Democratic Party (United States)

Democratic Party
Chairman	Howard Dean
Founded	1792
Headquarters	430 South Capitol Street SE Washington, D.C. 20003
Ideology	Liberalism1,Progressivism ,Third way (centrism)
International affiliation	None2
Colours	Blue3
Website
www.democrats.org
1Liberalism in the United States. 2The National Democratic Institute, an organization with ties to the party, is registered as a cooperating organization with the Liberal International. 3Blue was assigned as the party's color in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election and the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, and will likely be used again in 2008.

The Democratic Party, founded in 1792, is one of the two longest-standing political parties in the world. The Party is one of two major parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. 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.

Of the two major U.S. parties, the Democratic Party is to the left of the Republican Party, though its politics are not as consistently leftist as the traditional social democratic and labor parties in much of the world. The Democratic Party is more notably factional than many major parties in the industrialized world, partly because American political parties in general do not have as much official power to control members as political parties in many other countries, and partly because the United States does not have a parliamentary government.

History

Main article: History of the United States Democratic Party

• See also American election campaigns in the 19th Century

Beginnings

File:Andrew jackson head.gif

Andrew Jackson, the first Democratic President (1829-1837).

The Democratic Party's origins lie in the original Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1792. This party is sometimes called "Democratic-Republican Party" in older history books, but was referred to as the "Republican party" by Americans in the 1790-1820 era. After the disintegration of the rival Federalist Party around 1816, the Republican party lost its organizational structure. Most important the caucus system of choosing presidential candidates ended after 1816. In 1824, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson were leading presidential contenders and all had strong claims to a Republican heritage, but did not emphasize it. Jackson himself was never close to Jefferson, Madison or any national party leaders; Jefferson thought Jackson was a dangerous man on horseback. The old system of local caucuses and partisan newspapers had decayed. A few men did talk about being "Old Republicans" loyal to the principles of 1798, but not many. The "Jacksonians" emerged as the winners in the late 1820s. Led by brilliant organizer Martin Van Buren they built a new party with both a national base, led by Jackson and Van Buren, and powerful local bases in the states, comprising local political leaders who called themselves "Jackson Men." The name "Democratic" appeared about 1834--the new party never called itself "Republican" or "Jeffersonian Republican." The Democrats did resemble the previous Republican Party in certain geographical ways (both were strong in New York City and Virginia, and weak in New England), and especially in terms of an anti-elite rhetoric of opposition to "aristocracy" and faith in "the people".

The main opposition came from the new Whig party. It formed in explicit opposition to Jackson. Henry Clay was its primary leader, but he lost to Jackson in 1832. 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 the Bank, and tariffs would be central domestic policy issue from 1828 to 1850, together with questions of land distribution and national expansion. By the 1850s these issues were overshadowed by slavery, nativism, and states rights in the run up to the Civil War.

Van Buren won in 1836 but was defeated for reelection in 1840. James Polk won in 1844 and prosecuted the war with Mexico, then retired. In 1848 the Free Soil Democrats split off, allowing the Whig war hero Zachary Taylor to win. The Whigs fell apart after 1850, allowing the Democrats to dominate most states. They elected Franklin Pierce in 1852. The main leader in Congress, Senator Stephen A. Douglas pushed through the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 amidst strong protest. Many Democrats (especially Free Soilers from 1848) joined the new 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 and Reconstruction

In the 1850s, following the disintegration of the Whig Party, the Democratic Party became increasingly divided, with its Southern wing staunchly advocating the expansion of slavery into new territories, in opposition to the newly founded Republican Party, which sought to prohibit such expansion. At the 1860 nominating convention the Party split and a rival convention was held. The Northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas and the Southern Democrats nominated John Breckenridge in the 1860 U.S. presidential election. As a result, Republican Abraham Lincoln won, and seven southern states seceeded from the Union, leading to the Civil War. During the war, Northern Democrats divided into two factions, War Democrats, who supported the military policies of President Lincoln, and Copperheads, who strongly opposed them. Historian Kenneth Stampp has captured the Democratic spirit in his depiction of Congressman Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana:

