Democratic Party (United States)
| Democratic Party | |
|---|---|
| |
| Party Chairman | Howard Dean |
| Senate Leader | Harry Reid |
| House Leader | Nancy Pelosi |
| Founded | 1792 |
| Headquarters | 430 South Capitol Street SE Washington, D.C. 20003 |
| Political ideology | Modern Liberalism, Progressivism |
| International affiliation | Alliance of American and European Democrats1, |
| Color(s) | Blue2 |
| Website | www.democrats.org |
| 1The National Democratic Institute, an organization with ties to the party, is registered as a cooperating organization with the Liberal International. 2Blue was assigned as the party's color in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, and will likely be used again in the 2008 election. | |
The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the United States, the other one being the Republican Party. The party traces its beginnings to Thomas Jefferson in the early 1790s, and is the oldest political party in the world. Currently, the Democratic Party is the minority party in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. Democrats control 20 state legislatures, as do the Republicans. In 2005, the Democrats regained a plurality of legislative seats nationwide, however the seat count is still much lower than it was 10 years ago.
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Ideological base
The principles and values of any political party are difficult to define and apply generally to all members of the party. Some members may disagree with one or more plank of their party's political platform. The national platform issued in presidential elections is the personal statement of the nominee.
On the budget, John Kerry in the 2004 platform promised to halve the yearly federal budget deficit by 2009.
On a major issue affecting civil liberties, the USA PATRIOT Act, the Democratic agenda is to "change the portions of the Patriot Act that threaten individual rights, such as the library provisions." Kerry further explained in his platform, "Our government should never round up innocent people only because of their religion or ethnicity, and we should never stifle free expression." The party is against racial profiling in the war against terror.
On crime, Democrats place more focus on methods of prevention of crime rather than on what penalties are applied to criminals. They emphasize improved community policing and more on-duty police officers in order to help accomplish that. Their platforms for 2000 and 2004 also cite crackdowns on gangs and drug trafficking as preventive methods. Their platforms have also particularly addressed the issue of domestic violence, calling for strict penalties for offenders and protections for victims.
On equality and nondiscrimination, the Democrats wish to uphold the Americans with Disabilities Act to prohibit discrimination against people on the basis of physical or mental disability. The Democrats cite Affirmative Action as a method with which to redress past discrimination and to ensure equitable employment regardless of ethnicity or gender, but oppose the use of quotas in hiring.
On same-sex marriage, the Democrats are split. Many publicly support civil unions for same-sex couples, and many have endorsed full same-sex marriage rights. Some Democrats support same-sex marriage; others say it should be left to the states; and others oppose it.
On the subject of illegal drugs, more radical Democrats are in favor of legalizing marijuana, arguing for the maintenance of civil liberties as long as no one puts anyone else in danger. However, as far as more hardcore drugs such as cocaine and LSD, few Democrats have expressed support for legalizing them.
On health care, Democrats typically call for "affordable health care", and many advocate an expansion of government funding in this area. In their 2004 platform, the Democrats affirmed the pursuit of federally funded zygotic stem-cell "research under the strictest ethical guidelines, but we will not walk away from the chance to save lives and reduce human suffering."
On reproductive rights and women's rights, the Democrats believe that privacy is a constitutional right. Thus as a matter of privacy and gender equality, they maintain, women should be allowed to control their fertility and pregnancy, including access to abortion, legalized under Roe v. Wade. Often supporters refer to a "right to choose" without a direct reference to the more politically charged term "abortion". Many Democratic politicians include in this right practical access to abortion through government subsidies. Some Democratic Party members from Republican-leaning districts or states have different stances on the issue.
The party's proposal (in 2000 and 2004) for public policy on termination of pregnancy is for abortion to be "safe, legal and rare" - namely, keeping it legal by rejecting laws that include governmental interference in any individual matter, and reducing the number performed by promoting both knowledge of reproduction and incentives for adoption.
On gun politics, the Democratic Party has introduced various measures of gun control over the last 100 years. Most notable of these is the National Firearms Act of 1934 (signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt), the 1939 Gun Control Act (also signed into law by FDR), the 1968 Gun Control Act (introduced by Sen. Dodd and heavily endorsed by Sen. Edward Kennedy), the Brady law of 1993 (signed by President Bill Clinton), and the Crime Control Act of 1994 (also signed by Clinton). However, many Democrats, particularly rural Democrats and especially Southern and Western Democrats, have dissented and favored fewer restrictions on firearm possession. In the national platform for 2004, the only statement explicitly favoring gun control was a plank calling for renewal of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.
History
For more details see History of the United States Democratic Party
Beginnings
The Democratic Party traces its origins to the Democratic-Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1792. However, some scholars date the party's beginnings to the late 1820s when Andrew Jackson and his organizer Martin Van Buren built a new party with a national base, and powerful local bases in the states, comprising local political leaders. The name "Democratic" appeared about 1834. The Democrats did resemble the old Democratic-Republican Party where geography was concerned (both were strong in New York City and Virginia, and weak in New England). Both shared the same Jeffersonian anti-elite rhetoric of opposition to "aristocracy" and faith in "the people."
