Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major parties in the United States. The party is currently the minority party in the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and among state governors. The party also trails in state legislatures as the Republican Party controls 21 legislatures and Democrats control 19. Ten states are divided legislatures. 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 rest of the world.
History
Origins
The Democratic Party's origins lie in the original Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1794. (Today, this party is usually referred to as the "Democratic-Republican Party" to avoid confusion.) After the disintegration of the Federalist Party, the Republicans were the only major party in American politics. For 20 years, the Era of Good Feelings marked one party rule in America, with different factions of the party contending for the presidency, whose candidates were nominated by congressional caucuses. In 1824, a particularly bitter election was thrown to the House of Representatives, and John Quincy Adams was elected after being supported by Henry Clay even though Andrew Jackson had won a plurality of electoral votes, and the plurality of popular votes in states where electors were chosen by direct election. Jackson and his supporters recoiled at both the "corrupt deal" and the choosing of electors by state legislature. Jackson gathered together prominent leaders, including Martin Van Buren of New York and even Vice-President John C. Calhoun to support his next bid for the White House, and organized around the country to change election laws to universal white male suffrage and choice of electors by popular ballot.
Related Topics:
Thomas Jefferson - 1794 - Democratic-Republican Party - Federalist Party - Era of Good Feelings - John Quincy Adams - Henry Clay - Andrew Jackson
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
By the election of 1828, the unified party had broken into two pieces, one became the National Republican Party, and backed the incumbent President, and the other, termed the "Democrats", after their insistence that the President held a national mandate from the people, backed Andrew Jackson. The National Republican faction became the Whig Party, after their opposition to "King Andrew", which would disintegrate in the 1850's when dissident Whigs and Northern Democrats formed the modern Republican Party.
Related Topics:
National Republican - Whig Party - Republican Party
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next step in the establishment of parties as permanent entities came with the Whig Party holding a national convention to select its presidential candidate. Since the nomination of candidates by Congress, called "King Caucus", was one of the key means of keeping a one party system going, this effectively ended the possibility of a rapprochement between the factions, and established a second period of two party politics in America.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Antebellum Democratic Politics
Initially the Democratic Party was a coalition between Western pioneers in the Ohio River valley and Illinois - the "North West" of America at that time - and southern planters and agrarians from the Jeffersonian coalition. This coalition was very similar to the one that Jefferson and Madison had worked to create, and lead to the belief that Jackson, and not John Quincy Adams, represented a continuous "Jeffersonian" tradition. This was in opposition to the "Federalist" and Hamiltonian conception of government which Adams was said to represent. The key issues were election access and the Bank of the United States. The Jeffersonians had opposed the first bank, but had allowed it to continue for 20 years of their time in power. The issue of the Bank, and tariffs would be the central domestic policy issue of the 1828-1850 period, even though it was increasingly overshadowed by expansion and nativism in the run up to the Civil War.
Related Topics:
Hamiltonian - Bank of the United States
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Democratic Party would lose the White House to William Henry Harrison, only to gain it back when his Vice-President took office, and proceeded to enact many Democratic policies. James Polk would solidify the party's hold on power with a coalition that was increasingly based on holding a solid South and taking enough states in the north to win national power. The party also became increasingly associated with protection of slave holding, including pressing for more and more aggressive laws to enforce the recapture of enslaved individuals who had escaped, and for more of the Great Plains to be opened to slave owning. This ran into the Missouri Compromise, which had set a free line, north of which slave owning would be prohibited, in return for keeping a balance of power in the Senate. With the disintegration of the Whig Party in 1856 into two factions, the American Party of Millard Fillmore and the Republican Party whose first candidate was John Fremont, it seemed as if the Democratic Party would have a permanent dominance of national power.
Related Topics:
James Polk - Solid South - Missouri Compromise - American Party - John Fremont
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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. Democrats in the Northern states joined the Republicans in opposing the expansion of slavery, and at the 1860 nominating convention the Party split and nominated two candidates (see U.S. presidential election, 1860). As a result, the Democrats went down to defeat with the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, a link in the chain of events leading up to the Civil War. During the war, Northern Democrats divided into two factions, War Democrats, who supported the military policies of President Abraham Lincoln, and Copperheads, who strongly opposed them. From 1864 onward, the Democratic Party's main opposition has come from the modern Republican Party.
