. Perhaps it was after Charles Sumner authored the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. It must have been after a Democratic president thought "Birth of a Nation" was a great film, and re-segregated the military. As a matter of fact, black Americans were reliably Republican until FDR's presidency.
Unlike the actual switcheroo, there was a genuine political change that caused Toryism to become Conservative (and Whig to become Labour). The Reform Act of 1835 made more Britons entitled to vote. This, combined with post-1688 Parliamentary ascendency made the Toryism of Henry St. John and Jonathan Swift an antique curiosity. Republican ideology, being a continuation of old Federalist principles, has never been obsolete.
The actual switcheroo came in Nineteenth-Century Britain, where Benjamin Disraeli turned Toryism from an ideology that gave unlimited power to the Crown into a Conservative party. Eighteenth-Century Tories were unremittingly hostile to commercial life, and considered landed gentry the only fit wealthy. Disraeli romanticized pre-Reformation England, and had Charles I in his pantheon of Tory saints. Old Tory ideology was about King over Parliament; new Tory ideology was a rejection of Utilitarian attempts at utopia.
The imaginary switcheroo came in Nineteenth or Twentieth-Century America. The Republican Party, after opposing extension of slavery, the Dred Scott decision that black people were farm animals, and secession, supposedly changed place with the pro-slavery Democratic Party. Perhaps it was after Charles Sumner authored the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. It must have been after a Democratic president thought "Birth of a Nation" was a great film, and re-segregated the military. As a matter of fact, black Americans were reliably Republican until FDR's presidency.
Unlike the actual switcheroo, there was a genuine political change that caused Toryism to become Conservative (and Whig to become Labour). The Reform Act of 1835 made more Britons entitled to vote. This, combined with post-1688 Parliamentary ascendency made the Toryism of Henry St. John and Jonathan Swift an antique curiosity. Republican ideology, being a continuation of old Federalist principles, has never been obsolete.