The main opposition came from the new Whig party. Henry Clay was its main leader, but he lost repeatedly. The Democratic Party of the 1830s was a complex coalition with many elements, especially farmers in all parts of the country, together with workingmen's groups in the cities. The key issues in the 1830s were patronage, the tariff and the Bank of the United States. The economic issues of banking and tariffs would be central domestic policy issue from 1828 to 1850, together with questions of land distribution and national expansion.
Van Buren won the presidency in 1836 but was defeated for reelection in 1840. James K. Polk won in the 1844 election, directed the Mexican-American War, then retired. In the 1848 election, Van Buren's Free Soil Party split from the Democrats, allowing the Whigs to defeat Lewis Cass. The Whigs fell apart after 1850, allowing the Democrats to dominate most states. They elected Franklin Pierce in 1852. The main leader in Congress, Sen. Stephen A. Douglas pushed through the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 amidst strong protest. Many Democrats (especially Free Soilers from 1848) joined the newly established Republican Party. James Buchanan was elected in 1856, but his policies in Kansas so angered Douglas that the party was on the verge of splitting.
Civil War, Reconstruction and the Gilded Age
In the 1850s the Party became increasingly divided, with its Southern wing staunchly advocating the expansion of slavery into new territories and distrusting the Northern wing led by Douglas. In 1860 the Party split and rival conventions were held. The Northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas and the Southern Democrats nominated John Breckenridge in the 1860 election. As a result, Republican Abraham Lincoln won, and seven of the Southern United States seceded from the Union, and formed the Confederate States of America. Douglas and most northern Democrats rejected secession and, at the beginning, supported Lincoln's efforts to restore the Union during the American Civil War. By 1862 Northern Democrats were divided into two factions, War Democrats, who supported the military policies of President Lincoln, and Peace Democrats (the so-called Copperheads), who strongly opposed them. The Democrats were shattered by the war but nevertheless benefited from white Southerners' resentment of Reconstruction and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. Once Redeemers ended Reconstruction, and the disenfranchisement of blacks took place in the 1890s, the South became the "Solid South" for nearly a century because it reliably voted Democratic. In most of the South there was effectively only one party, and victory in the Democratic primary was "tantamount to election."
The nation was very evenly balanced in the 1880s. Though Republicans continued to control the White House until 1885, the Democrats remained competitive, with a solid base in the South and great strength in the rural lower Midwestern United States, and in ethnic German American and Irish American enclaves in large cities, mill towns and mining camps in the Northeastern United States. They controlled the House of Representatives for most of that period. In the election of 1884, Grover Cleveland, the reforming Democratic Governor of New York, won the Presidency. He was defeated in the election of 1888 but was re-elected in 1892. Cleveland was the leader of the conservative Bourbon Democrats. The Bourbon Democrats represented mercantile, banking and railroad interests, opposed imperialism and overseas expansion, fought for the gold standard, opposed Bimetallism, and crusaded against corruption and high taxes.
Bryan, Progressivism and Republican dominance: 1896-1932
In the presidential election of 1896, widely regarded as a political realignment, Democrats favoring Free Silver defeated their conservative counterparts and succeeded in nominating William Jennings Bryan for President of the United States (as did the agrarian Populist Party). Bryan, perhaps best known for his "Cross of Gold" speech delivered at the 1896 convention, waged a vigorous campaign attacking Eastern monied interests, but he lost to Republican William McKinley in an election which was to prove decisive.
The Republicans controlled the presidency for 28 of the following 36 years, dominating most of the Northeastern United States and the Midwestern United States, and half the Western United States. Bryan, with a base in the Southern United States and the Great Plains, was strong enough to get the nomination in the elections of 1900 (losing to McKinley) and 1908 (losing to William Howard Taft). Anti-Bryan conservatives controlled the convention in the election of 1904, but they faced a Theodore Roosevelt landslide. Bryan dropped his free silver and anti-imperialism rhetoric and supported mainstream progressive issues. He backed Woodrow Wilson in 1912, was rewarded by being made Secretary of State, but resigned to protest Wilson's non-pacifist policies in the election of 1916.
Taking advantage of a growing split between conservatives and the Progressive Movement in the Republican Party, the Democrats took control of the House in 1910 and elected intellectual reformer Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916. Wilson successfully led Congress to a series of Progressive laws, including a reduced tariff, stronger antitrust laws, the Federal Reserve System, and pay benefits for railroad workers. A law to outlaw child labor was reversed by the Supreme Court. Furthermore, the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution establishing Prohibition and the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution establishing Women's suffrage were passed in his second term, but they were bipartisan efforts. In effect, Wilson laid to rest the issues of tariffs, money and antitrust that had dominated politics for 40 years.