Related Topics:
1850s - Southern wing - Slavery - Republican Party - 1860 nominating convention - U.S. presidential election, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln - Civil War - War Democrats - Copperheads
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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, and the disenfranchisement of blacks was re-established, the region was known as the "Solid South" for nearly a century because it reliably voted Democratic and there was, in many places, effectively only one party, there being no significant Republican presence. Though Republicans continued to control the White House until 1885, the Democrats remained competitive, especially in the mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest, and 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, having lost (but won the popular vote) in the election of 1888 (as had Samuel J. Tilden in the election of 1876.
Related Topics:
Reconstruction - Disenfranchisement - Solid South - Election of 1884 - Grover Cleveland - New York - In 1892 - Election of 1888 - Samuel J. Tilden - Election of 1876
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Populism and Republican dominance
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. That reign was interrupted in the election of 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt's independent Bull Moose candidacy split the Republican vote, giving Woodrow Wilson a popular plurality and victory in the electoral college, but Republican Warren Harding regained the White House in the election of 1920.
Related Topics:
Election of 1896 - Realignment - Free Silver - William Jennings Bryan - Presidency - Populist Party - Cross of Gold - William McKinley - Election of 1912 - Theodore Roosevelt - Bull Moose - Woodrow Wilson - Warren Harding - Election of 1920
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The New Deal
The stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression set the stage for a more activist government and Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide victory in the election of 1932, campaigning on a platform of "relief, recovery, and reform". This came to be termed "The New Deal" after a phrase in his acceptance speech. The Democrats also swept to large majorities in both houses of Congress, and among state Governors. Roosevelt altered the nature of the party, away from laissez-faire petite capitalism, and towards an ideology of national government being involved in economic regulation and insurance against hardship.
Related Topics:
Stock market crash of 1929 - Great Depression - Franklin D. Roosevelt - Landslide victory - Election of 1932 - The New Deal
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
After winning re-election in 1936, Roosevelt claimed a mandate and embarked on an ambitious legislative program that came to be called "The Second New Deal." He was stymied, however, by an alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats, as well as by the Supreme Court. Frustrated by the conservative wing of his own party, Roosevelt made an attempt to rid himself of it; in 1938, he actively campaigned against five incumbent conservative Democratic senators, and to appoint more justices to the court. However, Roosevelt's attempt to chastise the conservatives failed when all five senators won re-election despite Roosevelt's efforts, and his attempts to add justices to the court became derisively known as "Court Packing".
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Roosevelt's New Deal programs focused on job-creation through public works projects as well as on social welfare programs such as Social Security. It also included sweeping reforms to the banking system, work regulation, transportation, communications, stock markets and attempts to regulate prices. His policies soon paid off by uniting a diverse collection of Democratic voters called the New Deal Coalition, which included labor unions, minorities (most significantly, Catholics and Jews), liberals, and the traditional base of Southern whites. This united voter base allowed Democrats to control the government for much of the next 30 years.
Related Topics:
New Deal - Public works - Social Security - New Deal Coalition - Catholics - Jew - Liberals
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Under FDR, the Democratic Party became identified more closely with "modern liberalism", which included the use of government programs, far reaching national enforcement of civil rights, and an active role for government in regulating the economy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Civil Rights Movement
In 1924 at the Democratic national convention, a resolution denouncing the white-supremacist Ku Klux Klan was introduced. After considerable debate, the resolution failed by a single vote. This resolution later passed during the 1948 national convention as part of a larger resolution endorsing civil rights.
Related Topics:
White-supremacist - Ku Klux Klan - Civil rights
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The New Deal Coalition began to fracture as more Democratic leaders voiced support for civil rights, upsetting the party's base of Southern Democrats. When Harry Truman's platform displayed support for civil rights and anti-segregation laws during the 1948 Democratic National Convention, many Southern Democratic delegates split from the party and formed the "Dixiecrats", led by South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond (who, as a U.S. Senator, would later join the Republican party). Over the next few years, many white Democrats in the "Solid South" drifted away from the party. On the other hand, African Americans, who had traditionally given strong support to the Republican Party since its inception as the "anti-slavery party", shifted to the Democratic party due to its New Deal economic opportunities and support for civil rights.
Related Topics:
Civil rights - Southern Democrats - Segregation - 1948 Democratic National Convention - Dixiecrats - Strom Thurmond - Solid South - African Americans
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The party's dramatic reversal on civil rights issues culminated when Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Republicans began their Southern strategy, which aimed to woo the conservative Southern Democrats. Southern Democrats took notice of the fact that 1964 Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act (an unusual departure from his previous support for such legislation), and in the presidential election of 1964, Goldwater's only electoral victories outside his home state of Arizona were in the states of the deep south.