There was an earthy quality in Voorhees, "the tall sycamore of the Wabash." On the stump his hot temper, passionate partisanship, and stirring eloquence made an irresistible appeal to the western Democracy. His bitter cries against protective tariffs and national banks, his intense race prejudice, his suspicion of the eastern Yankee, his devotion to personal liberty, his defense of the Constitution and state rights faithfully reflected the views of his constituents. Like other Jacksonian agrarians he resented the political and economic revolution then in progress. Voorhees idealized a way of life which he thought was being destroyed by the current rulers of his country. His bold protests against these dangerous trends made him the idol of the Democracy of the Wabash Valley. [Stampp, Indiana p. 211]

The Democrats were shattered by the war but nevertheless benefited from white Southerners' resentment of Reconstruction and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. Once Reconstruction ended by the Compromise of 1877, and the disenfranchisement of blacks took place in the 1890s, the region was known as 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 Midwest, and in ethnic German and Irish enclaves in large cities, mill towns and mining camps in the Northeast. 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, a feat he repeated in 1892. He was defeated in the election of 1888.

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 the presidency (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 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. The GOP dominated most of the Northeast and Midwest, and half the West. Bryan, with a base in the South and Plains states, was strong enough to get the nomination in 1900 (losing to McKinley) and 1908 (losing to Taft). Anti-Bryan conservatives controlled the convention in 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 with the State Department and then resigned in protest against Wilson's non-pacifistic policies in 1916.

Taking advantage of a growing split in the GOP, the Democrats took control of the House in 1910, and elected the 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, pay benefits for railroad workers, and outlawing of child labor (which was reversed by the Supreme Court). Furthermore, constitutional amendments for prohibition and woman suffrage were passed in his second term. In effect, Wilson lay to rest the issues of tariffs, money and antitrust that had dominated politics for 40 years. Wilson led the U.S. to victory in the First World War, 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, a nationwide wave of strikes and violence caused unrest. In 1924 at the 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 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

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The Great Depression set the stage for a more liberal government and Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide victory in the election of 1932, campaigning on a vague platform that promised repeal of prohibition and criticized Herbert Hoover's 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 towards 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 WPA, 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 reelection 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 Truman took over unexpectedly in 1945, and the rifts inside the party that Roosevelt had papered over began to emerge. Former Vice President Henry C. 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?” was the winning slogan as Republicans recaptured Congress in 1946. Many party leaders were ready to dump Truman, but they lacked an alternative. Truman counterattacked, pushing J. Strom Thurmond and his Dixicrats out, and taking advantage of the splits inside the GOP. He was reelected in 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 1952 and 1956, only to see him overwhelmed by two 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.

Civil rights movement

Lyndon Johnson foresaw the end of the Solid South when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

African Americans, who had traditionally given strong support to the Republican Party since the Civil War, shifted to the Democratic Party due to its New Deal economic policies and patronage offers. In many cities, such as Chicago, an 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 cities. The latter two groups complained that they were being ignored and unfairly attacked as racists. After Harry Truman's platform showed support for civil rights and anti-segregation laws during the 1948 Democratic National Convention, many Southern Democrats, called "Dixiecrats" temporarily abndonned 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 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. Meanwhile, the Republicans were beginning their Southern strategy, which aimed to resist federal encroachment on the states, while appealing to conservative and moderate white Southerners, especially businessmen and professionals in the rapidly growing cities and suburbs.

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 Hubert Humphrey and voted for either Republican Richard Nixon or independent George Wallace of Alabama. Humphrey's electoral base thus shifterd to the Northeast, marking a dramatic reversal from tradition.

1970s

In 1972, the Democrats nominated South Dakota Senator George McGovern with his isolationist, anti-Vietnam War slogan "Come Home, America!" At the convention his forces ousted Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago, replacing him with Jesse Jackson. 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 his rhetoric was ignored and he carried only one state, Massachusetts.