Wilson led the U.S. to victory in World War I and helped write the Versailles Treaty, which included the League of Nations. But in 1919 Wilson's political skills faltered, as did his health; suddenly everything turned sour. The Senate rejected Versailles and the League, and a nationwide wave of strikes and violence caused unrest. In the 1924 Democratic National Convention, a resolution denouncing the Ku Klux Klan by name was introduced as an amendment to a resolution condemning prejudice and hate groups. This was a test of strength posed by Al Smith and Oscar W. Underwood to challenge the William McAdoo candidacy. After much debate, the resolution failed by just a single vote, but McAdoo never could get the two-thirds required for nomination. The deeply divided party was hit by Republican landslides in the presidential elections of 1920, 1924, and 1928. However Al Smith helped build a strong Catholic base in the big cities in 1928, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's election as governor of New York that year brought a new leader to center stage.
The New Deal
The Great Depression set the stage for a more liberal government, and Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide victory in the presidential election of 1932, campaigning on a vague platform that promised repeal of Prohibition and criticizing Herbert Hoover's presidential failures. On taking office on March 4, 1933, Roosevelt came forth with a massive array of programs, soon known as the New Deal. These focused on "Relief, Recovery and Reform". That is, relief of unemployment and rural distress, recovery of the economy back to normal and long-term structural reforms to prevent any repetition.
The 1932 election brought Democrats large majorities in both houses of Congress, and among state governors; the 1934 election increased those margins. The 1933 programs, called "the First New Deal" by many historians, represented a broad consensus; Roosevelt tried to reach out to business and labor, farmers and consumers, cities and countryside. By 1934, however, he was moving toward a more confrontational policy. Roosevelt sought to move the party away from laissez-faire capitalism and toward an ideology of economic regulation and insurance against hardship. Conservative Democrats were outraged; led by Al Smith they formed the American Liberty League in 1934 and counterattacked.
After making gains in Congress in 1934 Roosevelt embarked on an ambitious legislative program that came to be called "The Second New Deal." It was characterized by building up labor unions, nationalizing welfare by the Works Progress Administration, setting up Social Security, imposing more regulations on business (especially transportation and communications), and raising taxes on business profits. His policies soon paid off by uniting a diverse coalition of Democratic voters called the New Deal Coalition, which included labor unions, minorities (most significantly, Catholics and Jews), and liberals. This united voter base allowed Democrats to be elected to Congress and the presidency for much of the next 30 years.
After a triumphant re-election in 1936, Roosevelt announced plans to enlarge the Supreme Court. A firestorm of opposition erupted, led by his own vice president John Nance Garner. Roosevelt was defeated by an alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats, who formed a conservative coalition that managed to block nearly all liberal legislation. Threatened by the conservative wing of his party, Roosevelt made an attempt to purge it; in 1938, he actively campaigned against five incumbent conservative Democratic senators. They denounced national interference in state affairs, and all five senators won re-election.
Under FDR, the Democratic Party became characterized as "liberal" (an old word with a new meaning). Liberalism meant the promotion of social welfare, labor unions, civil rights, and regulation of business. The opponents, who stressed long-term growth, support for entrepreneurship and low taxes, now started calling themselves "conservatives."
Truman to Kennedy, 1945-1963
Harry S Truman took over in 1945, when Roosevelt died, The rifts inside the party that Roosevelt had papered over began to emerge. Former Vice President Henry A. Wallace denounced Truman as a war-monger for his anti-Soviet programs, the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan and NATO. However the Wallace supporters and fellow travelers of the far left were pushed out of the party and the CIO in 1946-48 by young anti-Communists like Hubert H. Humphrey, Walter Reuther and Arthur Schlesinger Jr.. On the right the Republicans blasted Truman’s domestic policies. “Had Enough?” and "To err is Truman" were winning slogans for Republicans, who recaptured Congress in 1946.
Many party leaders were ready to dump Truman, but they lacked an alternative. Truman counterattacked, pushing out Strom Thurmond and his Dixiecrats and taking advantage of the splits inside the Republican Party. Truman won re-election over Thomas Dewey in 1948; a stunning surprise. Truman’s Fair Deal proposals, such as universal health care were defeated by the Conservative Coalition in Congress.
The Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson in both 1952 and 1956, only to see him overwhelmed by two Dwight D. Eisenhower landslides. In Congress the powerful duo of House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority leader Lyndon B. Johnson held the party together, often by compromising with Eisenhower. In 1958 the party made dramatic gains in the off-year election.
Sen. John F. Kennedy won the presidential election of 1960, defeating then-Vice President of the United States Richard Nixon. Though Kennedy's term in office lasted just 1000 days, he tried to hold back Communist gains after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and the construction of the Berlin Wall, and sent 16,000 soldiers to Vietnam to advise the hard pressed South Vietnamese army. He challenged America in the Space Race to land a man on the moon by 1969. After the Cuban Missile Crisis he moved to de-escalate tensions with the Soviet Union. A growing issue was racial integration and the Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and replaced by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson, heir to the New Deal broke the Conservative Coalition and passed a remarkable number of liberal laws, known as the Great Society. At the same time Johnson escalated the Vietnam War, leading to a "guns versus butter" conflict that shattered the party in 1968.