Related Topics:
Lyndon B. Johnson - Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Southern strategy - Barry Goldwater - Presidential election of 1964 - Arizona
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The degree to which the Southern Democrats had abandoned the party became evident in the 1968 Presidential election when every former Confederate state except Texas voted for either Republican Richard Nixon or independent George Wallace, the latter a former Southern Democrat. Defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey's electoral votes came mainly from the Northern states, marking a dramatic shift from the 1948 election 20 years earlier, when the losing Republican candidate's electoral votes were mainly concentrated in the Northern states.
Related Topics:
1968 Presidential election - Confederate - Richard Nixon - George Wallace - Hubert Humphrey - 1948 election
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In 1972, the Democrats nominated South Dakota Senator George McGovern as the party's presidential candidate on a platform which advocated, among other things, withdrawal from Vietnam and a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans. McGovern was defeated in a landslide by incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon, the former winning only Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.
Related Topics:
George McGovern - Richard Nixon - Massachusetts
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
By 1976, however, things had changed dramatically. Nixon, because of the Watergate scandal, had been forced to resign the presidency in 1974. Prior to that, his Vice-President, Spiro Agnew had been forced out by a separate scandal. After Agnew resigned, Nixon appointed Gerald Ford a Republican House Member from Michigan as his replacement. Thus, when Nixon resigned, Ford became the first President in the nation's history to have been neither elected President nor Vice-President. Ford soon pardoned Nixon. Mistrust of the administration, complicated by a combination of economic recession and inflation, sometimes called "stagflation", led to Ford's loss in 1976 to Democrat Jimmy Carter, a former governor of Georgia. In 1980, Carter lost after one term to Ronald Reagan.
Related Topics:
Watergate - Spiro Agnew - Gerald Ford - Michigan - Stagflation - Jimmy Carter
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1980s-2000s
After the election of Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1980, Democrats who supported many conservative policies were called "Reagan Democrats." Many in the so-called "Reagan Democrats" faction of the party eventually joined the Republican Party.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The 1980s are often seen as the era in which the old New Deal coalition finally collapsed as Reagan handily defeated former Vice-President (under Carter) and Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, a New Deal stalwart, in 1984. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis also lost in 1988 to Reagan Vice-President George H. W. Bush.
Related Topics:
New Deal - Minnesota - Walter Mondale - Massachusetts - Michael Dukakis - George H. W. Bush
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In response to these losses, the Democratic Leadership Council worked to move the Party more towards 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 became generally a catch all party with widespread appeal to most opponents of the Republicans. This includes organized labor, educators, environmentalists, supporters of civil rights, progressive taxation proponents, gays, lesbians, blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Native Americans, supporters of gun control, pro-choice groups and other opponents of the social conservatism favored by many Republicans.
Related Topics:
Democratic Leadership Council - Catch all party - Social conservatism
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the 1990s the Democratic Party re-invigorated itself, in part by moving to the right on economic and social policy. President Bill Clinton, who defeated the incumbent President Bush in 1992, implemented a balanced federal budget and welfare reform, traditionally Republican causes. 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 the unions. Those on the left of the party were dismayed at this agreement as well.
Related Topics:
Right - Bill Clinton - Budget - Welfare reform - NAFTA - Canada - Mexico
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When the New Democrat movement attempted to move the Democratic agenda in favor of a more centrist approach, prominent Democrats from the moderate and conservative factions (such as Chairman Terry McAuliffe) assumed leadership of the party and its direction. In addition to its perceived abandonment of labor unions, Democratic candidates' acceptance and use of large sums of corporate donations for campaign finances; the inconsistency of some Democratic officeholders (including Democratic leaders) on environmental, financial, labor and other issues that were core to the party; and the D.N.C.'s, D.L.C.'s and N.D.N.'s acceptance of monied interests, all unintentionally contributed to a negative public image of the Democratic Party in some people's eyes. Some liberals and progressives felt alienated from the Democratic Party, which they felt had become unconcerned with the interests of common people. Democrats challenged the validity of such critiques, citing the important Democratic role in pushing progressive reforms in many states and localities. The far-left Green Party emerged as a vehicle for resentment against the Democrats in the 2000 election. This party believed that centrist Democrats were not safeguarding progressivism in government.
Related Topics:
New Democrat - Centrist - Terry McAuliffe - Green Party - 2000 election
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the 2000 presidential election, the Democrats ran Vice President Al Gore, a founding member and former chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. Although Gore and Governor George W. Bush, the candidate of the Republican Party, clearly disagreed on issues such as abortion, tax cuts, gun control, environmentalism, foreign policy, public education, support for trade unions, alternative energy research, global warming, 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-provided social welfare.
