What Happened to the Democrats?

I've been reading up on my American history, and it really seems like the democrats (founded by Thomas Jefferson, if I'm not mistaken) were THE pro-liberty party of the time, no?

What happened to them that turned them into the big-government loving fascists/socialists that we see today?

Discuss.

>>6 Here.
>>7 Those compasses are a good approximation, but still tell little about the person's core dogmas.