Civil Rights movement
African Americans, who had traditionally given strong support to the Republican Party since the American Civil War, shifted to the Democratic Party in the 1930s, probably because of New Deal relief programs and patronage offers. In many cities, such as Chicago, entire ward-based Republican apparatus in Black neighborhoods switched parties overnight. However, the New Deal Coalition began to fracture, as more Democratic leaders voiced support for civil rights, upsetting the party's traditional base of conservative Southern Democrats and ethnic Catholics in Northern United States cities. After Harry Truman's platform showed support for civil rights and anti-segregation laws during the 1948 Democratic National Convention, some Southern Democrats, called "Dixiecrats" temporarily abandoned the national party and voted for South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond. They voted for his electors on the regular state Democratic ticket. Although Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower carried half the South in 1952 and 1956, there was no permanent realignment until the presidential election of 1964.
The national party's dramatic reversal on civil rights issues culminated when Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On doing so he famously commented: "We have lost the South for a generation." Meanwhile, the Republicans were beginning their Southern strategy, which aimed to resist federal encroachment on the states, while appealing to residual racist feelings among conservative and moderate white Southerners in the rapidly growing cities and suburbs of the south.
In 1968 everything went wrong for the party, and the wounds would last for decades. The Vietnam War turned sour with the stunning Tet Offensive early in the year. Senator Eugene McCarthy rallied antiwar forces on campus in the New Hampshire primary, proving Johnson's support among Democrats was slipping fast. In a stunning move, Johnson withdrew from the election. Senator Robert Kennedy then entered the race, facing McCarthy in a bitter series of primaries that showed a deep split between the students and professors supporting McCarthy and the ethnics and African Americans supporting Kennedy. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April, sparking a nationwide round of riots and violent protests. Johnson had to send federal troops to Detroit, and had to post machine-gun squads to guard the Capitol building. The Secret Service told him he could not attend the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, because they could not guarantee his safety. Just before the convention Kennedy was assassinated. At the convention left wing forces confronted the police in a series of violent encounters. Meanwhile Hubert H. Humphrey, a stalwart New Dealer had entered the race, but it was too late for him to enter the primaries. He relied on support from the labor unions and from old-line city bosses like Chicago's Richard J. Daley, and won the nomination. Meanwhile Alabama's Democratic governor George C. Wallace launched a third party crusade against the integrationists and intellectuals, and at one point was running second to the Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon. A blistering union campaign stopped Wallace from making major inroads into the northern white working class vote, but he swept the white working class vote in the South. Humphrey defied his reputation as a supporter of the Vietnam war, but it was too late. Nixon won, as the Democrats retained control of Congress.
The degree to which white and black southerners had reversed their historic parties became evident in the 1968 presidential election, when every southern state except Texas deserted Humphrey and voted for either Republican Nixon or independent Wallace. The party's main electoral base thus shifted to the Northeastern United States, marking a dramatic reversal from tradition.
1970s
In the presidential election of 1972, the Democrats nominated South Dakota Senator George McGovern with his isolationist, anti-Vietnam War slogan "Come Home, America!" McGovern's platform advocated immediate withdrawal from Vietnam and a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans. McGovern tried to crusade against the policies of Nixon, but disclosures about his running-mate Thomas Eagleton (who had undergone secret electric shock therapy) proved disastrous to McGovern's public image. Sargent Shriver, ally of Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley finally accepted the Vice Presidential candidacy. The general election was a landslide for Nixon, as McGovern carried only Massachusetts. However, Democrats retained their large majorities in Congress and most state houses.
Gerald Ford pardoned Richard M. Nixon soon after his resignation in 1974, giving the Democrats a "corruption" issue they used to make major gains in the off-year elections. In the 1976 the surprise winner was a little-known outsider who promised honesty in Washington, Jimmy Carter, a former Governor of Georgia.
Some of President Carter's major accomplishments consisted of the creation of a national energy policy and the consolidation of governmental agencies, resulting in two new cabinet departments, the United States Department of Energy and the United States Department of Education. Carter led the bipartisan effort to deregulate the trucking, airline, rail, finance, communications, and oil industries, thus eliminating the New Deal approach to regulation of the economy. He bolstered the social security system, and appointed record numbers of women and minorities to significant government and judicial posts. He helped enact strong legislation on environmental protection, through the expansion of the National Park Service in Alaska, creating 103 million new acres of land. In foreign affairs, Carter's accomplishments consisted of the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the creation of full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and the negotiation of the SALT II Treaty. In addition, he championed human rights throughout the world and used human rights as the center of his administration's foreign policy.
Even with all of these successes, Carter failed to implement a national health plan or to reform the tax system, as he had promised in his campaign. Inflation was also on the rise. Abroad, the Iran hostage crisis (November 4, 1979 - January 20, 1981) involved 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, and Carter's diplomatic and military rescue attempts failed. The Soviet war in Afghanistan starting in December, 1979 helped weaken the perception Americans had of Carter. In the presidential election of 1980, Carter defeated Ted Kennedy to gain renomination, but lost to Ronald Reagan in November. The Democrats lost 12 Senate seats, and for the first time since 1954, the Republicans controlled the Senate. The House, however, remained in Democratic hands. Even though he had already been defeated for re-election, Carter negotiated the release of every American hostage from Iran in the last hours of his term in office.
