Is the Democrat philosophy different now than when JFK took office?

100% different. JFK was a very conservative democrat and a strong anti communist. Today's democratic party embraces communism and socialism.

No it is not the opposite. Conservatives have attempted to mislead the public based on the fact that JFK lowered taxes on the rich from 90% to 70%. The argument is incorrect because JFK, who was convinced by conservatives to cut the taxes, only did so reluctantly. Additionally, during JFK's Administration, this country had a strong GDP, no deficit to speak of and most importantly, he had a demand-side Keynesian economic policy, which is the exact opposite of the GOP's current supply-side (trickle down) economics, which has proven to be a colossal failure and has lead to our current situation today and back in the 1920's. This is where the myth of JFK being a "conservative" originates from, but it is not based on the big picture of his presidency or who he was as a man. It's based on one single thing he did to negotiate with conservatives. JFK was a proud liberal Democrat. He called himself a liberal Democrat and 99% of what he did was for the 98% of Americans, just like today's Democratic party.

no at all