Related Topics:
Al Gore - George W. Bush - Abortion - Tax cut - Gun control - Environmentalism - Global warming - Affirmative action - Ralph Nader - Free trade - Social welfare
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
On election day, Gore won the popular vote by just over 500,000 votes, but lost in the Electoral College by four votes. Some election observers blamed the Nader candidacy for Gore's defeat. They pointed to the states of New Hampshire (4 electoral college votes) and Florida (25 electoral college 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 1,000. Winning either Florida or New Hampshire would have given Gore enough electoral votes to win the presidency.
Related Topics:
Electoral College - New Hampshire - Florida
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Democratic Senators went from the majority in the 106th Congress to a split minority in the 107th Congress. However, that changed when Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vermont) changed party affiliation from Republican to independent, which effectively returned majority privileges back the Democratic Senators. Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota continued to lead the Senate Democrats with an agenda of compromise.
Related Topics:
Jim Jeffords - Vermont - Tom Daschle - South Dakota
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the nation's focus changed to issues of national security and increasing isolation of the United States as the sole remaining and increasingly proactive superpower. All but one Congressional Democrat voted with their Republican colleagues to authorize President Bush's 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Daschle pushed for his party to approve what are arguably two of the most controversial and inflammatory (to opponents) measures the Senate has ever approved: 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 challenges to civil liberties and privacy from the USA PATRIOT Act.
Related Topics:
September 11, 2001 attacks - National security - Isolation - Superpower - 2001 invasion of Afghanistan - USA PATRIOT Act - Invasion of Iraq - War on Terrorism - Civil liberties - Privacy
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the wake of the financial frauds of Enron and other corporations, Congressional Democrats were integral in pushing for and developing a legal overhaul of business accounting with the intention of preventing further accounting fraud; Congress unanimously approved it and Pres. Bush signed it into law. 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 Democratic Party lost a few seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and three seats (Georgia as Max Cleland was unseated, Minnesota as Paul Wellstone died and his succeeding Democratic candidate lost the election, and Missouri as Jean Carnahan was unseated) in the Senate, failing to regain the majority in the House and losing their majority in the Senate. Also, while Democrats gained governorships in New Mexico (where Bill Richardson was elected), Arizona (Janet Napolitano) and Wyoming (Dave Freudenthal), other Democrats lost governorships in South Carolina (Jim Hodges), Alabama (Don Siegelman) and, for the first time in more than a century, Georgia (Roy Barnes). In considering that most Americans had become more concerned about corporate crime and other economic issues, the election was preceded with widespread debate over how and why the Democrats lost.
Related Topics:
Enron - Georgia - Max Cleland - Minnesota - His succeeding Democratic candidate - Missouri - Jean Carnahan - New Mexico - Bill Richardson - Arizona - Janet Napolitano - Wyoming - Dave Freudenthal - South Carolina - Jim Hodges - Alabama - Don Siegelman - Roy Barnes
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Democrats began fielding Presidential candidates as early as 2002 Dec., when Gore announced he would not run in 2004. For a time, Gen. Wesley Clark, an opponent of the war in Iraq, was the frontrunner for the nomination. Ex-Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, another opponent of the war and a critic of the Democratic establishment, was the frontrunner leading into the Democratic primary elections. Clark and, in particular, Dean both had immense grassroots support. John Kerry, though, received the nomination because he was widely seen as more "electable" than the often blunt Dean.
Related Topics:
Gen. Wesley Clark - Primary election
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In 2003-2004, with layoffs of American workers occurring in various industries due to the "shipping of jobs abroad," some Democrats (including John Kerry, ex-Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont and Senatorial candidate Erskine Bowles of North Carolina) began to refine their positions on free trade and some even question their past support for it. By 2004, the failure of George W. Bush's administration to find weapons of mass destruction, mounting combat casualties in Iraq, and the lack of any end point for the War on Terror were also issues in the American national elections. That year, Democrats generally campaigned on surmounting the jobless recovery, exiting Iraq, and their own proposals for policies on counterterrorism.