1980s
Instrumental in the election of Republican President Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election were Democrats who supported many conservative policies. The "Reagan Democrats" were Democrats before and after the Reagan years. They were mostly white ethnics in the Northeastern United States who were attracted to Reagan's social conservatism and his War Hawkish foreign policy. Reagan carried 49 states against former Vice President Walter Mondale, a New Deal stalwart, in the United States presidential election, 1984. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, running not as a New Dealer but as an efficiency expert in public administration, lost by a landslide in the 1988 election to Vice President George H. W. Bush.
This left the Democrats' presence mostly in Congress. The Democratic congress would clash with the Executive, including banning funding of Central American counter revolutionary groups (Which would lead to the Iran-Contra Scandal) and keeping many social programs that were slated for cuts. However, the Congress would end up permitting many of the spending increases that Reagan proposed, helping to increase the defecit to record levels.
In response to these landslide Presidential defeats, the Democratic Leadership Council was created. It worked to move the Party rightwards to the ideological center. With the Party retaining left-of-center supporters as well as supporters holding moderate or conservative views on some issues, the Democrats, more so than ever, became a catch all party with widespread appeal to most opponents of the Republicans.
1990s
In 1992, for the first time in 12 years, the United States elected a Democrat to the White House. President Bill Clinton balanced the federal budget for the first time since the Kennedy presidency and presided over robust American economy that saw incomes grow across the board. However, starting in 1994, the Democrats lost their majority in the House of Representatives. Clinton, vetoed two Republican-backed reform bills before signing the third, a welfare reform bill. Labor unions, which had been steadily losing membership since the 1960s, found they had also lost political clout inside the Democratic Party: Clinton enacted the NAFTA free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico over the strong objection of these labor unions, much to the disappointment of those on the left of the Party.
When the DLC attempted to move the Democratic agenda in favor of more centrist positions, prominent Democrats from both the centrist and conservative factions (such as Terry McAuliffe) assumed leadership of the party and its direction. Some liberals and progressives felt alienated by the Democratic Party, which they felt had become unconcerned with the interests of the common people and left-wing issues in general. Some Democrats challenged the validity of such critiques, citing the Democratic role in pushing for liberal reforms.
21st century
During the presidential election of 2000, the Democrats chose Vice President Al Gore to be the Party's candidate for the presidency. Although Gore and George W. Bush, the Republican candidate, clearly disagreed on issues such as abortion, gun politics, environmentalism, gay rights, tax cuts, foreign policy, public education, global warming, judicial appointments, and affirmative action, some critics — Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in particular — asserted that Bush and Gore were too similar because they held the same views on free trade and reductions in government-funded social welfare programs.
On election day, the Nader candidacy fulfilled the spoiler role, as Gore won the popular vote by just over 500,000 votes, but lost in the electoral college by four votes. Many observers blamed Nader's third-party candidacy for Gore's defeat. They pointed to the states of New Hampshire (4 electoral votes) and Florida (25 electoral votes), where Nader's total votes exceeded Governor Bush's margin of victory. In Florida, Nader received 97,000 votes; Bush defeated Gore by a mere 538. Winning either Florida or New Hampshire would have given Gore enough electoral votes to win the presidency.
Republican Senators went from the majority in the 106th Congress to a split minority in the 107th Congress (with a Republican Vice President breaking a tie). However, when liberal Republican Senator Jim Jeffords (Vermont) changed his party affiliation to unaffiliated and chose to vote with the Democrats, the majority status switched back to the Democrats, including control of the floor (by the Majority Leader) and control of all committee chairmanships. The Republicans regained their majority in 2002 and strengthened it in 2004, leaving the Democrats with only 44 seats, the fewest since the 1920s.
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the nation's focus was changed to issues of national security. All but one Democrat voted with their Republican counterparts to authorize President Bush's 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. House leader Dick Gephardt and Senate leader Tom Daschle pushed Democrats to vote for the USA PATRIOT Act and the invasion of Iraq. The Democrats were split over the 2003 invasion of Iraq and increasingly expressed concerns about both the justification and progress of the War on Terrorism and the domestic effects including threats to civil rights and civil liberties from the USA PATRIOT Act.
In the wake of the financial fraud scandal of the Enron Corporation and other corporations, Congressional Democrats were pushed for a legal overhaul of business accounting with the intention of preventing further accounting fraud. This led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. With job losses and bankruptcies across regions and industries increasing in 2001 and 2002, the Democrats generally campaigned on the issue of economic recovery.
The 2004 campaign started as early as December 2002, when Gore announced he would not run again in the 2004 election. Ex-Governor Howard Dean of Vermont, an opponent of the war and a critic of the Democratic establishment, was the frontrunner leading into the Democratic primaries. Dean had immense grassroots support, especially from the left wing of the Party. John Kerry, a more centrist figure, was nominated because he was seen as more "electable" than Dean.
As layoffs of American workers occurred in various industries due to outsourcing, some Democrats (including Howard Dean and Senatorial candidate Erskine Bowles of North Carolina) began to refine their positions on free trade and some even questioned their past support for it. By 2004, the failure of George W. Bush's administration to find weapons of mass destruction, mounting combat casualties and fatalities in Iraq, and the lack of any end point for the War on Terror were frequently debated issues in the election. That year, Democrats generally campaigned on surmounting the jobless recovery, solving the Iraq crisis, and fighting terrorism more efficiently.
