USA - Getting the Republicans elected

[fletcherreed]

So it's 1866 in my 1836 USA game and I haven't had the Republican's elected even once. I've skipped the Civil War because of it (weirdly, Lincoln was still assassinated...) and I'm trying to get them elected to abolish slavery. I've even had the American party elected several times but the closest the Republicans have gotten is about 35% support. I'm trying to force consciousness of "liberal" (no idea why Republicans are considered liberal here...) voters and pick all the liberal events to set the main issue to full citizenship.

Is there anything else I can do? Should I set reform spending to 0% to make the lower class hate the ruling party?

Any help is appreciated! Thanks

 

[Orm]

Set your voting rights to Wealth if you can. That way only Clerks and higher may vote, which usually results in a liberal majority if you have enough Clerks.

 

[KingCarrot]

Well speaking historically (with my fading memory I might be way off, but as far as I remember this is tru) the republicans actually were the liberals way back then. As I recall the democrats were actually partly for slavery...at least in the south.
Furthermore I think that the republicans were the liberals up till somewhere around the '50ies or so? Can't recall the right year (or decade to be honest...or century ).

The other possibility (which would make everything I have just said totally wrong and irrelevant) is that liberals in this game (and everywhere else but the USA) is a description for a version of economic belief. In the US liberals mean people who are liberal in their general belief, i.e. loose - as in everything should be allowed, more or less. In economic liberalism it means that there should be minimal state-interference in trade and economic systems. So here liberal is a lesser version of the in-game anarcho-liberal.

In normal politics and economics discussions I have heard there is a sharp distinction between the political Liberal (which is almost only used in the US) and the economic Liberal. As far as I understand it the US political Liberal is a more right-wing version of the european social-democratic politics.

Hmm, actually I am pretty sure about my last point but I still seem to recall that I read about the first one somewhere...oh well. Hope I haven't bored too many people!

Regards
kingcarrot

 

[gornard]

Well speaking historically (with my fading memory I might be way off, but as far as I remember this is tru) the republicans actually were the liberals way back then. As I recall the democrats were actually partly for slavery...at least in the south.
Furthermore I think that the republicans were the liberals up till somewhere around the '50ies or so? Can't recall the right year (or decade to be honest...or century ).

The other possibility (which would make everything I have just said totally wrong and irrelevant) is that liberals in this game (and everywhere else but the USA) is a description for a version of economic belief. In the US liberals mean people who are liberal in their general belief, i.e. loose - as in everything should be allowed, more or less. In economic liberalism it means that there should be minimal state-interference in trade and economic systems. So here liberal is a lesser version of the in-game anarcho-liberal.

In normal politics and economics discussions I have heard there is a sharp distinction between the political Liberal (which is almost only used in the US) and the economic Liberal. As far as I understand it the US political Liberal is a more right-wing version of the european social-democratic politics.

Hmm, actually I am pretty sure about my last point but I still seem to recall that I read about the first one somewhere...oh well. Hope I haven't bored too many people!

Regards
kingcarrot

Thats pretty much correct, the game uses liberal to refer to 'classical liberalism' which were usually for economic and political liberalization. In a basic way what the republicans refer to nowadays as 'small government fiscal conservatism' isn't that far off from classical liberalism, where as the democrats are sometimes more interventionist.
What is generally meant by 'liberal' these days in america is 'social liberal'. Obviously the word 'social' isn't much liked in american politics today.
That doesn't necessarily mean there was a complete switch between historical party beliefs, liberalism is usually relative to a jumping off point. So if your country is less representative and undually protectionist, a liberal stand point would be to increase freedoms in the economic and political sphere.
In the modern day when the economy and politics are relatively free, social reforms would be the new inference for liberalization.

 

[UF6]

Parties change all the time. Parties in the United States are no different. The Democratic Party support slavery as a majority over Republicans. After the Civil War the Republican Party then supported large business with the law in 1873 that supported granting citizens rights to a cooperate entity, also for no regulations on them for the next thirty forty years.

 

[heliostellar]

I thought the only way to abolish slavery in the US was to go through the Civil War. I'm not really sure because I never skip the Civil War event. If you can independently abolish it, then aside from being historical, what's the benefit of going through the trouble of going along with the Civil War event?

 

[fletcherreed]

Set your voting rights to Wealth if you can. That way only Clerks and higher may vote, which usually results in a liberal majority if you have enough Clerks.

This worked! Thanks! Once The Republicans got elected the Civil War started a few months later and the CSA were virtually helpless against my 32 reserve divisions. Now they've been the ruling party for 20+ years.