Related Topics:
John Kerry - Erskine Bowles - North Carolina - Weapons of mass destruction - Iraq - Jobless recovery
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Despite strong campaigning and the faltering image of George W. Bush and the Republican Party, the Democrats were not victorious nationally. Kerry narrowly lost both the popular and electoral vote. Republicans gained four seats in the Senate and three seats in the House of Representatives. Also, for the first time since Barry Goldwater of Arizona won his first election to the Senate, the Democratic leader of the Senate lost reelection. In the end there were 3,660 Democratic state legislators across the nation to the Republicans' 3,557, and Democrats gained governorships in Louisiana (after a statewide election in 2003), New Hampshire and Montana. However, the Democrats lost the governorship of Missouri and a legislative majority in Georgia - which had once been a Democratic stronghold since Reconstruction.
Related Topics:
Electoral vote - Barry Goldwater - Arizona - State legislators - Louisiana - Montana - Reconstruction
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Following the elections of 2004 was debate of why and how the Democrats lost. Some argued that the Democratic Party had lost Clinton's "vision thing," and lacked clear policies or alternatives. In these arguments, the platform adopted at the 2004 Democratic National Convention is sometimes cited; three partisan insiders authored it and mostly vaguely addressing a minimal number of issues across its 56 pages, and with only passing mentions of women's rights, gay rights, environmental protection and other issues that were previously consistent strongholds of the Democratic Party. Others said that the Democrats did not have an inspiring story to tell (whereas Republicans touted that their candidate, Pres. Bush, "met the call of duty" in the aftermath of 9/11).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has asserted that Kerry lost because he did not do enough to reach out to rural citizens. Some suggested that the Democrats had received too negative a public image and that Republicans exploited that image. A commonly accepted argument is that the Republicans ran in opposition to gay rights and used state ballot initiatives against same-sex marriage to attract more so-called "values voters" to vote. Some voters, especially in Ohio, have alleged that votes in Ohio and other states were illegally suppressed and mistabulated in favor of the Republican candidate, resulting in substantial uncertainty about the actual outcome. In Florida, Bev Harris discovered garbage bags full of ballots on which votes had been switched. (see 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy and irregularities) The controversies led U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and several Democratic U.S. Representatives to force a Congressional debate on the issue when the 109th Congress first convened and in such propose working together to fix problems with the election system.
Related Topics:
Nevada - Same-sex marriage - Bev Harris - 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy and irregularities - Barbara Boxer - California
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Another aspect of the Democratic Party's defeat in 2004 was the apparent loss of overwhelming popularity the party once had with Hispanic voters. In 1996, President Clinton won 72 percent of the Latino vote and in 2000 Al Gore won 65 percent of the Latino voters, however in 2004 John Kerry only received 55 percent of the Latino vote. Overall, President Bush increased his percentage among Hispanics by 9 percent, from 35 in 2000 to 44 percent in 2004.
Related Topics:
Hispanic - Latino - President
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Since then, many Democrats have voiced serious concern over the future of their party. In this situation, some prominent Democrats - including the party's leaders - began to rethink the party's direction, and a variety of strategies for moving forward were voiced. Some have suggested moving towards the center to regain seats in the House and Senate and possibly win the presidency in 2008. One topic of discussion is the party's policies surrounding reproductive rights, especially abortion. Rethinking the party's position on gun policy became a matter of discussion, brought up by Howard Dean, Bill Richardson, Brian Schweitzer and other Democrats who had won governorships in states where Second Amendment rights were important to many voters. In What's the Matter with Kansas?, commentator Thomas Frank wrote the Democrats needed to return to campaigning on economic populism.
Related Topics:
2008 - Reproductive rights - Abortion - Howard Dean - Bill Richardson - Brian Schweitzer - Second Amendment - What's the Matter with Kansas? - Thomas Frank
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
These debates were reflected in the 2005 campaign for chair 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 of Washington, DC, and bolster support for the party's state and local chapters. Dean also asserted, of the issue of bipartisanship, that "there are some things we can support the President on", but that the Democrats' should oppose the President's agenda "when he's wrong."
Related Topics:
Democratic National Committee - Howard Dean
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When the 109th Congress convened, the Democratic Senators chose Harry Reid of Nevada as their 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 some important issues, something which forced the Republican majority to abandon its push for Privatization of Social Security and instatement of the so-called "nuclear option" to end judicial filibuster. The Senate did not vote on either proposal.
Related Topics:
Harry Reid - Richard Durbin - Assistant Minority Leader - Nuclear option
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ Table of Content ~
~ What's Hot ~
~ Community ~
| ► | History Forum Come and discuss about History, Civilizations, Historical Events and Figures |
| ► | History Web-Ring A community of sites, blogs and forums dedicated to History. Do not hesitate to submit your site. |
and are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Lexicon - Privacy Policy - Spiritus-Temporis.com ©2005.