In the end, Kerry lost both the popular vote by 3 million and electoral vote. Republicans gained four seats in the Senate and three seats in the House of Representatives. Also, for the first time since 1952, the Democratic leader of the Senate lost re-election. In the end there were 3,660 Democratic state legislators across the nation to the Republicans' 3,557. Democrats gained governorships in Louisiana, New Hampshire and Montana. However, they lost the governorship of Missouri and a legislative majority in Georgia - which had long been a Democratic stronghold.
There were many reasons for the defeat. Kerry was a poor campaigner who thought his heroic war record in the Vietnam War would make him more attractive to voters, but a group of Vietnam veterans opposed to Kerry called the Swift Boat Veterans undercut this campaign strategy. Kerry was unable to reconcile his initial support of the Iraq War with his opposition to the war in 2004, or manage the deep split in the Democratic Party between those who favored and opposed the war. Republicans ran thousands of television commercials to argue that Kerry had flip-flopped on Iraq. When Kerry's home state of Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, the issue split liberal and conservative Democrats and independents (Kerry publicly stated throughout his campaign that he opposed same sex marriage, but favored civil unions). Republicans exploited the same-sex marriage issue by promoting ballot initiatives in 11 states that brought conservatives to the polls in large numbers; all 11 initiatives passed. [1] Kerry may also have lost the election due to the Democrats being unable to clearly articulate their values, goals, and issue positions.[2] Flaws in vote-counting systems may also have played a role in Kerry's defeat. With 150,000 more votes in Ohio, Kerry would have overcome Bush's 3 million vote popular majority and won the electoral college. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and several Democratic U.S. Representatives (including John Conyers of Michigan) raised the issue of voting irregularities in Ohio when the 109th Congress first convened, but they were defeated 267-31 by the House and 74-1 by the Senate.
After two unexpected defeats, many Democrats have voiced serious concerns about the future of their party. Prominent Democrats began to rethink the party's direction, and a variety of strategies for moving forward were voiced. Some have suggested moving towards the right to regain seats in the House and Senate and possibly win the presidency in the election of 2008; others suggested that the party move more to the left and become a stronger opposition party.
These debates were reflected in the 2005 campaign for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which Howard Dean won over the objections of many party insiders. Dean sought to move the Democratic strategy away from the establishment, and bolster support for the party's state and local chapters.[3]
When the 109th Congress convened, Democratic Senators chose Harry Reid of Nevada as their Minority Leader and Richard Durbin of Illinois to replace Reid as their Assistant Minority Leader. Reid tried to convince the Democratic Senators to vote more as a bloc on important issues; he did force the Republicans to abandon their push for privatization of Social Security.
2008 Outlook
Numerous possible candidates have been mentioned. By far the most media attention has gone to the front-runner in the polls, New York Senator Hillary Clinton (who could become the first woman nominated for president by a major party). Other names prominently mentioned include former Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards, former nominees John Kerry and Al Gore (both of whom lost to George Bush in the disputed 2000 and 2004 elections) as well as former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (who could become the first ever Hispanic on a major party ticket), and Illinois Senator Barack Obama (who could become the first African-American on a major party ticket).
Presidential tickets
[1] Resigned.
[2] Died in office.
[3] The Greeley/Brown ticket was nominated by both the Democrats and the Liberal Republican Party. Greeley died shortly after the election.
[4] Thomas Eagleton was the original vice presidential nominee, but was forced to withdraw his nomination.
Factions
Neoliberals/Centrists/Moderates
Though neoliberal Democrats differ on a variety of issues, they typically foster a mix of political views and ideas. Compared to other Democratic factions, they're mostly more supportive of the use of military force, including the war in Iraq, and are more willing to reduce government welfare, as indicated by their support for welfare reform and tax cuts. Neoliberals argue that their ideas are more in line with the majority of Americans. Liberal Democrats such as Governor Howard Dean ridicule neoliberals as "Republican Lite" due to their willingness to promote some of a Republican agenda and their willingness to accept corporate fundraising.
Prominent neoliberals include President Bill Clinton; Senator Hillary Clinton; Vice President Al Gore up to 2000, but not since; Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, and former Virginia Governor Mark Warner. This faction of Democrats are sometimes affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council and were referred to as New Democrats in the 1990's.
Libertarians
Civil libertarians also often support the Democratic Party because its positions on such issues as civil rights and separation of church and state are more closely aligned to their own than the positions of the Republican Party, and because the Democrats' economic agenda may be more appealing to them than that of the Libertarian Party. They oppose the "War on Drugs," protectionism, corporate welfare, immigration restrictions, governmental borrowing, and an interventionist foreign policy. The Democratic Freedom Caucus is an organized group of this faction.
