So in my experience in the American school system we are taught that the Republicans and the Democrats used to be very politically different then they are now. We are taught they the Republicans used to be the party in the north that was considered to be more liberal while the South housed the Democrats who were the conservatives. We are taught that sometime post reconstruction that the parties "switched" and that the Republicans became more conservative while the Democrats fractured into the Northern and Southern Democrats, and eventually the southern Democrats dissolved or more or less integrated into the Republican party. But I've seen the argument online, from PragerU, and from my AP European History teacher that the parties never really did switch. The primary reason is due to the presence of the Southern Dixiecrats well into the late 20th century and that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had a larger amount of Democrats vote against it than the Republican party. So what I'm asking is if/when did the parties switch, and how gradual the change was. My teacher has used the statement "No one can tell me the exact date when the parties switched" and I would like to see if there is a concrete answer to that.