In August 1974, Nixon, facing impeachment in the Watergate scandal, resigned from the presidency. Prior to that, his Vice President, Spiro Agnew had been forced out by a separate scandal. After Agnew resigned, Nixon appointed Gerald Ford as Vice President. Ford soon pardoned Nixon, giving the Democrats a "corruption" issue they used to make major gains in the 1974 elections. Mistrust of the administration, complicated by a combination of economic recession and inflation, called "stagflation," led to Ford's defeat in 1976. The winner was a little-known outsider who promised honesty in Washington, Jimmy Carter, a former Governor of Georgia. In 1980, Carter defeated Edward 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.

1980s

Instrumental in the election of Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1980, were Democrats who supported many conservative policies. The "Reagan Democrats" were Democrats before the Reagan years, and afterwards, but they voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (and for George H. W. Bush in 1988), producing their landslide victories. They were mostly white ethnics in the Northeast who were attracted to Reagan's social conservatism on issues such as abortion, and to his strong foreign policy. They did not continue to vote Republican in 1992 or 1996, so the term fell into disuse except as a reference to the 1980s. The term is not used to describe southern whites who became permanent Republicans in presidential elections. Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster analyzed white ethnic voters, largely unionized auto workers, in suburban Macomb County, Michigan, just north of Detroit. The county voted 63 percent for Kennedy in 1960 and 66 percent for Reagan in 1984. He concluded that Reagan Democrats no longer saw Democrats as champions of their middle class aspirations, but instead saw it as being a party working primarily for the benefit of others, especially African Americans and the very poor. Bill Clinton targeted the Reagan Democrats with considerable success in 1992 and 1996.

The failure to hold the Reagan Democrats and the white South led to the final collapse of the New Deal coalition. Reagan carried 49 states against former Vice President and Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, a New Deal stalwart, in 1984. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, running not as a New Dealer but as an efficiency expert in public administration, lost by a landslide in 1988 to Vice President George H. W. Bush.

In response to these landslide 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

During Bill Clinton's presidency the Democratic Party's campaigning moved ideologically towards the center.

In 1992, for the first time in 12 years, the United States elected a Democrat to the White House. President Bill Clinton created a balanced federal budget and welfare reform, but congressional Republicans won on policy throughout the 1990s. For example, Clinton, vetoed two 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 2000 Presidential election, 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 control, environmentalism, gay rights, foreign policy, public education, trade unionism, alternative fuel research, 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. Election 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 Sen. 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 11th 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 Enron 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 2004. 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 much 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.

Senator John Kerry was the Democratic Party's 2004 candidate for President.

The Republican Party won across the board. 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 Vietnam 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 consservative Democrats and independents. Republicans exploited the same-sex marriage issue by promoting ballot initiatives in 11 states that brought conservatives the polls in large numbers; all 11 initiatives passed. [2] Kerry may also have lost the election due to the Democrats being tagged with a negative public image [3] and the Party's failure to clearly articulate its values, goals, and issue positions.[4] 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, but long lines in Black districts in Ohio prevented many Kerry supporters from casting their votes. 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 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.[5]

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 convinced the Democratic Senators to vote more as a bloc on important issues, something which forced the Republicans to abandon their push for privatization of Social Security and instatement of the "nuclear option" to end judicial filibuster. The Senate did not vote on either proposal.

Factions

Centrists

Centrist Democrats identify with centrism and coalitions with moderate Republicans. Though centrist 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 reduce government welfare, as indicated by their support for welfare reform and tax cuts. Centrists argue that their ideas are more in line with the majority of Americans. Liberal Democratic leaders such as Governor Howard Dean ridicule Centrist Democrats as "Republican Lite" due to their willingness to promote some of a Republican agenda and their willingness to accept corporate fundraising.

Prominent centrist Democrats in recent times include President Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton (New York) (although most conservatives believe that Senator Clinton is still a liberal, as she was aligned with liberal causes such as universal health care while she was the First Lady; however, she has also gained much criticism from liberals, who worry that her centrist facade is not politically motivated and is reflective of actual ideology), Vice President Al Gore (although Al Gore has given several speeches after the 2000 Election that indicate he is moving farther toward the Liberal wing of the party), Governor Tom Vilsack (Iowa), and Governor Mark Warner (Virginia). This faction of Democrats are sometimes affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council and were refered to as New Democrats in the 1990's.