Progressives
Many progressives are descendants of the New Left of Democratic Presidential candidate/Senator George McGovern of South Dakota; others were involved in the presidential candidacies of Vermont Governor Howard Dean and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. Progressive Democratic candidates for public office have had popular support as candidates in urban areas, the Northeast, the Midwest, the West Coast, and among African-Americans nationwide, though they have also been supported by other groups. Unifying issues among progressive Democrats have been opposition to the War in Iraq, opposition to economic and social conservatism, opposition to heavy corporate influence in government, support for universal healthcare and steering the Democratic Party in the direction of being a more forceful opposition party. Compared to other factions of the party, they've been most critical of the Republican Party, and most supportive of social and economic equality.
Progressive Democrats have included congressmen Kucinich, Congressman John Conyers (Michigan), Jim McDermott (Washington), John Lewis (Georgia), the late Senator Paul Wellstone (Minnesota).
Labor
One of the most important parts of the Democratic Party coalition is the labor vote. Labor supplies a great deal of the money, grass roots political organization and base of support for the party. While Union membership has fallen over the last four decades, the labor union component of the party is still very important. The Union vote tends to be more protectionist than centrists in the party. The labor wing is concerned with issues such as the minimum wage, as well as protection of pensions, collective bargaining and access to health insurance. Prominent members of this wing include Andy Stern of SEIU. Other important union organizations in the Democratic coalition include AFSCME, UAW, and the AFL-CIO. Most of the members in this faction tend to identify more with the progressive faction of the party.
Liberals
Liberal Democrats are to the left of centrist Democrats. The liberal faction was dominant in the party for several decades, although they have been hurt by the rise of centrist forces such as President Bill Clinton. Compared to conservatives and moderates, liberal Democrats generally have advocated fair trade and other less conservative economic policies, and a less militaristic foreign policy, and have a reputation of being more forceful in pushing for civil liberties. Liberals are increasingly identified as being part of the larger progressive wing of the party.
Prominent liberal Democrats include U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer (California), Russ Feingold (Wisconsin), Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts), Tom Harkin (Iowa), Joe Biden (Delaware) and House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi (California).
Conservatives
The Democratic Party had a conservative element, mostly from the South and Border regions, into the 1980s. Their numbers declined sharply as the GOP built up its southern base. They were sometimes humorously called "Yellow dog Democrats", or "boll weevils", "Dixiecrats"; in the House, they still form the Blue Dog Democrats caucus. There remains, however, a small conservative wing of the Democratic Party, one which is mostly rural or southern. Prominent conservative Democrats of recent time include Senators Joe Lieberman (Connecticut), Ben Nelson (Nebraska), Ken Salazar (Colorado) and Mary Landrieu (Louisiana); as well as Congressmen Ike Skelton (Missouri), Gene Taylor (Mississippi), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Collin Peterson (Minnesota), and Jim Marshall (Georgia).
Notable groups
There are several ideological groups within the modern-day Democratic Party. As the party is made up of several groups with different ideologies, several sub-groups within the party have been set up to promote the ideologies each respective group holds. Although some of these factions do not have official organizations representing them, they are often well-represented within the party.
African Americans have voted consistently for Democratic Party candidates, in the 85 to 90% range. A recent Gallup poll analysis showed that 63% of African Americans were registered Democrats, 7% Republicans, and 30% unaffiliated; further analysis showed that when asked which way they leaned only 13% said they favored Republicans. Democratic African American leadership coalesces around the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights activists and is generally considered liberal in outlook. Senator Barack Obama, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Congressman John Conyers are prominent leaders of this faction.
The Democracy for America (DFA) political action committee generally supports fiscally responsible and socially progressive candidates at all levels of government. It was founded by ex-Vermont Governor and current Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean during his presidential campaign; its current Chairman is James H. Dean, Howard Dean's brother. DFA fights against the influence of the far-right on American politics and works to rebuild the Democratic Party "from the bottom up".
One of the most influential factions is the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), an influential non-profit organization that advocates centrist positions for the party. Members often self-identify under the title "New Democrat". Centrist party leaders founded the DLC in response to the landslide victory of Republican candidate Ronald Reagan over Democratic candidate Walter Mondale in the 1984 presidential election, believing the Democratic Party needed to reform its political philosophy if it was to ever retake the White House, a goal which had eluded the party since the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter.
The DLC hails President Bill Clinton as proof of the viability of third way politicians and a DLC success story. However, critics contend that the DLC is effectively a powerful, corporate-financed influence within the Democratic Party that acts to keep Democratic Party candidates and platforms sympathetic to corporate interests. The DLC was founded and continues to be led by Al From. Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa is the current chairman.
The 21st Century Democrats is a political organization active since 2000 in assisting candidates it describes as "progressive" or "populist" in winning elections. Its strategy puts emphasis on training large numbers of organizers to work at the grassroots level and targeting specific campaigns it sees as important. It has strong ties to veterans of campaigns for the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus or CPC is a caucus of progressive Democrats, along with one independent, in the U.S. Congress. It is the single largest Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives, although it currently has no members from the Senate. Well-known members include Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The CPC advocates universal health care, fair trade agreements, living wage laws, the right of all workers to organize into trade unions and engage in strike actions and collective bargaining, the abolition of significant portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the formation of a Department of Peace, the legalization of gay marriage, strict campaign finance reform laws, a complete pullout from the war in Iraq, a crackdown on corporate crime and what they see as corporate welfare, an increase in income tax on whom they consider "wealthy", tax cuts for whom they consider "poor", and an increase in welfare spending by the federal government. [4] [5]
As a key source of political contributions, volunteers, and field organizing expertise, Organized Labor holds significant sway in the Democratic Party. Former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt was a leading supporter of labor in Congress. Trade unions have often been a considerable source of support for the party, and several elections were lost when the Democratic candidates were viewed as less than sufficiently supportive of their interests.
