Larry, your historical research is lacking on this. Study the Republican administrations of the 1920s, for example -- as well as earlier -- and you'll find no (or very little) support for your assertions that Republicans believed that government needs to be large enough to ensure every citizen has a decent standard of living. They had other reasons for favoring a strong central government, but they had very little (if any) concern for the livelihoods of ordinary citizens. William Leuchtenberg's new (huge!) volume titled The American Presidency: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton will give you a good overview, if you're interested. You're right that the Democrats changed in the 1930s, but they weren't switching places with Republicans (not at that point, that happened much later).