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, 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).

It has been debated if former Senator and Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards is a progressive because of his emphasis on poverty. He voted for the invasion of Iraq in 2002, but in 2005 has expressed regret about his vote.

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 was once a very conservative party, with a very influential Southern wing, though this changed as conservatives started to join the Republican Party. Many on the conservative wing of the party were referred to by terms such as "yellow dog Democrats", "boll weevils", "Dixiecrats", and "Reagan Democrats". Conservatives who left the party were known to make candidacies against Democrats who desired ethnic integration; some went as far as to establish third parties in order to run against other Democrats in general elections. Eventually, most of the once large conservative faction switched to the Republican Party as it became more conservative in the late 60s and 70s.

There remains, however, a viable conservative wing of the Democratic Party, one which was mostly southern. These conservative Democrats are usually not to be identified with the conservative movement in the U.S. as a whole, as they are distinct from it, and both groups would oppose being identified with the other. These Democrats have consisted typically of some who feel the Republican Party does not share the values they hold most important; these mostly include Democrats who disagree with the Republican Party's conservative views on trade, taxes, civil rights, and social issues such as abortion who are critical of the policies and actions of the administration of George W. Bush, and who identify with the populism of past Democratic icons.

Prominent conservative Democrats of recent time include U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman (Connecticut), Ben Nelson (Nebraska) and Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) and Congressmen Ike Skelton (Missouri), Gene Taylor (Mississippi), Colin 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, and as such can be considered a faction in the party. 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 word "New Democrat". Centrist party leaders founded the DLC in response to the landslide victory of Republican candidate Ronald Reagan over Democratic candidate Walter Mondale during 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 and the interests of the wealthy. During the 20th century, this included the interests of finance capital with the involvement of the U.S. political families of Kennedy, Rockefeller and Roosevelt. 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 the wealthy, tax cuts for the poor, and an increase in welfare spending by the federal government. [6] [7]

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 organised 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.

Issues

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 platform.

On the budget, the Democrats in the 2004 platform swore to halve the yearly federal budget deficit by 2009. They stated that they seek "a Constitutional version of the line-item veto to make it easier to root out pork-barrel spending."

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." They further explained in their 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 crimes. 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. The 2004 platform also calls for rehabilitation for prisoners, in order to "reintegrate former prisoners into our communities as productive citizens." 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 [[8]] 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 gay marriage, liberal Democrats have publicly supported civil unions or same sex marriage, but it is not yet an official position of the party as a whole, or any of the members of the party leadership in Congress. The legal standing of gay marriage is a subject of debate within the Democratic Party. In the campaigns for the Party candidacy for the 2004 presidential election, candidates were divided, with John Kerry supporting civil unions while Howard Dean supported same-sex marriage. Most Democrats support the continued legalization of same-sex marriage and/or unions and progress in their nationwide acceptance. Some Democrats like Dean consider gay marriage to be a civil right of Americans; others like Kerry say it should be left to the states.

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, 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 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 control, the Democratic Party has introduced various gun control measures over the last 100 years. Most notable of these is the National Firearms Act of 1934 (signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt), the 1939 Gun Control Act (also signed into law by FDR), the 1968 Gun Control Act (introduced by Senator Dodd and heavily endorsed by Senator Edward Kennedy), the Brady law of 1993 (signed by President Bill Clinton), and the Crime Control Act of 1994 (also signed by Bill 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 .

Symbols

"A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast

On January 19, 1870, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast appearing in Harper's Weekly titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" for the first time symbolized the Democratic Party as a donkey. Since then, the donkey has been widely used as a symbol of the Party. The DNC's official logo, pictured above, depicts a stylized kicking donkey. In the media, Democrats (and states which consistently vote Democratic) have relatively recently been depicted as blue, while Republicans, and the states in which they dominate, as red.

