It depends on the era. Before and during the Civil War the Republican party was the more progressive and liberal of the two major parties, most popular in the North. The Democratic party was the more conservative party that formerly supported slavery. This is not to say the parties are still like this. On the contrary -- by the time LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the two parties' platforms had almost completely flipped. In Congress, multiple Democrat opponents of the Civil Rights Act switched over to the Republican Party. It was now the Republican party that was the more conservative, opposed social change, held onto tradition and was more popular in the South, while the Democratic Party was now the more liberal, progressive one popular in the North. These days when people tout their party as the one [insert pre-1960s president here] was in, it is mostly in name, not in platform.
All of this has been a VERY brief summary of an extremely complex series of events stretching over 200 years and is still an evolving situation today. In the future the parties could very well swap platforms again! If you wish to know more about the history of parties' political platforms, I'd recommend reading this detailed article:
factmyth.com/factoids/democrats-and-republicans-switched-platforms/
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