Civil libertarians also often support the Democratic Party because its positions on such issues as civil rights and separation of church and state are more closely aligned to their own than the positions of the Republican Party, and because the Democrats' economic agenda may be more appealing to them than that of the Libertarian Party. They oppose the "War on Drugs," protectionism, corporate welfare, immigration restrictions, governmental borrowing, and an interventionist foreign policy. The Democratic Freedom Caucus is an organized group of this faction.
The Blue Dog Democrats are a congressional caucus of fiscal and social conservatives and moderates, primarily southerners, willing to broker compromises with the Republican leadership. They have acted as a unified voting bloc in the past, giving its thirty members some ability to change legislation. The name appears to be both a reference to several well-known Louisiana paintings featuring blue dogs, as well as a reference to the old "yellow dog" Democrats having been "choked blue." Traditionally, the color blue has been associated with conservative ideals, contributing to the caucus' name.
The progressive Democrats of America lends itself to the progressive ideology within the party. Founded by members of Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, it does not hold much sway in the Democratic Party, being considered more radically liberal than other factions.
A newly emerging trend is the return of active pro-life Democratic groups and candidates. Many pro-lifer's left the Democratic Party in the 1980's due to a narrowing of the party on the abortion issue. Some of these candidates have won office or are being backed by the party establishment in there state. While some of these pro-life Democrats are more conservative that most Democrats in general, most are centrists or liberals in keeping with the majority of the Democratic Party on other issues. The largest national pro-life group within the party is the Democrats for Life.
Symbols
In its original form, the jackass was born in the intense mudslinging used during the presidential race of 1828 as a play on the name of President Andrew Jackson, the Democratic candidate.
On January 19, 1870, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast appearing in Harper's Weekly titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" revived the donkey as a symbol for the Democratic Party; it had also been used in the 1830s. Cartoonists followed Nast and used the donkey to represent the Democrats, and the elephant to represent the GOP. The DNC's official logo, pictured above, depicts a stylized kicking donkey.
While every political party utilizes the traditional red, white, and blue colors in their marketing and representations, in the media states voting democratic are often depicted as blue while those voting republican are depicted as red.
Current structure and composition
Further information: Politics of the United States#Organization of American Political Parties
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is responsible for promoting presidential goals (when the party controls the White House) or articulating Democratic policies (when the Republicans have the White House). In presidential elections it supervises the national convention and, under the direction of the presidential candidate, it raises funds, commissions polls, and coordinates campaign strategy. There are similar state committees in every state and most large cities, counties, and legislative districts, but they have far less money and influence than the national body. The chairman of the DNC (currently Howard Dean) is chosen by the President when the Democrats have the White House. Otherwise the chairman is chosen by vote of the state committeemen; Dean ran against numerous candidates to win his position in early 2005. Rather than focusing just on close "swing states," Dean proposed the 50 State Strategy. His goal is for the Democratic Party to be committed to winning elections at every level in every region of the country, with Democrats organized in every single voting precinct in the country.
The Democratic Party in House and Senate have powerful fundraising and strategy committees. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (or DCCC) assists party candidates in House races, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Senate races. They raise over $100 million per election cycle, and play important roles in recruiting strong candidates. The Democratic Governors Association is a discussion group that seldom funds state races. In each instance the Republicans have similar organizations. There is also a group focused on state legislative races, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. The DNC sponsors a youth oriented organization called the Young Democrats of America (YDA).
See also
- Democratic National Convention
- History of the United States Democratic Party
- List of Democratic Party Presidential nominees
- List of notable Democrats
- List of state Democratic Parties in the U.S.
- progressivism
- Democrat In Name Only
Democratic organizations
- Blue Dog Democrats
- Democratic Freedom Caucus
- Democrats Abroad
- Democratic Leadership Council
- College Democrats
- Democrats for Life
- National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
- Unofficial organizations for Democrats
Other
Notes
- ^ The other is the British Conservative Party, which is older if you consider its origins in the older Tory Party founded in about 1680.
- ^ Michael Moore, Stupid White Men (And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation), Chapter Ten, Regan Books. ISBN 0-06-039245-2
- ^ Ari Melber, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 26 March 2005, "Where's the Party At?". The Nation, 2 August 2004, "A People's Democratic Platform."
- ^ Al Franken and Tom Wolffe, Rolling Stone, 17 November 2004, "The Aftermath". Thomas Frank, New York Review of Books vol. 52 #8, May 12 2005, "What's the Matter with Liberals?"
- ^ Jann S. Wenner, Rolling Stone, 17 November2004,