The definition of conservative has changed dramatically over the last two decades. For centuries conservatism simply meant resistance to change — a desire to keep things as they are. This was especially true of those classes whose life was better than others. They wished to keep it that way. Progressives desired change in a way that helped the classes not benefiting from the existing system. There has always been a level of class warfare in every society. There are two kinds of class war — economic and social.
Although it existed, the struggle was relatively benign in the United States for centuries. Starting with the Emancipation Proclamation, the social struggle became more pronounced. It was the Southern Democrat wing of the Democratic Party that struggled to hold on to its privileges as the class who enjoyed a high social class status. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Southern white class lost much of its superior place in Southern society. This strongly exacerbated the struggle with respect to race. Because it was pushed by a Democrat president, LBJ, Southern whites switched to the Republican Party in the 1970s. Over the last half-century that racial social war has not gone away but vastly reduced in its scope.