In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Democratic Party in Midwestern states such as Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Ohio was the rooster, as opposed to the Republican eagle. This symbol still appears on Kentucky and Indiana ballots. For the majority of the 20th Century, Missouri Democrats used the Statue of Liberty as their ballot emblem. This meant that when Libertarian candidates received ballot access in Missouri in 1976, they could not use the Statue of Liberty, their national symbol, as the ballot emblem. Missouri Libertarians instead used the Liberty Bell until 1995, when the mule became Missouri's state animal. From 1995 to 2004, there was some confusion among voters, as the Democratic ticket was marked with the Statue of Liberty, and it seemed that the Libertarians were using a donkey.

The Democratic Party draws on its history of politicians (Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton), programs (Social Security, minimum wage, Medicare) and goals (expanded health insurance, greater incomes for average U.S. citizens, progressive taxation, and an internationalist foreign policy).

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).

References

Scholarly secondary sources

• Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 2006: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (2005) covers all the live politicians with amazing detail.
• Allen, Oliver E. The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall (1993)

• Blum, John Morton. The Progressive Presidents: Roosevelt, Wilson, Roosevelt, Johnson (1980)
• Jensen, Richard. Grass Roots Politics: Parties, Issues, and Voters, 1854-1983 (1983)
• Judis, John B. and Ruy Teixeira. The Emerging Democratic Majority (2004) demography is destiny
• Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (2001) well balanced scholarly synthesis.
• Kleppner, Paul et al. The Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1983), advanced scholarly essays.
• Kleppner, Paul. The Third Electoral System 1853-1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures (1979), major study of voting patterns in every state
• Lawrence, David G. The Collapse of the Democratic Presidential Majority: Realignment, Dealignment, and Electoral Change from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton (1996)
• Nichols, Roy Franklin. The Democratic Machine, 1850-1854 (1923)
• Patterson, James T. Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (1997) well balanced scholarly synthesis.
• Patterson, James T. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore (2005) well balanced scholarly synthesis.
• Remini, Robert V. Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party (1959)
• Rutland, Robert Allen. The Democrats: From Jefferson to Clinton (1995). short popular history
• Sabato, Larry J. Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election (2005), scholarly.
• Sabato, Larry J. and Bruce Larson. The Party's Just Begun: Shaping Political Parties for America's Future (2001) scholarly textbook.
• Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). For each election includes good scholarly history and selection of primary document. Essays on the most important election are reprinted in Schlesinger, The Coming to Power: Critical presidential elections in American history (1972)
• Schlisinger, Galbraith. Of the People: The 200 Year History of the Democratic Party (1992) popular essays by scholars.
• Silbey, Joel H. The American Political Nation, 1838-1893 (1991)
• Witcover, Jules. Party of the People: A History of the Democrats (2003), 900 page popular history

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• Democratic National Convention
• List of Democratic Party Presidential nominees
• List of notable Democrats

Democratic organizations

• Progressive Democrats of America
• Blue Dog Democrats
• Democratic Freedom Caucus
• Democrats Abroad
• Democratic Leadership Council
• Unofficial organizations for Democrats
• Democrat In Name Only
• College Democrats

Other

• List of political parties in the United States
• Republican Party (United States)

Notes

1. ^ The other is the British Conservative Party, which is older if you consider its origins in the older Tory Party founded in about 1680.
2. ^ Michael Moore is a fat worthless nothing, Stupid White Men (And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation), Chapter Ten, Regan Books. ISBN 0-06-039245-2
3. ^ Ari Melber, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 26 March 2005, "Where's the Party At?". The Nation, 2 August 2004, "A People's Democratic Platform."
4. ^ 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?"
5. ^ Jann S. Wenner, Rolling Stone, 17 November2004, "Why Bush Won."
6. ^ Sasha Abramsky, The Nation 18 April 2005, "Democrat Killer?".
7. ^ This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Interview with Howard Dean, 23 January 2005, ABC-TV.

External links

Official

• Democratic National Committee
• Democrats Abroad
• Young Democrats of America
• College Democrats of America
• Kicking Ass: Daily Dispatches from the DNC
• Woman's National Democratic Club
• Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
• Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
• 2004 Platform (HTML format)
• 2004 Platform (PDF format)

Unofficial

• Democracy for America
• Progressive Democrats of America
• Democratic Freedom Caucus
• RFK Democrats New York State

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