How to summarize the party switch of the 50s and 60s

[Thoreau]

As most of you American history nerds are aware, the ideologies of the two main political parties in America made a drastic switch between the 50s and 60s. There are MANY reasons and a very long chain of events as to why this occurred. And while I'd love to get into all the nitty-gritty, I'm about to give a speech that requires me to provide an abbreviated summary (3-5 sentences) of the ideological evolutions of the two parties in that time.

How would YOU summarize it best?

Thanks!

 

[spidergoat]

The civil rights act of 1964 was a big influence. Democrats embraced it and lost their racist members, the Republicans were happy to get the Southern vote.

 

[iceaura]

It wasn't an ideological evolution or ideological event. Nobody switched ideologies.

The Democratic Party leadership chose for various reasons (all consistent with its ideology) to defy the racial bigotry of its Confederate voter base, and extend Constitutional rights to black people in the US. Some alert and discerning and unprincipled Republicans, influential in the Party, recognized the opportunity that provided, and set out to attract that disaffected population of voters - the racially bigoted Democrats, especially those in the former Confederacy - into the Republican Party. They succeeded, largely by pandering to the racial bigotry.

It was a migration of actual voters who brought their "ideology" with them, not an in situ alteration of ideology. The Democratic Party ideology did not change, at least not then, and the Republican Party ideology was merely set aside in part, adjusted a bit, to make room for the newcomers's racial bigotry.