I hit a quick dead end when I looked for the origin of these terms. It seems to be fairly common knowledge that syndicated columnist Sam Francis coined them for the Democrats and Republicans, respectively.
But something tickles me in the reptile part of my brain like a malignant feather. Don’t these terms go way back, to the post-Civil War era?
(Apologies in advance if this has been asked before. Just you try to do a search on the terms “party” “evil” and “stupid.” They’re some of the more popular words around here.)
“The US. has two major parties: The EVIL Party and the STUPID Party. The EVIL Party is actively trying to institute socialism: the STUPID Party is trying to fine tune it.”
-Dr. Yuri Maltsev, former advisor to Gorbachev during the Soviet reform movement, speaking at the 1995 Illinois
Libertarian Convention.
BTW, many search engines, like google, let you search on phrases enclosed in double quotes. “evil party” “stupid party” doesn’t turn up that much irrelevancy. Still, all references seem fairly recent.
The “Stupid Party” moniker for the Republicans may have been influenced by John Stuart Mill’s famous quote: “Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.”