cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17294985
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." - Abraham Lincoln
"I am glad to know that there is a system of labor where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would to God that such a system prevailed all over the world." - Abraham Lincoln
"The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world." - Karl Marx
The NORTH was Republican. Not cities. Rural and urban north was all largely Republican. This started to change shortly after the civil war. But long before civil rights. As freed slaves and black people in general filtered into the cities looking for work. This triggered the white flight of the early 20th century. They were what the whites were flighting from. And redlining away.
Hating cities became a solid Republican thing when they were courting bigots and former Dixiecrats. But it had existed, and was used by them decades before. So no. No realignment. Just a purification. The KKK joined up with the fascists because of their shared interests. Republicans didn't suddenly become bigots. They always had been.