Remember, party affiliation in US politics isn't as strong as in parliamentary systems. Polk represented the nationalist wing of the Democratic Party. Tyler represented the states' rights wing. Polk was a westerner, though -- just like his mentor, Jackson. Tyler was an Easterner. The East/West divide is as important, if not more important, than the party divide and right up there with the slavery issue in 19th century US politics. Tyler is complex. He swapped parties to blunt Van Buren within the Democratic Party, but once he was President, he thoroughly opposed all Whig initiatives -- to the point that the Whigs, led by John Quincy Adams, actually tried to impeach him. He may have been an opponent of Van Buren in 1840, but by 1844 he had more in common politically with his former party than with his new-found partners in the Whigs.
Jacksonian democracy was not just the rise of the demos. It was also the rise of the West. Lincoln would ride that into the White House just 4 years after the GOP formed. Had New York's Seward won the nomination in 1860 instead, the Republicans may well have remained a minor third party.
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Date: 2007-03-24 01:46 am (UTC)Remember, party affiliation in US politics isn't as strong as in parliamentary systems. Polk represented the nationalist wing of the Democratic Party. Tyler represented the states' rights wing. Polk was a westerner, though -- just like his mentor, Jackson. Tyler was an Easterner. The East/West divide is as important, if not more important, than the party divide and right up there with the slavery issue in 19th century US politics. Tyler is complex. He swapped parties to blunt Van Buren within the Democratic Party, but once he was President, he thoroughly opposed all Whig initiatives -- to the point that the Whigs, led by John Quincy Adams, actually tried to impeach him. He may have been an opponent of Van Buren in 1840, but by 1844 he had more in common politically with his former party than with his new-found partners in the Whigs.
Jacksonian democracy was not just the rise of the demos. It was also the rise of the West. Lincoln would ride that into the White House just 4 years after the GOP formed. Had New York's Seward won the nomination in 1860 instead, the Republicans may well have remained a minor third party.